Total pages in book: 172
Estimated words: 155984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
He cupped the side of her face, his thumb gently running over her soft skin. “You’ll be safe here, Flambé. Matherson can’t get to you. I’d never allow that. Neither would Shturm. Go to sleep and let yourself get a good night’s rest.”
Her dark green eyes searched his for a long time and then finally she nodded. He bent his head and brushed a kiss across her lips. A brief touch, no more. His heart nearly stopped at that touch. His stomach somersaulted. She was potent. He wanted to mesmerize her. To bring her under his spell. She was completely captivating him. Ensnaring him when he hadn’t thought it was possible for anyone to do such a thing.
He dropped his hands abruptly and turned and stalked out without looking back. It was difficult to keep his hands off her. He’d promised himself he’d give her every reason to trust him, and at his first real test, he was already failing. He would fail. He knew it. She purred the moment she came into physical contact with him. That shouldn’t matter. He should have enough discipline to stay in control, but he didn’t. He couldn’t stop his body’s reaction—or his mind from turning to all kinds of erotic images.
He waited downstairs, not daring to go up to his bedroom. He’d first had the room painted, carpeted and tiled the way he wanted before he added the other renovations himself. He’d taken his time and added every single thing he might ever want or need and that was pleasing to his eye. He’d done the work himself. He had escape routes for himself, his leopard and especially his woman, should he ever find one.
He knew he couldn’t allow Flambé anywhere near what was now the master bedroom. If he took her up to his room, he would want her to stay there for the rest of her life. There would be no period of waiting, no getting to know each other. His resolution would be over that fast.
Sevastyan turned off the lights in the house one by one, as if they were preparing for bed. He left the television on in the living room for a short while and then turned that off. His team would be arriving any minute, coming in through the same tunnel he’d driven the car in. He’d chosen carefully. He had picked men he knew well, those he personally could count on. It wouldn’t have mattered to him before, but now that he had Flambé, that had changed. Before, it hadn’t mattered whether he lived or died. Now he wanted to live a very long time. He had something unexpected to live for.
Kirill Chernov and Matvei Bykov had been unexpected in his life as well. Both men had been childhood friends when there were no such things. His father, Rolan Amurov, saw to that. If Sevastyan was ever careless enough to show he liked someone, which he often did as a very young child, his father made certain to beat the child in front of him, most times nearly to death. Sometimes to death, laughing the entire time. Sevastyan learned to stay away from other children. Rolan made certain his son couldn’t form alliances or in any way have followers who might someday rise up to defeat him before he was ready to step down from his position as vor.
Kirill and Matvei had proven their loyalty to Sevastyan over and over, all the while making certain Rolan and his lieutenants never saw the boys talking. They developed their own code, although at first, Sevastyan was distrustful of the offer of friendship. It was Shturm who convinced him the boys and their leopards were sincere in their determination to become his friend. They had witnessed time and again his father and his lieutenants beating Sevastyan and his leopard for trying to protect others in the lair. As they grew up, the friendship only got stronger, and when Sevastyan and his cousins left Russia with prices on their heads, Kirill and Matvei went with them, risking their lives as well.
Sevastyan knew both men had the same problem with their leopards, that fierce, savage nature that the Amur leopard trained from birth to fight and kill gave them. That made life so much more difficult, adding to the burden of their already edgy, challenging lives as shifters in a world not meant for men with animalistic traits.
He turned off all the lights and then unlocked the back door separating the garage from his home. The two men would enter the garage directly from the tunnel. The men Franco Matherson had left behind to watch him wouldn’t be able to enter the garage. Even if they did manage to find an entry point, they would set off every hidden alarm and he would know.