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)
She sighed. “Anything is possible, Sevastyan. You know that. Most of my employees, at this point, are people I trust. They are those I’ve helped, provided an education, a place to live, and will eventually help to set them up in business with the hope that they will help others, shifters or non-shifters. The point being to help whatever community they land in. My father made it very clear that if they wanted to return to their original countries after they received an education and could take back something to their lair that would aid their people, all to the good. He wanted to save lairs, not tear them apart. Ours was too far gone to save.”
“Strawberry leopards, who knew?” He let himself look at the messy knot on her head. Like her red-gold-tipped lashes, it made her look vulnerable and very sexy.
She sent him a smile. “I really am sorry about the appointment tomorrow, Sevastyan. I would cancel it if I could. This particular supplier is very important to my business and I need him. I had to special order plants that Cain wanted for his club, the garden of paradise. He really likes that garden and constantly wants to add to it. It’s proved very profitable for the business and I’d hate to lose him as a client.”
She made a little moue with her lips that put steel in his cock. “At first his vision was quite simple, but his clients love it and so does he. It’s really good for me monetarily, but a pain because he goes online and looks at plants not knowing anything about them before he tells me what he wants. In any case, this particular supplier is my go-to when I have exotics to order fast. Honestly, I’ll be all right with just one bodyguard. Franco caught me off guard. I’ll be watching for him this time.”
Sevastyan tightened his hold on her foot and then began his slow massage again. He didn’t have to find a way to circle back to Cain, she’d just given him that. “No worries. I can rearrange my schedule. When you work at Cain’s residence, do you have to go out there alone?”
She shook her head. “I don’t have that kind of time. I oversee the work. I lay it out, leave, come back at the end of the day to make certain it’s what I wanted to have happen and then I check it off as a good day’s work. I only work at the club by myself.”
He was surprised at the relief he felt. He didn’t want to address Cain further with her, not unless it became necessary. She was already falling back asleep, giving in to the earlier exhaustion. He continued the slow massage of her foot and calf until she was nearly out and then he simply stood, lifted her out of the water, dried her off and carried her to their bed.
7
FLAMBÉ’S meeting with her supplier, a man by the name of Brent Shriver, was actually in San Antonio itself. Ania asked if she could accompany them into town as she wanted to drop by the bakery to see Evangeline and Ashe. Mostly, she said, she wanted to see the twins. Evangeline had the little nursey finished and while she worked in the bakery, the twins were in the playroom. Ania wanted to go sit with them for a little while and get out from under her husband’s “bossy” company.
Flambé had looked up at Sevastyan several times for guidance, no doubt hearing the blatant lies in Ania’s voice when she gave her excuses for coming, both to Flambé and to her husband. Both knew she lied, but both thought she was teasing Mitya. Truthfully, Sevastyan wanted her driving the car. Ania could handle just about any car on the road and when it was one her father and she had worked on to make into a little road rocket, there were few cars that could overtake it.
Kirill and Matvei were in a car somewhere ahead of them and trailing behind were two others. Leonid Chernov was Kirill’s younger brother who had come over with Kirill but had gone his own way for a short while. He’d joined them some time ago but hadn’t been put in a trusted position until recently. Sevastyan, being Sevastyan, still wasn’t entirely certain of him. Partnering with him was Zakhar Kotov, a man few wanted to cross. He was quiet, watchful, and loyal to Sevastyan and no one else. Not even to Mitya.
Zakhar’s father owed money the family couldn’t pay. Rolan’s lieutenants set their leopards on the family, hunting them down and ripping them to pieces. Sevastyan had saved his life when he was a young man, concealing him from the brutal vor and the lieutenants hunting him.