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)
Zakhar had seen the savage beating the vor, Sevastyan’s own father, had cruelly subjected him to and then his leopard had visited on Shturm. Neither had given away Zakhar’s hiding spot. In the end Rolan concluded that Sevastyan couldn’t know where Zakhar was hiding. Sevastyan had smuggled Zakhar money and a passport to get out of the country so Rolan couldn’t kill him. Eventually, when Sevastyan had left Russia, Zakhar had joined him.
Sevastyan made certain Mitya was well guarded at his home and had promised to remain there before he took off with Flambé. The two cars with the other bodyguards left well ahead of Sevastyan’s leaving the Dover estate. He didn’t want anyone to think he had bodyguards traveling with them or that he might think they needed them. He wanted Franco to make his move. The sooner he could make certain Flambé was safe to carry on with her landscaping business, the better he’d feel.
He felt a little guilty telling Mitya there might be a five percent chance there could be a problem when he thought it might be higher, but Mitya was every bit as protective of Ania as Sevastyan was of Flambé, so there would have been zero chance of Mitya allowing Ania to go. Ania was becoming restless. Sevastyan could see all the signs in her, where Mitya chose to ignore them. Sevastyan didn’t want to be that kind of partner. He knew he was worse than Mitya in lot of ways, but he wanted to see his failings and hopefully correct them so he had a good chance of keeping Flambé happy.
He laid out everything to Ania. He didn’t want her going into trouble blindly. Being Ania, she was more than happy to come with him. Not only more than happy to come, she was eager to come. She told Mitya she was driving and danced around the room joyfully, kissing him good-bye before catching up the car keys and proclaiming they were taking her car and did Sevastyan mind?
Flambé was quiet a good portion of the way into San Antonio, looking out the window. She seemed distant from him and Sevastyan found he didn’t like it. She moved in the seat as if she couldn’t quite be still, her hand rubbing along her arm or her thigh. She sat away from him, clearly trying to avoid touching him.
Shturm? Has Flamme indicated that Flambé is upset? She has been very quiet all morning.
Now that he thought about it, she’d been quiet since they’d had breakfast and he’d taken her with him to Mitya’s. He’d left her with Ania while he’d been with Mitya attending endless boring meetings.
Flamme seems—moody. She is resting before rising. She is not talking.
How close is she to rising?
I cannot tell.
Still, his leopard was content. Shturm had gone from raging to calm as long as Flambé was close. Sevastyan found he felt the same way. He thought that the female leopard being moody could be affecting Flambé, just as his leopard’s moods often affected him.
He reached for her hand, threaded their fingers together and pressed her palm to his thigh. Even though she stiffened slightly, she didn’t pull away, and she kept her face turned toward the highway. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Look at me, plamya.” His voice might have been low, but the order was clear.
She glanced toward the front seat and their driver, but obediently turned her head toward him, her eyes reluctantly meeting his. His belly knotted. Was there hurt there? She wasn’t good at subterfuge, but her expression was clouded by the ever-changing color of her eyes.
“We promised each other that we would talk things out. I can’t make it right if I don’t know what I did. Clearly I did something.”
Color swept up her neck into her face. She frowned and shook her head. He liked that she blushed. She was too fair to control that telltale sweep of color.
“Flambé. You know these things add up fast with me when you don’t do me the courtesy of replying. I am asking you a very simple question that requires a very simple answer.”
She shook her head a second time and then capitulated, but he could see she was very reluctant and was going to be just as upset with him for forcing her to divulge why she was upset. “You made a big deal about me sleeping in the room with you and then this morning you were gone. You had nothing to say or do with me. I felt . . . abandoned.”
She’d felt more than that, he could see. She had been just as sexually frustrated as he had. So much for being noble. His body had awakened him as it did nearly every morning, roaring to life with insane demands, and with Flambé beside him, that voracious hunger had been worse than ever. Even asleep, she had looked exhausted, and some of his marks looked like faint smudges, almost bruises on her skin. Where the night before they’d been erotic, in the morning light he didn’t approve of that look. He wasn’t going to take any chances with hurting her.