Leopard's Run

by Christine Feehan

  “It’s not like I can tell them anything,” Evangeline said. “But I am getting sick of the harassment. I thought some of them were actually my friends.”

  Ashe frowned. “You know that’s not possible, right? Those men out there are after your family, and just like the ones who went after mine, they’ll stop at nothing to tear all of you apart. I don’t think it makes much difference which side of the law you’re on if someone is out to get you, but you can’t really be friends with anyone trying to hurt your family.” She couldn’t keep the sorrow out of her voice. “If I had been there, I would have fought to save my parents, but I wasn’t. They liked to be alone together and I was in the way. I knew that. I even accepted it, but that doesn’t change the fact that I would have lied, cheated, stolen or killed to save them.”

  Evangeline put her arms around Ashe and hugged her tightly. “I’m so sorry about your family, Ashe. I’m glad you had them for the time you did. Fyodor, Timur and Gorya are my family now and I feel that way about them. The next time a cop comes in, I’m spitting in his drink.”

  “Can you bake one batch of those apple-cinnamon cookies with something to make them very sick?” Ashe asked. “Not really, but they so deserve it.”

  “Especially Jeff. He pretends to care about me and then he pulls something like this. And what was that with his partner? With Ray? Rodion group texted all of us that he said some things and grabbed your arm too hard.” She reached for Ashe’s wrist, gently turning it over.

  “Group texted who?” Ashe asked suspiciously. She was beginning to feel as though she was the only one not in the loop and needed a cell phone.

  Evangeline shrugged. “All of us. Fyodor, Kyanite, Gorya, Timur. Even Mitya and Sevastyan. You don’t know them but they’re cousins. They’re my family too.”

  “So of course, they had to know.”

  “Of course.”

  7

  ASHE was far too quiet. Timur had heard from Kyanite the moment the hit men had walked into the bakery and Ashe’s leopard rose. And before that even, when all the cops were drifting into Evangeline’s place of business, a deliberate show of strength. It had cost him to stay away, to wait until the end of the day for Evangeline, so her customers would never see the threat the police made against her. Against them. Their family.

  They had that now. It had been a very long, uphill battle for them, but Evangeline had brought them all together as a family. He had his brother and Gorya. He had Mitya and Sevastyan, his cousins. And now, although she was going to try to fight him, to run from him, he had his woman.

  He hadn’t been far from her. He’d known better. She was in heat and he didn’t want to take chances. The moment the two men in their business suits had left the bakery and all but run for their vehicle, Timur was after them. He had been silently following with three others. The men had gone, not back to the motel, but to Evangeline’s old residence where Ashe was staying. That had been their last mistake.

  He hadn’t had time to extract information from them before he killed them. Their leopards had leapt forward to fight. His big male had defeated one, and the other had been killed by one of the leopards Drake Donovan had sent them. Logan Shields had been in the Borneo rain forest, working with the teams there. Timur was learning to trust Drake’s men.

  He glanced sideways at Ashe. She stared out the window of the car, not looking at him, her hands folded neatly in her lap. Unfortunately for her, he was extremely good at reading body language, every little sign a person might give to allow him to better figure out what they were thinking. She wasn’t considering white dresses and roses. Or family. She was angry or hurt. One of the two emotions, and neither was good. He’d take anger over hurt. He didn’t know what to do with hurt.

  “Are you going to talk to me?”

  She looked up at him. Their eyes met and he saw hurt, not anger. Damn it all. What the hell was he supposed to do with that? She blinked and he found himself looking directly at her leopard. Her leopard wasn’t hurt; she was angry. Very. The amber eyes had gone a deep golden with darker rings around them. Her leopard had risen to protect her from him—from hurt that he’d inadvertently caused. It had gone deep, he could see that.

  Timur reached out and covered her hands with one of his own as he easily steered the car toward her house. “Talk to me, Ashe. I want to know what you’re thinking.”

  She didn’t pull away from him, and he almost wished she had. It would have been better than her sitting there so meekly. There wasn’t anything meek about Ashe, so he wasn’t buying her performance. But the hurt was real. Her leopard’s anger was real.

  “I’m not thinking about anything.”

  As lies went, that was a whopper. His leopard flagged that immediately. He took his eyes off the road long enough to look at her again. “Baby, I’d rather you not say anything than have you lying to me. Whatever this is, we can make it right.”

  She took a deep breath, and he braced himself. The storm was about to break. He considered that a good thing.

  “I don’t want you staying at the house with me. I know you think I’m in danger, and I’ll take precautions, but it’s too hard to have you there.”

  “Hard to have me there?” he echoed. “You mean you used me for sex and now you want me to go away.”

  She scowled at him. “How many women have you used for sex and then made go away? You don’t get to judge me. And you don’t get to be sarcastic. You know you’ve done just that a hundred times, probably more. We’re not in a relationship. We had sex in the street. Great sex, but still, it was just sex.”

  “My leopard claimed your leopard.” He turned onto the quiet little cul-de-sac where the house was located. He really liked the house. Mansions weren’t his thing. He thought his brother’s home was extremely cool, and right for Fyodor, but this much smaller house suited him. He pulled into the driveway and hit the remote that opened the two-car garage. Her car was already parked on one side and he liked that. He liked that his car made up the second part of the garage. Hers was a shit car, and really banged up. It had so many dings and dents in it, he wondered how it could actually be on the road.

  She shrugged. “Your leopard will be fine. He’s been fine the last few years, and he’ll be okay until some other woman comes along.”

  “You know better than that. Your parents shared information with you. You know that a leopard shifter mates with his only. You’re my only.”

  “That’s bullshit and you know it. I’m not your only. I just look at you and know you’re one of those men who go through women like they’re candy and leave a trail of broken hearts behind.”

  He turned off the engine. “Their hearts can’t be broken if I have one-night stands, Ashe. We have sex and we walk away.”

  “No woman walks away from the kind of sex we had, Timur. You broke hearts.”

  It was an accusation. He couldn’t defend his position, because she told the truth. He had broken hearts, but he hadn’t meant to. On the other hand, he did have to set her straight on one issue. “We had off-the-charts, amazing sex together, Ashe. It wasn’t all me. It was a combination of the two of us. I’ve never had that with another woman.”

  That meant something to her. Her eyes went soft and there was a flash of awareness. Then she was pushing the heavy car door open and sliding off the seat. He followed. She wasn’t kicking him out that easily. He glanced down at his watch.

  After Temnyy, Timur’s leopard, and Logan’s leopard had defeated the other two men who had been after his woman, Jeremiah, who’d been assigned to watch the motel, announced the arrival of another group of men. There were six of them. He had Logan take the phones of the dead men to Vitaly and he’d gotten past their codes as usual. Their phones had blown up with messages to regroup back at the hotel, that their original mission was terminated, and it was imperative they break off immediately. Too bad they hadn’t gotten that message before he’d killed them.

  “You aren’t going to persuade me,” Ashe said, resolutio
n in her voice.

  He followed her right into the house. “I’m not going to try to persuade you. There’s no need.” And there wasn’t, not as far as he was concerned. The decision had been made the moment he’d set eyes on her. The moment he’d inhaled and taken the scent of her deep into his lungs. He’d deepened that promise by tasting her mouth. The commitment had been made right then, at that moment, when his mouth came down on hers. That was long before his cock was involved. His resolve was permanent.

  She looked at him over her shoulder, her long, feathery lashes capturing his attention. He liked those little details about her. The way she moved. The sound of her voice. Those little glances she gave him as if just looking at him hurt. “Why do I not believe you?”

  “I think you do believe me, malen’kiy smerch, but you’re afraid. You haven’t ever been around a large family like ours and you’re just feeling a little out of your depth. I’ll get you through it. You were taught to run in any situation that scared you, and that’s your go-to, baby. You want to run because you know everything I say is the truth, not a lie, and that is terrifying to you.”

  He could see by her expression he’d hit the nail on the head. He was going to have to be vigilant and counter any of her arguments, because she was going to have a lot of them. He wrapped his arm around her waist and locked her to him, her back to his front. His mouth found the sweet little spot between her neck and shoulder, the one that made her shiver and moan. The one he knew drove her wild. He spent a little time there and then kissed his way over her delicate jaw to the edge of her mouth.

  “You’re mine, Ashe. Your body knows it, no matter how hard your head tries to fight.” His hand wrapped around her throat, thumb pressing into her chin so she faced him enough that he could take her mouth.

  Both of them caught fire that fast. Kissing her was like a terrible storm, completely out of control. He turned her in his arms and lifted her, his mouth still on hers. Flames licked over his skin, and electricity seem to arc between them. Her mouth was pure heat, not sweet, not spice, but a fiery cinnamon that left him craving more every time he took his mouth from hers.

  He carried her through the house straight to the bedroom, feeding off her, devouring her, kissing her again and again, until her body seemed a part of his own. He caught at the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head, ruthlessly ripped her bra away so her breasts spilled out into his hands. He kissed his way down her throat to the two soft mounds.

  She was … exquisite. Perfection. All that soft skin. Her breathy moans. The way her hips bucked and moved so restlessly. He wanted her clothes gone. If he had his way she’d be waiting for him at home every night, naked, her skin glowing under candlelight. He didn’t need food when he had her to devour.

  There was a strange roaring in his head, thunder in his ears, hot blood rushing through his veins. He wanted a slow seduction, but he knew he was too far gone to give that to her. At least not the first time he had her in the bed. He kept his mouth on her breast, his tongue and teeth working her nipple while he pulled strongly with his mouth, and his hands dropped to her jeans.

  Her hands were already there, desperate to get them off her. He liked her desperate for him. He didn’t want to be alone in his urgent need. He had to release her breast so he could get to her shoes, but he took her hands and used them to knead both soft mounds.

  “Work your nipples, baby. The way I do.” He loved seeing her hands on her body. It was sexy to him, and the look on her face, the flushed skin, all of it together had him as hard as a rock. He tossed her shoes aside and then dragged down her jeans and panties, leaving her bare to him as he tossed her on the bed.

  Her breath was coming in ragged gasps, the sound driving his body further into a frenzy of need. He yanked her thighs apart and put his mouth right where he needed it to be. Her cry shattered what little control he’d been hanging on to. His tongue plunged deep, finding hot liquid. She tasted like honey and cinnamon. She was exquisite, like a fine hot cider. He couldn’t get enough of her and he drove her up fast, using his teeth on her clit and his fingers to stretch her tight sheath.

  Her hips went wild so he had to clamp her down tightly, locking her in place so he could have his way with her. He savored the explosion when he took her over the edge, her body giving him more, so that he devoured her like a feast, taking her right back up.

  Now, her breathing changed to gasping hitches. The roaring in his ears grew until it was thunder rolling while lightning forked through his body and struck at his cock. He felt huge. Full. Throbbing and burning. He opened his trousers and the relief was tremendous. Circling his thick erection with one hand, he lifted his head enough to wipe his face on her thighs. Her hips bucked, and he knew how she felt. He needed her just as much.

  Then he was kneeling between her legs, the broad crown nearly swallowed by her body. Watching his thick cock disappear into her was so sensual he could barely breathe. Her body stretched around his, straining to accommodate his size. He couldn’t look away from that beauty.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful, Ashe. This is. You. Me. The two of us together. Tell me this isn’t what you want.”

  Her head thrashed back and forth, her eyes dazed yet excited. He waited, breathing deeply, until she focused on him. “Tell me what you feel right now.”

  “Burning. You’re so big. It’s like my body is saying you can’t possibly and at the same time, you can’t stop. I won’t make it if you stop.” She didn’t hesitate to tell him. She didn’t pretend she wasn’t as desperate for him as he was for her. “You have to move, Timur. Right now. I need you to move.”

  “You going to run the minute you get the chance?” Holding still was so difficult. Only half his cock was in her, and looking down on that was amazing. Sensual. So damned sexy he thought he might really blow it and explode.

  “Yes. God, yes. You would try to rule me.”

  “That’s what you’re afraid of?” He slid another inch into that slick, liquid heat. She bathed him in a fiery honey. So good. He counted her heartbeats right through his cock.

  “Yes.”

  Because she told the truth, he rewarded her with another inch. His entire body screamed at him that he needed more. He needed all of him buried deep. He needed to be moving, not slow, not savoring, but hard and fast until that ultimate explosion came.

  “I will rule you, Ashe,” he admitted. “I’ll tell you what to do and you’ll give me that snippy look you have and tell me what to do. It’s going to be the best of the best. And we’ll have this, any time, day or night. How would you ever do without my cock buried in you just like this?” He took himself home, plowing through those tight folds, her muscles gripping at him, creating an unbelievable friction.

  He caught her hips, holding her still while he plunged in and out of her. Her little gasps and the way she gripped his cock like a vise nearly had him losing control immediately. He breathed deeply, holding back, wanting to keep this time for as long as possible. Her fingers slid down the front of her, right to their joining, brushing his cock every time he withdrew. Each touch sent fire burning down his spine.

  His fingers dug into her hips. Her nails bit deeply into his shoulders. Her breath hitched again. Her lips parted. The moment they did, he had a vision of his cock sliding between them, of that beautiful bow stretched around him. The image sent a firestorm burning out of control through his entire body and he slammed into her. Deep. Hard. Over and over, riding her as if there was no tomorrow.

  Her body clamped down hard on his. Her muscles felt like strong fingers milking his cock. There was no stopping the eruption. It blasted out of him, a frenzied storm that sent his seed rocketing into her, splashing against the walls of her sheath, mixing with her hot honey, coating them both in their combined sex. He felt brutal. He felt savage. He felt like a primitive, possessive male staking his claim.

  “I want you forever. Not for fifteen minutes. Not for an hour. Not for a day. It has to be forever.” He collapsed over top
of her, keeping his hips wedged between her thighs, his cock buried deep, feeling every aftershock, every ripple, bathing in the hot combination of the two of them. “Do you really think I would let you go after this?”

  “It’s sex, Timur,” she whispered, circling his neck with her arms.

  “Fuck, baby, no one has this kind of sex. You don’t throw something like this away.”

  “It will go away eventually. Then what? What will we have then?”

  “I’ll be eighty and still want you, woman. Why do you keep wanting to run from me?” He bit down hard on her shoulder, deliberately leaving his mark.

  Ashe yelped and tried to pull away. He didn’t allow it, easily holding her still. “You’d better get over this phase fast, because we’re too good together to call this just sex.”

  “I don’t know you at all.”

  “You’re beginning to know me. You know me enough to be a little afraid of me.”

  “That’s not a good thing. Why do you say that like it’s a good thing?”

  “Because you know we need to talk things out. I respond to talking. You run, and you know I’ll come after you.” He felt the little shiver that went through her body.

  The problem was that female leopards liked to lead their males around for a few days. Sometimes a week or more. They would get amorous, rubbing their bodies enticingly along trees, leaving their alluring scent on everything in an effort to draw in the male. Once he responded, she rebuffed him, cuffing him with her claws, snarling and lashing out. He thought of his woman that way, just as moody and as demanding as her leopard. She had no intentions of committing to him. He knew that was fear.

  He even understood why. Her parents had raised her off the grid. They’d kept to themselves, excluding her. The love they’d showed her was teaching her to survive in any situation. They’d taught her not to trust anyone and to get out if she was uncomfortable. She’d told Evangeline quite a bit about her parents. While they’d clearly loved each other, they’d been no more than children when they had Ashe. They had no idea how to be parents, not any more than his parents had.