Leopard's Prey (Leopard People 5)

"I'm fine with it takin' time. Take all the time you need."

That wasn't her sense of humor. She was quite serious. She wanted him gone, just as she hadn't wanted him in her bed when they'd returned from the swamp. He went into the bathroom and pulled himself together as fast as possible, brushing his teeth and inspecting the rake marks across his side and chest. Robert had gotten in a few licks of his own and Remy hadn't even noticed. There were a few bad bruises, the consequences of a strong leopard hitting another one. Robert would wake up with far worse.

He returned to the bedroom fully dressed to find Bijou wrapped in her robe, sitting by the open drapes. "I didn't infect you with some rare blood thing, Blue. You do know that, don' you? Your mere had to be leopard."

Bijou deliberately pointed to the door. "Go." The word didn't come out as commanding as she would have liked.

Her treacherous heart melted every time she looked at him. She had to get over her adolescent hero worship. She'd been so silly, proving just how young and inexperienced she was by thinking he had real feelings for her. It was just sex between them, he'd admitted as much to her. She couldn't even claim he had his own physical attraction to her--it was his leopard's fascination with her leopard, which somehow made the entire affair even seedier.

She looked around her at the cracks and long rake marks down the walls. Now it all made sense. She knew exactly what made those claw marks. She groaned and covered her face with her hands.

Remy was an amazing man. Pure and simple. He was intelligent, had a good sense of humor, loved and protected family and he made her feel beautiful and safe. He knew what her life had really been like, not the fairy tale everyone else wanted to believe. She'd been so happy when he'd acted interested in her and when he'd kissed her . . . There was no going back.

There was a hesitant knock on her door, then Saria's voice. "Are you hungry? I have a brunch made. Come get food."

Bijou wanted to crawl back in bed and pull the covers over her head, but she refused to be a coward. She couldn't blame Remy for her actions, and she couldn't pretend she hadn't had mad, crazy sex with him. Saria knew everything. She probably even knew about her wild romp in the swamp.

"I'll be down in five minutes," she called back.

She took a deep breath and held the sheet against her face for a moment, cooling the color, before tossing it aside in resignation and going to the dresser where her clothes were neatly folded. At least the dresser hadn't sustained too much damage, but she found herself blushing at the memory of Remy sitting her atop it, his mouth and hands driving her insane.

"Maybe it's the room," she muttered aloud, glaring as she looked around. "Some kind of strange Cajun curse on anyone stayin' here and they turn into the Rougarou. What other real explanation is there?"

She looked down at her body. She was bruised, but there was no fur. When she looked in the mirror her teeth looked like perfectly normal teeth. Bijou sighed and ran a brush through her thick, wild hair. That's what she got for going to bed with wet hair. There was no taming it, but on the other hand, she had hair, not fur. It was black, not covered in rosettes.

She walked down the stairs a little reluctantly. There were so many questions she had, but more importantly, she had to apologize to her friend and offer to leave if she'd been flirtatious inadvertently with Saria's husband. Whatever had put Saria on edge had to be her fault and she wanted to make certain they were okay. She didn't have a lot of real friends, and she definitely didn't want to lose Saria.

The moment she pushed open the door to the kitchen, the aroma of coffee hit her. She went straight to the coffeepot and poured herself a mug, aware of Saria putting plates on the small table in the kitchen. It was far more intimate than the guest dining room and ordinarily, Bijou much preferred it, but knowing she had to apologize made her even more self-conscious than normal.

She turned slowly, leaning against the counter as she faced Saria.

Saria flashed an encouraging smile. "I'll get the food out of the warmer."

"Before you do, I just want to say how sorry I am. I know you've been upset with me and I honestly--I swear to you, Saria--I didn't realize how flirty and awful I've been. I'm not usually like that, I had no idea I was doin' anything that might disturb you or Drake."

Saria's eyebrow shot up. "What are you talkin' about?"

"You've been upset with me. Don' deny it. And you're not like that, so I had to have been doin' something to get you riled." Bijou ducked her head. "My father was some sort of sex addict and it colored my life. I didn't want to be like him so I stayed away from men. Bodrie always made sex seem so cheap. And then I came here and . . ." She shook her head as her eyes stung and burned and the lump in her throat grew so big she couldn't talk around it.

"Bijou, don' be silly. You're not at all like Bodrie. Not for one moment."

Bijou took a deep breath to try to stop herself from crying. "You didn't see me with Remy, Saria. I was a crazy person. Worse than Bodrie ever was. And I figured out that you must have noticed me flirtin' with Drake, but if I was, I didn't know it, I didn't mean to do it."

"Bijou, seriously, you didn' do anything at all. I'm pregnant. I told Drake this mornin' and he's on his way home." Her voice changed, the laughter fading. "I was jealous. You look so beautiful, and I had no idea I was pregnant. But your leopard was comin' into heat and my leopard was crazy, which made me that way." Her words came out in a little rush. "I didn't have any idea you were leopard or maybe I would have put the two together, but instead I had my jealous pants on. I'm the one who's sorry, Bijou. I hope you can forgive me. When you needed me most, I was actin' silly."

Bijou allowed herself to breathe again. "You're pregnant? That's so awesome, Saria."

Saria smiled. "It kinda is, isn't it? I'm still gettin' used to the idea."

Bijou carried her mug to the table and put it down so she could finish setting the table while Saria got the food. The relief she felt that everything between her and Saria had gotten back to normal was tremendous. She placed flatware carefully and added napkins before sitting down to finish her coffee.

"I turned into sex pants and that's far worse than jealous pants," she admitted. "It was horrible. And we destroyed your room. I'll pay to have it fixed, Saria."

Saria burst out laughing. "My brother has already taken care of it. He and Drake can put it all back together. His leopard was the crazy one, rakin' the walls."

"Not exactly." Bijou felt compelled to be strictly honest. "I definitely helped, and there was no leopard involved."

"You are the leopard, Bijou," Saria pointed out. "I know it's difficult to take in . . ."

Bijou scowled at her. "Difficult?" She interrupted. "Insane. Impossible to believe. The memory is tryin' to fade. I'm tryin' to convince myself that there's some kind of Cajun curse on that room, or your brother bit me and instead of the werewolf, I became a leopard."

"When I was little, I followed my brothers into the swamp and saw them shift into leopards. I watched them. It was horrible because at first they stripped and who ever would want to see their brothers naked? I knew I'd be traumatized for life!"

Bijou scooped up fluffy scrambled eggs mixed with crabmeat and rice. "You're talkin' to the queen of trauma, remember? My father and his band and their groupies thought group sex in the livin' room was appropriate behavior."

"I suppose I can't top that," Saria agreed with a slight grin, "but I was still horribly traumatized."

Bijou gave a little smirk. "I'm certain I would have been too."

Saria laughed. "You little hussy. You'd only be lookin' at Remy."

Bijou's smile faded. "I know. He's all I've ever looked at, and a fat lot of good that did me. Maybe if I'd seen him shift into a leopard I would

have run for the hills and never come back. How did you feel about the entire leopard business?"

"I was jealous. I wanted to be like them. The brotherhood, you know. They were so close and I always felt like an outsider," Saria admitted. "We used to talk about that, remember?"

Bijou shook her head. "You were crazy about your brothers. You thought they walked on water. You never complained about them."

"I didn't?" Saria added, as she added panfried trout to her plate.

Bijou took a hot beignet. "The first thing I did when I came back home was go to the Cafe Du Monde and order coffee and beignets. I missed them so much." She took a bite. "These are wonderful, Saria. You always were such a good cook. I guess all that cooking for your pere really helped. I'm not so good. We had a chef--well, several. Mostly women, and believe me, they didn't want me in their kitchen."

"It should have been your kitchen." Saria was indignant on her behalf.

Bijou shrugged. "That satisfaction was in knowin' they wouldn't last very long. Bodrie would get tired of havin' sex with them and the way they would cling to him. He'd fire them and hire the next pretty face." She added the trout to her plate as well. "I took a cookin' class once. It was a disaster. I'll have to try some of your recipes when I get in my own place."

Saria pressed her lips together for a moment, clearly contemplating how to word her next sentence, putting Bijou on alert. "You know my brother isn't goin' to let you out of his sight. He'll be expecting to share your place or have you move in with him."

Bijou forced a casual shrug. "Clearly we're not on the same page about that. Wild sex might be fun, Saria, but it will never be enough for me. I want a man to look at me and love me the way Drake does you. I've waited a long time for that. I can't help it if his leopard is crazy about mine and that's why he's so physically attracted to me."

Saria frowned, stopping with a forkful of eggs halfway to her mouth. "That's not why he's attracted to you. Where would you get an insane notion like that?"

"Straight out of his mouth," Bijou said, forcing herself to admit the truth and trying not to choke on the words. She picked up her coffee cup and took a sip just to give herself time to control the tears burning behind her eyelids. Damn Remy anyway for turning her into a weepy female.