The leopard was all roped muscle and thick, dark fur, a massive black panther. He looked . . . powerful. Invincible. Up this close she could see the shadowy rosettes stamped deep in the dark fur. She recognized a very efficient killing machine when she saw it.
She held her breath, hearing the roar of thunder as her blood pulsed in her ears. She felt her heart hammering hard in her chest. Strangely, there wasn't the terrible fear that still woke her from a dead sleep, the other leopard snarling, rushing her, the eyes intent on her as prey. This leopard was just as deadly, but he was also Eli. She could see evidence of him there in the way his eyes watched her so closely.
Eli always watched her with the same intense stare. The way he looked at her, so focused, as if he could see into her soul, always thrilled and terrified. She felt both emotions right then as well.
Eli's leopard took a step toward her, not the freeze-frame stalk of a leopard hunting, but a slow, measured step that brought the large cat directly in front of her. The way it positioned itself, it was almost as if it was a sentry, a guardian, seeking to keep her safe. She didn't understand why this animal, every bit as large and intimidating as Rafe's leopard, could make her feel so different.
For the first time, once the animal had taken up location in front of her, he broke his stare with her, turning his head and lifting it toward the air. She knew what he was doing, all those hairs, deeply embedded in tissue surrounded by nerve endings transmitted data to his brain. Like a guidance system, the information giving the exact location of vegetation and other obstacles so the leopard could move silently in the dark. The radar system also allowed him to find and identify enemies or prey quite easily.
Like Eli could. Or she could. She'd always known it wasn't just about great night vision, that something else allowed her to move so easily in the pitch-black warehouse without ever falling over an obstacle, she just knew where everything was. She knew she could because she'd practiced. She hadn't known how it worked for her, only that it did, but her warning system was a little spotty at times. It seemed to be growing stronger and she thought it was because she practiced so much, but now she thought maybe it was because her leopard was getting closer to the surface all those times.
It was impossible to be so close to such a large cat, a predator, and not feel the immense power and mystery. Yes, he was definitely a killing machine, the top of the food chain, but he was beautiful, magnificent even. Catarina shifted position carefully, pulling her feet up slowly onto the tailgate. She tried to be silent and stealthy, to not draw the cat's attention. She wanted it to stay facing away from her so she could take in its amazing beauty without any fear, but the moment she inched one foot up, it swung its head around and the stare of golden fire locked onto her own.
She froze. Her heart stuttered to a halt and her breath once more became trapped in her lungs. They stared into one another's eyes for a long time. Time enough for her lungs to burn for air. That long. Still, she couldn't look away, mesmerized by the beauty and focus there.
The leopard shifted his weight and from his sitting position, jumped easily into the back of the pickup truck with her. He landed silently, just to one side of her, but all that muscle was heavy and she felt the truck's bed settle for a moment.
She would not be a coward and call Eli's name. It felt too much like surrender and she'd already surrendered her body to the man. She wouldn't surrender her courage. She stayed very still. It seemed that as curious as she was about the large leopard, he was just as curious about her, extending his head toward her. The head seemed much larger up close than it appeared when the animal had been on the ground.
The leopard shifted position and involuntarily, her body jerked. The animal had to have registered her heart pounding out of control. Still, she wouldn't give in, wouldn't call Eli's name. She felt the brush of the animal's body against her shoulder as he moved behind her until she lost complete sight of him. She froze again, her entire body nearly seizing with fear. She closed her eyes, waiting for the terrible moment when she would feel his claws raking her back, his teeth puncturing her skin.
The leopard made a soft chuffing sound. It was quiet. Nonthreatening. She didn't open her eyes. The animal moved against her back, rubbing his fur over the shirt she wore, his chin on top of her head. She was forced to take a breath before she passed out. She could smell him, his wild, exotic, feral scent filling her nostrils.
She wished for her leopard. She prayed for her leopard. "I brought you out here so you could be with him. Go to him. Let me slip away," she whispered to the cat inside of her. "Save me."
Eli hadn't guessed what she was up to. She needed her leopard to emerge right there. Right then. If she could bring her out and keep her out, Catarina Benoit could disappear and she wouldn't have to face either of the powerful predators who threatened her.
She hadn't told Eli the entire truth about Rafe. Rafe was an extremely violent man. His temper was fierce, fast and explosive. Not like fiery passionate. He was all ice, even when he exploded. No, he'd never actually struck her or even manhandled her in the way Eli had, but that certainly wasn't true of any other living soul, man or woman, in their household.
Twice he had punched the wall inches from her face during one of her transgressions. He hadn't said a word to her. He hadn't raised his voice. He'd stalked across the room and punched a hole through the wall, all the while staring into her eyes. She had gone for a swim in the pool, which she did every single day, and she'd slipped on the deck as she was diving, just enough to throw her off balance.
The accident was freaky. She'd somehow curled in on herself and knocked her shoulder against the side of the pool, barely missing her head. She had a nasty scrape down the side of shoulder and arm. The moment he was told, which was the instant he returned home, he had stalked toward her, and pow. She could still hear the sound of the blow and see the concentrated venom in his eyes. He'd been enraged at her. Over an accident. That was Rafe. That was her other choice. She couldn't imagine having a child with him and if he wanted a female leopard, it had to be because he wanted a child, another shifter to inherit his business.
"Come on out," she whispered to her female. Invited. Pleaded. "Here's your big chance, girl. He's right there and he looks pretty handsome. You two can run off together and live life free. Live it large. Just for me."
Nothing. Here was the hussy's mate, and she didn't so much as show one bit of interest, not even with him making the kind of soft chuffing that should have won a girl leopard's heart.
Catarina sighed and hung her head. Time for another plan. Rafe was out. He just was. She couldn't have the kind of sex with him she'd had with Eli willingly and then have him treat her the way he would. She would be nothing more than a means to an heir, and he would never again allow her to escape. It would be a life sentence in hell with a man who had an empire bought and paid for with guns, drugs and prostitutes. With murder. He wasn't a great choice no matter what she'd told Eli.
She huffed out her breath a second time, this time harder than the first. On to the second choice, which, really, really sucked because there were a few good things about Eli. He could kiss. Really kiss. Okay, the man was seriously good at kissing. Hot, off the charts kind of kissing, and the moment he put his mouth to hers, she didn't have a brain anymore. Everything in her head simply fried.
She looked over her shoulder to stare into the cat's golden eyes. The cat's head was inches from her, his eyes focused right on hers. The impact was terrible to take. He was beautiful and deadly. She saw it so clearly. And those eyes were Eli's eyes. She wasn't going to pretend to herself that Eli wasn't every bit as dangerous as Rafe was. He could be just as violent, and he would rule her life. That was a given.
She couldn't think about the pros and cons of staying with Eli, not with the huge leopard hovering over her. She pointed out to the vast tract of land. "Go run." Like she could order a leopard around. She couldn't order the man around. She clearly couldn't take care of herself, even after all the effort she put into learning how. "Do it or just bite me really hard. It shouldn't take you long to kill me, so that or go run."
Eli. Any relationship they had would be all about sex. Not for a baby shifter, but for raw, insane, scorching hot, burn in hell forever sex. She would be totally consumed by him. Totally. His voice alone made her shiver. He knew how to use his hands, his mouth, his tongue and most definitely his cock. He was brilliant with that.
She knew he was rough and a little crude. He had tats she wanted to spend hours poring over and maybe even tracing with her tongue. She'd considered that in the warehouse before he'd ever kissed her. Amazing eyes. His body was hard and powerful and just plain hot--like his sex.
She wanted to hit her head against a wall. Option number two wasn't looking much better than option number one, because when Rafe chose to end the relationship he'd just kill her. When Eli chose to end it, he would destroy her and leave her alive.
The cat rubbed up against her a little harder, chuffed a little softer and nudged her side as it leapt to the ground.
Option three, death by leopard, was looking slim. The cat wasn't going to pounce on her and kill her. He stretched languidly, and with one more look over his shoulder, he took off running. The cat was a thing of beauty, the muscles rippling effortlessly beneath the fur, the run silent. The cat definitely looked like freedom personified.
She bit at her lower lip, watching the leopard until it disappeared into foliage. She was alone. The space around her filled up with sound. Birds. Insects. Even a frog, indicating water very close by. Her hands dropped to the buttons of the shirt and slid them back into position.
So that meant she had to come up with option four. She just had to be logical and really think it all the way through. She'd gotten away from Rafe. She'd escaped when everyone would have told her it was impossible. How the DEA had spotted her, she had no idea, but still, she was smart.
People didn't get that she was intelligent because of her lack of formal education. It hadn't occurred to anyone that she might be able to learn to read on her own. There were children's shows on television. Even language shows. And she'd watched every one of them over and over. Children's educational shows. They'd saved her life.
Once she could read enough, she'd used the Internet to find places for math and science. For history lessons. But always, always, she read. Newspapers, magazines, every book in Rafe's house. She read dictionaries and the labels of cans. She read the ingredients of everything that came into the house. She didn't want Rafe to know she could read and she made certain she never made a mistake in front of him.
She knew he tracked her computer, reading everything she did on it, learning everywhere she went, so she used his computer, the one in his sacred office, the one he never once considered she might touch. She'd used his own computer to educate herself and she'd done it right under his nose.
The moment she knew Rafe was a shifter, she tried to find out more about them, but there wasn't really information anywhere, so she read up on leopards and studied their behavior. Clearly shifters were different. Leopards were loners, they didn't live in groups as Eli hinted some shifters did. Leopards had multiple mates and the females raised their offspring alone. She had the feeling shifters didn't do that either, but she didn't know. It was a possibility and that needed to be addressed at some point if she didn't get away from Eli.
She could do this. She could think her way out of this, or at least hit on some kind of a plan. Part of the problem was Eli. He did more than just melt her body every time he looked at her. She still remembered sweet. Worse, he still gave her sweet. He treated her as if she mattered. He didn't need to look after her the way he did, but then he'd done it before, drawing her in, only to stomp on her.
Eli had tons of experience when it came to sex, she at least recognized that. She knew she could be somewhat submissive. It was impossible not to be, raised the way she was, but it didn't make sense that she found his commanding voice so absolutely compelling. Each time he gave her an order, delivered in a low, sexy tone, her body went up in flames. Was that something to do with being a shifter? His cat dominant over hers? She didn't know. She didn't know why she liked caring for him so much. Or why she liked obeying him when they had wild sex. She just didn't know.
She slipped from the tailgate, caught up his clothing and brought it with her back to the cab. Her gaze slid to the ignition. He'd left the keys in the truck. She'd been fairly certain she'd noticed that little detail, and if she noticed it, he had. So, what was he playing at? Testing her? If so, she ought to drive back to the house and let him walk home. She bit her lip, for the first time finding a little humor in the situation. That was, if she could find the house and if she could figure out how to drive.
She climbed into the relative warmth of the cab. The sun shone through the windows, warming the leather interior. She took the keys out of the ignition and stared at them, before folding each item of his clothing carefully and setting them on the backseat in plain sight.
She was exhausted from all the sex and trying to figure out a future. Her leopard was no help, sleeping or something rather than giving her any clues as to what to do. She went through the glove compartment and found a set of handcuffs, but nothing else that might give her something to get an advantage over Eli.
Catarina found herself shivering at the thought. He wasn't the kind of man to cross. Not in the same way as Rafe; he wouldn't kill someone and tell her their blood was on her hands, but he'd make it known he wasn't happy. She wasn't certain she wanted to find out how.
*
THE leopard stretched its legs, running along the road and winding through the trees, but always in a tight circle that kept the truck in the center. He detoured when the scent of three men he recognized drifted from just over the edge of his property line. His acreage butted up next to Jake Bannaconni's estate. His neighbor was a billionaire with oil on his property, and twice he'd mentioned to Eli that he was certain there was oil on his property as well.
Eli hadn't cared much one way or the other. Not then. He had plenty of money from his trust and a job that kept him gone most of the time. Still, if Bannaconni said there was oil, there probably was.
He'd met the man through a mutual friend, Drake Donovan. Eli had spent weeks with Drake in the Borneo rain forest, and Drake had taught him more about shifters in those few weeks than his father had ever had a chance to teach him. Bannaconni had somehow tracked him down, explaining Drake needed a bone graft from a shifter, that if he didn't get one soon, he would never shift again and they'd lose him. Eli had immediately volunteered for testing and had been compatible, grateful he could repay Drake for his friendship and knowledge.
He'd refused to take the considerable sum of money Bannaconni had offered him, but he'd let it be known he was interested in acreage out of the way where his leopard could run free, and to call if they stumbled on anything suitable. Bannaconni contacted him the instant the property next to his came up for sale.
Eli had a lot of respect for Jake Bannaconni. He could have purchased the prime real estate and added it to what he already had, especially suspecting oil on it, but he'd let Eli know it was coming up for sale and when Eli was interested quietly arranged the sale and hid it under multiple layers of his own corporations.
It was Jake's wife, Emma, whom he emailed when he was coming to the property. She personally didn't stock his fridge, he knew better than that, but she had the supplies bought and delivered. The Bannaconnis were good neighbors and Jake certainly deserved a heads-up that a rogue would eventually be coming their way.
He shifted as he got closer. As a rule shifters weren't in the least bit modest, but he was always careful to know who was close by before he allowed himself to be seen.
"Jake?" he called out the moment he identified two of Jake's men with him.
Joshua Tregre and Elijah Lospostos were two of Jake's shifter crew. Eli knew them both fairly well. They'd come from Borneo with Drake to work for Jake. Eli knew Drake was now living in New Orleans but was still very tight with Jake and these two men.
"Eli?" Jake called back.
The three men moved closer to the property line.
"I've been out for a run," Eli warned them.
They didn't hesitate. "I've got a spare pack," Joshua said. "Do you want a pair of jeans?"
"Seems silly just for a short visit. I've got my mate in the truck and she could decide to take off any minute," Eli said.
"Not happy about being your mate, I take it," Jake said, stepping through the foliage. He was a big man, like Eli. Like all of them, they were built with the roped, powerful muscle of their kind.
"No, can't say she is. She's got a rogue after her. Not only is he very dangerous, but he's built himself a large crime network. He owns just enough cops to get information very quickly."
"You got a name?" Bannaconni asked.
"Rafe Cordeau."
Elijah made a soft sound, a kind of warning growl at the back of his throat. "He's a bad one, boss," he said. "Rumor is that he likes to bring his enemies to the swamp and let his leopard hunt. I heard a whisper that he lost his most prized possession. She with you?" His mercury eyes met Eli's. "Because if that woman is the one he's been looking for, he's going to come at you with everything he's got to get her back."
"I'm well aware of that. I've been chasing this bastard for over two years with the DEA and haven't gotten anything on him that would stick. Every time we had him, our witness disappeared right from under our noses. Every safe house we put them in was found and penetrated, nothing has worked. Now I know why. I had no idea he was a shifter."
"He knows to stay clear of Drake's lair and the Boudreaux boys in the bayou and swamps. They're all in law enforcement in some capacity and Cordeau wants no part of them," Elijah said. "Drake married into that family, and he runs a tight lair. I've had a couple of sit-downs with Cordeau. It was tense, to say the least. My uncle was in power back then. The two of them did business together. Since I've returned to the States, he's put out a few feelers."