"Mi amor," he said softly. "You know my name. You hear or read the news. I'm not going to hide what my family is. It would be ludicrous to try. I didn't know any other way of life. I didn't know there was any other way of life."
She twisted her fingers together in her lap beneath the cover of the table, keeping her head down, allowing her hair to fall around her face, hiding her expression. She'd promised him she'd give herself time to process, but how did anyone process what he was admitting?
"Finish eating, Siena, while we talk."
She pushed away from the table. "I'm not hungry anymore." If she could have, she would have run from him. Run from the room with her hands over her ears. It was so much easier to be the girl coming home from boarding school believing her grandfather owned a winery and just didn't like having little children around.
Elijah didn't argue with her, rising with her as she stood up. Instead, he leaned down and lifted her into his arms, cradling her against his chest. Her stomach fluttered. Her heart somersaulted. He'd held her so carefully after he found her, running with her to the helicopter. She remembered the feel of his arms and his hard chest. The steady sound of his heart beating. He made her feel safe when her entire world was collapsing around her. The very strange thing was, she still felt safe in spite of the information he'd just disclosed to her.
Siena sighed and slid her arms around his neck, buried her face against his shoulder and hung on, her mind racing as he carried her back through his beautiful, perfect house. She loved his house. She loved being in his arms. She loved his wild hair and his rock-hard body. She didn't love what he was telling her, but she did love that he told her the truth.
He moved with a fluid, casual elegance, his muscles rippling subtly, suggestively beneath his skin. "Thanks for not judging me, Siena."
It wasn't about judging him. It was about having a baby with him. Raising a child with him. She tightened her hold on him and pressed her face deeper into him, breathing him in. She even loved the way he smelled. She was so far gone on him she could barely separate her dreams of him from the reality.
"Growing up in a home like that, with the violence, the guns, fists, expected to be that person because you're the head of the family's grandson and then son, you have something to prove all the time. Hell, baby, my own family expected it of me. My leopard made me fast and violent. Strong. I excelled, and my family pushed me to really excel. To be that man. The punisher. The enforcer. The killer."
Siena shook her head. She couldn't imagine being a child in those circumstances. She'd been devastated when she'd lost her parents so violently, but she hadn't known why. She didn't understand that her grandfather's world invited violence. That someone had retaliated for some move her grandfather had made.
She stiffened. Of course. She hadn't put that together. "My grandfather made a move against another family and that's why my parents were killed." She made it a statement.
"My uncle murdered his own brother," Elijah said. "I was a kid, but he wanted to groom me properly to take over the family business. He was extremely violent and he enjoyed hurting others. I have a sister. Rachel. My uncle threatened her. If I didn't do what he wanted me to do, she paid the price."
She lifted her head and looked him in the eyes. His eyes were so unusual. Quicksilver. Mercury. Dark antiqued silver. Passionate. Intense. Deadly. The stare of the leopard. He was all those things, all those moods. He was Elijah, opening himself to her. Giving her a priceless gift and in doing so, risking her turning away from him.
His glittering gaze searched hers for a long moment and then his mouth descended on hers. He poured himself into his kiss. Gave her who he was. Commanding. A takeover. Savage. Brutal even. So good. So hot. She kissed him back, giving herself up to him. Uncaring that no one would ever be able to match his kisses and she was risking everything.
He needed her. She felt that in his kiss too. He. Needed. Her. Siena Arnotto. No other women. She shifted in his arms to kiss him back just as deeply. Just as passionately. Her breasts felt swollen and achy. Her nipples hardened and rubbed against the material of the shirt she wore. Her body went boneless, pliant. The smoldering deep inside became a slow, hot burn that threatened to consume her just as it had the first time she drove up to his house.
"Siena." He whispered her name, a combination of husky and velvet. So sexy. An urgent need.
"Yes," she answered softly, because there was no other answer. It would be yes every time with him.
"Unbutton your shirt." He carried her through to the bedroom with long, ground-eating strides, as if he couldn't wait one more moment for her.
The blood rushed through her veins and roared in her ears. Her hands dropped to the buttons and she fumbled as she tried to get them open fast. The moment she had them open, she slid her hand down his chest as he put her feet on the floor, his hands at her waist, steadying her. She kept sliding her hand down until she found the thick bulge in his jeans, rubbing, needing.
"Get it done, baby," he whispered as his hands came up to cup her breasts, his thumbs sliding over her nipples.
She found herself fumbling with the buttons of his jeans, her breath coming in ragged gasps as his fingers rolled and tugged and then his mouth closed over her breast, pulling it deep into his mouth while his hand did all sorts of delicious things to her other one. It seemed to take forever to free him from the confines of his jeans.
"Get them off of me right now," he urged, his mouth still working, sending more flames dancing through her body.
She shoved the jeans from his hips and tugged to bring them down his thighs. His hands went to her hair, fisted there while she bent to strip him. He kicked the jeans aside and dragged her back up, tipping her head back so he could take her mouth.
He caught her bottom and lifted her easily. "Wrap your legs around me, baby," he ordered softly. "Hurry, sweetheart. I need you right now."
She loved the urgency in his voice. The way his fingers bit deep. The rough gravel to his velvet voice. She wrapped her legs tight around his narrow hips and hooked her ankles as she locked her fingers behind his neck.
Then he was in her. Filling her. Driving her body down over his, impaling her with the thick, long length of him, and she'd never felt so full, or so hot. She cried out, the soft sound accompanying his deeper voice. She loved that too. The sound of their bodies coming together, so urgent, almost desperate, along with the sound of their ragged breathing added to the absolute beauty and excitement of the moment.
She pushed her face into his neck as he pounded into her. Hard. Hot.
"Fucking amazing, baby," he whispered hoarsely. "Scorching hot and so damned tight I'm not going to last two more minutes."
"More," she urged. "Harder."
Every jolting stroke was glorious, sending fire streaking through her. Feeding the burn. She wanted all of him. She wanted him to give her everything he was.
He swore in his language, a deep soft string of curses that should have blistered her ears, but it only added to the urgency of the moment, to the storm that grew inside of her. He tipped her body, going deeper, taking her breath. Her soul.
"Dios, baby, so fucking good."
The deeper he drove into her, the more her breath burned raw in her lungs, in her throat. She curled her fingers into the waves of his thick hair and bit down on his shoulder to keep from screaming out her pleasure. It was building and building and she knew when it came, it was going to be amazing. Perfection. The biggest and best.
"Ride me, Siena. Hard." His fingers bit deep into her bottom, urging her up and down the length of him as he pounded into her. "That's it. Like that."
She had the rhythm now, and she ground herself onto him, and kept grinding, the friction so hot she thought they might both burst into flames, but it didn't matter, not when she could feel so good. "Elijah." She whispered his name, her talisman, because she needed an anchor when her entire body was going to fly apart.
"Hold on for me, mi vida," he urged, his voice so s
ensual she felt her entire core pulse with the need to let go. "Give me another minute."
She couldn't. There was no way, but she did, grinding down, wanting him with her. He gripped her hair and yanked her head back, his hooded eyes completely silver, intense, his face dark with passion, lined with such sensuality her breath hitched in her throat.
"Give it to me now, Siena. All of it."
God. God. That was so sexy. The way he stared into her eyes, the way he watched as the orgasm rushed over her. He continued thrusting. Hard. Driving right through her fragmenting body, his eyes never leaving hers. She felt him take her there, right out into subspace, where she floated in bliss. He kept pounding into her, keeping her body right there, over and over until one orgasm slid into another.
Then he buried his face in her neck and let go. She felt him swell, that steel shaft, already impossibly thick, pushing and stretching her tight muscles, and then blasting her with hot, hot seed, triggering a third orgasm. His body settled into a sweeter, much more gentle rhythm, gliding in and out of hers, while her sheath convulsed and gripped him.
"So beautiful, mi amor," he whispered against her neck. "Did I hurt you?"
She hadn't thought so. She felt only beauty, paradise, but now that she was floating down, she felt the burn in her leg. It hurt, but not enough for her to want to change positions.
Elijah lifted his head. "Baby? Talk to me."
"I can't talk. I can't think. Let's go to bed," she suggested. "I want to sleep with you curled around me. I want to wake up in your arms. I'll take my time processing, and we'll talk when I can handle more. Is that okay with you?"
His hand tightened in her hair. His fingers dug deeper into her bottom. "That sounds perfect to me, but you didn't answer my question."
She sighed. "You've got your bossy on all over again."
"Siena." There was warning in his voice.
"My leg hurts a little bit, but it would anyway."
He carried her to the bed and very gently laid her down as he slipped out of her. She had the urge to reach out and grab him, to pull him back inside of her. Instead she reached up to trace the line of his jaw.
"Stay with me, Siena," he said softly. "Keep looking at me like that. Always. I'll always need that look you have right now."
She wanted to give him that. She wanted to stay with him. Her free hand went to her belly where their child was already growing. "I want that more than anything," she answered honestly, because it was the strict truth.
10
THE pool sparkled a deep blue. Siena had never seen a swimming pool quite like the one in the courtyard of Elijah's house. It was extremely large, included a high waterfall with a slide and a smaller cascading waterfall that poured into a hot pool. A narrow lazy river surrounded the entire pool where one could float with the current. She'd been at Elijah's home for two and a half weeks, and the stitches on her hip and down her leg were gone. Even her ribs had mostly stopped hurting.
She was excited that she'd been given the okay to swim and she'd been doing laps every morning and evening in an attempt to stretch out the skin on her back and legs. She loved the pool. She didn't love the fact that her hair was always wet or drying, or that already, even though she knew exactly when she got pregnant, there was already a pooch. Her waist wasn't thick yet, but there was a definite pooch already, she threw up often and she wasn't more than seven weeks along. But she loved the pool.
The afternoon sun poured down on her as she floated in the little river, one hand trailing in the water. Emma Bannaconni and Catarina Perez floated just a few feet from her, each in their inner tube, heads thrown back watching the clouds as they drifted through the current. Emma's belly moved, and Siena touched her own with her fingertips.
The sound of children's laughter turned her head. Jake, Emma's husband, lifted his son out of the water and sent him flying. He landed with a splash, and his daughter yelled excitedly to be flung through the air.
"It's sort of a revelation to see Jake Bannaconni playing with his children," Siena observed. "If anyone saw this, they'd be shocked."
Emma smiled. "Jake is an amazing father. Even when they were first born. He sat up at night and rocked them or watched me rock them."
"But completely different in public or at his work," Siena said, remembering the steely-eyed man she'd faced when asking for Drake's location.
Emma nodded. "Jake is the best father I can imagine for our children, and he treats me like a princess . . . well . . . most of the time. He's got a temper and he's bossy."
Catarina burst out laughing. "You think your man is bossy, mine patented bossiness. Ever since he's known I was carrying a baby, he's been Mr. Protection and double the bossiness, which, by the way, I didn't think was possible," Catarina continued.
Siena's heart jumped and she rubbed her hand over her growing tummy and swung her head around toward Catarina, who was behind her. She nearly tipped her tube over craning her neck looking at Catarina's flat stomach. "You're pregnant too?"
Catarina was married to Eli Perez, and they owned the bordering ranch. Siena had caught a glimpse of Eli when he'd dropped Catarina off. He'd looked tough and hard, and when he caught Catarina's hand as she started up the stairs, he'd jerked her back around and pulled her body tight into his. His mouth had come down on hers in a gesture so intimate, Siena had turned away.
"Yes, I'm three months and then some. Eli is beside himself. He thinks he's the coolest man in town." Catarina burst out laughing.
Siena closed her eyes, absorbing the sound. She'd never done this in her life before. She didn't have girlfriends to float in the water with and just gossip about everyday life and the husbands they loved. It was surreal. Perfect. The lazy clouds floating by. The sound of the children and Jake's laughter in the background. The deep blue of the water in the pool. Most of all, sharing with two women who seemed to understand what her life was like without judging her.
"I'm pregnant too," she announced. Her eyes flew open at the admission. It had just slipped out. "And it's a little embarrassing that I'm already beginning to show and you don't even look like you could possibly be pregnant."
Catarina grinned at her. "Oh, that's just great. Eli thinks he knocked me up fast; Elijah didn't wait at all. What was it, your first time together?"
Siena blushed. Turned the color of a ripe tomato. Both Emma and Catarina sat up straight, rocking their inner tubes.
"It was," Emma said. "He got you pregnant the first time he ever touched you. He probably did it on purpose."
"We were a little heated," Siena said hastily, defending Elijah. "Both of us. I didn't think about using protection either."
Catarina exchanged a look with Emma, and both burst out laughing. "Honey," Emma said, "we're leopard. Our men are leopard. You don't have to try to explain or defend yourself. We both know what it's like."
Siena rubbed her hand down the long puckered, ridged skin along her leg. "When are you due, Emma?" She'd noticed Jake hovered close to his wife and never seemed to lose sight of her.
"Doc's going to take the baby next month," Emma said. "It's a little early, but they don't want me going into labor. Jake's insisting on a million doctors being present, but I just agree with everything he demands since he agreed to let me have another baby. I nearly died when Draya was born and he's never gotten over that. I go on bed rest in another week as a precaution only."
"Eli thinks Jake was nuts to agree to let you carry the baby," Catarina announced with a small sigh. She splashed water up over her dangling legs. "That's how bad he is." She wiggled her fingers in Siena's direction. "What's Elijah like? He never smiles. In fact, he looks scarier than Eli or Jake. Is he good to you?"
Siena felt Emma's gaze center on her and knew immediately it was no idle question. Both Emma and Catarina were worried about how Elijah treated her. "He's the sweetest man I've ever known. Arrogant. Bossy. But so sweet he makes my heart melt." She sighed and turned her face back to the water.
"But?" Emma pro
mpted. She reached out and caught Siena's tube, linking them together as the current took them around a bend. "What's wrong? I can tell something is. We both can. Are you afraid of him?"
Catarina reached out as well and caught the other side of Siena's tube. The two women hitched closer, keeping their voices lowered.
"No. Elijah would never hurt me," Siena defended immediately. "He might not show that side of himself often to others, but he's incredibly sweet to me."
"I've known him a long while," Emma said. "He's always been respectful but distant. Jake really likes him and I know Drake does as well, but he doesn't laugh--not ever that I remember. The mess his family created for him is just plain scary." She tipped her head back to look at Siena. "Is that what worries you?"
Siena didn't have girlfriends, but she knew they talked to one another. She wanted to be friends with these women, but Elijah was alone. Too alone. He only had her. She might not feel she could stay in his world, but she was planning to try. She'd promised him she would talk to him. That didn't mean sharing anything he said with the rest of the world, not even the women trying to be her friends.
"I have a lot of problems I'm bringing to the table," she said quietly. "My grandfather was murdered, and I think the man who did it will try to kill Elijah." She'd thought about what Paolo's next move would be and she was fairly certain he would go after Elijah, unless he decided to take the chance of killing her before he established himself as her grandfather's successor. She'd tried to have the conversation with Elijah, but he simply told her not to worry about it, like that would stop her.
"Elijah takes everything on himself." She chose her words carefully. "He doesn't want me worrying, so when I bring things up, like I believe someone will try to kill him, he sort of blows me off, expecting me to just not worry my empty little head."
Catarina snickered. "I think that must be a leopard trait. Eli doesn't want anything to touch me. I was raised in Rafe Cordeau's home. He was my guardian. He was a big crime lord in Louisiana. I escaped, but he followed me along with some of his men. I nearly got Eli killed, but he doesn't want me to even listen when he's talking about Cordeau's network and who might be taking it over. By the way, that scares me, because I'm afraid they'll send someone else after me and that would put Eli back in harm's way. He won't listen to anything I say though."