Leopard's Wrath (Leopard People 11)

These were men in control of their lives and everything in them. She would have to live with the bodyguards, at least until the relationship burned itself out. She had her own life. Things she liked to do that she was fairly certain a man like Mitya would try to nix immediately. Things she needed to do she knew he would forbid. There would be fights. If he cared that much. If he didn’t, it would be worse than if they fought. Either way, she would be the one to lose.

“You’re overthinking.”

“I’m an intelligent woman.” She gestured toward the bodyguards. “Are they always around you?”

He nodded. “They are necessary.”

“If we had a one-night fling . . .”

“One night will never be enough. A thousand nights will never be enough. If you come to me, Ania, it will be a commitment to me. To us. There will be no going back.”

“I sat in a car with you for fifteen minutes.”

He nodded. “You brought me something beyond any price. I thought to give you your life, but I find I’m not that man. So, I’m asking you to think about sharing your life with me.”

“Do you have any idea how unreasonable and insane that is?”

The unreasonable and insane part was that she was considering his ridiculous proposition even for a moment. She didn’t know him. She was a little afraid of him. Mitya Amurov was not the kind of man a woman could wrap around her little finger to get her way in all things. He was the kind of man who gave orders and expected them to be obeyed.

“You’re shaking your head, Ania, and you haven’t given us a chance.”

“How would I do that?” The sane, intelligent part of her screamed at her to shut up and walk away. To not listen to another word coming out of his sensual mouth in that sexy, caressing tone that wrapped her up in the need for that mouth on her anywhere.

“Have dinner with me.”

Her eyes met his. He would be having her for dinner if she went anywhere near him. Turning him down was going to be the hardest thing she’d ever do. She had few things in her life she could call her own. She’d lost her grandparents and mother. Her father was deteriorating rapidly. She knew it was only a matter of time before she lost him.

This wasn’t her time. If she could have had a glorious night with him and walk away unscathed, then she might have gone for it. Okay, she would have. But she knew, looking at him, she would get her heart broken. He was the kind of man she would never be able to resist.

“I would love to say yes, but I know myself, Mitya. This wouldn’t end well for me.”

“Why are you so certain it would end?”

“We have chemistry.” She was determined to be as honest with him as possible because he was laying himself on the line for her. “That’s true. Much more chemistry than I knew there could be between a couple, but we’re not compatible in other ways. You’re . . . you. Don’t deny what you’re like and say you’ll be reasonable. You won’t be.”

His smile took her breath. It was slow coming, but when it did, it crept into the blue-green of his eyes and softened his harsh, rugged features. “I would never deny what I’m like, but I have to challenge your idea that I’d be unreasonable. Perhaps you would be the unreasonable one and I the voice of reason.”

She stared at him a moment, a little awed by his transformation, and then his comment penetrated and she found herself laughing. “Naturally, you’d think you were the reasonable one.”

“Have dinner with me, Ania.”

She hesitated and then shook her head. “I’ll come back to the bakery and see you here. It’s safer.”

He shook his head. “I know bullshit when I hear it. And lies when I hear them. You have no intention of coming back here.”

She didn’t. Self-preservation was winning out. At least for now. She feared Mitya was probably already an addiction and she wouldn’t be able to stay away.

“Have dinner with me, Ania. If you are afraid of being alone with me, I will ask Timur and Ashe to come along.”

That made her sound like a coward, and she wasn’t one. She sighed. “My father isn’t in the best of health. I don’t like leaving him alone for too long. I’m overseeing the business at the moment, just until it’s sold, but it keeps me away from him. If I go out to dinner—”

“I’ll bring dinner to you.” He was firm.

She was equally as firm. “That’s not necessary. Seriously, Mitya, I’ll give you my phone number. We can arrange things after I know how my father’s doing.”

He nodded, and she programmed her phone number into the phone he gave her. She knew he watched her as she left, because she could feel his eyes on her every step of the way. She wanted to run, feeling just a little bit like prey.