Leopard's Rage (Leopard People 12)

Flambé drew up her knees and looked up at him, a wicked expression on her face. She raised one eyebrow before resting her chin on her knees. “I believe we were talking about sleeping arrangements.”

She was going to be a handful and he couldn’t help but love the challenge. Just because she enjoyed his art and her leopard species preferred submission to her male didn’t mean she was a pushover by any means. He was in for a lifetime of surprises. He wasn’t a man who would ever enjoy the mundane. Flambé appeared to suit him perfectly, although that meant they were going to butt heads more than he’d like.

He sank into the hot water and took the end position of the tub, waiting for her to scoot around to the opposite end. When she did and stretched out her legs, he took her foot to massage it. “You seem very stuck on the sleeping arrangements. Did you have something in mind?” He turned the tables back on her.

She rested her head on the soft pillow angled for her and closed her eyes. “I’m just tired, Sevastyan, and I guess I want to know where I stand with you. I’ve never really been in a relationship and you’re pushing us very fast. I’m willing to sleep downstairs if it makes you uncomfortable to have me be up here with you.”

She wasn’t lying. She would definitely go back downstairs to the master bedroom. That was the third time she’d suggested it. She was trying to put distance between them.

“No, baby. I want you up here with me.” He kept his voice very gentle. “I had preconceived ideas of what it would be like if I found someone. Now that I have you, those ideas aren’t the same. I want you close to me.”

Her lashes fluttered again. Lifted. She looked at him, seemingly a little hesitant. “I know you don’t want anyone sleeping in your bed with you and I understand that. I do, Sevastyan. It doesn’t hurt my feelings. I was looking at the tree in your room, which, by the way, is extremely cool. It has that little hammock hanging from a branch. I could sleep there.”

He studied the expression on her face as she made the offer. She was actually quite hopeful he would want her to sleep there, which was actually very comical. The tree and hammock had been designed as an art piece, but also to weave a woman into a tight space, possibly an uncomfortable position that would—eventually—give her a sense of rebirth. The experience could release endorphins that were both sexual in nature and a kind of euphoria for the recipient. Perhaps his little Flambé had inadvertently discovered the process without knowing what she was doing, just as a runner could release certain endorphins.

“Thank you for the offer, Flambé. I appreciate it. I do intend to use the hammock with you once you build your stamina in the ropes, but as far as sleeping arrangements, I prefer to have you as close to me as possible. I want to wake up with you right beside me. I find I have need of you close for many reasons.”

He wasn’t going to elaborate. Most were of a sexual nature, but he was very concerned with her safety. He didn’t want her too far from him, especially knowing she had Franco Matherson as a stalker. Or that she had death threats against her. She also had it in her head that she could escape him if things weren’t to her liking, and Shturm had claimed her female leopard. While Flambé’s father had brought her up in the rules of lair life, he clearly hadn’t explained what occurred after the claiming.

Shturm wouldn’t be able to give Flamme up. He would follow her to the ends of the earth. Sevastyan didn’t blame Flambé for not understanding the rules when she wasn’t fully aware of them, but those were things that could get others killed. Others like Cain. He didn’t like the fact that she, even for one moment, had considered going to Cain.

“I have a meeting with a supplier tomorrow,” Flambé said. “It’s important for me to go. I know that you’ve got all sorts of things you have to do, so can you have one of your bodyguard friends available to come with me? I can’t cancel it. I did grab my schedule and I’ll get it typed in so I can send it to you and you won’t have to be blindsided.”

Sevastyan paused the massage, both hands clasping her foot. “Flambé, don’t you think you should have told me immediately you had an important meeting?”

“I didn’t remember. I have to put in reminders,” she said. “I’ve got so much to do all the time and my reminders keep me on track. Without my phone, I’m kind of lost.”

He couldn’t fault her for that. No way was he allowing one of his “bodyguard friends” to go with her to meet with her suppliers. Franco had her schedule. And her leopard was close to the emerging.

“I need to know exactly where you’re supposed to be and who you’re meeting with in the next month, Flambé. If possible, you’re going to change those meeting times and days.”

Her eyes flew open and she tried to sit up straight but he refused to relinquish his hold on her foot.

She glared at him. “I can’t just change everyone’s meeting times and their days. In some cases, we booked those times months ago. You know how upset you were when I cancelled on you.”

He nodded. “Sevastyan Amurov is leopard and you knew that going into it. The majority of your other clients are not. Who else do you work for that is leopard?”

Sevastyan kept his gaze fixed on her face, watching her expression closely. He saw the instant shutter come down. She was a businesswoman, used to protecting her clients, the shifters in particular. She didn’t divulge information.

“I am responsible for your security now, Flambé,” he reminded gently instead of demanding as he normally might. “I’m not just prying.” This was about her landscaping business, not a personal matter between them. He was always going to have to be careful about separating the two if it was possible.

“Jake Bannaconni. Mitya and Fyodor Amurov, your cousins. My father had them as customers, not me. I’ve never been on their properties, but recently Eli Perez called me. He’s a shifter my father worked for. Elijah Lospostos is also a shifter my father worked for and I have an appointment with him later in the month. And Cain Dufort. Those are all the local customers that I have at the moment who are shifters.”

His gut tensed. His leopard leapt for the surface, raking and clawing for supremacy. He wanted to do a little clawing of his own but he kept his hands very relaxed as he continued pressing the knots out of her foot. Very gently he put that foot down and picked up the other. That gave him time to breathe away the worst of his rage—the raw edges of it where it was crimson and brutal and desperate for blood.

“Dufort’s business? His club?”

“Both. His private residence and his club. I also work at Bannaconni’s office buildings and his private residence as well. Bannaconni owns several buildings, as do you and your cousins. My company recently signed a contract to work up designs for them too.”

“Is it possible that Franco has infiltrated your company? You have to employ quite a lot of people to cover that many projects as well as non-shifters.”

He had to find an easy way to circle back to Cain. He wanted to know if she worked alone at his residence. He knew she worked alone at the club. Cain would never stand for others to be there. He would know she was a shifter. She would have to sign a nondisclosure and if he could, Cain would try to get her in a compromising position in order to ensure she would never blackmail one of his customers. Cain took his word to his clients very seriously.

She sighed. “Anything is possible, Sevastyan. You know that. Most of my employees, at this point, are people I trust. They are those I’ve helped, provided an education, a place to live, and will eventually help to set them up in business with the hope that they will help others, shifters or non-shifters. The point being to help whatever community they land in. My father made it very clear that if they wanted to return to their original countries after they received an education and could take back something to their lair that would aid their people, all to the good. He wanted to save lairs, not tear them apart. Ours was too far gone to save.”

“Strawberry leopards, who knew?” He let himself look at the messy knot on her head. Like her red-gold-tipped lashes, it made her look vulnerable and very sexy.

She sent him a smile. “I really am sorry about the appointment tomorrow, Sevastyan. I would cancel it if I could. This particular supplier is very important to my business and I need him. I had to special order plants that Cain wanted for his club, the garden of paradise. He really likes that garden and constantly wants to add to it. It’s proved very profitable for the business and I’d hate to lose him as a client.”