His mouth softened but he kept from smiling with a small effort. "I haven't known too many friendly snakes."
"Where did your kitties come from? And how come they aren't trained to meet guests properly?"
"I trained them to run off the neighbors. I hate it when they drop in unannounced."
A lock of midnight black hair fell across his forehead. Without thinking, Rachael brushed it back with her fingertips. "You need someone to look after you." The moment the words were out of her mouth she was mortified. She couldn't seem to censor her tongue with him. Every random thought just popped out, no matter how personal.
"Are you applying for the job?" His voice was harsh again, emotions welling up to choke him. It was happening again, that strange time distortion. He felt her hand in his and looked down. His hand enveloped hers, the pads of his fingers rubbing back and forth over her soft skin and he knew every indentation. The very shape of her bones was familiar. There was even a memory of doing the same thing, of her teasing voice skittering down his spine like a caress.
Rachael closed her eyes, but he thought he saw the glimmer of tears before she turned her head away. "Tell me why those cats stay here all the time. They are wild, aren't they? Clouded leopards?"
Rio looked across the room to see the two cats tumbling around in a mock fight. Each weighed in at fifty pounds, so when they banged against a chair or table, they made a ruckus.
"Are they pets?"
"I don't keep pets," he said gruffly. "I found them. The mother had been killed and skinned. I backtracked her and found them. They were very young, still needing milk."
She turned her head back toward him, lifting her lashes so her gaze nearly devoured his face. The smile lighting up her pale face nearly took his breath away. "You bottle-fed them, didn't you?"
He shrugged, trying not to be affected by the way she was looking at him. There was that dazzling admiration, a look he didn't deserve. No one ever looked at him, saw him, in the same way she did. It was disconcerting, yet gave him a rush. He spent a great deal of time trying not to allow his body to react, or his heart. He dropped her hand as if it burned him, stepping away from the bed quickly.
She laughed at him, a soft inviting sound that felt like fingers playing over his skin. He was beginning to feel desperate. She lay in his bed, her body lush and tempting, her silky hair spilling around her head like a halo. He wished it were just the allure of her body. That would at least make sense to him. He hadn't been with a woman in a long time. Womanly curves, soft flesh, heat and the fragrance of the forest were a heady combination and he could be excused for his body's fierce reaction to her. But it was far more than that. Knowledge of her body. Memories of her laughter. Whispers in the night, a secret world they shared. His mind and heart reacted to her. And damn it, if he were a man who believed in such nonsense, he would think his soul recognized hers.
"Didn't you?" Rachael persisted. "You found some baby kittens and you brought them home and bottle-fed them."
"I don't believe in skinning animals," he said tersely.
She watched the dull red creep up his neck into his face. The man wasn't in the least embarrassed about traipsing around in the nude but he turned red admitting to an act of kindness. She found that blush endearing. "Why are you always running around with no clothes on? Did I stumble into a secret nudist colony? Or do you think I enjoy staring at you in the buff?"
"You do enjoy staring at me." Rio smiled in spite of himself. She was very open about her appreciation of his body.
Rachael answered him with her usual candor. "Well, I'll admit you're beautiful to look at, but it's beginning to make me uncomfortable. Why do you do it?"
His eyebrow shot up. "It makes it so much easier to shift into leopard form and go running in the forest."
She made a face at him. "Ha ha, are you always this funny? I suppose you're never going to let me live that down. I think it's perfectly logical to have nightmares over men turning into vicious leopards after what happened."
"Vicious leopards?" He rummaged through a small wooden closet and came out with a pair of jeans. "Leopards aren't vicious. They might be natural predators, but they aren't vicious."
"Thanks for making that distinction. I had no idea there was a difference. It felt the same when they were chewing my leg off."
"That was my fault. I was focused on the idea of someone waiting to kill me."
"Why would someone want to kill you?"
He laughed softly. "Now don't you think it seems more logical for someone to want to kill a man like me than a woman like you?"
She wanted to look away from him, but she was fascinated by the play of his muscles beneath his skin. Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him step into the jeans and casually pull them up the strong column of his thighs and over his narrow hips. He carelessly buttoned a couple of buttons and left the rest undone as if it were too much of a bother.
She moistened her suddenly dry lips with the tip of her tongue before she could speak. "Rio, this is your home. I'm the intruder. If you're more comfortable without clothes, I can live with it." It touched her that he would cover up for her--and part of her didn't want him clothed. There was something primitive and sensual about the way he padded so silently through the small tree house, barefoot, in the nude.
"I don't mind, Rachael. You're stuck in bed and I know you hurt like hell. I appreciate that you don't complain." He let a heartbeat slip by. Two. "Much."
"Much!" She glared at him. "I haven't said one word about shooting your precious little kittens when I get off this bed. But I'm considering it. You spoil them rotten, by the way, and it shreds your image of a tough guy all to pieces."
The cats, in the midst of the rough-and-tumble game, slammed into the edge of the bed and all of Rachael's hard-earned bravado disappeared completely. She gasped with alarm and lunged sideways away from them. Rio, standing beside the small closet, covered the distance between them with one leap, pinning her down, his green eyes suddenly a blazing yellow-gold. His face was inches from hers. Rachael stared up at him, clutching the blanket to her bare breasts, looking frightened, trying to look brave, tempting him almost beyond his endurance.
He gathered her into his arms, careful to keep her leg from moving. "You have to keep it in your mind at all times that you cannot move. I've just about run out of antibiotics and that leg can't open up again. Give it a couple more days."
Rachael was all too aware of his naked chest pressed against her breasts, of his hands sliding up and down her back in a soothing motion. Most of all she was aware of the distance he had covered in a single leap. An impossible distance. She tilted her head to look up at him, really examine his features. He had scars, yes. His nose had been broken more than once, but she found him the most compelling man she'd ever met. His eyes were different. More like a cat's.
"You're doing it again." He lifted his chin, breaking eye contact, to rub his jaw along the top of her head. "I can see the fear on your face. Rachael, if I were going to harm you, wouldn't I have done it already?" There was exasperation in his voice.
Rachael winced at his logic. "The cats make me nervous, that's all."
His fingers went to the nape of her neck in a slow massage. "After what you went through, I don't blame you, but they won't attack you. Let me introduce them to you. That would help."
"Before you do, would you mind finding me a shirt to put on? I think I'd feel less vulnerable." And it might keep her body from reacting to his, her breasts aching with longing for his touch. Her leg was a mess, painful and swollen, fever raging, but she still seemed unable to prevent her strange attraction to him. "If your rabid pets decide to have me for dinner the least they can do is work for it by chewing through clothes." His muscles felt like steel rippling beneath very human skin. "How did you do that? How did you get across the room in one leap?" If she were losing her mind, it was better to find out immediately. "I didn't imagine it and it isn't the fever."
"No, your feve
r's down a bit," he conceded as he helped her ease into a fully prone position. "I live in the forest and have most of my life. I run up and down the branches and jump from one to the other all the time. I climb trees and swim rivers. It's a way of life."
She let her breath out slowly, grateful for the explanation, not wanting to examine the distance too closely. Maybe it could be done. With practice. Lots of practice. She watched him turn away from her to walk across the room back to the closet and she carefully avoided counting each step he took. He padded on bare feet, silent, not making a sound. Rachael watched him stretch, a slow, languid, sinuous catlike stretch. He stretched his hands, fingers spread wide, over his head and ran his hands down the wall. He arched his back to deepen the stretch. His fingertips traced the deep claw marks, something he'd obviously done so many times the crevices were smooth. It was a natural, uninhibited movement.