Burning Wild (Leopard People 2)

Drake's eyebrow shot up and he flicked a quick glance at Joshua and then Jake.

Jake shrugged. "Just a minute ago she was being really sweet, Drake. I didn't do anything."

"If the doctor has okayed you leaving . . ."

"I swear, Drake, if one more person says that to me," Emma snapped, "I'm going to hit him over the head. I don't care what the stupid doctor says. I'm not staying in this room another minute. No one else is going to take care of my children. And everyone is going to stop telling me what to do." She was beginning to feel like a child herself, with parents standing over her telling her what she could and couldn't do. "And, Joshua, you can get away from the damned door before I throw something at you."

She could hear her voice swinging out of control, but she felt caged, the three men looming over her, intimidating her.

"Baby," Jake spoke quietly, "I'm your target, not him."

That made her ashamed. A reprimanded child throwing a tantrum. She just wanted . . . out. Away. Gone.

"Emma." Drake's voice was utterly low, but held that same commanding note Jake often got when he meant what he said. "You're engaged to Jake. That makes you a target. You don't have to like it, no one likes it, but it is reality. Jake doesn't leave the house without a bodyguard, and you can't either. If you want to go shopping, we'll go, but we have to make certain it's safe. I never want you to feel as if you're a prisoner here."

"I'm used to you going with me, Drake, and I've never objected. I know you have to be there if we're taking the children, but I thought Susan and I would go out together. If you want to come, I certainly haven't objected."

He shook his head. "Not Susan. It's too risky. She's a kid, unpredictable, and she's a senator's daughter. If Jake's enemies make a try for you, she'll be in the line of fire, and you wouldn't want that."

"This is silly." She pushed both hands through her hair. "No one knows. Nothing's changed. I just want to get out of here." She wanted to cry. She felt like she could barely breathe, and now, if she insisted, she'd feel childish putting everyone to the trouble of protecting her. The whole thing was ridiculous. "I'll take off the ring."

"You'll keep the fucking ring on your finger, Emma," Jake snapped, his eyes glittering at her. He straightened, the lazy facade gone. "You can keep your ass home."

"Then I'm not going to the party," Emma said, pushing herself out of the chair.

Before Jake could say anything, Drake intervened, sending a warning glance to his friend. "Emma, I have no problem taking you shopping. Jake, I can handle it from here."

It was a dismissal, and one Jake wouldn't have taken from anyone but Drake. He knew the man was trying to help him, to save him from himself. Jake tried not to react to the thought of leaving Emma alone in the room with two male leopards in their prime.

He could feel his cat so close--too close. It leapt and clawed for freedom, raking at the inside of his belly. His hands ached, his fingers curling and knuckles hardening. He wanted her beneath him with every cell in his body. Domination? Or love? He had no idea, only that in her way, Emma was every bit as dangerous as he was.

She thought she knew him, thought she knew his secrets, but if she knew about his cat, hidden from her sight, raking at him to get at her, she wouldn't be so sure of herself--or of Jake--any more than he was. He knew, after her admission of seeing cat tracks near her parents' car, that she would never trust him once she knew the truth. Even if by some miracle she had a cat inside of her, she might wonder if he had something to do with her parents' deaths, if their meeting had been planned from the beginning. She knew he'd manipulated her into living with him. It wasn't that far of a step to take the conspiracy further.

He had tried to warn her, tried to show her the ugliness that was a part of him, and he couldn't help but admit that she might see some of it, but how could he ever show her the rest? Besides trying to live with him, she was going to have to live with the insanity of his world. He had personal protection. It was a way of life, and it would continue to be for her, for their children. He shook his head, knowing he was asking a lot of her. He needed to lose himself in his other form, to just run away from who and what he was.

"I'm heading out, then, I feel like going for a run." He looked Drake in the eye. Man to man. "I'm putting her in your hands." And it was the hardest thing he'd ever done, trusting another man with Emma, with his life, because he knew that was what he was doing.

Drake nodded, understanding. He watched Jake drop a kiss on the top of Emma's head, wondering if Jake knew just how far he'd come from their first meeting.

"Let's just get this over with, Drake," Emma said, looking close to tears. "I'll do whatever you want. Have the shops send the dresses here."

He shook his head. "No, we'll go. You want to go, we'll go. I'm not having you start your life with Jake thinking it's too much trouble for you to leave the ranch. We're just going to go over the rules. I want you to listen to me very carefully, Emma. When we're off the ranch, I'm the one in charge. Always. When I say stop, you stop. When I say move, you move. When I say get down, you don't hesitate, you don't question me, you just do it. If you have any questions, now is the time to ask them. I want you to be comfortable with your security, not afraid of it and certainly not fighting it."

She nodded. "I understand. That doesn't sound too complicated." Her fingers twisted together in her lap, and more than once, she slid her finger over the ring as if it were uncomfortable on her hand.

"You will never, under any circumstances, skip out on me or the team. That's an absolute. We don't want any more risk to you or to the team than necessary."

"Of course, Drake, but why do you keep saying 'team'? We're getting a dress."

"We're going to be high profile, Emma, because the threat to you is very real. Your engagement to Jake was announced in the papers. We'll have a driver staying with the car. I'll walk in front of you, Joshua behind you, and Evan and Sean will be on either side of you. We'll all stay together when we're moving and you will stay in the center at all times on the street. We'll go with the flow of traffic but try not to stop. We don't have a female and Jake should start thinking about getting one."

She stirred, her gaze flicking over him, the sudden thought of a female around Jake all the time irrationally irritating her. "I don't think that's necessary."

"It's necessary if we're out and you need to go to the ladies' room. You won't be too happy when we go with you and clear it. The same with the

dressing room."

B Y the time the doctor had come and gone, giving her permission to resume normal activities, Emma was sorry she had ever decided to go shopping. She was even more edgy and emotional, close to tears at times. She hadn't realized how much she'd come to regard Joshua and Drake as her friends, and now, thanks to the ring on her finger, she was something else to them, someone they would have to guard wherever she went. She sat in the large SUV, a black Cadillac, and twisted the ring back and forth, feeling alone.

This was supposed to be a fun outing, a way to get away from the children and from Jake's overwhelming personality, but instead she felt like a burden, and worse, was very embarrassed that she would have to walk in public with men so obviously guarding her. Ordinarily she was quite happy at home, but all of a sudden, as she feared, things were changing and Jake was taking over more of her life. Sitting alone in the car surrounded--not by friends she laughed and joked and shared her life with, but by bodyguards, men she had to obey--she felt very isolated.

The driver parked in the lot and Drake slipped out of the vehicle first. She watched him scan the area, his gaze touching pedestrians and a van parked in a corner slot with the engine running. He waited for it to pull away and turn out of the lot before he opened her door for her.

"Come on, Emma, let's just do this the first time and you'll see it's not so bad."

Standing in the center of the diamond formation the team made around her, following Drake, with Joshua behind her and the two other men on either side, she walked with them, keeping to their pace, her head down, not looking at those around her. She was aware of the traffic in the street and the people on the sidewalk. This was going to be her life. Worse, it was going to be how her children had to live.

Jake. She sighed, thinking about him, about how his life had to have been so difficult, yet for the past two years she'd never once had to think about it.

"Stop taking your ring off," Joshua hissed from behind her as they waited for Drake to check the first shop on their list.