Catarina felt perspiration gathering over her body. There wasn’t a cell in her that wasn’t on fire, wasn’t in need. She could barely breathe, even her lungs burning. Eli surrounded her, was in her. He’d opened up some secret part of her she’d kept hidden from the world, a primitive, wild uninhibited woman who reveled in everything he did to her. Who needed more. Wanted more. Wanted him. Like this. Wild and out of control to match the wild and out of control she was.

She didn’t have a clue where he began and she left off. They seemed to be one person instead of two. She felt his pleasure as surely as she felt her own. It burned through her like a firestorm, rushing through her veins, dragging over her nerve endings until her mind burned with such need she thought she might die of pleasure. She felt him with her, moving in her, but more, moving in her mind, as if he’d somehow merged them together into one being.

“I love you so much, Eli,” she whispered, knowing it was true. Knowing whatever had happened between them in the past, he was the man for her.

“Oh, God, baby,” he groaned. “You defeat me every damn time.”

His surrender. She heard it in his voice. She felt it in the way his hands stroked and caressed her body. The way his cock swelled inside of her, hot and hard, filling her with… him.

She closed her eyes and gave herself to him, surrendering everything. The tidal wave ripped through her with hurricane force, sweeping both of them over the edge of sanity for just a few moments, throwing them into subspace where she floated, unafraid, in pure bliss, anchored to him – to Eli.

He collapsed over top of her, pressing his lips to the nape of her neck. “You’re going to lead me on such a dance, Kitten.”

“I’m going to love you so much, honey, you won’t care,” she whispered back.

His arms circled her waist, holding her to him. “I already love you so much I don’t care,” he admitted.

She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. “Strip naked and dance on the table? Really?” She laughed softly.

He grinned at her. “It was worth a try.”

“Well. I might consider it for your birthday,” she said. “Let me up. I still need my shower.”

“Make me coffee first. Mine never tastes as good as yours.” Eli didn’t move.

She pushed back against him just to feel more delicious aftershocks. “I’m covered in oil. I think a shower is more important than your coffee.” She was going to make his coffee because she enjoyed making it for him. He was usually grumpy in the mornings until she put that cup in his hands and he took his first sip. Then he looked at her as if she was the most wonderful, perfect woman who’d ever been born. She wasn’t passing that up, not even to shower first.

“Then we’ll just have to stay right here, locked together,” he murmured against her spine. “Because I can’t move without coffee.”

Catarina burst out laughing at his grumpy tone. “You’re such a baby, Eli.”

He heard the capitulation in her voice. “You’re going to make my coffee, aren’t you, Kitten?”

“I shouldn’t. Not after you smacked me on the butt.”

He rubbed her left cheek with gentle strokes. “I didn’t hurt you.”

“If you’d hurt me, Eli, I would have let loose my leopard and you’d be ripped up a bit,” Catarina assured.

“That’s good, Cat, that’s what I want from you. Stand up to me when I get too mean.” He eased out of her and once again bent to kiss the base of her spine.

She wasn’t going to tell him that when he was mean, his cat was involved, and that might not be the very best time to defy him. Male leopards definitely insisted on dominance with their females. She was figuring it out slowly, but she was getting it, just as Emma had assured her she would.

Pulling the edges of the shirt around her, she straightened. Eli’s hands instantly went to her waist, steadying her. She loved that about him. The little things he did, even more than the big things, made her love him more. He always saw to her comfort – especially after they made love.

He tipped her head up and kissed her slowly, gently, his golden eyes almost liquid as they looked into hers. “I do love you, Catarina,” he said softly. “More than my own life. I do love you.”

She leaned into him. His strength surrounded her. Protected her. She realized in that moment, that’s what Eli did. He made certain she was protected, but he allowed her to stand on her own. He wanted her to be as confident in herself and in her ability to survive any situation without him. He’d been working toward that end almost from the moment she met him.

“I love you right back the same way, Eli,” she said softly. “More than my own life.” She’d give up everything to know he was safe. Alive. Healthy.

He dipped his head as if he might kiss her again, but his lips veered to her ear. “Make my coffee, woman.”

She went straight to the coffee machine, laughing as she did so. “Go clean up and I’ll have it ready when you come back.”

She put extra love into his favorite caramel drink. She always teased him, saying the caramel sweetened him. He said it was the extra shots of espresso. Whichever it was didn’t matter, only that smile he gave her when he took his first sip.

Eli returned looking casual in his drawstring pants and light shirt. She knew he wore them, like most shifters, to be able to get out of them fast. His arm swooped around her waist as he took the coffee from her. She watched as he took that first sip and then looked down at her.