“You heard. You watched.” She made it an accusation. Of course he’d listened to Tuttle interrogating her.

“Cordeau did this because you ran from him, didn’t he? He showed you his leopard.” He ignored her accusation.

She couldn’t stop the shudder that had gone through her body. He wanted to know so she told him the stark truth. What did it matter anyway?

“He stripped right there in front of me, his hard body naked, his eyes glittering. I was terrified that he intended to rape me. There was nothing to stop him.”

Eli swore aloud, biting out ugly words between his teeth, but his hand never once stopped that gentle stroking. Maybe she wanted to shock him. Maybe she just wanted him to know why she despised that entity inside of her. Either way, she told him the truth.

“His body contorted horribly and then he was all teeth and claws and fur, stalking me across the length of my bedroom. I tried to run but the leopard caught me easily, bringing me down like prey. I felt the hot breath against my skin and knew I was dead, that he was going to kill me.”

She turned her head to look up at Eli. “The strange thing was, I didn’t care if he did. I wanted it all to be over. But he didn’t kill me. He hurt me so bad.” She turned her face into the pillow. “So bad,” she whispered.

His hand moved under her tank, over her bare skin, his fingers finding each rake scar as he pushed the tank all the way up and out of his way. He shifted the hair off her back to expose the scars even more. She felt the skim of his mouth against each mark and tears burned again. She wanted to roll over, push him away, but she couldn’t move.

Her body was no longer her own. The touch of his hands and his mouth proved she had no real defense against him.

“What he did was wrong, sweetheart.” He stretched out beside her, his hands continuing to massage her back and shoulders. “All male leopards are affected when a woman goes into the Han Vol Dan, but you don’t take what doesn’t belong to you. He knows the rules. He knew better.”

She kept her eyes closed. His hands felt wonderful and that terrible burning need was subsiding just as he’d said it would. She felt him shift position again, moving almost over the top of her back, and now his mouth trailed kisses over the rake marks again. She should have stopped him, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. She felt tension coiling tight inside of her. She felt the leopard inside of her leaping toward him.

There was the slide of fur against her bare skin. She felt hot breath against the nape of her neck. Still she couldn’t move, not even when the leopard sank his teeth into her shoulder in the holding bite of his kind. Her leopard surged forward toward the male and she felt the larger male’s response.

Her body went up in flames as her female neared the surface in answer to the male’s call. She cried out, writhing beneath him, but he moved one strong thigh over her, pinning her down, holding her until her female accepted his male. More hot tears soaked the pillow. She went from never crying to a flood she couldn’t stop.

The fur was gone, replaced by Eli’s mouth moving over the bite with small kisses and a soothing tongue. He didn’t bother to try to hide the urgent hunger in his body from her.

“What did you do?” she whispered.

“What I had to do. It’s over. There’s no need to hurt you, Catarina. Your female will accept my male. She’s going to emerge whether you like it or not and you’ll need a man, a male shifter to take care of you.”

She rolled then, expecting him to move away from her but he didn’t. He wrapped an arm around her waist and tugged her body into his. She held her head back, glaring at him.

“If I have to choose between you and Rafe, I choose Rafe.” She ignored the fingers digging into her midriff. She ignored the warning in his glittering eyes. “At least he’s honest. I know what I’m getting. You’re all deception, and you don’t care about me any more than he does. Neither choice is ideal but better the devil you know than the one you don’t.”

His golden eyes moved over her face. Brooding. Moody. Scary. She found herself holding her breath.

“Lucky for me you don’t get a choice,” he said. “When your leopard emerges there’s only going to be me to help you.” There was satisfaction in his voice. “Now go to sleep. You’re trying to get under my skin and, Kitten, just a little FYI, you’re already there. Don’t push your luck.”

Something in his tone, in the set of his jaw and his molten eyes stopped her from taking another dig at him, although it was tempting. Instead, she turned away from him and closed her eyes, scooting all the way to the edge of the bed, willing him to leave. He didn’t. He just pulled her close into his body, spooning her. One leg slid over the top of hers, and his head leaned down to press into her hair.

She stiffened, hating the way her blood ran so hot. Hating that she was so aware of him. Hating the fact that she couldn’t fight him, too tired, too battle-scarred already.

“Just go to sleep, Kitten,” he said softly.

In that voice. The one she loved. If she cried again, she was going to hit him. She felt the brush of his mouth in her hair and somehow the tension drained out of her and she let herself drift off.

7

CATARINA woke with her body unbearably hot. Her breasts felt swollen and achy. There was a terrible burning between her legs. It was absolutely impossible to stay still. Her body writhed along the cool sheets. It was impossible to stop, even with the knowledge that she was pressed up against Eli Perez. His body had somehow become wrapped around hers, his knee intimately between her legs and his hand shaping her breast.