For the first time, once the animal had taken up location in front of her, he broke his stare with her, turning his head and lifting it toward the air. She knew what he was doing, all those hairs, deeply embedded in tissue surrounded by nerve endings transmitted data to his brain. Like a guidance system, the information giving the exact location of vegetation and other obstacles so the leopard could move silently in the dark. The radar system also allowed him to find and identify enemies or prey quite easily.
Like Eli could. Or she could. She’d always known it wasn’t just about great night vision, that something else allowed her to move so easily in the pitch-black warehouse without ever falling over an obstacle, she just knew where everything was. She knew she could because she’d practiced. She hadn’t known how it worked for her, only that it did, but her warning system was a little spotty at times. It seemed to be growing stronger and she thought it was because she practiced so much, but now she thought maybe it was because her leopard was getting closer to the surface all those times.
It was impossible to be so close to such a large cat, a predator, and not feel the immense power and mystery. Yes, he was definitely a killing machine, the top of the food chain, but he was beautiful, magnificent even. Catarina shifted position carefully, pulling her feet up slowly onto the tailgate. She tried to be silent and stealthy, to not draw the cat’s attention. She wanted it to stay facing away from her so she could take in its amazing beauty without any fear, but the moment she inched one foot up, it swung its head around and the stare of golden fire locked onto her own.
She froze. Her heart stuttered to a halt and her breath once more became trapped in her lungs. They stared into one another’s eyes for a long time. Time enough for her lungs to burn for air. That long. Still, she couldn’t look away, mesmerized by the beauty and focus there.
The leopard shifted his weight and from his sitting position, jumped easily into the back of the pickup truck with her. He landed silently, just to one side of her, but all that muscle was heavy and she felt the truck’s bed settle for a moment.
She would not be a coward and call Eli’s name. It felt too much like surrender and she’d already surrendered her body to the man. She wouldn’t surrender her courage. She stayed very still. It seemed that as curious as she was about the large leopard, he was just as curious about her, extending his head toward her. The head seemed much larger up close than it appeared when the animal had been on the ground.
The leopard shifted position and involuntarily, her body jerked. The animal had to have registered her heart pounding out of control. Still, she wouldn’t give in, wouldn’t call Eli’s name. She felt the brush of the animal’s body against her shoulder as he moved behind her until she lost complete sight of him. She froze again, her entire body nearly seizing with fear. She closed her eyes, waiting for the terrible moment when she would feel his claws raking her back, his teeth puncturing her skin.
The leopard made a soft chuffing sound. It was quiet. Nonthreatening. She didn’t open her eyes. The animal moved against her back, rubbing his fur over the shirt she wore, his chin on top of her head. She was forced to take a breath before she passed out. She could smell him, his wild, exotic, feral scent filling her nostrils.
She wished for her leopard. She prayed for her leopard. “I brought you out here so you could be with him. Go to him. Let me slip away,” she whispered to the cat inside of her. “Save me.”
Eli hadn’t guessed what she was up to. She needed her leopard to emerge right there. Right then. If she could bring her out and keep her out, Catarina Benoit could disappear and she wouldn’t have to face either of the powerful predators who threatened her.
She hadn’t told Eli the entire truth about Rafe. Rafe was an extremely violent man. His temper was fierce, fast and explosive. Not like fiery passionate. He was all ice, even when he exploded. No, he’d never actually struck her or even manhandled her in the way Eli had, but that certainly wasn’t true of any other living soul, man or woman, in their household.
Twice he had punched the wall inches from her face during one of her transgressions. He hadn’t said a word to her. He hadn’t raised his voice. He’d stalked across the room and punched a hole through the wall, all the while staring into her eyes. She had gone for a swim in the pool, which she did every single day, and she’d slipped on the deck as she was diving, just enough to throw her off balance.
The accident was freaky. She’d somehow curled in on herself and knocked her shoulder against the side of the pool, barely missing her head. She had a nasty scrape down the side of shoulder and arm. The moment he was told, which was the instant he returned home, he had stalked toward her, and pow. She could still hear the sound of the blow and see the concentrated venom in his eyes. He’d been enraged at her. Over an accident. That was Rafe. That was her other choice. She couldn’t imagine having a child with him and if he wanted a female leopard, it had to be because he wanted a child, another shifter to inherit his business.
“Come on out,” she whispered to her female. Invited. Pleaded. “Here’s your big chance, girl. He’s right there and he looks pretty handsome. You two can run off together and live life free. Live it large. Just for me.”
Nothing. Here was the hussy’s mate, and she didn’t so much as show one bit of interest, not even with him making the kind of soft chuffing that should have won a girl leopard’s heart.
Catarina sighed and hung her head. Time for another plan. Rafe was out. He just was. She couldn’t have the kind of sex with him she’d had with Eli willingly and then have him treat her the way he would. She would be nothing more than a means to an heir, and he would never again allow her to escape. It would be a life sentence in hell with a man who had an empire bought and paid for with guns, drugs and prostitutes. With murder. He wasn’t a great choice no matter what she’d told Eli.
She huffed out her breath a second time, this time harder than the first. On to the second choice, which, really, really sucked because there were a few good things about Eli. He could kiss. Really kiss. Okay, the man was seriously good at kissing. Hot, off the charts kind of kissing, and the moment he put his mouth to hers, she didn’t have a brain anymore. Everything in her head simply fried.
She looked over her shoulder to stare into the cat’s golden eyes. The cat’s head was inches from her, his eyes focused right on hers. The impact was terrible to take. He was beautiful and deadly. She saw it so clearly. And those eyes were Eli’s eyes. She wasn’t going to pretend to herself that Eli wasn’t every bit as dangerous as Rafe was. He could be just as violent, and he would rule her life. That was a given.
She couldn’t think about the pros and cons of staying with Eli, not with the huge leopard hovering over her. She pointed out to the vast tract of land. “Go run.” Like she could order a leopard around. She couldn’t order the man around. She clearly couldn’t take care of herself, even after all the effort she put into learning how. “Do it or just bite me really hard. It shouldn’t take you long to kill me, so that or go run.”
Eli. Any relationship they had would be all about sex. Not for a baby shifter, but for raw, insane, scorching hot, burn in hell forever sex. She would be totally consumed by him. Totally. His voice alone made her shiver. He knew how to use his hands, his mouth, his tongue and most definitely his cock. He was brilliant with that.
She knew he was rough and a little crude. He had tats she wanted to spend hours poring over and maybe even tracing with her tongue. She’d considered that in the warehouse before he’d ever kissed her. Amazing eyes. His body was hard and powerful and just plain hot – like his sex.
She wanted to hit her head against a wall. Option number two wasn’t looking much better than option number one, because when Rafe chose to end the relationship he’d just kill her. When Eli chose to end it, he would destroy her and leave her alive.
The cat rubbed up against her a little harder, chuffed a little softer and nudged her side as it leapt to the ground.
Option three, death by leopard, was looking slim. The cat wasn’t going to pounce on her and kill her. He stretched languidly, and with one more look over his shoulder, he took off running. The cat was a thing of beauty, the muscles rippling effortlessly beneath the fur, the run silent. The cat definitely looked like freedom personified.
She bit at her lower lip, watching the leopard until it disappeared into foliage. She was alone. The space around her filled up with sound. Birds. Insects. Even a frog, indicating water very close by. Her hands dropped to the buttons of the shirt and slid them back into position.
So that meant she had to come up with option four. She just had to be logical and really think it all the way through. She’d gotten away from Rafe. She’d escaped when everyone would have told her it was impossible. How the DEA had spotted her, she had no idea, but still, she was smart.
People didn’t get that she was intelligent because of her lack of formal education. It hadn’t occurred to anyone that she might be able to learn to read on her own. There were children’s shows on television. Even language shows. And she’d watched every one of them over and over. Children’s educational shows. They’d saved her life.
Once she could read enough, she’d used the Internet to find places for math and science. For history lessons. But always, always, she read. Newspapers, magazines, every book in Rafe’s house. She read dictionaries and the labels of cans. She read the ingredients of everything that came into the house. She didn’t want Rafe to know she could read and she made certain she never made a mistake in front of him.
She knew he tracked her computer, reading everything she did on it, learning everywhere she went, so she used his computer, the one in his sacred office, the one he never once considered she might touch. She’d used his own computer to educate herself and she’d done it right under his nose.
The moment she knew Rafe was a shifter, she tried to find out more about them, but there wasn’t really information anywhere, so she read up on leopards and studied their behavior. Clearly shifters were different. Leopards were loners, they didn’t live in groups as Eli hinted some shifters did. Leopards had multiple mates and the females raised their offspring alone. She had the feeling shifters didn’t do that either, but she didn’t know. It was a possibility and that needed to be addressed at some point if she didn’t get away from Eli.