“I have to know.”
He arched an eyebrow at her. “You have no sense of self-preservation. If I were any other kind of man . . .”
“But you’re not,” she pointed out.
The confidence in her voice shook him. He swore and took another cooling drink. She hadn’t removed her hand and damn him to hell, but he didn’t want her to.
He curled his fingers around the nape of her neck and tipped her face up to his as he brought his mouth down on hers. He tried to be gentle, but he didn’t feel gentle, he felt raw and desperate and she tasted like heaven. “Open your mouth.” He growled the demand.
She obeyed, her lips trembling, and his tongue slid against hers, drawing her sweetness deep inside him. The room spun away as he indulged himself. It was all he could do not to devour her. Her mouth seemed to have a direct connection to his every nerve ending. His groin hardened impossibly, an ache he feared would never go away. She melted into him, so that he breathed for her, exchanging something intangible as they devoured one another.
He was the first to pull back, afraid they would burn out of control again. They stared at one another a long time, gazes locked, breath coming in ragged, harsh gasps, with that strange electrical current sizzling between them.
“Does that answer your question?” If it didn’t, Drake wasn’t certain they could ever touch one another again. His mouth on hers was like lighting a stick of dynamite.
She nodded, touching her lips with trembling fingers. “I’ve never liked kissing,” she explained. She pressed her lips together, as if holding on to his kiss. “That was definitely not my normal reaction.”
“Thank God for that,” Drake said, meaning it. The thought of her kissing any other man like that was enough to make him want to commit murder.
“I had to know.” Saria looked a little dazed. She looked up at him expectantly. “So, okay then.”
Her lashes were incredibly long. He leaned close and brushed the corner of her eye with his mouth. “Okay what?”
“Do it. I want you to do whatever you said that leopard did to me. I don’ want him. If I’m goin’ to really turn into a female leopard totally out of control, I want you.” She stared directly into his eyes. “I’m makin’ the choice. I want it to be you, not some other male I don’ want to be with.”
His cock jerked beneath the warmth of her palm. His fingers shackled her wrist and he gently lifted her hand away before he lost all reason. His mouth went dry and his heart pounded too hard, too loud, too fast. “Honey, you don’t know what you’re saying. If I put my mark on you and your leopard accepts me, we’re making a lifetime commitment. I would never let you go. We’d be married, have children and do all those things you’re not so certain you want to do. I’m not a boy to have a crush on. You have to be certain you know what you’re getting into.”
“I’m tryin’ to figure it all out,” Saria said, and took the water bottle from him again. She tipped the contents down her throat. “You told me this is goin’ to happen again, right?”
He leaned over to lick a lingering drop of water from the edge of her lip before he could stop himself. They stared at one another. He felt a little as if he were falling into that dark expanse of chocolate as he barely managed a nod of assent.
“Then I want you. Whatever happens, you’re a man of honor and I can live with that.”
She didn’t know what she was giving to him. She was too young and had no idea of the laws of their people. “Once we consummate our relationship, if a man touches you, one of our people, a leopard, he’s challenging me to fight to the death for you, Saria. Understand this. I am leopard, born and bred in the rain forests and even as a man I have the law of that world imprinted into my bones. I live by that law. I would fight for you with the last breath in my body.”
She swallowed hard, but she didn’t look away. “As I would you.”
“Why? Why tie yourself to someone unknown?”
“Who then? The male that attacked me?”
“There are others.”
“My brothers . . . and that would be eww.”
He shook his head, knowing he was killing his chances, but he felt protective toward her and in any case, once she wore his mark—she was his. It mattered little if their relationship was consummated or not. He could wait until she was ready and felt safe merging her life with his, but he wanted her to come to him knowing her options.
He got to his feet and reached down to help her up. “Fenton leased his lands to seven families. I’m betting all seven families are leopard. There must be available males within those families.”
She was intelligent and quick. She knew exacty which seven families he was referring to. She knew every family in the swamp and she had to have noticed they stuck together.
“Yes, I know all of the available men.”
“They’ll all want a chance to see if your leopard will accept them.”
“I don’ want them.” She stood close to him, looking him straight in the eye. “But I don’ want you to feel as if this is something you have to do. I don’ belong with any of them. I grew up with them. If I was attracted to one of them, wouldn’t I already feel it?”
“You think you could fall in love with a man like me? Male leopards are bossy, arrogant, temperamental and jealous as hell.”