used extreme exercise to stave off the terrible craving for sexual needs as long as he possibly could before he had Flambé in his life. She ran like a machine, her body flexible, muscles rippling beneath her thin tank and bunching in her thighs.
The rope marks were visible on her legs and arms. Her running top was short, ending just below her bra and exposing the line of rope knots down her back that still showed so beautifully on her skin. They fell into a rhythm easily, moving through the trees and bushes, and even with the fast pace, he found himself liking the way his marks of possession looked on her. He felt primitive toward her. Even predatory, much like his male leopard; primal, not wanting any other male close to her. He’d never experienced any emotion even close to what he was feeling.
Running gave him time to assess his unusual and unhealthy sentiments. He knew part of it was the fact that her leopard hadn’t emerged yet and his leopard was raging, prowling closer and closer to the surface every hour. Shturm was growing impatient just when Sevastyan was certain that he needed patience now more than ever.
“Head back to the house, baby,” he called out. “To the twin garages. I’ve had something I wanted to talk to you about.”
For a minute he wasn’t certain she would respond, but then she chose a path that would loop them back toward their home. He hadn’t been paying close attention to their route until that moment. She had run in the opposite direction of his cousin’s property, staying clear of any chance meeting with any of the shifters who might be working near the property lines. They weren’t that close, but they could have been.
Once out of the trees and into the clearing, Sevastyan lengthened his stride and paced himself beside her. “Are you ashamed for anyone to see my rope marks on you?” That would hurt. He knew it shouldn’t. Most women wouldn’t want others to see that they enjoyed being tied, but somehow he equated her being ashamed of the rope patterns with a rejection of him.
He caught just a brief glimpse of her eyes glittering green and gold, and then she was looking straight ahead again as she ran. “They belong to me and no one else. You gave them to me, like a gift. It felt intimate between us.”
He heard the truth in the husky vibration of her voice. She sounded close to tears and that was the last thing he wanted. Her answer was unexpected and pleasing.
He took his time before responding. “That’s why no one has ever been in our room. After it was renovated, I did all the other work myself so that when I found you, no one else had ever touched the equipment or seen it. It was just for you. For us. That’s the way I want our garden ultimately to be. Visitors can look from the outside, but I don’t want them in it. That will be ours and our leopards’.”
They got back to the house and he retrieved water and towels for them. She splashed water on her face and then drank thirstily, her gaze on the rope marks on her wrists and forearms. “I suppose I have to be careful when I’m going to meet with clients.”
Was there regret in her voice? He nodded solemnly. “I’ll pay attention to your work schedule and be mindful of how I tie you. I don’t have to leave marks that will stay. Most will fade in a few hours. These won’t last.”
Both carrying waters, they walked around the large house, down to the area where Dover had originally built the massive garages where he kept and worked on his cars. Ania’s family had been obsessed with cars and they could take them apart and put them back together, making them ten times better when they did so. The garages were used for making their cars fast enough to outrun anything on the road.
The garages were easily two stories high. The second stories consisted of long wooden lofts made up of very thick beams. The pulley systems the Dovers used to haul engines out of the cars hung from the beams. Crude staircases gave access to the lofts that ran the long length of the buildings. The two garages had been empty since Ania had moved out and sold the property to Sevastyan.