my bad luck that you recognized what she was and claimed her before I ever got a chance. I need to find a mate for mine before it’s too late or he’s going to rip me or someone else apart.” The smile faded. He turned and walked toward the door. “You need something, let me know. There aren’t too many of us to count on.”
“I was shocked that my leopard was so fiercely certain hers was his mate. He wanted her and he immediately was protective of her. There was zero hesitation on his part. Don’t stay in your office all the time, or your club. You might want to talk to Flambé once her leopard’s emerged and she’s through the heat cycle. It’s possible she could introduce you to a few shifter women. But, Cain”—his voice went from friendly to cautionary—“don’t claim one unless you’re certain you’re going to treat her right, with respect. It isn’t fair to take one and then toss her aside and continue your lifestyle. Incorporating her into it is one thing, but leaving her behind is another altogether.”
Cain nodded. “I’ll talk to Flambé when you give me the go-ahead.”
Sevastyan saw him out, closed the door and watched him until the car had pulled down the driveway and he was certain the club owner had driven off the property. He stood for a time at the bottom of the stairs, feeling like he was starting all over again with Flambé. She had trust issues, big ones, and he hadn’t even scratched the surface with what the problems between them were. Now this happened.
Sighing, he went up to her. It felt like a hell of a long way up those stairs. Their bedroom was empty. He looked around. It was perfectly neat, not so much as a wrinkle in the perfectly made bed. Flambé didn’t throw tantrums. She didn’t yell. She didn’t fight. She retreated. She withdrew. She took herself far, far away. He could tell himself he had her, but he knew he didn’t.
He padded silently across the room, stalking her like the predator he was. He was leopard. A shifter. A very dominant alpha. She was a shifter and they lived by shifter law. No one broke those laws. She knew that. He crossed to the slider and stood for a moment regarding his elusive strawberry leopard.
Flambé sat outside on the balcony watching birds hopping from one branch to another in the trees, busy calling to one another as they flitted about. She didn’t look up or acknowledge him. She wasn’t drinking the fresh coffee he’d brewed. She had the same cold bottle of water. She preferred water to most drinks.
“I owe you an explanation.” Sevastyan pulled his chair around to sit facing her rather than beside her. He wanted to see her expression. Her eyes. Right now, she refused to look at him, even when he was right in front of her, larger than life. The night before, she had cried. He’d seen the evidence of her tears on her face, but she hadn’t talked to him. Hadn’t let him in. Now, she was more closed off than ever.
“I told you, I don’t need an explanation.”
There was no expression whatsoever in her voice.
He tried not to glance at his watch. He had to get to Mitya’s house soon. Time was getting away from them. He knew if he even mentioned his cousin’s home or his work, he wouldn’t have a chance to make things right with Flambé. “You’re going to get one. There was a reason I went to the club.”
She sighed. “Of course there was a reason you went to the club, Sevastyan. The first time I ever saw you it was at the club. I know what you do there. I knew you went there. I’m leopard, or did you forget that? I smelled it on you. All those men and women. The sex. It isn’t that difficult. I waited for you to give me an explanation and you didn’t. If you were going to, you would have at the time. Not now. Not when you humiliated me in front of your cousin and men by pointing out to me that I’m exactly what he said I was, a sex object to you and nothing more. Your toy, I believe I was called. I didn’t expect you to be going to the club already, but I knew, sooner or later, you’d go back to it.”