You don’t have to see them.” Their relationship was fragile. He didn’t want to take a chance on anything interfering between them.
He narrowed his eyes, looking more closely at her body as she stood. There were faint bruises on her hips and inner thighs. He’d been rough with her. He’d tried to be careful. He stepped closer to her and bent his mouth to brush a kiss over her lips. Was there a shadow along the corner of her mouth? He swept his thumb over it gently.
“You don’t have to send them away, Sevastyan. I’ll go take a shower and be right down. It just takes me a minute to wake up, that’s all,” she protested, frowning at him. “You’ve still got that look on your face.” She reached up and rubbed at his mouth. “What’s wrong?”
“Was I too rough with you? It’s impossible to be gentle, Flambé.” He tried to stay in control, but the leopards were rising, she was so out of control, the sex was so good, everything came together in such a perfect storm. Yet he worried about the rare condition she had and if they could get her leopard out before her nerves began to flare too badly. She had to have rough or touching caused tremendous pain.
Flambé wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face against his chest, shocking him. She rarely gave him any kind of sign of affection. “You’re never too rough with me, Sevastyan. You give me exactly what I need and want. You take unbelievably great care of me.” She tipped her face up to his. “I’ll be very fast at getting ready, I promise.”
To cover the way his heart accelerated, he brought his palm up to cup the back of her scalp but shook his head. “I want you to follow the routine Doc laid out.” When she made a face at him, he gave her a stern look. “To the letter. It’s working so far. We’ve got a few more days of your female’s heat and we don’t want to take the chance of anything going wrong. It isn’t going to hurt them to wait and they’ll understand. I’ll make coffee for them, water and food for us and we’ll wait on the front porch for you.” He made it an order even though he tried not to. “As it is, you’ll have to wear clothes and your skin will be sensitive. So, make sure you do everything exactly as the doc laid it out.”
“I knew you were going to be bossy.” She let go of him, gave him a snippy look and headed for the master bath.
Sevastyan made his way downstairs, put on the coffee and met with Mitya and Ania on the front verandah. The property had been in Ania’s family prior to him buying it from her. He’d made quite a few extensive renovations to it and he was a little anxious, afraid she’d be upset. It had been her childhood home and he knew she loved it. Not only had he renovated the house and garages, but a good part of the two hundred acres had been planted in grapes. The Dovers didn’t make wine, but they sold the grapes to a winery. He had reduced the vineyard by half, wanting to replace it with trees.
Ania immediately hugged him, her face lighting up the moment she saw him. If she was upset or uncomfortable with the changes he’d made, she certainly was adept at covering up, and he knew her better than that so he assumed she was fine with them.
“Where’s Flambé?” Ania asked, sounding disappointed. “Isn’t she going to join us?” She reached out a hand to her husband.
Mitya took it and looked at Sevastyan, but there was no condemnation on his face.
“The leopards didn’t come back until late morning. She was still asleep so she’s showering. She said to tell you she’d be right down.” He debated for a moment before telling them. “Remember I told you she has a rare condition that makes it difficult for her to be touched without feeling acute pain? We had no idea that the heat was going to increase the problem to the point she almost didn’t make it. In fact, apparently most shifters with this kind of disease commit suicide.”
“Sevastyan.” Ania gasped and put a defensive hand to her throat, backing up until she was against Mitya. He sank into a chair and pulled her close to him, circling her waist with