He brought Ania’s hand up to his mouth and nibbled on the ends of her fingers. “Drake said he knew that Leland Carver and, later, Flambé were bringing in shifters legitimately and helping them with education and, eventually, work and even their own businesses. He said when they investigated him, Carver seemed a good man, and he was doing a good service. He only brought in a few shifters at a time. Later, unfortunately, there were rumors about Carver, that he began to bring mostly women and those women lived with him in the biblical sense.”
Mitya glanced at the door. “I really hate this, Sevastyan.”
“Yeah, so do I. I feel like I’m going behind her back, but I have to know how bad things were and if anyone’s betraying her now. Those three employees seemed to think something wasn’t right about this woman coming in, and Flambé defended her. She’s going to put herself in the line of fire. I have to know how to keep her safe.” He reached back to rub at the knots of tension forming in his neck.
“Drake conducted a quiet investigation of Carver and discovered he was sleeping with the women he brought into the country. You have to remember, Drake was very young and his company was fairly new here in the States as well. Carver’s sex with the shifter women he brought to the States appeared to be consensual, but still, it was unethical. By that time, his wife was already gone, and he was a widower with a little girl.”
“Did he hear about Carver’s marriage?”
Mitya nodded. “Drake heard all the rumors, that Carver hadn’t stopped having sex with other women, even with his wife pregnant and in the same house. That she was miserable. Drake said there was little he could do since the women Carver was with refused to make any complaints against him.”
Sevastyan sighed. That was what Flambé had told him. Carver had kicked his own daughter out of the house in order to have one more room for another woman. She’d been alone. She’d learned to be alone. From the time she was a child she’d learned that shifters were unfaithful. Her father might not have been physically abusive to her, but he was emotionally abusive.
“Damn it, Mitya. I don’t know the first thing about how to be right for her. I can protect her. I can give her great sex. But the things she needs to know about, I don’t know. I never had those things either.” Sevastyan was beginning to sweat. He couldn’t sit still. He leapt up and began to pace restlessly.
Ania stood and leaned into her husband. “Sevastyan. Honey. Listen to me. Loving someone isn’t terrible like you think it is. It isn’t something to be afraid of.”
He let his gaze drift over her, dark and savage, banded with red heat. “It is, Ania. I’m not good with emotions, you know that. Look at how I handle you. And what I feel for Flambé . . .” He stumbled, trying to find words, the pressure in his chest so severe that for a moment he was afraid he might have to go to his knees. “It’s getting worse. The more I’m with her, it’s getting worse. I don’t want to be without her.”
“Women don’t really need grand gestures all the time, Sevastyan,” Ania insisted. “You’re making things too hard. Tell her you don’t want to be without her. Say what you feel.” She burst out laughing. “You should see the expression on your face. I haven’t told you to lie down in front of a steamroller. Just say what’s in your heart once in a while. By that I mean a few times a day. Give her something to hold on to. Then when you’re an ass, which you will be, she’ll be more inclined to overlook it.”
“Is that what you do?” Sevastyan demanded, his focused, leopard’s eyes boring into Mitya.
Mitya nodded. “Keeps me out of trouble.”
“Not entirely,” Ania corrected. “But it goes a long way. Sit down, Sevastyan. You’re going to do all right. Admitting to her how you feel isn’t the worst thing in the world.”
He’d done that. He had told her, and somehow, she had given him so much back. He forced air through his lungs and waited for Ania to sit before taking the chair across from his brother.
“This woman, this Shanty, Drake shares the same concerns as Flambé’s three employees. Not because he found anything on her, but because something