a lair in a brutal and savage way and trained me to be that way. Mitya’s father and Fyodor’s father were the same. Gorya’s father tried to get out and they killed him—his own brothers and sons. They would have killed Gorya—an infant—but Fyodor’s father had plans for him. I come from a very long line of evil leopards, Flambé, all of whom were bratya. That is the Russian equivalent to the mob. Perhaps the interpretation is lost in the way I speak and I sound as if I am speaking an untruth.”
Flambé searched his eyes. “Perhaps.” There was pure skepticism in her voice.
He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. “Out of curiosity, do you have any of your mother’s skills when it comes to cooking?”
“I hear pleading in your voice. Are you telling me you can’t cook?”
“It depends. I might be able to cook when it matters to me. That’s not when I’m hungry, only when it matters. I have no problem sharing the kitchen duties, in fact I like that idea, but it would be nice if you’re good at it.”
She put her hands on her hips. “I’m okay being the modern, hear-me-roar, I-can-do-it-all kind of woman, but what exactly are you bringing to the table?” Her gaze swept him up and down. “Aside from the obvious really good looks. Okay, brutally good looks. Aside from that, what are you bringing to the table?”
He stepped close to her, letting her feel his raw heat. The hot blood pounding through his veins. He dropped his voice to that velvet whisper of sheer command. “Sex, Flambé, the way no one else can or ever will give it to you. You’ll scream with pleasure, you’ll beg me for my cock. You’ll do anything I ask of you, just to feel that pleasure, knowing I’ll take you there over and over.”
He dropped a kiss on top of her head and put her hand in the crook of his arm when she continued to stare up at him looking shocked. “We’re going out the back way. Matherson has men watching the house. We’ll take the car in the underground garage. They don’t know about that one yet. There’s a tunnel that goes straight to Mitya’s property and comes out on the other side of his drive. I’ve texted him we’re using it and to alert his security people so they don’t decide to treat us like we’re the enemy.”
“You have a secret underground garage?”
“We do. Technically, since we’re going to be together and Shturm claimed Flamme, it’s our tunnel. I didn’t think of it first. The Dovers owned the property before me. They were all about cars and they had the underground tunnel put in. Ania, Mitya’s wife, didn’t even know about it until after her father died. We discovered it when we were clearing out the garage of all the cars the Dovers owned. We had to reinforce the tunnel with steel in a few places, but it’s a nice escape route for us and for them. Dover had a few surprises for us.”
She looked around. “I love the house.”
“The best is upstairs. The entire floor is dedicated to a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom. That floor has a wraparound balcony. It wasn’t the master bedroom. That’s downstairs, but I prefer the upstairs room. I had that one remodeled before anything else. I’ll show it to you sometime.” Sooner than later, he was certain, going by her leopard’s antics. In the meantime, he was going to do whatever he could to earn her trust.
3
WHAT do you know about the Matherson family?” Mitya Amurov asked Jake Bannaconni. He sat back and regarded the billionaire across the wide expanse of the cherrywood desk. “The bastard Franco Matherson went to Sevastyan’s home and threatened my cousin after running Flambé Carver off the road, assaulting her by punching her in the face and then trying to force his leopard’s claim on her. She got away and ran to Sevastyan’s home. Who is this man that he dared do these things and think he is safe from the police?”
Mitya Amurov was a big man with flat, cold eyes that right now spoke volumes. He sat at the table with Jake Bannaconni, Fyodor Amurov and Drake Donovan. Standing in the shadows were Gorya, Timur Amurov and Sevastyan Amurov, all cousins, and another bodyguard by the name of Logan Shields.
“Franco Matherson is safe from the police,” Jake said. “The evidence against him would simply disappear. That’s