have chemistry.” She was determined to be as honest with him as possible because he was laying himself on the line for her. “That’s true. Much more chemistry than I knew there could be between a couple, but we’re not compatible in other ways. You’re . . . you. Don’t deny what you’re like and say you’ll be reasonable. You won’t be.”
His smile took her breath. It was slow coming, but when it did, it crept into the blue-green of his eyes and softened his harsh, rugged features. “I would never deny what I’m like, but I have to challenge your idea that I’d be unreasonable. Perhaps you would be the unreasonable one and I the voice of reason.”
She stared at him a moment, a little awed by his transformation, and then his comment penetrated and she found herself laughing. “Naturally, you’d think you were the reasonable one.”
“Have dinner with me, Ania.”
She hesitated and then shook her head. “I’ll come back to the bakery and see you here. It’s safer.”
He shook his head. “I know bullshit when I hear it. And lies when I hear them. You have no intention of coming back here.”
She didn’t. Self-preservation was winning out. At least for now. She feared Mitya was probably already an addiction and she wouldn’t be able to stay away.
“Have dinner with me, Ania. If you are afraid of being alone with me, I will ask Timur and Ashe to come along.”
That made her sound like a coward, and she wasn’t one. She sighed. “My father isn’t in the best of health. I don’t like leaving him alone for too long. I’m overseeing the business at the moment, just until it’s sold, but it keeps me away from him. If I go out to dinner—”
“I’ll bring dinner to you.” He was firm.
She was equally as firm. “That’s not necessary. Seriously, Mitya, I’ll give you my phone number. We can arrange things after I know how my father’s doing.”
He nodded, and she programmed her phone number into the phone he gave her. She knew he watched her as she left, because she could feel his eyes on her every step of the way. She wanted to run, feeling just a little bit like prey.
3
“EVERYTHING is still quiet, Mitya,” Sevastyan reported. “No signs of any Russians trying to come in legally or illegally for the moment. I’ve got people watching in every place they might slip through.”
“Lazar will send his spies first,” Mitya said, leaning back in his chair. He sat in front of the fireplace, in his favorite chair. It was big enough to accommodate his size. Solid. He was all roped muscle, a true leopard shifter, larger than most but so well-proportioned that at first one didn’t notice how extremely strong he appeared.
Sevastyan nodded. “I have no doubt. There’s no way he would come himself unless he was certain you are weak.”
Mitya looked up at his cousin, at the expression on his face. “Meaning?”
“The woman. Ania Dover. If you persist in your pursuit of her, Lazar will have found your weakness.”
Mitya switched his gaze to the flames dancing in the fireplace as he pressed a glass to his forehead. Sevastyan was right. He usually was. Mitya’s father, Lazar, would never forgive his desertion. He would be forever branded a traitor, and in their world, that was a death sentence. To have his own son desert, the one he’d trained to take over the lair, was the worst crime Mitya could have committed. Lazar was a cruel, vindictive man, and he would never stop until he punished, destroyed and then killed his son in retaliation.
“I’m well aware of this, Sevastyan. I struggled with my decision, but I cannot hold my leopard in check for much longer. I need Ania close to me. I’ve considered keeping our relationship private, but in the world of leopards, private doesn’t work. She has to be leopard or Dymka would never react the way he does. She is most likely getting close to the Han Vol Dan. Her leopard will rise, and Dymka will not tolerate any other male near her.”
A woman rarely knew of her leopard’s existence until she entered the Han Vol Dan, a time when her cycle matched that of her leopard. That allowed the leopard to rise to the surface and claim their shared form. Dymka, his male, was already enamored with Ania’s leopard and she hadn’t even shown herself.
Sevastyan sighed, pushed his fingers through his hair and dropped into the chair opposite