around her, and they lay together in contented silence for long minutes.
When Felix began to play with her braided hair, his fingers brushing her nape now and then, she couldn’t restrain her purr. He halted . . . but only for a second. Boneless after several minutes of the lazy petting, she luxuriated in the rumble of his chest when he spoke to ask, “Who does these braids?”
“I do.” It took some calisthenics, but she was pretty good at it now.
“I’ve never seen your hair out of them.”
She ran her hand down his side. “It’s much neater and easier to handle like this while I’m working.” Her hair was all exuberant waves otherwise.
“Would you . . .” A pause, his chest rising. “Would you wear it unbraided for me one day?”
A thousand butterflies fluttered in her stomach. “Anytime you ask.”
When wolf song rose on the air minutes later, she almost felt Felix’s wolf prick its ears in interest, but he didn’t join in. “They’ll figure out where we are,” he said to her when she asked why. “Nosey parkers.”
Laughing, Desiree rose up on her elbow to look down at him. His gaze connected with hers for a powerful instant, skated away long before she’d had a chance to drink in his gorgeous eyes. Patience, she counseled herself not for the first time. In being with her, she was asking Felix to go against his most deeply rooted instincts. If her leopard was confused by what was happening between them, so was his wolf.
“So wolves are the same as cats in that respect at least,” she said lightly. “Pack gossip runs fast and hot.”
He spread his hand on her lower back, a delicious, heavy weight. “I lived in private apartments and hotel rooms while I was working as a model,” he told her. “No Drew poking his head in to tease me, no Madison knocking to ask if I wanted to treat her to takeout, no one hassling me about my life or bending my ear about their own life.” A deep breath, his next words quiet and potent with emotion. “I hated it.”
Desiree stroked her fingers through his mink-dark hair, the strands cool, heavy silk. “Why did you travel so far? Everything I know about you says you’re a man who prefers home and family.”
He folded one arm behind his head. “You might have noticed I’m a little shy.” Color on his cheekbones.
Desiree couldn’t help it. She reached down and kissed each blade-sharp cheekbone in turn. His lips tugged up at the corners. “I used to be much worse,” he told her. “It frustrated me until I couldn’t breathe sometimes. I’m happy being submissive—I have no desire to become a dominant—but I hated being so shy. It was crippling.”
“So you decided to take up one of the most aggressive and brutal jobs in the world as far as self-esteem is concerned?”
He shrugged at her dry comment. “I had to figure out some way to make myself get over the shyness or I knew I was going to end up imprisoned in the den.” Shaking his head, he said, “It would’ve made me resent the place and the people I loved and I couldn’t bear that.”
His decision displayed a deep internal strength that had her leopard paying careful attention; this man, the animal realized, was far more complex than simply being a sweet, smart playmate. “How long were you away from the den?”
He didn’t immediately answer, his gaze connecting with hers again for a fleeting instant. “Your eyes have gone leopard.”
“My cat likes you, wolf.”
Hand flexing against her lower back, he made eye contact again, holding it for long, beautiful seconds this time.
“I was gone five years,” he said after breaking the intimacy of the connection. “Even though I couldn’t return home often, I stayed tightly connected with my family and the pack. After that, I spent two years apprenticed to a horticultural expert in another state—but that was close enough that I could visit the den regularly.”
Desiree petted his hair again, loving the feel of it, loving even more how his eyes closed in unspoken trust and his breathing evened out. “Do you ever miss it? That jet-setting life?”
“No.” Simple. Absolute. No room for doubt. “What about you? Do you like to travel?”
She wanted to kiss each one of his lashes where they lay in a dark fan against his skin. Man, she was so sunk. “I roamed for a couple of years when I was younger,” she said, her