Total pages in book: 172
Estimated words: 155984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
He made his way down the wide hall to Flambé’s room, hoping she had been exhausted enough to actually fall asleep. He didn’t like the idea of her being afraid. He didn’t mind a little fear—but only for the right reasons. Tonight, he wouldn’t be there to comfort her. He could tell the room was too big for her. She had looked around her, liking the beauty of the master bedroom because she was an artist and could see the natural artistry of the space, but for her, it didn’t work. He wasn’t certain why, but those answers would come over time.
The door was open, she hadn’t closed it, which told him she wasn’t afraid of being with him, and that pleased him. He wasn’t certain why she was able to trust him so quickly, but he was grateful that she was. She would need to. He didn’t think Franco Matherson was going to give up so easily, not with what Drake and Jake had to say about him. Sevastyan couldn’t just go kill the bastard and be done with it, not without a certain risk. He didn’t want to bring that risk to Mitya’s door. Or Flambé’s for that matter. Franco had brothers. In Sevastyan’s world, that meant those brothers would come looking for him.
He stalked silently into the room, seeing immediately that Flambé wasn’t in the large bed. He used his leopard senses to find her, inhaling sharply. She had a sutble fragrance, one he found particularly pleasing. The combination was of hints of freesia, Moroccan rose and Egyptian jasmine spiced with coriander, cinnamon, cloves and buchu. The fragrance was so subtle it was barely there, but it was particular to Flambé, not a perfume, but natural to her skin. He smelled it in the silk of her hair and he knew when he tasted her, the flavor of the cinnamon and cloves would be there forever on his tongue. Just the thought brought an ache to his cock.
He found her just inside the open door of the closet. That made him want to smile. He didn’t. Had she been awake, he might have reprimanded her. In a fire, he would have needed to know where she was. For now, looking down at her face as she lay curled up like a sleepy little kitten, barely making a shadow beneath the blankets she had covering her, his heart turned over. She was getting to him in a big way.
The dim light that recessed into the eaves of the ceiling when the door was open shone down, providing just enough of a glow to spotlight her. Flambé had taken a shower and her hair was still damp. She had braided the thick mass, so the braid was a dark red, a splash of color against the black pillowcase. In her sleep, and without makeup, she looked younger than she did awake. Her eyebrows were red-gold just the way her lashes were.
She was a true redhead, with a smattering of freckles on her face and across her arms. She was obviously careful to cover her skin when she worked in the sun, although he thought that being leopard should provide some protection from the bombardment from the sun’s rays. Her hands were small, her wrists narrow. He would have to take that into consideration. He wanted to touch her skin, feel her to see if she felt as soft as she looked, but he had other things to do this night, like make certain she was safe— and send a very strong message to Franco Matherson.
It would do Matherson good to look him up. To see what kind of family he came from. A man like Franco would immediately want to run to Sevastyan’s father, try to get the bratya to do his dirty work for him, because in spite of the man’s arrogance, he would be afraid. Once he learned who he was really dealing with, what kind of shifter Sevastyan was and what kind of leopard he possessed, Matherson wouldn’t want to come at him fairly.
In the meantime, Sevastyan would be taking out his pawns one by one.
4
FLAMBÉ lay looking up at the ceiling, her heart pounding. She was in the same house with Sevastyan Amurov. What had her female leopard done? She had wanted this, but not permanently. She’d been so out of it. So scared. The attack. The blow to the head. Flamme rising, taking control.
It wasn’t like she could blame her leopard. She’d been fantasizing over Sevastyan Amurov for months. Who knew his leopard would be the biggest, baddest brute on the planet, ready to fight for a mate? Of course Flamme would try to find someone to protect them. It wasn’t her fault.
On top of everything else, Flambé had been sexually aroused for the last couple of weeks before Flamme’s sudden appearance. Her skin had been crawling with need. She should have picked someone up and taken the edge off, but she’d been trying to find a way to meet Sevastyan. She’d had her sights set on him.