Evangeline curled her fingers around his arm, almost convulsively. "It happened earlier. When you were busy. I tried to get through it alone but it was horrible." She made her confession in a low, frightened voice. This was worse. So much worse than before. Every single cell in her body was on fire. She could barely breathe with the need burning so hot. Her heart pounded and the roar of her blood was like thunder in her ears.
Alonzo brushed kisses over her eyes. Trailed them down her cheek to the corner of her mouth.
She pulled away from him, her eyes going wide with the shock of how much she craved him. She couldn't stop moving, writhing, her hips bucking. "My skin hurts, Fyodor." She began tearing at her shirt, desperation causing her to rip at the material. Her nails were longer, curved and very hard. One tore a strip of skin from her ribs. It hurt, but not nearly as much as the fire building between her legs did.
"Stop." He made it a command. "Evangeline. Let me. Just breathe for me." He dragged the shirt from her and flung it onto the pillow.
A part of her realized what a sacrilege that was for him, but she could barely breathe with wanting him. Her hands dropped to her pants, but he pushed them away and tugged the material from her hips. When he had her naked, she rolled away from him, coming up on her hands and knees, a low keening sound escaping as her body undulated and rocked.
"Let me help you, Evangeline," Alonzo said. "I'm right here. You aren't doing this alone."
This was a million times worse than what happened earlier. Every single cell in Evangeline's body felt raw and inflamed. Her bones ached. Her breasts were on fire. Between her legs that burning need built and built until she thought she might go a little insane.
I'm sorry. I can't control it. It's so much worse than the other times. So strong. Heat. Fire. Burning. I don't know what to do.
Evangeline took a deep breath and let it out. Her leopard was in distress. So much more than she was. When she touched her cat, she found fear. Chaos. Guilt. The guilt was overwhelming. She shook her head and forced herself to think past the terrible roaring in her head. The hunger, the need for sex was so strong, she feared she might go insane, but her leopard needed her to be strong.
Her leopard had always, always been there for her. Twice she'd gone through the Han Vol Dan. Both times her leopard had deemed Evangeline too young and she somehow had managed to hold on and not emerge. She didn't want to force Evangeline to accept a man not worthy of her. She'd suffered. Her leopard had suffered for her.
No, Bebe, this is your time. Something beautiful. We can do this. Alonzo is right here. He's a good man. I know he is. He'll take care of me and then your mate will take care of you. I want you to emerge. I want you to run free. This time is your time. Don't try to hold back.
You're afraid.
Only because the need is so strong. I'm not afraid of Alonzo. I want you to emerge. We'll do this, Bebe.
She soothed her leopard even as her body grew hotter and more demanding.
"Evangeline." There it was. Just her name. Alonzo's voice, soft and compelling.
She had to get past humiliation and embarrassment that she couldn't control herself. This was her man. Her choice. He would always be her choice, and he was a shifter. He understood. She needed him in every way. Not just her body crying out for his, but his guidance and understanding. His caring. She'd put herself in his care. That meant that now, in her scariest hour, she had to trust him. Rely on him. That single whispered sound of her name told her she could.
She raised her eyes to his. He hadn't moved. He was on the pillows, his large body naked, bare to her. All muscle and magnificent cock. Hers. She needed him. Was desperate for him. Her man. The one person in the world she trusted. She needed him, and he had made it clear that he belonged to her.
Keeping her gaze on his, loving the glacier blue of his eyes and the way he looked at her as if he could devour her, she began to crawl toward him on her hands and knees, deliberately seductive. One slow hand and knee at a time, much like a large cat. She felt sexy, beautiful even, because when Alonzo looked at her, there was no other way to feel. Her breasts swayed with every movement, aching, swollen, her nipples hard peaks that burned in the cool night air. Whereas before, the intensity of her body's needs frightened her, now, with her gaze on her man, she felt a temptress, demanding what she needed.
Alonzo, his gaze still captured by hers, dropped his hand to his cock, fisting the thick shaft, almost as if he didn't realize what he was doing. She loved that reaction. Loved that his gaze was filled with a dark passion, with lust, with a burning hunger to match her own. She needed that from him. She needed to know that he wanted her every bit as much as she wanted him, and he told her so without saying a word.
She made her way to him slowly, drawing the moment out, feeling sensual and knowing stretching out the tension just got him hotter. She loved that she could put that look on his face, the sensual lines carved deep so he looked the epitome of sin. He widened his legs, opening his thighs so she could crawl between them. She did, feeling the heat pouring off of him, as his skin brushed along hers.
She'd melted all the ice fast. Keeping her eyes on his, she lowered her body by just bending her elbows. Her breasts swayed against his thighs as she opened her mouth and deliberately lapped at the broad head of his cock. Velvet soft. Scorching hot. His taste addictive. His fist was still wrapped around the base of his shaft and she took advantage of that, engulfing him in the heat of her mouth.
The moment she took him deep, her body shuddered with pleasure. Her sheath clenched and spasmed, went slick with need. He was all man and she loved that about him. He tasted like man, like hers. She took her time, absorbing the way her body caught flame just from what she was doing. She loved pleasuring him to the point where he nearly lost control. She loved the way his hips bucked, pushing him deeper into her mouth, yet his fist was there to make certain she felt safe. His other fist wrapped in her hair, guiding her as she took him deep and suckled strongly.
Each lash of her tongue, each strong pull of her mouth, sent shudders through him. She reveled in her ability to do that to such a strong man. She loved hearing his breath turn ragged. Labored. His eyes glittered at her, lids lowering to half-mast, so that he looked sexy beyond words.
Fire spread through her, another wave of unbearable heat, and she pulled back, gasping at the sheer intensity of the need consuming her. Her hips wouldn't stop moving, so restless, the terrible hunger overcoming her. She backed up, panting, trying to keep from pleading with him to do something. Anything.
He leaned his head down to hers and took possession of her mouth. Kissing her. Hard. Urgent. Demanding her response. She gave it to him willingly. Savoring his taste. Savoring the way he kissed her. Over and over. With lust. With that dark passion, so much of it, she could taste it. Mostly, she savored the taste of love. It was there, something she barely recognized, but it made her feel stronger. More courageous. Beautiful. Wanted.
"Turn around for me, Evangeline," he said softly, his lips a whisper from hers. In that voice. Velvet soft. So smooth. All commanding.
She would do anything for him, and not just because her body was in total meltdown. Because he was her choice. Hers. Fyodor. A man from another country. A man lost without her, because he was. She knew that. She knew she would always be the most important person in his life.
She turned, deliberately taking her time when her body was shouting at her, screaming with need. She wanted him to see her, full breasts flushed and swollen for him. Nipples twin hard points. Her body on full display. His. All for him. She turned until her back was to him. At once he was on her with the speed and strength of a leopard. A shifter. His hand caught the nape of her neck and pushed her head down even as his arm circled her hips and pulled them higher.
"Like that, devochka moya, stay just like that for me."
She heard that note in his voice, the one that said he expected her to do exactly as he said. The one that got her hot but made her want to defy him just to see what he'd do
. Not now. Now she was in desperate need. She bit down on her lip to keep from pleading with him to take her right then because her greedy body refused to wait one more second.
She expected him to plunge into her, but for a moment there was only the cool night air, his hand firmly on her nape and the scent of him in her lungs. She felt exposed, her butt in the air, knowing she was slick, moisture seeping helplessly and her female pheromones declaring she was impatient and eager for his cock.
His fingers danced up the inside of her thigh, brushing streaks of fire over her skin. He pushed at her legs, forcing them wider and then his hand dropped away. Her breath caught in her throat.
"Fyodor."
He leaned into her, caught her left cheek in his mouth, suckled right in the center. He took his time while she squirmed, her hips bucking back against him. "Yes, Evangeline?" His tongue lapped at the strawberry circle. Then his teeth were there, scraping back and forth seductively. He bit down and she gasped, his name a panting cry, and pushed back hard to get him to hurry.
His mouth was gone instantly. She looked at him over her shoulder with narrowed eyes. "Fyodor," she warned.
"Yes, Evangeline?" He gripped her hips in strong hands, stopping all movement on her part, his voice deceptively mild.
"Get on with it now."
"You want my cock buried inside you?"
She snapped her teeth at him. "Yes."
"You just had to say so."
There was a teasing note in his voice that warmed her, that made her heart contract. He made it clear his possession wasn't just about wild leopard sex, it was about the two of them. Fyodor and Evangeline. She loved that. More, she needed it. She was burning up, her body temperature soaring. The burning in her sex was so intense it was actually painful, but with just that little bit of playfulness, he made her feel human. His. That everything was all right and would be.
He surged into her, all heat and fire, a steel sword, spreading lightning through fire. She cried out, pushing back, needing to impale herself on that wonderful weapon. He wasn't gentle. It was rough. Brutal even. But the hands at her hips steadied her, and his voice, so velvet smooth, murmured to her.
"You're so beautiful, Evangeline. So perfect. You feel like heaven. Scorching hot. Tight. So tight, malyutka, like a vise made of the hottest silk."
He kept moving in her and all she could do was try to breathe through the fire consuming her. Her breath came in ragged pants. She wept, but knew it was for joy. Joy for her leopard and for herself. Because she had this man.
"Ya tebya lyublyu."
She knew he'd told her he loved her. He'd done that more than once. She'd never said it back, not a single time, but she knew she did. She hadn't wanted to give that much of herself away, to be so vulnerable to a shifter male. She hadn't been nearly as courageous as she wanted to be. Love was something she hadn't believed in until Alonzo. Until he'd walked into her bakery and taken over her heart.
She tried. "I . . ." A streak of fire burst through her and deep inside she coiled tighter and tighter, the fiery friction taking her higher than she'd ever been. "Love." She got that out. It came out on a sob.
His fingers flexed. He paused, his cock buried deep. So deep. So thick, swelling more, expanding in her until he was pushing at the walls of her sheath, so she could feel his heart beating inside of her.
"You," she managed.
She knew he heard her. That it mattered to him. That her ragged admission was truly from her heart and that it had been difficult for her. He understood her, and it mattered, those three little words.
For a moment he laid his body over hers, so his heart beat deep inside her feminine channel and she could feel that same heartbeat against her back as his lips brushed the nape of her neck and then her shoulder. "No one in my life has ever said that to me. Mean it, Evangeline. Mean it or don't say it."
The terrible fire of the Han Vol Dan was everywhere, in every one of the cells of her body, burning out of control, a raging firestorm, and yet in that moment, there was utter calm, as if the eye of the storm were over them. She felt his every breath. The need in him. The fear to believe. She realized he was far more vulnerable than she could ever be. Holding himself still. Surrounding himself with ice. Inside and out, her man was totally a fortress but for her. To her he made himself completely and utterly vulnerable.
Love for him welled up, every bit as sharp and terrible as the fire of the Han Vol Dan. She turned her head so he could take her mouth. His possession was every bit as savage as a leopard could get, but his kiss was so beautiful it brought tears to her eyes.
"I've never meant anything more," she managed to get out between the ragged, labored breathing made worse by his kisses. "Get. On. With. It."
There was another moment of absolute silence, as if he needed to fully absorb what she'd given him and then he laughed softly and rubbed her left cheek, just where he'd left his mark. Then he was moving again and her world narrowed to feeling. Sensation. The exquisite, terrible fire that burned through her, forced her body to push back hard against his, driving him deeper into her, always wanting more. She needed more.
He pounded into her, a thick, harsh piston that never stopped taking her higher and higher. Her bones ached. Her skin was on fire. Every brush against her sensitive skin hurt, yet deep inside she needed more. It was frightening. It was exhilarating. More, it was the sexiest thing she could imagine.
Still, the more he took her, the more she needed and the tighter that brutal tension inside her coiled until she was sobbing for release.
"I've got you, Evangeline. Now, solnyshko moyo, fly for me. Give me everything."
She did because it was Alonzo. Because it was the only man she loved or would ever love. She did because he told her to and she trusted him implicitly. She came apart for him, her body fragmenting, the ripples like an earthquake, building and building and then roaring through her. She screamed his name, halfway between sobbing and laughing. Happy. Shocked. Coming apart at the seams until she was certain she could never be put back together.
His release triggered another large quake, until she thought she would just die right there. She collapsed, Alonzo over top of her, still holding her hips, still inside her.
The fire hadn't gone away. It burned hotter and brighter than ever. Terrified she couldn't go through it again, she turned her head to the side and looked over her shoulder at the man she knew she could count on. "Fyodor?" She couldn't keep the note of fear out of her voice.
"I know, malyutka, let's catch our breath and then we'll do this. Together."
That made her feel a little better. At least he knew what was going on. She couldn't keep her hips still, and he didn't stop her from bucking against him. That didn't put out the fire, it only built it higher, as if she were burning from the inside out.
"Oh my God." Of course. Bebe, I'm here with you. It's happening right now. My bones ache. My joints. Every part of me is making way for you. It's your time and you're going to love the freedom. You'll love your mate the way I love mine. She poured reassurance into her mind, swamping her cat with her confidence.
So hot. Can't stand it. I have to stretch. I have to rise closer. I don't want to hurt you.
It won't hurt me, silly. This is what we are together. You're supposed to emerge.
Her leopard had protected her for so long, she feared that appalling, ferocious burn would consume Evangeline if she tried to emerge. Evangeline understood now why females didn't show themselves until that moment. The fire was too hot and the fear too great. She reached for her leopard, soothing her in spite of the way her own body hurt and felt as if it would never be sated.
Her man was moving in her again, and she didn't have far to go before she was coming again and again, that wonderful, frightening high that threw her soaring and fragmenting. She needed to fragment. Her skull ached. Her jaw. The hands under her couldn't lay flat, her fingers curling and her joints making terrible popping sounds.
Deep inside she felt Alon
zo's hot release, his seed pouring into her, triggering an even bigger orgasm. This one took her by surprise. She didn't think it was possible to let go again, to have the sensations consume her. She collapsed completely onto the stone walkway. Alonzo immediately pulled out of her and crawled up beside her.
"I'm going to shift, Evangeline. She'll rise faster for him. Don't be afraid of it, just let go. You'll still be there, I promise. The freedom as a leopard is unbelievable."
She nodded, unable to speak, still gasping for breath, still on fire. She wasn't a frightened little girl. She was a strong woman, and she knew about shifters almost from the day she was born. She wanted her leopard to emerge. She wanted that for her. The female deserved every moment of happiness she could have.
Alonzo leaned into her and took her mouth. Gently. Tenderly. So lovingly tears burned behind her eyelids. Then he was gone so fast she hadn't even blinked. In his place was his massive leopard. So beautiful. All roped muscle and long, amazing fur.
The male rubbed his face all over her back and sides. Along her shoulders, down her buttocks to her thighs and then her calves. Everywhere his fur touched, her skin burned, but she could feel her female rising faster and faster toward the male scent marking her.
The tips of her fingers and toes burned. Ached. Became painful. Nails burst through, curved and thick and very scary-looking. Her wrists curved, her mouth felt too small for her teeth.
Now, Bebe. Come to him now. She let go. Joyously. Embracing that moment. Letting her female know she was overjoyed.
Bebe rose fast without hesitation, her small body falling to the ground, legs under her, her fur golden with black rosettes. She lifted her face and scented her male close to her. Too close. She gave him a look that told him to back off. She wasn't ready yet. Not by a long shot.
The male moved against her, his fur sliding along hers, his heavier body warning her to be cautious. She snarled and swiped one paw at him, leapt the wall and bounded away. The male leopard followed at a distance, careful to keep her in sight at all times, scenting the night for other males, watching to see his mate came to no harm.
He allowed her to run free, to experience the wonder of the outside, the freedom of sprinting, of finding every new smell, every pond and rodent, the downed tree trunks, the arboreal highway Antonio Arnotto had planned so many years earlier. The estate was large, and he had built and planted every single acre with leopards in mind. It was perfect.