Leopard's Run

by Christine Feehan

  “I would, Ashe,” he reiterated. “I would come after you. And if I found another man with you, I can tell you, without hesitation, there would be no holding my leopard back.”

  Her fingers moved through his hair, the nails feeling good on his scalp. For just one moment they were both at peace, their hearts beating the same rhythm. He let himself relax into her. He was always careful to keep himself strong, disciplined and in complete control because his leopard was so dangerous. With Ashe, he had the luxury of completely letting go.

  He’d poured himself into her. Emptied himself. He was able to let go of his past, forget his horrendous childhood for a short period of time. She’d done that for him. She thought it was just sex, but he was far more experienced than she was. Maybe she really didn’t or couldn’t recognize that what they had was different and completely out of the norm.

  “I won’t be a prisoner for you, Timur. I came here with the thought that I could use one criminal against another. I thought you and your brother were powerful, dangerous men who could wreak some sort of revenge for me. All I did was lead trouble to your doorstep. While I’m very sorry about that, I have no intention of selling my soul to make up for it.” Her fingers closed around his hair in a tight fist. “I’m worth more than that.”

  He lifted his head to look down at her face. At the beauty that belonged to him. He planned on making her happy, not keeping her prisoner, but he was a man of few words. He’d always preferred to let his actions speak for him. He framed her face with his hands and kissed her. Kissing melted her. Kissing made her catch fire. Kissing stopped her from thinking about running from him.

  He spent time, savoring every moment, every exchanged breath. The flames. The fire. The storm that kissing her generated in his body. He never moved from between her legs, locked inside her, the sweet haven of her body. The longer he kissed her, the more his body responded. The more hers did. He felt a fresh flood of liquid heat surround his cock. The bite of her muscles, the almost languid way his mind slipped down that road of craving.

  He threaded his fingers through hers and lifted her arms above her head as his hips began a slow grind. This was no fast and hard ri;e, this one was a slow burn that built and built. He didn’t try to hurry it. He wanted slow. He wanted to feel every inch of her and let her feel what he was trying to tell her with his body. He might not get the words she needed to hear out, but he was good at action, good with his body.

  Her fingers tightened around his. She murmured his name. He lifted his head to look into her eyes. That might have been a mistake on his part. She might not be feeling overwhelmed by the way the two of them were coming together, but he certainly was. His heart contracted in his chest at what he saw there. She wanted him. She wanted him to be hers. Triumph burst through him. She might think she wanted to run, but he was her choice.

  Her lashes fanned her cheeks as his body couldn’t stop moving just a little harder and faster. Her breath caught in her throat and then he felt the rise and fall of her chest beneath his. That drew his attention to her breasts. The soft mounds were pressed tightly against him, the small hairs of his chest rubbing over her nipples.

  “Stay with me, Ashe,” he whispered enticingly. “Take a chance on me.”

  She stared into his eyes for a long time, searching for something, but he wasn’t certain what that was. Reassurance? What man could give that kind of reassurance to his woman when they had the role he had?

  “Come away with me,” she countered. “Leave this all behind.”

  He closed his eyes and began to pick up the pace, his body insisting on moving faster and harder. He couldn’t have stopped himself if he wanted to. “Stay with me, baby,” he repeated.

  “You’ll live this way forever. Outside the law. You saw those cops today, Timur. They aren’t going to stop. Evangeline is innocent. They know she hasn’t committed a crime. They know that, but still, they harassed her. They deliberately questioned you in her shop. Had you not stayed away, they would have done so in her busiest hour, on purpose.”

  The sorrow in her voice tugged at his heart. She wanted to stay with him, but she was still planning on going. He knew he couldn’t let her go. His leopard was too cruel, too savage. Just having the small respites he’d been given when he was close to Ashe had been miracles.

  “Ashe,” he began and then broke off.

  He moved his body, using it to tell her he was capable of being gentle. Kind. That he would be the best man possible for her. He’d seen the changes in Fyodor. They were men who appreciated their women. They knew what life without them was like. It was hell for them and hell on their women.

  “I don’t always have to be rough.” He liked rough, but he could live with this—with gentle. He took his time with her, making sure to build her need slowly this time.

  “You’re not too rough.” She pressed a kiss to his throat. “I like the way you do rough.”

  He kissed her throat. Pressed more up her chin. “What can I do to persuade you to stay voluntarily?”

  Another shiver went through her body. He understood. He’d made that implication on purpose. He would have her, one way or the other. If she meant no, he didn’t know what he would do, but he was very well versed in reading people and body language. She wanted him just as desperately as he wanted her. She was just very, very scared.

  He felt his cock swell, pushing at the sensitive tissue, those tight muscles that didn’t want to give way to him, to surrender to him, the way she didn’t want to surrender. Too bad, she didn’t know it was too late. She was his. His leopard had claimed hers. There was nowhere she could go that he wouldn’t find her. And he’d go after her no matter how many times she ran.

  “Catch up, baby,” he whispered.

  “I’m there.”

  Her orgasm was surprisingly strong, when they were going slow and taking it easy, almost lazily. The aftermath, her body clamping down, wringing every last drop from him, was equally as strong. Little mini-earthquakes rocked them both.

  She waited for him to roll off her and for their breathing to get back under control. He stretched out beside her, hands behind his head, legs sprawled wide, one over hers, pinning her down so she couldn’t escape. He stared up at the ceiling.

  “I want a family someday, Timur. I need that. It was always my parents and then me separate from them. I grew up knowing they wished they didn’t have me. They loved me, but they still wanted to be alone. I think they honestly regretted having me.”

  She turned her body toward him and he felt the impact of her eyes.

  “Don’t get me wrong, they loved me. I felt their love every day. They were good to me. It was just that, I never fit into their partnership. It was too strong and too exclusive. I want my own family. A man who loves me the way my father loved my mother, but more, so that love includes the children I want. Not just a single one, I want my firstborn to have siblings. I need that, Timur.”

  “I can give you children, Ashe.” He spoke quietly, directing his statement to the ceiling.

  “I’m sure you can, but what would we be bringing them into? Sooner or later, the cops are going to catch you at something and you’ll be incarcerated, if not dead. They’ll never allow you or your family to live in peace.”

  “You have a point,” he agreed, because she did. She spoke the truth. “It’s too late for me. Fyodor has no choice, and that means neither do I. I have no choice, and that means neither do you. We’re leopard, baby. You. Me. It isn’t just the two of us. We have to consider them. You have to consider them.”

  He felt her entire body tense. He rolled to his side and splayed his fingers across her belly. “My seed’s in you. It’s not even dry yet. You screamed for me. It was my name you called. Your leopard rose to allow my leopard’s claim.”

  “But—” she started her protest.

  He shut it down. “Nothing else matters. The rest, we can work on, we can work things out. Those are irrevocable facts. You’re mine. I’m yours. Exclusively. We ha
ve different rules in our society than humans do. Your parents had to have taught you that.”

  “In a lair . The rules apply to living in a lair.”

  “You know better or you wouldn’t sound so desperate.” He cupped the side of her face, his thumb stroking a caress across her cheek. “No one will ever need you more than I do, Ashe. And no man will ever work harder to make certain you’re happy. I can promise those two things.”

  A small frown slid across her face but when he raised an eyebrow, she just shook her head. He pressed his thumb to her lips. “One of us needs to know how to talk. I’m good with a gun, I think you should take up talking.”

  Her lips curved under the pad of his thumb. They felt soft. Her breath was warm on his skin. It was painful how easily she got to him. He had been around other women longer, never a lover, but other women, and none of them got under his skin the way she had.

  “I’m good with a gun.”

  She made him want to laugh. Somehow the world was a better place just because she was in it. She told the truth, even when it wasn’t easy for her, once she realized Evangeline had no part in their sins. The amusement faded as he thought about his sister-in-law.

  “She’s an angel. Evangeline. We realized she was most likely an angel sent down to help us since we all lived in hell,” he admitted aloud, because his mind had gone there.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Don’t you think so too?” he challenged.

  She was silent for so long he didn’t think she’d answer, but in the end, she sighed and nodded, her hair sweeping his chest. “Yes. She let me back into her life immediately. She gave me a job and a home all because she knew I was in trouble.”

  Her gaze drifted over his face. “Why do you think she is?”

  He rolled over to stare up at the ceiling again. “I don’t like thinking too much about my childhood, let alone talking about it. None of us do. Not my brother and not my cousins. Our leopards are killers. They hate every moment of their existence and are always out for blood. That means we’re at war with a part of ourselves at all times. We put bars on the windows and have metal bars across the doors so when we sleep, if they get loose, they can’t get out to hurt anyone.”

  He glanced at her. She was propped up on one elbow, her amber-colored eyes wide, those long lashes framing them making them seem even bigger. Her lips were slightly parted as if she might protest, but she remained silent. There was shock and compassion in her expression and one hand slid over his chest, her palm seeking and then finding the beat of his heart.

  He felt those fingers, her palm, the way she touched him, branding him so that her touch sank beneath skin and found its way to bone. Her name was written there. Ashe. His woman. It didn’t matter so much what happened in the future, or what came before, he had this moment with her. This peace. He let himself feel everything. He let the tension drain out of his body. Felt the calmness of this leopard. That was a victory he would savor for the rest of his life. His leopard content to just lie still, waiting for another stroke of her fingers.

  She looked particularly beautiful with her hair tumbling around her face and over one breast. He liked knowing a part of him was still inside her. Looking at her lips just made him want to kiss them, and kissing seemed to lead to out of control behavior by both of them.

  “Tell me more, Timur.”

  Those fingers fucking owned him, moving up his body to his lips. Sliding over them with soft little pads. Stroking caresses, she didn’t even seem to notice when her touch was making his head explode and his body throb with pure need. Every one of those reactions told him he was alive. On fire. Headed in the right direction. Toward something big. Something that would save him.

  Did she feel the same way? His gaze moved over her face. Possessive. Still a little unsure. What was he giving her, after all? A whole lot of bad. The trouble coming for him—and for his brother and cousins—was far worse than she could imagine—and it was coming for her because Lazar believed she had to pay for the sins of her parents. He knew the cruelty of leopards and shifters gone rogue. Gone bad. Out for blood. That was all he could ever offer her. He’d tried to get out, and now he was in so deep he didn’t even know how to tell her.

  “Timur.”

  Her voice wrapped around his heart. It was insane to feel this way about her so fast, an overwhelming sense of rightness. Of need. More than those things; bigger. He hadn’t known it was possible for him to feel so much. He understood Fyodor’s desire to give Evangeline whatever she wanted. It wasn’t as if they could offer safety. Or even a decent reputation.

  “Don’t stop talking. Tell me what your leopard is doing right at this minute.”

  How could a man resist his woman’s voice when she pitched it low like that? When she lay unashamed, naked and vulnerable to him? He just knew he wasn’t that man. “My leopard is very content, the way he always is when we’re close to you. I could fall asleep, just as I did on the couch last night, with no worry about bars on the windows or across the door. I think it was the first real sleep I’ve had in a few years.”

  “I’m glad then. That I was the one to give that to you.”

  “He knows he has his mate close and he’s patient. He says she’s close, but not quite ready for him. He likes to stay near you.” He wrapped her hair around his finger because the temptation to touch her was too strong. “I know you want to run from me, Ashe, and frankly, I don’t blame you.”

  “It isn’t that I want to run, so much as I know this situation isn’t good. You know it isn’t, Timur, and I have to look out for myself. Being with you would be like jumping on a fast-moving train with no way off.”

  He couldn’t prevent the wince. She’d scored with that observation. Once on his train, she was right, there was no getting off. She couldn’t know the reasons, not yet, or the extent of just how bad it really was. Still, how could he let her go? His leopard would be completely uncontrollable. He stayed silent, because there wasn’t much he could say to that.

  He could plead his case, and hope she would listen, but in the end, what was he going to do? Let her run? Leave his brother at the worst possible time? He probably wouldn’t survive the coming war and he wouldn’t want to. Not without Ashe.

  Where the hell had that come from? He couldn’t survive without her? He’d just laid eyes on her. He knew it didn’t matter. She was his one. His only. She was the woman who calmed his leopard and offered him a place of comfort. Of peace. He’d caught a glimpse of paradise. What man would let that go when he’d never had a fucking decent thing in his life?

  “Don’t run, Ashe. I’d find you. Wherever you went, I’d find you.”

  “Don’t try to scare me, Timur. I don’t take threats very well.”

  “Then don’t fuckin’ consider it a threat. Consider it a fact of life.” He sat up and shoved at the hair falling on his forehead. He thought idly that he needed a haircut, but he liked the way her fingers smoothed it back.

  “You would truly be hell to live with,” she snapped, sitting up as well.

  She looked around for her clothes and then slid off the bed to go to a drawer. She pulled a T-shirt from it and dragged it over her curves. Hiding her body from him. Taking that away. Still, he couldn’t help but feel as if he deserved it. He watched her stalk to the bathroom, tension in every line of her body. Perversely, that just made him want her all over again.

  He put his feet flat on the floor and snagged his phone out of his trousers where he’d left it. “Fyodor,” he said as soon as his brother answered. “Am I a psychopath?”

  “Yes,” Fyodor answered without hesitation. “So am I.”

  “What the fuck does that even mean?”

  “I looked it up a while back,” Fyodor explained. “Said we exhibit abnormal or violent social behavior. I think that fits us.”

  Timur put his head down and drew in deep breaths. He couldn’t say he didn’t exhibit violent behavior—not with the crimes he’d committed.

  “
The definition also included the description aggressive and/or unstable,” Fyodor went on helpfully.

  “What the hell did you offer Evangeline to stay?” he demanded. “Tell me one decent thing you give her, and don’t include sex in that, Fyodor, because we both know that’s all about you, not her.”

  “Is it all about you when you have sex with Ashe?” his brother countered.

  What was he supposed to say to that? Hell, when he was in her, he couldn’t even think straight. Someone could walk in and put a bullet in his head and he wouldn’t be able to stop. He’d have to be dead first. Was that all about him? Was it? He hoped he wasn’t that selfish. He knew he wasn’t. It was important to him to give her as many orgasms as possible. More, he wanted her to feel cared for every time he touched her. Sex wasn’t all about him. With Ashe, it never would be.

  “What about your leopard?” Fyodor asked.

  “He’s crazy about her. Her leopard is taking her sweet time to rise, but she’s close.” Was this relationship about his leopard? He knew better. He couldn’t keep his eyes or his hands off the woman, and her leopard wasn’t even trying to seduce his. In fact, at times she was eerily quiet.

  The bathroom door opened and Ashe stood in the doorway, leaning one slim hip against the frame. “You’re not a psychopath, Timur, and if I made you think that, I didn’t mean to.” She heaved a small sigh and jerked her chin toward his phone. “Is that your brother?”

  He nodded.

  She walked over to him and took the phone from his hand. “He’s not a psychopath. I’ve seen the results of one, and that isn’t either one of you.” She hit end and handed him back his phone. “That’s why I can’t stay, Timur. Not because you’re not the man who will always be someone I want to see. It’s because you’re not a man insane enough to take on the bastards who killed my parents.”

  He wrapped his arm around her waist and buried his face against her stomach, pressing into her, laughter coming up from somewhere deep. Regret. Self-loathing. He held her tightly, knowing he was damned either way.