Leopard's Rage (Leopard People)

by Christine Feehan

  Her voice was ragged. Lungs labored. She tried not to hear the sob in her voice. The betrayal. But it was there and if she could hear it, so could he. His expression didn’t change.

  “Keep going, malen’koye plamya. I need to know everything that was said.”

  She hated this. Hated to tell him. She already felt so vulnerable. Not because she was wrapped naked in the ropes—the ropes comforted her. She had no idea why they did. There was every possibility that Sevastyan knew being in the ropes comforted her. She felt vulnerable because she already wanted to be his. She felt too much for him. Too many weeks had gone by while she fantasized about him and now that she’d been with him, she wanted to belong to him. This wasn’t all about sex. The things that were said had crushed her.

  “They said you told Mitya that you needed a submissive, any submissive would do and you just had to find a female on her first life cycle.”

  She kept her gaze fixed on his face, but it was impossible to tell from his expressionless mask what he was thinking. Flamme had chosen Shturm because he could protect them. The little female leopard was on her first life cycle and had been so afraid of Franco Matherson that she was desperate to find a male leopard who would stop him. Flambé had fantasized about Sevastyan for months. When the two had come together, Flamme had risen, taking charge, choosing her mate because it made sense to her.

  “They said Mitya pointed out that you’d found exactly what you were looking for in me, a woman you could do anything you wanted to because I was so hot for sex with you I’d do anything for you. I was just the right kind of woman because all I wanted was to be fucked any way you wanted to fuck me. I was a toy for you and I’d let you manipulate me, and they’re right, aren’t they? Aren’t they, Sevastyan?”

  She struggled not to cry. She wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction. She was tougher than that. They were so right about her. She was hanging in his ropes, desperate for him to fuck her. Nearly begging him to. Humiliating herself by telling him what those men had said—what they all thought of her in his cousin’s home.

  “I want to know every single thing they said, Flambé, and then I’ll address it point by point. I can see overhearing this conversation really hurt you and I wish that you had come to me immediately, although I can understand why you didn’t. Please continue.”

  She was grateful that he didn’t portray any emotion. His expression didn’t change. His voice didn’t change and that gave her the courage to keep going.

  “They said you don’t give a damn about women. About anyone other than your cousins and maybe their wives, but they doubted that. In your families, most of the women are killed after they provide their husbands with sons.”

  His expression remained the same, that mask was in place. He didn’t flinch or look as if anyone was saying anything that was crazy.

  “They said that you killed the men watching us at your house. You went out and hunted them down and you killed them, just like you had to have killed the ones following us when we were on our way to see Brent Shriver.”

  “That’s it? That’s everything?”

  “Only that you told Mitya it was difficult to find a true submissive, especially one your leopard didn’t want to rip to shreds, and I was a true submissive and Shturm was enamoured with Flamme.”

  He nodded. “First, Mitya and I did have a discussion some time ago, before I ever met you, that I couldn’t hope to find a woman who would suit my particular needs. My cousin is considered rather dark and very sexually demanding. I am much darker and more demanding. Both of us know this and he was worried about me. It was unfortunate that we had the discussion within the hearing of men we trusted.”

  He reached for the bottle of water again and held it to her lips. “Drink. Do you need to come out of the ropes? Or do you want to continue with the discussion in them?”

  She wanted to stay bound. She felt safer. Comforted. “I’m good.”

  “He knows Shturm is a killer and that it was dangerous for me to go to the club, but it was my only outlet. I was careful, but that solution wasn’t going to last forever. As for manipulating you, I suppose I can and will sexually, just like tonight, but you could have said no at any point. Those men are selling you short. When it comes to our sexual relationship, we both, fortunately, enjoy the same thing. Outside of that, we are going to have to work things out. Manipulation is not going to work on you in our day-to-day life.”

  Flambé knew that much was true. He couldn’t manipulate her outside of the bedroom.

  “As for doing whatever I want with someone like you, you love the ropes the way I do, so yes, I can do whatever I want and I don’t have to worry that you’ll find the things I want or need repulsive. You made that very clear to me, although whoever was gossiping has no idea what they were talking about because they were making shit up. As for being my toy, you aren’t anyone’s toy. You’re my woman and we’re partners sexually. You have the right to say what you want or don’t want and I’ll respect that.”

  He stepped close to her and cupped her face gently in his hands. “Do I give a damn about most women? No. I love my cousins’ wives. I am already falling for you and know that it isn’t going to take much to just keep going in all the way. Do I think that’s a good thing? No. I don’t. Like I said, I’m much darker than Mitya, and I’ve got things inside me that sometimes escape. They aren’t always good. You’re capable of unleashing those things.”

  He stepped away from her again and went back to wherever it was he put the water and camera. He moved around her, taking several closeups of the ruby clamps. “Your life with me isn’t going to be easy, Flambé, and I’m not going to pretend it will be, although I will always try to give you everything you want when I can. I’ll care for you with everything in me. You’ll have that. So that bullshit about not caring for you is just that—bullshit. I know you and your leopard can hear the truth.”

  She could. The relief was so tremendous she wanted to cry. At the same time, she had been around so many male shifters who were so good at deceiving their mates that a part of her, that hurt part, filed the things those men said away in her head.

  “I told you about the lair we came from. The women were murdered after they gave birth to sons. My own mother was murdered. Most times, the sons were expected to participate. I refused. Mitya refused. Gorya, Fyodor and Timur refused. We were forced to leave and all of us have a price on our heads. Again, I shared this with you. Maybe not the details because I don’t want you to have nightmares, but we got out.”

  He suddenly looked directly at her again. “As for hunting the men Matherson had on my property, men he was using to try to kidnap you, damn straight I hunted them and I killed them. I sent him a message loud and clear that he wasn’t going to hurt you in any way. He went after you again and I sent him the same message. Mitya added an exclamation point by joining me. I don’t think he got exactly who he was messing with at first.”

  He took several more photographs, put down the camera and then lowered her until her breasts were level with his mouth. “You have to be getting tired.” Very quickly he unscrewed the clamp on her right breast and as it dropped into his hand and the blood rushed painfully back, his mouth covered her nipple with soothing heat. He did the same to the left. All the while he tugged and played the rope like the artist he was so that it sang along her nerve endings, bringing them to vivid life.

  “Sevastyan.” His name came out a plea. Almost a sob.

  He quickly shoved the knots aside as he lowered his trousers and, digging his hands into her hips, slammed his cock into her inflamed, slick sheath. The aggressive thrust drove her bottom against the cross so that the thick knot tangled deep in the bundle of sensitive nerve endings. She cried out as flames seemed to lick at her body from the inside out.

  He moved in her over and over, relentlessly, feeding the fire until it engulfed her, rushing over her so strongly there wasn’t one cell in her body that didn’t feel compromised, that didn’t feel the cont
ractions in some powerful way.

  He continued surging into her harder and deeper, rocking her body, when the solid boards behind her refused to allow any give to them. The position he had her tied had her wide open to him, completely allowing him to drive into her, angling his body to keep his cock positioned perfectly to cause the most friction over her inflamed clit, over her most sensitive spot where her sheath clamped so tightly down on him and grasped and milked at him greedily. Then she felt him erupting like pure fire, coating the walls of her sheath with molten seed, rope after rope triggering more violent shocks until she was hanging in the ropes, unable to keep her head up. Unable to think or breathe properly.

  Sevastyan’s arms went around her and he lowered her right into his lap as he took her to the floor, loosening the ropes to allow her legs to straighten, rubbing the blood-flow back into them as he did. He quickly unknotted the chain of large knots from the diamond that looped from her front to her back, freeing that thong, and then the binding on her arms. He spent a great deal of time massaging her arms while she sat on his lap.

  “I’ve got you, baby,” he murmured softly. “Just rest. You’re not hurt anywhere, are you? No place the rope was too tight?” He ran his hand expertly under the remaining halter to check that the bindings weren’t digging into her skin.

  She shook her head and nuzzled her face into his chest. She was exhausted. She was in excellent physical condition and even though it seemed as if she had been in the ropes a long time, she actually hadn’t been. He had even lowered her to give her a break. She knew what he had been doing.

  “Good. Even if you’re loving what we’re doing, Flambé, you have to tell me if something isn’t right. We’ll correct it and go on. We can’t take a chance on you getting hurt.” He slipped more rope off her body.

  Strangely, the more the rope came off, the more she felt naked and vulnerable without it. She burrowed deeper into him. “I really like being in the ropes.”

  “That’s a good thing since I like tying you. You look beautiful in rope. Some people don’t get it, and that’s all right. It’s not their thing. I needed an outlet for the artist in me as well as that darker side of me. It was also something that helped me stay at a distance and protected the women from my leopard.” He brushed a kiss against her neck as he continued to massage her arms and shoulders gently.

  She opened her eyes enough to look up at him. “That was so incredibly erotic. A million times better than what I saw you do in that room.”

  He rubbed his face against hers. “It wouldn’t be safe to take you into one of those rooms. There are cameras everywhere. I made certain before I came in here that Cain didn’t have any hidden ones. I also made it clear what would happen to him if he ever photographed you. He knows better than to cross me.”

  She frowned. “I don’t understand. Photograph me? What does that mean?”

  He scraped his teeth on her bare shoulder and a fission of desire slid down her spine. “You think you’re alone when you come here to plant, Flambé. Cain has tried to set you up more than once. He left you alone in his office to watch the screens so you could see what went on in the rooms. He asked if you wanted him to show you the various apparatuses to see how they worked. He’s a leopard, a dominant. He recognizes a submissive. He compromises clients to protect his other clients. He never uses footage unless he has to, but he’s ruthless enough.”

  She blinked up at him, trying to understand. She hadn’t done anything with Cain. She’d gone to his office that one time, but he hadn’t been there.

  “Had you gotten yourself off while you were here watching and he caught you on camera, he would have held that over your head,” he said bluntly.

  Shifters weren’t particularly shy about sex and she might not have been as a rule, but she had a very prosperous business and she needed it to help others survive. She wasn’t about to throw their lives away because she was so anxious to have sex she wasn’t thinking, which was why she was very worried about the emergence of her female leopard.

  “I should have thought of that. Not that I was getting myself off in the club.”

  “Good, although the idea does have its merits.”

  She laughed softly. “I should have known you’d say that.”

  “Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me the truth tonight, Flambé. We both know you didn’t have to. I was afraid you’d tell me to go to hell, and I wasn’t certain how else to get you to feel safe enough to tell me.”

  “I wanted to tell you, I was just so hurt and I was afraid it was true. In a sense, because part of it was true, it was easy to believe the rest. You’re so extraordinary, and I feel so ordinary that it’s easy enough to believe.”

  “Flambé.” There was warning in his voice.

  “You would never have looked at me if I wasn’t a submissive and my leopard didn’t appeal to Shturm.”

  His laughter made her toes want to curl. “You would never have looked at me if I wasn’t a dominant, a rigger, and Shturm didn’t appeal to your little female.”

  He totally had her there.

  “I’m getting a little worried that she isn’t making an appearance,” he added.

  Flambé took a deep breath. Now they were getting into muddy waters. “She was very upset when those men said all those things about me—and about her.” She rubbed her palm up and down his thigh. The soft material of his trousers felt sexy over the muscle of his thigh. “Matherson really frightened her as well.”

  Sevastyan rubbed his chin on top of her head. “She’ll probably feel more secure once she sees everything is all right at the house. You can work on the designs and bring your crew out. I really would like you to start an indoor garden like this one that we can build onto the house. I have the perfect spot in mind for it. I’ve already got the beams in place that would hold the necessary rigging for suspension. I was going to use the garages for something else and changed my mind. I have lofts and pulley systems in place and the high ceilings are there. We’d have to convert the outside walls to glass but that’s easy enough. The two garages connect and both are enormous. We could start with one.”

  Flambé heard the enthusiasm in his voice, but she had to be so careful not to be entirely sucked in. Just the fact that he’d said those things to his cousin about finding a submissive, one on their first life cycle, was another strike against him. It didn’t matter how much she loved sex with him or how compatible they were when it came to sex. Eventually, she knew how things ended up with shifters.

  She wanted the enthusiasm for the project to be as real later as it was right then. A garden for them was a project they could do together. She wanted something that was theirs. Something they could start their life going forward with. In a perfect world, he would support her business and her need to continue rescuing shifter species as their numbers in the world diminished. She would do her best to understand what he did and try to be supportive. Sadly, she’d seen too much of shifter life. The real world didn’t work that way.

  “I’ve got the schedule worked out, Sevastyan.” She tried to suppress a yawn. All she really wanted to do was sleep. “My crew will be working on the property in three weeks. That will give me enough time to figure out all the trees, plants and design work, order them, the dirt we’ll need and . . .” She trailed off, waving her hand. “I’ll take care of the details.”

  “You do that. I’ll take care of the other details.” He stood up easily, with her still in his arms.

  “What would those be?”

  “The marriage license. Where. When. Those kinds of things.”

  Her heart stuttered. That couldn’t happen, no matter what kind of fairy tale she wanted to be living in.

  9

  SEVASTYAN stared out the window of his cousin’s large pool room. He’d known all along the day of reckoning would be coming. No one ever escaped it forever. He had hoped for a little more time. Mitya had already gone through so much and he and Ania had barely started their lives together. They wer
e still dancing around each other, madly in love, but not quite in sync yet.

  He sighed and glanced at the door leading to the hallway. Flambé was in a small office most likely hunched over her desk, drawing various sketches for her clients— and for him—to look over. She amazed him with her endless ideas. They were brilliant. She was brilliant. He’d had no time with her. None.

  They knew very little about each other and hadn’t managed to establish much in the way of trust. He hoped the things he’d told her, what little of himself he’d given her, was enough to get them through the hell that was coming.

  Their relationship hadn’t progressed no matter how hard he’d tried to move it forward. There were reasons she couldn’t get married. She rarely told him anything personal about herself. She responded eagerly to sex wherever and whenever he initiated it, but rarely wanted to be touched outside otherwise. She didn’t pull away from him, but she never held his hand or reached out to him, touching his body, especially if anyone else was around. He found their relationship frustrating at times because he didn’t understand it—and her leopard had been stubbornly silent, adding to the frustration. Sevastyan knew he wasn’t the best at relationships. He had no idea how to be a good partner to a woman, but he tried.

  Now, it seemed, time for them had run out. Flambé had courage, but she wasn’t a violent person. He was extremely violent. She might fight beside him if she absolutely had to, and he doubted if she would hesitate to kill, but she wasn’t the type of person to walk up, stick a gun to someone’s head and pull the trigger. She would definitely not be okay with the kinds of things he did in his job. The premise of their work might appeal to her, but not the actual day-to-day process.

  He closed his eyes and shook his head. Mitya knew she wasn’t like the other women. He’d told Sevastyan. Warned him. Lectured him. Sevastyan didn’t need the warnings or the lectures. It was far too late for all of them—especially Flambé. She had to find a way to live with him. He swore to himself he would make things as easy on her as possible, but now, with this new development, life was going to be hell for all of them.