“Baby, what I asked of you, helping us, that doesn’t come from having been an agent. I don’t want you to think, even for a moment, that I would trade what we have for anything. Or use it against you. I love you. If you can’t do this, I understand.”
He watched her eyes change. They went from a beautiful soft blue to a deep cobalt, almost violet. He saw her so clearly. The cat in her. The love in her – for him. His heart jerked hard and his stomach twisted. He brought his mouth down on hers, all the while falling into her eyes. At the last moment, her lashes swept down, thick crescents that veiled her soul, but it was too late. He’d already seen. He already knew.
She’d given him a gift. She kept giving to him. Eli kissed her gently, and then fiercely. Ferociously. Like the prime male leopard he was. Dominant and aggressive, he took her mouth, pouring himself into her. He was possessive and he knew it. He could be jealous and he had a hell of a temper. But he had this for her. Love so intense, so passionate, every time he looked into her eyes the emotion overwhelmed him. And it continued to grow in him.
Her arms stole around his neck, her mouth moving under his. There in the rain, he took her again, lifting her, urging her legs around his waist, settling her over his cock, her sheath a scorching, tight glove of silk wrapping him up the way her legs did.
He was a little wild. A little out of control. He loved feeling her breasts pressed so tight into him. Her head tipped back and her long hair, now soaked with water, hung down her back like a dark pelt. The rain sizzled on their hot sensitive skin, lending the sensation of a thousand tongues lapping gently at them.
She matched his wild, out of control mood, riding him hard. Fast. Her soft little cries, music in his ears while he surged into paradise over and over, the pace almost frantic. He thought he’d hold out a long while, he’d taken her just a few minutes earlier and he usually had great control, but the little downward spirals, the way her delicate muscles gripped and milked had him losing himself in her far too fast.
He felt the explosion building from his toes and moving through his legs. His teeth settled into her skin, the soft perfect junction between her shoulder and neck. He bit down and her entire body shuddered, clamped down like a vise on his and squeezed. He roared her name as she took him with her, as jet after jet of hot seed splashed deep into her.
He knew instantly. Even as his body shuddered and rocked. Even as hers gripped his and milked. He knew. This time, right there in the rain, they had created something beautiful and precious between them. He lifted his head to look down at her. He knew his eyes had gone leopard. Possessive. Satisfied. How could he help it? She was his and always would be his.
“What?” she murmured sleepily. She kissed his shoulder and then his throat.
Still locked inside her, surrounded by her, held by her, he gave a little growl. “Give me your mouth.”
She obeyed instantly, tilting her head so he could kiss her. So he could lose himself there. She was sacred. The mother of his child. His lover.
“Marry me, Catarina.” It wasn’t a question. He wanted it to be, but it didn’t come out that way. It was a demand. An order. He made the command against her soft lips.
He felt her mouth curve against his. He pulled his head back to look into her eyes, even as he eased her feet back to the ground. He hated slipping out of her body, losing the ultimate, intimate connection between them.
“Are you asking me or telling me?” she answered, her hands smoothing down his arms.
He studied her face. “That depends. You saying yes, then I’m asking. You hesitating, then I’m telling you.” He was honest. How could he not be? It was the truth. He wanted his ring on her finger and her name to be his. She belonged to him. With him. More, he was hers, body and soul.
She laughed softly. “That’s so you, Eli. So romantic.”
He looked around him at the steadily falling rain, the thirsty trees lifting leaves toward the drops. “This is romantic.”
“I’ll marry you, baby. Someone has to take care of you properly.”
Her voice was filled with love. She didn’t declare her love, but at that moment he didn’t need her to. He heard it in her soft response. Elation swept through him. He would have taken her again, right there, but he couldn’t very well lay her down in the wet grass, and she looked exhausted.
“Right away. Immediately.” Definitely a command. Accompanied by a growl.
She laughed and shifted, her little female leopard leaping away from him, sprinting toward the dense grove of trees. He ran after her, shifting on the run, feeling his answering laughter. His answering happiness. He didn’t know how he managed it, he knew he didn’t deserve her, but she was his all the same and he knew he’d do anything to keep her.