She swallowed fear. This man of hers made her crazy, there was no doubt about it, but he was hers. She’d given herself to him for a reason. He was her choice and he had been since the first time she’d even seen him in the dojo, instructing advanced students. She’d known then that she could belong to him.

She had never given her trust to another human being. Not ever. Eli had been the first person she’d given even a part of herself to and now he wanted it all. Demanded it all, which was just like him.

“Baby?” he prompted gently. “Give it to me. I need to hear it.”

This time he raised his head, his glittering cat’s eyes suddenly focused completely on hers. Her heart pounded harder. She tasted fear. She tasted love. She didn’t want to love him. She wanted to belong to him, but she didn’t want to love him. Loving him was terrifying. He already had too much of her, and what if she disappeared when she was just finding herself? What if she couldn’t stand up to him? He was a dominant male and he’d be more so if he knew.

“Baby?” he coaxed again, his gaze holding hers captive. “Say it. Tell me. Give me what I need.”

Tears tracked down her cheeks. “What if I can’t?”

“You can. You’re just afraid. Say it once. Give that to me.” With his gaze still on hers, he pressed little butterfly kisses up and down her thighs, his tongue lapping at the spilled spice coating her there, fluttering along her skin until she thought she might go up in flames.

Catarina swallowed fear. He knew. He already knew. What difference did it make that she say it aloud to him? Why was he making her? She forced herself to really look at him, to get past the haze of hunger and lust driving her.

His face was carved with lines of need. The set of his jaw, so stubborn, the straight nose and hard features that were purely masculine. But it was there, in his golden eyes, eyes that had gone molten and nearly all leopard. She saw the truth there. The need. He wasn’t just playing some sexual game, out to force her to obey him. He was telling her the absolute, stark truth. He needed to hear the words from her. They meant something to him.

She exhaled and hadn’t known she’d been holding her breath. He had told her he loved her first. He’d put himself out there, but somehow, she hadn’t considered that it was really true. How could it be? What was she giving him? She didn’t even have a high school diploma. How could he possibly love her? How could he need her the way his eyes said so starkly that he did?

“Damn it, Cat, give it to me.” Now it was a demand. A growl. Dominance winning through all his lazy sensual facade.

He’d given her two orgasms but her body was so greedy that she needed more. She was on fire. An inferno. The growling demand nearly sent her over the edge. She loved his voice. Loved it when he narrowed his eyes and focused with ferocious, furious intent. Her body always responded, going hot, blood rushing through her veins. She came alive.

Her hands gripped the headboard tightly. She needed to hold on to something. Anything. Because what she was about to do was enormous to her. That last piece of her. The one she’d kept for herself. The one she protected. He was demanding it. He knew. Somehow he knew, and he wanted all of her. He wanted the last piece of her that she’d been guarding. Holding safe.

She moistened her lips. “I do, Eli. You know I do.”

“You do what, Catarina? Say it, damn you. Do you think I’m going to accept less than all of you? Say it out loud. Right now. And know what it means.” His voice had gone harsh. Low and harsh. Velvet soft, but filled with iron. Steel. He wasn’t going to back down and his mouth and hands kept the fire inside her roaring.

Catarina knew she was going to give him what he wanted. What he demanded. There was nowhere to hide. He didn’t let her. She felt stripped down. Bare. Completely vulnerable, and it had nothing at all to with the way he held her body open to him. She could easily give him her body. Even maybe her heart. But he demanded her soul.

His teeth nipped. A sharp, stinging pain. All the while those golden eyes blazed into hers. Intense focus. A leopard’s stare when he claimed his prey.

She swallowed again and let go. Let herself fall. “I love you, Eli. You know I do. I love you with everything in me.”

She watched his eyes when she said it. He looked merciless. Ruthless. The moment the words were out in the open between them, those eyes went soft. Melted. She saw absolute, raw vulnerability and the flood of love there. She’d never seen him like that, or imagined him like that. Naked for her to see into him. Her stomach clenched. Her channel spasmed, and her heart turned over. She needed to hold him, to put her arms around him and get as close as possible. She wanted to cry seeing the look on his face because in her wildest dreams, she never imagined he really felt that way toward her. That soul-searing deep.

“That’s my Kitten,” he whispered softly. “So brave.”

She couldn’t stop the warm glow that spread at the thought of putting that look on his face, of giving him something that obviously meant everything to him.

Eli moved then, fast, coming over top of her, blanketing her completely, pinning her under him. His mouth went straight to her breast, his hand slipping between her legs to position himself at her entrance. She tried hard to push herself against him, to impale herself on his gorgeous, erect shaft, but his weight made it impossible to move. He held her there, watching the helpless pleasure on her face. Loving that.

“Eli, honey, I want to hold you. I want to be able to touch you.” She whispered it, half desperate to feel his skin with her hands.