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.

I love you, Kitten, he whispered from deep inside his male.

The female teased and flirted with the male leopard over and over and he allowed it, staying close, rubbing along her fur, approaching cautiously when she crouched invitingly and leaping back when she halfheartedly swiped a paw at him. They tumbled together, rolling around in the grass, playing, but always, the male moved his female toward him. Toward the ranch house.

The much heavier male took her there on the porch, pinning her in the way of the male leopard, locking them together, staking his claim.

Eli let his male have his time with his mate, but once he was finished and just rubbing lovingly along her fur, as she lay exhausted and panting, he forced him back and shifted.

The little female didn’t move. He dropped his hand into her thick fur. “Shift now, Cat.” He poured command into his voice.

She obeyed automatically, but she didn’t move from the floor. He reached down and lifted her exhausted body, cradling her against his chest.

“You sleep in this morning and then we’re going to take care of it.”

She rubbed her face sleepily against his chest. “Take care of what?”

He strode into the house. “Go to sleep. Let me take care of you. We’ll get the paperwork done and get married at Jake’s.”

She burrowed closer. “I think I’m being railroaded.”

He laughed softly. “Bet your life on that, baby. I’m not wasting time and giving you the chance to change your mind.”

19

CATARINA pushed away from her desk, stood up and stretched. She loved this room. Their shared office. There was so much space. It was nice sitting opposite Eli, looking up every now and then from her laptop to see his golden eyes on her. The way he looked at her always made her shiver in anticipation. He always looked at her as if he might devour her at any moment. In fact, it was true. More than once he’d ordered her to strip and climb on his desk. More than once she’d dared to crawl under his desk and open his jeans to get what she wanted.