Eli smoothed his hand over her dark hair. Catarina was exhausted, both emotionally and physically. He’d carried her into the house and she’d fallen asleep in his arms. He’d run a hot bath and actually got into the tub to hold her in the water, hoping that would help to reduce soreness. She’d roused a couple of times to shift position and each time she moved, she moaned softly.

He held her while she brushed her teeth and then he’d slipped her under the sheet and climbed into bed beside her, holding her close to him. Sometime in the night, she had flung one arm around him and laid her head on his belly. He liked waking up with her there. He liked having their legs tangled intimately together and her mouth a breath away from his cock. He liked her warmth and her laughter.

“I’m a goner, baby,” he said softly, aloud.

She moved, stretching just enough to groan again and stop when her body protested. Her arm tightened around him. He felt the brush of her fingers along his ribs and the warmth of her breath on his skin. He even felt the flutter of her long lashes on his belly.

“It isn’t morning, yet, is it?” she murmured.

“It’s pushing nighttime, Kitten. The leopards were out playing all last night and most of today. We slept a few hours. Are you hungry?”

The pads of her fingers made lazy circles along his hip. The touch wasn’t meant to be sexual, but it was intimate. She traced along his bone and then into the defined muscle there.

“Not really, but if you are, I can make you something.”

Eli smiled, happiness bursting through him. His chest ached in the vicinity of his heart, and for one moment he found a lump in his throat so big he couldn’t talk. He swallowed it down and dropped his hand to the nape of her neck, massaging gently.

“You’re not going to fix me anything to eat, baby. You’re going to lay right here and rest. I was offering to fix something for you.”

She turned her head just enough to press a kiss into his belly. His cock jerked in reaction. His belly knotted and his breath hissed out between his teeth. Deep inside his heart stuttered.

“That was a nice thing to offer, Eli. Thank you.” Catarina rested her cheek back against his belly. Her hand slipped lower, her fingers smoothing along the column of his thigh. “I’m so tired I can’t really think. I like lying right here. You’re warm, and when I’m with you like this, I’m not afraid.”

This time she turned her head to look up at him. She looked drowsy. Comfortable. Beautiful. Her lashes were longer than he’d first thought, the same dark gloss as her hair, framing her incredible eyes. He couldn’t believe she was draped over him, her fingers idly stroking his thigh while she drifted, still a little dazed from the experience of shifting. He couldn’t believe she was his.

“Were you afraid?” he asked gently. He liked that she wasn’t afraid when she was with him. That said a lot. With Cordeau putting up reward money for information on her, she had plenty to be afraid of. She’d probably been afraid most of her life.

“Yes. But I knew you’d get me through it. And I wanted her to come out. I wanted to make certain she wasn’t a killer.”

Her hand moved back up to his body and once more she turned her head to press a kiss into his belly. He felt the sweep of her silky hair over his belly, along his thighs, and God help him, tangling over his cock. Heat moved through his veins straight to his groin. He had to admit, he liked waking up this way.

“She’s not a killer,” he said.

“No, she’s not. She was just as afraid as I was. Your male is a lot like you.”

There was the tiniest bit of censure in her voice and he found himself smiling. She was definitely annoyed on her leopard’s behalf.

“I noticed,” he agreed. His hand tightened in her hair. “He knows he has to keep his woman in line because she’s a little headstrong.”

Her laughter was muffled by his stomach. He felt her soft lips trailing little kisses along his belly. Lazy kisses. Gentle. Barely there.

“Are you implying I’m headstrong?”

She turned her head again to look up at him. Her blue gaze moved over his face, and his entire body tightened. His fingers tangled in her hair again, this time a little tighter, a little more possessively.

“So beautiful, Cat, and all that beauty, all that sexy, is mine. A man finds a woman like you and he walks on water to keep her. You understand that, right? You understand I’m going to love you with everything in me. But I’m keeping you. You can’t show me this, this kind of wake up. You can’t give me this and then expect me to live without it.”

“I understand you don’t hear me when I’m talking to you,” she murmured, and her mouth was back on his belly, her tongue stroking a caress before her lips trailed a blaze of fire from his belly to his cock.

Her mouth slid over him. Hot. Tight. Moist. Like a velvet fist. Her hair draped over his lap and his thighs, spilling across the sheet like a dark waterfall. His head exploded. Fire raced through him. His heart exploded. A storm of emotion. He heard her. Loud and clear. He heard her. His eyes burned and that lump was back in his throat.

Very gently he tugged on her hair to lift her mouth away from him. It was one of the hardest things he’d ever done, leaving the haven of her mouth. He drew her up over his body and rolled gently to tuck her under him. He felt her wince and another small sound escaped, a little groan that strengthened his resolve.

His hands framed her face and stared down into her incredible cobalt eyes. Right now they were deep blue with shades of violet and she looked at him with such a soft, loving expression he nearly lost his resolve with the need to join their bodies together. There was no better place than inside her.