Saria took the bottle and patted the floor beside her.

Drake hesitated, afraid of what could happen that close to her, but she didn’t drop her gaze from his and he couldn’t resist the temptation of her trust. He sank to the floor beside her and drew up his knees. Their hips and shoulders touched. One soft thigh rubbed along his as she shifted a little, taking a long drink and handing him back the bottle.

“This is goin’ to happen again?”

“Yes. And next time this will end far differently.” He set his mouth over the rim of the bottle, where hers had been. He could taste all that pent-up lust—or maybe it was his.

“How many times have you been through this with a woman?”

He frowned at her. “I’ve seen a woman go through the Han Vol Dan, and of course my leopard was affected, it sets males on edge, but she wasn’t my woman. I didn’t have to fight like this for control. This is . . . beyond imagining.”

“Do you want this to happen again—with me?”

He shook his head over the absurdity of the question, his gaze drifting possessively over her face. “I think of you as mine. Of course I want it to happen and if we’re together, Saria, it’s inevitable. You have to face that and I meant what I said. The next time you’re in that state, I’m going to be inside your body. Once I take you, I’m not going to stand aside, so know what you’re getting into before you make a decision.”

She reached for the water bottle, took another sip and licked her lips. Her dark eyes met his again. “Kiss me.”

He studied her face. “You like playing with fire?”

“I don’ understand. It’s a kiss.”

He took her hand and curled her palm over the large bulge in the front of his thin cotton pants. Heat spread through both of them. An electrical current surged through both of them. “It’s not just a kiss, Saria. Don’t try to fool yourself.”

“I have to know.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “You have no sense of self-preservation. If I were any other kind of man . . .”

“But you’re not,” she pointed out.

The confidence in her voice shook him. He swore and took another cooling drink. She hadn’t removed her hand and damn him to hell, but he didn’t want her to.

He curled his fingers around the nape of her neck and tipped her face up to his as he brought his mouth down on hers. He tried to be gentle, but he didn’t feel gentle, he felt raw and desperate and she tasted like heaven. “Open your mouth.” He growled the demand.

She obeyed, her lips trembling, and his tongue slid against hers, drawing her sweetness deep inside him. The room spun away as he indulged himself. It was all he could do not to devour her. Her mouth seemed to have a direct connection to his every nerve ending. His groin hardened impossibly, an ache he feared would never go away. She melted into him, so that he breathed for her, exchanging something intangible as they devoured one another.

He was the first to pull back, afraid they would burn out of control again. They stared at one another a long time, gazes locked, breath coming in ragged, harsh gasps, with that strange electrical current sizzling between them.

“Does that answer your question?” If it didn’t, Drake wasn’t certain they could ever touch one another again. His mouth on hers was like lighting a stick of dynamite.

She nodded, touching her lips with trembling fingers. “I’ve never liked kissing,” she explained. She pressed her lips together, as if holding on to his kiss. “That was definitely not my normal reaction.”

“Thank God for that,” Drake said, meaning it. The thought of her kissing any other man like that was enough to make him want to commit murder.

“I had to know.” Saria looked a little dazed. She looked up at him expectantly. “So, okay then.”

Her lashes were incredibly long. He leaned close and brushed the corner of her eye with his mouth. “Okay what?”

“Do it. I want you to do whatever you said that leopard did to me. I don’ want him. If I’m goin’ to really turn into a female leopard totally out of control, I want you.” She stared directly into his eyes. “I’m makin’ the choice. I want it to be you, not some other male I don’ want to be with.”

His cock jerked beneath the warmth of her palm. His fingers shackled her wrist and he gently lifted her hand away before he lost all reason. His mouth went dry and his heart pounded too hard, too loud, too fast. “Honey, you don’t know what you’re saying. If I put my mark on you and your leopard accepts me, we’re making a lifetime commitment. I would never let you go. We’d be married, have children and do all those things you’re not so certain you want to do. I’m not a boy to have a crush on. You have to be certain you know what you’re getting into.”

“I’m tryin’ to figure it all out,” Saria said, and took the water bottle from him again. She tipped the contents down her throat. “You told me this is goin’ to happen again, right?”

He leaned over to lick a lingering drop of water from the edge of her lip before he could stop himself. They stared at one another. He felt a little as if he were falling into that dark expanse of chocolate as he barely managed a nod of assent.

“Then I want you. Whatever happens, you’re a man of honor and I can live with that.”

She didn’t know what she was giving to him. She was too young and had no idea of the laws of their people. “Once we consummate our relationship, if a man touches you, one of our people, a leopard, he’s challenging me to fight to the death for you, Saria. Understand this. I am leopard, born and bred in the rain forests and even as a man I have the law of that world imprinted into my bones. I live by that law. I would fight for you with the last breath in my body.”