Leopard 04 - Wild Fire

defensively.
    That seemed to amuse him. He handed her a towel. “Do you really think you can fight me and win?
    Don’t be silly. I’m not a man who would deliberately hit a woman. There has to be a very good reason.”
    “Why in the world did you ever work for Imelda Cortez, let alone kidnap children for her?” she asked, rubbing the water—and Conner’s scent—as best she could from her skin. Keep him talking and calm, she reminded herself. Be interested in him.
    She pushed past him and found her backpack, jerking out a pair of jeans and yanking them on quickly.
    She glanced at him over her shoulder. “You sold out your own people.”
    He watched her with the unblinking eyes of a cat. “They aren’t my people. They threw me out. I owe them no loyalty.”
    She frowned as she pulled a T-shirt on and turned to face him, doing her best to look a little sympathetic.
    “Why would they do that?” She was interested, that part wasn’t a lie. She hoped she was staying close to the truth. She’d admitted she was scared of him. Maybe he’d make allowances.
    He shrugged, but for the first time a ripple of emotion crossed his face. “Our laws are archaic and make no sense. If a hunter kills one of us in leopard form—even though it’s against the law of man—we’re to just allow them to get away with it. One killed my baby brother. I hunted him down and killed him. The elders called it murder and banished me. In other words, I’m dead to the village. I figure if I’m dead to them, they are to me and I owe them no loyalty.”
    “How terrible.” And she meant it. If a family felt there was no justice in a killing, how did they go on?
    “That still doesn’t explain someone as evil as Imelda Cortez and why you would choose to reveal your species to her.”
    He stepped back to allow her to proceed him through the door into the next room. “Cortez offered me a living and I took her up on it. Eventually I knew I’d kill her, so what the hell difference does it make what she knows? She can’t prove it and if she tells anyone, they’ll think she’s insane—which she is. I can smell it on her.”
    She swallowed fear. He said it so casually. Eventually I knew I’d kill her. “Is that what you’re going to do to me eventually? Kill me when you get tired of me?”
    He shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way.” He caught her wrist, jerking her around, forcing her palm to circle the hard length of him, his fingers fisting tight around hers. “You put this there. I go to bed like this and get up like this. It isn’t going to go away until we’re together. And I imagine it will be back often, every bit as painful.”
    She stomped as hard as she could on his instep and spun, slamming her elbow into his ribs, continuing around as he freed her hand, aiming a back-fist at his face. He was already on her, taking her to the floor, dropping hard so that she slammed into the wood, cracking her head, his superior weight on top of her.
    She saw stars, and had to fight to keep from passing out. Struggling wildly, she tried to throw him off. He drove a knee into the small of her back and pinned her wrists together, his strength enormous. She lay crushed beneath him, tears burning in her eyes and throat.
    “You don’t know much about men, do you, Isabeau,” he said softly. “Some men get turned on by a Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    woman fighting him. Lie quietly. Just take a breath. I said I wouldn’t hurt you if possible, and I meant it.”
    She let herself weep for a moment before making an effort to pull herself back together. His free hand stroked her hair as if soothing her. When the tension drained out of her, he got off her and pulled her to her feet, forcing her across the room to the same chair. Once she was seated in the chair, he put both hands on the arms of the chair and bent his face close to hers.
    She gathered herself. Head-butting might work. Or punching him hard right in the middle of that very large erection.
    His eyes met hers and he shook his head slowly. “The first time, I let it go because you’re frightened of me. But you attack me again and I’ll retaliate.”
    She blinked up at him, one hand going defensively to her throat. “Today’s my wedding day,” she admitted. “I married him.”
    His expression didn’t change. “I don’t really give a damn. You knew better, or at least you should have.”
    She studied his face, that