His body shuddered. “You aren’t helping.” He couldn’t resist seeing for himself. His fingers found her hot core and yes, she was wet for him. Scared of his leopard and still wet for him. Perfect for him. Perfect.

He kissed her hard, plundering her mouth, taking her tongue and taking command. She gave herself to him, her mouth moving under his, following his lead, tentative, but still opening to him. It took a moment for him to get himself under control, to feel the small trembling in her body. When he lifted his head, her gaze shifted from his immediately and dropped to her hands.

“Don’t, baby, don’t do that.” He caught her chin in his hand and tipped her face up. “Don’t be embarrassed because you want me. There isn’t anything wrong with it.”

She nodded, pressing her lips together, but her eyes didn’t quite meet his.

“Catarina. You know what I want.” His hand went to the nape of her neck, fingers moving gently on her tension-filled muscles.

Eli waited until her eyes were on his. He nodded approvingly. “Thank you, Cat.” He kept his voice gentle with an effort. “Now talk to me. What’s going on in your head right now?”

“Maybe I don’t want to talk about it, Eli.”

“I get that.” He wasn’t used to prying things out of people. He rarely asked twice and very few men argued with him, let alone women. Most recognized the alpha, never understanding a good portion of that was his leopard. She recognized the leopard and she still struggled against his authority. “I do, Kitten. But this is about you coming to terms with our future. If we don’t talk, bring things out into the open, how are we ever going to work things out between us?”

“You just keep pushing me, Eli,” she said. “I need a little breathing room. This is difficult to come to terms with, all of it.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Eli raked a hand through his hair. “I’d give you all the time in the world if we had it, Cat, but we don’t. She’s so close my leopard is getting crazy. We have to be right, you and me, solid. You have to know you can count on me. You’ll be scared and you won’t know what to do. I’ll be the one seeing you through it and I want to make it as easy as possible. So talk to me.”

Her eyes shifted again. He waited. He actually counted every one of his heartbeats. He couldn’t allow her to win this one. It was too important. She did deserve all the time in the world, but they didn’t have it and that was a fact. He remained absolutely silent and still, focusing his eyes on her, his will.