“If my leopard hadn’t emerged, he would have hunted me in the swamp.”

For some reason, Eli couldn’t bring himself to believe that. He wasn’t certain Cordeau was as devoid of feelings for her as she believed. Cordeau had shown a few protective instincts, not just possessive ones. The DEA had quite a long file on the man, dating back to when she was just a child. She’d gone up a tree, a tall one and she’d taken a nasty fall.

Cordeau had been conducting a business meeting with two of his local distributors and he’d launched himself from his chair, sprinting to break her fall. They had a series of photographs and two of them showed his face very clearly. It hadn’t been the face of a man who didn’t care, but Eli wasn’t going to tell her that. Not now, maybe never, and that made him an even bigger bastard. Strangely, both of the distributors had disappeared about two months later, neither body ever found.

“You don’t know that for certain, Cat.”

She shrugged. He caught the front of her shirt in his fists and tugged her closer as he leaned down and brushed a comforting kiss across her mouth.

“I’m going to shift. I can go fast or slow. Up close or far away. You tell me how you want it, Cat, and it’s yours.”

She blinked. He realized she hadn’t expected any concessions from him. Her deep cobalt blue eyes searched his face for a long time as if looking for something. It took a few moments and then she took a deep breath. “Up close and fast. Rafe was across the room from me and shifted very slowly. It looked torturous and so scary. I’ve never been so frightened of anything in my life.”

He frowned and stroked his hand down the side of her face, more to soothe her than because he wanted to feel the softness of her skin—and he really wanted to feel how soft she was. “Why up close and fast?”

Her chin went up. “You said how I wanted it was mine to say.”

He studied her face another minute. “Just say my name,” he reminded her.

Catarina nodded, and Eli shifted. It was not just fast, he shifted with blurring speed. He was so fast she nearly missed it because she blinked. One moment he was a large, intimidating man and the next he was a huge leopard. The head on the male seemed almost as big as she was.

There wasn’t time for panicking, she didn’t even scream, her breathing catching in her lungs and holding there, trapped. Gold eyes locked on her, smoldering, pupils dilated. So gold they were pure fire. Focused on her. Unblinking. Absolutely intelligent. Eli’s eyes. She would know his eyes anywhere.