She huffed out her breath a second time, this time harder than the first. On to the second choice, which, really, really sucked because there were a few good things about Eli. He could kiss. Really kiss. Okay, the man was seriously good at kissing. Hot, off the charts kind of kissing, and the moment he put his mouth to hers, she didn’t have a brain anymore. Everything in her head simply fried.

She looked over her shoulder to stare into the cat’s golden eyes. The cat’s head was inches from her, his eyes focused right on hers. The impact was terrible to take. He was beautiful and deadly. She saw it so clearly. And those eyes were Eli’s eyes. She wasn’t going to pretend to herself that Eli wasn’t every bit as dangerous as Rafe was. He could be just as violent, and he would rule her life. That was a given.

She couldn’t think about the pros and cons of staying with Eli, not with the huge leopard hovering over her. She pointed out to the vast tract of land. “Go run.” Like she could order a leopard around. She couldn’t order the man around. She clearly couldn’t take care of herself, even after all the effort she put into learning how. “Do it or just bite me really hard. It shouldn’t take you long to kill me, so that or go run.”

Eli. Any relationship they had would be all about sex. Not for a baby shifter, but for raw, insane, scorching hot, burn in hell forever sex. She would be totally consumed by him. Totally. His voice alone made her shiver. He knew how to use his hands, his mouth, his tongue and most definitely his cock. He was brilliant with that.

She knew he was rough and a little crude. He had tats she wanted to spend hours poring over and maybe even tracing with her tongue. She’d considered that in the warehouse before he’d ever kissed her. Amazing eyes. His body was hard and powerful and just plain hot—like his sex.

She wanted to hit her head against a wall. Option number two wasn’t looking much better than option number one, because when Rafe chose to end the relationship he’d just kill her. When Eli chose to end it, he would destroy her and leave her alive.

The cat rubbed up against her a little harder, chuffed a little softer and nudged her side as it leapt to the ground.

Option three, death by leopard, was looking slim. The cat wasn’t going to pounce on her and kill her. He stretched languidly, and with one more look over his shoulder, he took off running. The cat was a thing of beauty, the muscles rippling effortlessly beneath the fur, the run silent. The cat definitely looked like freedom personified.