But she was smiling. Looking at him. Before she’d been afraid to even chance a look. Eli stepped back away from her before it was too late. He prowled across the room, paced back and forth to release the energy built up in his body. He was a man who needed sex. Lots of sex, but now, with her so close to him, he needed it all the time. His leopard was a handful on the best of days, but with Eli’s body painfully hard for what seemed like every minute of the day, his leopard was roaring for Catarina’s submission.

“I’m making another coffee,” he announced. “Do you want one?”

“Sure. That would be nice,” she ventured.

She just stood there, her back to the counter, her long hair gleaming like a waterfall after midnight, her eyes still a little dazed and if she didn’t move, he was going to sit her up on the counter, put his mouth between her legs and have her for breakfast.

“Baby.” He sighed the endearment.

“Mmm?”

His cock jerked. Threatened to burst through his jeans. “Fix our breakfast.”

“Oh. Yeah. I knew I was doing something.”

That made him smile and the fierce edge to his temper was gone just like that. He went to the coffee machine and began the process. “I want to make certain you understand the rule we’ve got going in this house.” He kept his back to her. He could hear her chopping vegetables and she was fast at it. There wasn’t a second’s hesitation. She’d be good with a throwing knife.

“Rule?” she murmured, already distracted.

He didn’t want her distracted. “Cat, look at me.” He turned his head to look over his shoulder, waited for the full impact of her beautiful blue eyes on his. “When you wake up, where does your mouth go?”

“Seriously, Eli? That can’t be a rule.”

“It’s a rule.”

“I might have morning breath. Or I might have to go to the bathroom. Or I just might want to wake up before you and sit on the porch with a cup of coffee. That can’t be a rule,” she protested.

She stood there, gesturing with the knife, a little frown on her face. Her eyes were bluer than the deepest sea, and her hair was everywhere, falling in sheets to her waist. Her beauty took his breath.

“It’s a rule,” he repeated. “You wake up, your mouth belongs either of those two places. After that, you can do any damn thing you want.”

“Lucky me.” She went back to her chopping.

He found himself smiling. She didn’t argue with him and he was fairly certain he’d made his point.