She took a breath, studying his face, her eyes searching his. He knew she was looking for hope. “Do you really think we have a chance to live a life here, Eli?”

“For a while. We’ve got time. He can’t trace us here. The ranch can’t be traced to me. Even the DEA doesn’t know about it. Cordeau’s got eyes and ears, but we’re gone. My neighbor will close ranks with us, and once your leopard emerges we’ll be able to figure out our next move.”

“You said we’d visit the neighbor after my leopard emerges. Why not before?”

He leveled a gaze at her. “Baby. Really? And when she suddenly comes close to the surface and you need me riding you hard, we going to do it on the neighbor’s kitchen floor?”

She blushed again and gently removed her hand from his to push at her long hair. “I see. I hadn’t thought of that. I guess I thought I’d gain control.”

“There is no controlling a mating heat, Cat, no matter how much we both might want to. When she decides to show herself, you’ll be on fire. I’ll be on fire and both the cats will be. We just have to hang on to each other wherever we are and ride it out.”

She tugged her lower lip between her teeth. “How much longer?”

“I don’t know. No one ever knows. The male shifter is aware of his leopard almost from birth, but the female knows absolutely nothing until the human cycle lines up with the leopard’s cycle.”

“Um . . . Eli,” she said softly. “You aren’t using birth control.”

“It doesn’t work on shifters. You either get pregnant or you don’t.”

“Condoms?” She raised her eyebrow.

“You’ve seen me, babe, how I’m built, and we don’t just have sex. We have rough sex. I’ve never known condoms to work on a shifter either.”

“What about when you have sex with a woman who isn’t a shifter?”

“Birth control works on humans.” He pushed off the table. “Get dressed, Kitten, let’s start our conditioning.”

She stared up at him for a few more minutes as though she might protest the truth of what he said. But it was truth, and he had no more to give her. He wanted time alone with her, but if a baby came along, he was fine with that. He hoped she would be too.

“You could have warned me,” she pointed out.

“Would it have made any difference when your leopard was close?”

She shook her head. Honest. “No, I guess not.”

He watched her walk away, wishing he could read her mind.

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