She turned her head again to look up at him. Her blue gaze moved over his face, and his entire body tightened. His fingers tangled in her hair again, this time a little tighter, a little more possessively.

“So beautiful, Cat, and all that beauty, all that sexy, is mine. A man finds a woman like you and he walks on water to keep her. You understand that, right? You understand I’m going to love you with everything in me. But I’m keeping you. You can’t show me this, this kind of wake up. You can’t give me this and then expect me to live without it.”

“I understand you don’t hear me when I’m talking to you,” she murmured, and her mouth was back on his belly, her tongue stroking a caress before her lips trailed a blaze of fire from his belly to his cock.

Her mouth slid over him. Hot. Tight. Moist. Like a velvet fist. Her hair draped over his lap and his thighs, spilling across the sheet like a dark waterfall. His head exploded. Fire raced through him. His heart exploded. A storm of emotion. He heard her. Loud and clear. He heard her. His eyes burned and that lump was back in his throat.

Very gently he tugged on her hair to lift her mouth away from him. It was one of the hardest things he’d ever done, leaving the haven of her mouth. He drew her up over his body and rolled gently to tuck her under him. He felt her wince and another small sound escaped, a little groan that strengthened his resolve.

His hands framed her face and stared down into her incredible cobalt eyes. Right now they were deep blue with shades of violet and she looked at him with such a soft, loving expression he nearly lost his resolve with the need to join their bodies together. There was no better place than inside her.

“Baby, I hear you loud and clear. More than anything I want your mouth on me, letting me know how you feel. You can’t know how much that means to me, but even more than that, I want to take care of you. You’re exhausted. You need rest. I’ll settle for kisses this evening. And then I’m going to feed you and massage you. The leopards are going to want out again soon and you’ll need stamina. When they get erotic, so do we. Our emotions are tied together.”

Before she could say anything he took her mouth with every bit of gentle and tender he had in him. It wasn’t much, but all of it was hers. He poured love into her mouth, hoping she could hear him. He was talking to her just as she’d been talking to him. He lifted his head and saw that tears swam in her eyes. Yeah. She heard him.