His gaze scanned the room, landed on the dough she had ready to make the beignets with. He inhaled deeply, dragging in the scent of sex. He couldn’t fail to notice it. Fury burned across his expression, making her shiver, and then it was gone and his cool mask was back in place.

“Sit down, Catarina,” he said. It was an order, but as usual, he couched it in low, soft tones.

He wanted to build her terror. She could see it was important to him that she feared him. Most of his employees were frightened of him for good reason. If they did something he didn’t like, he took them into a room and scared the hell out of them without ever raising his voice. They did it again, they disappeared, never to be seen, and Rafe’s leopard was a very satisfied hunter.

She complied, moving to the chair at the end of the table. She should have known it wouldn’t work to try to keep a distance from him. He simply toed a chair close and straddled it, face-to-face with her, his demon eyes burning into her.

“You left again. I told you what would happen. Why did you leave me?”

“You killed April.”

“That’s it? That’s the reason?”

She pressed her lips together and then tugged her lower lip between her teeth briefly to show him she was nervous. “You didn’t like me very much, Rafe. I tried so hard and no matter what I did, you pushed me away from you. I hated what you did to April, but even after that I tried to take care of you the only way I knew how, but then you . . .” Deliberately she trailed off. Ducked her head. Looked at her hands, twisting her fingers together in the way she knew he didn’t like.

Rafe preferred stillness and he’d been on her all the time about learning to be absolutely still. Now, she realized he’d been preparing her for her leopard in his own way.

He reached out and gently laid his hand over hers to stop the movement of her fingers. “Be still, Catarina,” he said, in the same low tone, but his dominant male leopard retreated even a little more.

Without the leopard driving him to dominate or kill, Rafe would be easier to manipulate. She nodded her head and allowed her hands to relax under his. She remembered his hands forcing hers into the well of April’s blood and she nearly jerked away from him, the memory was so vivid. She could actually smell the blood for a moment, but she held it together.