She pressed her lips together against another sob. He couldn’t take the scorching fire beckoning his cock. He surged in hard and deep, driving past the thin barrier of her innocence so she cried out at the shocking bite of pain, arching her hips upward and closing her eyes.

He stilled, watched her face, waited for her eyes to come back to him. Her lashes lifted and he saw himself reflected there. The lines carved deep, the stamp of near brutality, of ruthless savagery. He was leopard all right, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t make it good for her. Perfect for her.

He began to move inside of her, pushing through her tight, scorching folds, that fiery inferno that he knew he would always crave. The entire time he watched her face. Watched the tension coiling in her. Watched the beauty of helpless need. He loved the way her breath was so ragged and the way her eyes glazed. Her lips parted, and beneath him her body rose to match the rhythm of his.

He took her with hard, pounding strokes, going as deep as possible, burying himself to the very root, bumping her cervix, wanting to go so deep he would lodge in her belly. He took her up again, loving the way her head tossed on the pillow and her hair spilled around her like living, breathing silk.

He was relentless, refusing to let her go over the edge again, taking her higher and higher until he saw alarm spread and she clutched at his shoulders, her nails biting deep.

“Ask for it, Kitten. Say my name and ask me for it.” She had to know it was Eli Perez, not some mythical Ridley Cromer or a bastard like Rafe Cordeau.

Eli was there with her, not either of them. And she was his. She would always be his, because already he could see he’d set up the craving, that terrible addiction he knew came with being a leopard.

For a moment she tried to hold out, but fear skittered down her spine. He could read it in her wild blue gaze. Staring into her eyes, he slipped his thumb into her and pressed against her clit. She gasped. He removed his thumb and tipped her hips to give him the perfect angle so that the friction was on that sweet little button.

“Eli. I need this.”

“From me,” he prompted.

She nodded her head, then thrashed again. Desperate. Hot. Needy. Scared. “From you. From Eli.”

He slammed home, taking her with him on the crazy, wild ride. He felt her body tighten to the point of strangulation but he didn’t stop driving into her. She screamed. Her body nearly seized and then the orgasm tore through her hard and fast and mean, a powerful quake that persisted when he was swept along with her. The splash of his seed hot and strong gave her an additional powerful quake.