“Solnyshko moyo, that would be impossible. You are the most fearless woman I’ve ever met. You stand when you shouldn’t, even in the face of bullets. You had an opportunity to run, but you didn’t take it, even knowing I might be angry. You have more passion in your little finger than most people do in their entire bodies. Everything I’ve said or done so far has shown me you’re exactly who I need most. The last thing you’re going to do is run from pleasure, and I’ll always, always bring you pleasure.”

She kept her eyes steady on his. “What if I don’ want to do something?”

“Then it isn’t done.” He bent his head and kissed the inside of her left thigh and then proceeded to suckle there to leave his own personal brand. When the strawberry was satisfactory, he pressed his finger to her slick entrance, bit down in the center of the mark and pushed his finger deep into her.

Her hips bucked and she arched her back, crying out. A flood of scorching liquid heat gripped him like a velvet fist. His cock raged at him. He brought his head up so he could survey his handiwork. “Did you feel your response? You can’t fake that, solnyshko moyo. You like what I do to you.”

“What if it’s something you really, really want and I can’t do it?” she pressed.

He had to clamp his arm tightly on her hips to keep her still. “Then we talk about it, find out what you fear, and it is up to me to alleviate those fears. I would never do anything without your consent. Even tonight, telling you I would find you. I would, Evangeline.” He kissed his way up her other thigh, his heart contracting. “But I would persuade you to come back with me. Leaving me after my leopard claimed yours is tantamount to putting a gun to my head and pulling the trigger. After you gave yourself to me. You know that. That’s why you stayed.”

“It’s not. I stayed for you. Because I need to be with you.”

His heart nearly exploded at her whispered admission. “If I haven’t told you enough, or you don’t get this, Ya tebya lyublyu. I’ve never said that to another soul, man or woman, and I know it is the stark, naked truth.” His voice wasn’t his own. His body wasn’t his own. He belonged to her. Every part of him. The bad could protect her, the good, what little there was, he would use to make her as happy as possible.