“That isn’t going to happen.” He said it quietly with a heavy note of finality.

She heard the note. Processed it instantly. He saw knowledge on her face. Wariness crept into her eyes, into her expression. Her tongue touched her bottom lip, that full bottom lip he wanted to bite. He dreamt of biting it. Now it was going to happen.

She shook her head and took another step back, throwing up her hand, palm out facing him, warding him off. So fragile. So little. Such a small thing to think she could hold back the force of an Amurov. “I’ll admit I flirted with the idea. I had a hard time with the idea of givin’ anyone else a chance because I was so attracted to you, but it isn’t right. What’s between us isn’t right. You clearly didn’t want it when I was dancin’ around the idea and now I know I don’t want it.”

“You do.”

Faint color crept up her body, flushed the curves of her breasts, her neck and face. Her chin lifted. “Maybe I am physically attracted to you, Alonzo, but I don’ have to act on it. You put cameras in my place of business like a stalker. You have me followed home every night. You brought horrible people into my bakery, men with guns, and there was nearly a shoot-out. Don’ pretend that didn’t happen because it did.”

He liked that even angry and afraid—and she was both—her voice was pitched low. She always talked softly, and that soothed him just as it did his leopard. “I put cameras in your business to protect you, so someone I trusted had eyes on you when I wasn’t here. I put you in danger by coming here, I know that, but I couldn’t stop myself. I have you escorted home. They’re visible to protect you from any enemy I have that might think to strike at me through you. You’re my one vulnerability. The only one I have. I can’t stay away so I have to protect you.”

She opened her mouth twice to protest what he said. He knew she could throw attitude and sass at him, but she wouldn’t do it just for the sake of throwing it. She was a reasonable woman and she would hear the ring of truth in his voice because her leopard would hear it.

“I didn’t want to keep coming here and putting you in jeopardy. Believe me, Evangeline, I know how selfish it was, but when I’m here, you make my world okay for just a little bit. I don’t know if I would have survived it intact had I managed to find the strength to leave you alone. And I tried. Five weeks, four days, three hours and twenty-seven minutes I made it. Each one of those days was agony.”

“Alonzo . . .”