No one in her entire life had touched her with such tenderness. Such exquisite gentleness. She’d never had care, and this felt like caring. There was no resisting Fyodor when he was like this. She could barely believe it was the same scary man with the violent leopard she knew him to be.

Fyodor pushed the thick braid of hair from her shoulder and poured oil into his hands, rubbed them together to warm the oil and then dropped them to her nape. His hands were large, his fingers strong as he began to massage her neck. “Tell me what you fear the most, Evangeline. The first thing that comes to mind.”

She answered before she could think about it, her voice drowsy. Almost sensual. Not hers. “You’ll take over and dictate. I’ll have no choice in my life. No control.”

There was a brief silence as he massaged the oil into the tense muscles of her neck and shoulders. “I won’t pretend I’m an easy man. I’m not. Will I try to dictate to you? Of course. Do I think you’ll allow it? No. You’re a strong woman and I admire that in you. You’ll know when I won’t budge on something and I’ll learn the same about you.”

“You’ve already taken away choices.” She didn’t look at him, preferring to keep her eyes closed so she could absorb the feel of his hands moving over her tense, tight muscles. It was paradise, another pleasure she’d never experienced.

“Only one, devochka moya, you cannot run from me. There is no escape. You’ve been claimed. The rest of it is all choice. You can choose whether or not to love me. You can choose to keep your bakery. You have more choices than I do in this thing between us. I cannot be far from you or my leopard is mad with rage. With you, he is calm and I don’t have him raking and clawing for blood.”

“I don’ want to be wanted because I calm a leopard.” She murmured that truth as well. There was no lying to a leopard, and right then she didn’t want to. He’d given her a glimpse into his childhood and that alone made her want honesty between them.

“Do you think that’s even possible, devochka moya? Because I do not. I came to your bakery for you, not your leopard. I may have suspected you were a shifter eventually, because of the way my male reacted, but not at first. No, you are not wanted for your leopard alone, Evangeline.”