Her breath hissed out of her lungs in a long, slow rush of confusion. There was no denying the honesty of his declaration, she could hear it in his voice. He wasn’t saying he was in love, but he wanted her for Evangeline, not her leopard. That made it even harder to try to find resistance when she really needed to. His hands were a miracle. She never wanted him to stop. Never. She couldn’t help but equate the massage with caring. He was so gentle. He paid attention to detail.

She hadn’t known a man could touch her that way. His hands like magic, moving over her skin, finding every place that hurt, releasing the tension until she wanted to cry with relief. At the same time, his hands brought her something else, heat and liquid need. Hunger that was pleasant, not sharp and terrible. It built gradually, but wasn’t so overwhelming that it scared her. The feeling only added to the pleasure.

“You want to keep your bakery. I want to lock you up somewhere safe. You get to keep your bakery because it means that much to you. Keeping you safe means that much to me, but making certain you’re happy does as well.” He rubbed more oil between his hands to heat it before rubbing down the center of her back and then flaring out to get every sore muscle. “So cameras, bulletproof glass, guards. We’ll make it work.”

“Bulletproof glass?” she echoed. She couldn’t find the energy for anger, not when his hands were magic. But still, she couldn’t let him get away with it. “The truck driving through my window.”

“Timur is nothing if not thorough.”

“I’ll spit in his coffee tomorrow.”

There was a small silence, and she opened her eyes just enough to look up at his face. There was that fleeting flash of amusement, as if every bit of humor had been stamped or beat out of him and he couldn’t hold on to it. But he felt it. She gave him that and she liked giving it to him.

“Livin’ with a violent man and an equally violent leopard.” She blurted out the worst of her fears. He needed to know because there was nothing to be done about that. Nothing. That was the deal breaker. He could compromise or she could on almost everything else, but how did one fix that?

“Are you afraid of me, Evangeline? Afraid that I’ll hurt you?”