He pressed his forehead tight against hers. “Restin’ is good. As much as you can. But no thinkin’ about anything. You have to wait for me to talk this out. I know it was a shock to find out about your leopard, but there are more of us than you think. We have rules that govern us and you have to abide by them. Saria is leopard, and she can answer any questions you have until I get back. Clearly, it isn’t something known and we don’ ever talk about it to outsiders.”

“Because you’d all be locked up as insane,” Bijou pointed out pulling back. She reached for the sheet and pulled it up over her breasts in sudden modesty.

“Because we’d be hunted and killed,” Remy corrected, needing her to understand the importance of absolute secrecy. He cupped her breasts through the sheet, making his claim on her and her body. Satisfaction flooded when his thumb found her nipple a hard peak.

Bijou recoiled subtly, a slight withdrawing, not quite pulling away from him, but he felt her retreat as a stab around his heart. He actually put his palm over his heart to ease the ache. He and Bijou had a long way to go, and he realized she had trusted him before, so easily, but now there was a space between them and he couldn’t quite breach it. She definitely was his physically, but she’d moved away from him emotionally and he wanted her back.

He sighed as he slid out of bed. “I know you’re confused about us and the leopard . . .”

She held up her hand and shook her head. “I’m not thinkin’ about that yet. I’m just pretending you bit me and infected me with some rare blood disease and it will all go away.”

She made him smile. No matter what, her sense of humor crept in at times when she was afraid or even angry. She had every right to be confused.

“Talk to Saria, chere, if you need questions answered before I can get back. This will take some time.”

“I’m fine with it takin’ time. Take all the time you need.”

That wasn’t her sense of humor. She was quite serious. She wanted him gone, just as she hadn’t wanted him in her bed when they’d returned from the swamp. He went into the bathroom and pulled himself together as fast as possible, brushing his teeth and inspecting the rake marks across his side and chest. Robert had gotten in a few licks of his own and Remy hadn’t even noticed. There were a few bad bruises, the consequences of a strong leopard hitting another one. Robert would wake up with far worse.