He opened the door to the master bedroom. Immediately her scent hit him. Surrounded him. He breathed her into his lungs. Took her deep. The door to the bathroom was open, but there was no sound coming from inside that room. For one moment his world went black. Completely black. The air left his lungs and his heart pounded in his chest. He heard a roaring in his head. Pure thunder. Had he been wrong about Alonzo? Had the man distracted his team enough that someone else had gotten through the security lines?

He moved fast, using his leopard’s speed, his stealth, leaping across the room to the door, his gun out and ready, his heart in his throat. She was there. In the bathtub. Her head was back against the slope of the tub, eyes closed. Her hair was on top of her head, and in spite of the knot, a riot of waves cascaded down around her face.

Air rushed back into his lungs. He pushed the gun into his waistband at the small of his back. For a moment his legs felt like rubber. Clear water lapped at her breasts. She was sound asleep. Still exhausted. The leopards had gone at it all night, and then he’d claimed his woman. He hadn’t been particularly gentle. She wore his mark all over her body and he was dick enough to love the sight of his brand on her skin.

He padded across the room, eyes on her. That beautiful, gorgeous sight was his. His heart settled into a more natural rhythm, but it beat hard and the lump in his throat still refused to go away. He’d had nothing in his life. Nothing clean and good. No sunshine when he walked into a room. No woman who didn’t give a damn that his name was Elijah Lospostos and his family was pure shit.

When she’d come to his front door he’d thrown her out. Dios. Dios mio, he was such a fool. He knelt beside the tub and tested the water. It was growing cold. Too cold. He swept his knuckles down the side of her face gently.

“Baby, wake up. You can’t sleep here.”

Her long, feathery lashes lifted slowly and his already hard cock went from aching to painful when those green eyes took him in. Turned soft. Loving. Dios, Dios mio, he was the luckiest bastard on the face of the earth.

“Hey,” she greeted softly, blinking sleepily.

He loved the drowsy, sexy look on her face. He could wake up to that every morning. He loved looking at her face when he made her come, the pure, sensual dazed shock she got on her face, the way she got lost in his eyes and his body. Gave herself up completely to him.