He brushed kisses along her temple and trailed more to the corner of her mouth. His hand slid over her breasts, which he swore were already fuller, down to the soft pooch that was her belly. He loved that pooch. It was forming fast. His baby. His child. He wanted a son only because he was certain if he had a daughter she would make him as crazy as her mother already did.

“Baby, wake up for me, mi vida, just for a minute.”

She murmured sleepily, and the drowsy note hardened his cock, but then just about everything about her managed to do that. She didn’t turn away from him, although she had to be exhausted. Her arm slid around his waist and her hand slipped down his hip. He loved when she did that. As if she was wrapping him up with her.

“Tell me what you need, honey,” she whispered, her voice soft and husky with sleep.

“You give me whatever I want?”

Her head tilted and her long lashes lifted. He felt the impact of her green eyes piercing his heart. “Anything, Elijah.”

The absolute conviction in her voice turned him inside out. He caught her wrist and inspected it, there in the dark, using his leopard’s vision to make certain there were no bruises. He hadn’t used soft scarves like he should have. He hadn’t thought to keep them handy, in the drawer beside the bed. He’d had metal handcuffs, not comfortable, and he’d been a little feral. They had been letting the leopards out nightly and his male was ravenous for the female, feeding his own desire for Siena.

He brought her wrist to his mouth. “Gotta go, baby. I’ve got all kinds of shit to do. I’ve got a couple of boys taking you over to Emma’s and they’ll bring you home whenever you want. I need you resting. I kept you up, and the leopards were out a long time.”

“Where are you going?”

He ignored her question. “If you want to try your hand at cooking, I’ll be home for dinner. I had my grandmother’s recipes translated for you and I left the book on the island in the kitchen. Groceries are in as well. If you don’t feel up to it, that’s all right, call me on my cell, leave a message and I’ll pick something up on the way home.” He brushed another kiss along her wrist. “You feeling all right?”

She’d been sick a lot lately. She didn’t ever complain. She just went into the bathroom, and he could hear her as her stomach rebelled every single morning and several times throughout the day. She was fairly pale. He was careful not to have her go down on him anymore. He didn’t want to make her morning sickness worse.

“I’m good. Don’t worry about me.”