His hands moved up her rib cage, the side of her breasts, and then he cupped the soft weight in his palms. “Stay like that baby,” he whispered when she gasped as he tugged at her nipple. “Just like that.” He loved that she was so sensitive and every roll of his fingers put that look on her face. The one that said she was close.

She slid down his shaft a little harder. A little faster. Trying to find it. He took his hands away from her breasts and caught her hips.

“Slow, baby. I like that slow burn.”

“I need . . .” she panted.

“I’ll give it to you,” he assured. “But not yet. I like watching your face. So beautiful, Siena. So mine.” His hands guided her pace back to slow.

The tip of her tongue swept out and moistened her lower lip. He was tempted to capture it, but instead, he rewarded her with his hands on her breasts again. Watching her face. Loving that look. So close. He wasn’t going to let her take herself there. Not yet.

“Drake’s idea was simple but dangerous, baby. I’m head of one of the larger territories. I already had the reputation and the soldiers. I had my finger in just about everything. If we legitimized some of it, but kept our hand in and our reputation, we’d know the violent players. The leopards. We aren’t law enforcement, but we could take them down. Replace them with bosses of our choosing. No one can stop crime completely, but we can shut down a lot of it. Control the flow and how it goes. Keep civilians from getting hurt. When violence occurs, we could essentially keep it to the crime families, not let it leak outside.”

She stopped moving. Stared at him. Her exotic green eyes went emerald. Nearly glowed. Her cat was close.

“Elijah.”

She breathed his name, and for the first time he couldn’t tell how she was taking his news. His hands closed over her breasts, hanging on to her. Needing to feel her moving again. Needing the sweep of her hair against his skin.

“We just set up Joshua Tregre as the boss to take over Rafe Cordeau’s territory. The council will accept him. He’s one of Drake’s main men, but his family has a violent past. He’s believable, and his family is from the New Orleans area, although he was raised in Borneo. He’ll be a huge asset to us and a valuable member of the team. Catarina has been feeding us information about Cordeau’s business and his partners. We know where the money is and every trail to other leopard crime families. Jake is going at it from a different angle, following the businesses. His specialty is to attack them with hostile takeovers.”