Rio crouched beside the injured cat, his hands incredibly gentle as he examined the leopard. Her heart nearly turned over in her chest. His head was bent toward Fritz, his expression almost tender as he murmured softly to the cat. She had a sudden vision of him cradling his child, looking down lovingly, his thumb in the baby’s tiny hand. He suddenly lifted his head and looked at her and smiled.

If it were possible to melt, Rachael was certain she did. His eyebrow arched. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m trying to figure out what it is about you,” Rachael answered honestly. His face was no boy’s face. His features were tough and hard-edged. His eyes could be ice-cold, frightening even, yet sometimes when she looked at him, Rachael couldn’t breathe with wanting him.

Rio’s hand stilled on the small leopard. She could shake him with just a simple sentence. It was terrifying to think of the hold she already had on him, especially since he had long ago accepted he would live alone. His life was here, in the rain forest. It was where he belonged, where he understood the rules and lived by them. He studied her face. A mystery woman with a silly made-up name.

The beast roared and Rio embraced the rising temper. He didn’t want to see the expression on her face, her gaze drifting over his face with a mixture of emotions, feminine and confused, a tenderness he couldn’t afford. “The rules are different here in the rain forest, Rachael. Be very careful.”

As always she surprised him, her laughter invading his senses and squeezing his heart. “If you’re trying to scare me, Rio, there’s nothing you can do I haven’t already seen. I’m not easily shocked or easily frightened. I knew the day my mother died, back when I was nine years old, that the world wasn’t a safe place and there were bad people in it.” She waved a dismissing hand, princess to the peasant. “Save your scare tactics for Kim Pang, or whoever else you want to impress.”

Rio gave the small leopard one last pat, reached out casually to scratch Franz’s ears before straightening to his full height, towering over her, filling the room with his extraordinary presence. He looked very uncivilized, completely untamed and at home in the wilds of the forest. When he moved, there was a fluid grace she’d only seen in predatory animals. When he ceased all movement, he was utterly, completely still. It was intimidating, but Rachael would never admit it.

“You’d be surprised at what I can do.” He said it quietly, and there was a soft, underlying menace to his tone.