Total pages in book: 172
Estimated words: 155984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
His stomach tightened. His cock instantly hardened. “Midafternoon, baby. You haven’t been asleep that long.” She looked almost fragile, dark circles under her eyes.
The doc had been waiting for them when they’d come back that afternoon, sitting in his truck, ignoring Shturm’s warning snarls. He’d barely glanced at the two leopards as they padded up onto the porch. Shturm nudged Flamme into the house with his heavier shoulder as she all but stumbled, clearly exhausted. The large male sent the doctor several warning glares over his shoulder but the man had continued to stare at his tablet from inside the safety of his truck.
The doctor had waited patiently while Sevastyan had seen to Flambé, showering, bathing and putting the lotion on her with meticulous care before putting her to bed. The doctor had given Flambé the blood clotting shots and then spent some time with Sevastyan teaching him how to give the shots while they talked gene therapy. The doctor wanted him to have Flambé talk the two other strawberry shifter females into coming to him for help as well.
“Who’s here, Sevastyan? You don’t look happy to see them.” She threw back the sheet and put her feet on the floor, stretching, making an effort to wake up.
“Mitya and Ania. I can send them away. You don’t have to see them.” Their relationship was fragile. He didn’t want to take a chance on anything interfering between them.
He narrowed his eyes, looking more closely at her body as she stood. There were faint bruises on her hips and inner thighs. He’d been rough with her. He’d tried to be careful. He stepped closer to her and bent his mouth to brush a kiss over her lips. Was there a shadow along the corner of her mouth? He swept his thumb over it gently.
“You don’t have to send them away, Sevastyan. I’ll go take a shower and be right down. It just takes me a minute to wake up, that’s all,” she protested, frowning at him. “You’ve still got that look on your face.” She reached up and rubbed at his mouth. “What’s wrong?”
“Was I too rough with you? It’s impossible to be gentle, Flambé.” He tried to stay in control, but the leopards were rising, she was so out of control, the sex was so good, everything came together in such a perfect storm. Yet he worried about the rare condition she had and if they could get her leopard out before her nerves began to flare too badly. She had to have rough or touching caused tremendous pain.
Flambé wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face against his chest, shocking him. She rarely gave him any kind of sign of affection. “You’re never too rough with me, Sevastyan. You give me exactly what I need and want. You take unbelievably great care of me.” She tipped her face up to his. “I’ll be very fast at getting ready, I promise.”
To cover the way his heart accelerated, he brought his palm up to cup the back of her scalp but shook his head. “I want you to follow the routine Doc laid out.” When she made a face at him, he gave her a stern look. “To the letter. It’s working so far. We’ve got a few more days of your female’s heat and we don’t want to take the chance of anything going wrong. It isn’t going to hurt them to wait and they’ll understand. I’ll make coffee for them, water and food for us and we’ll wait on the front porch for you.” He made it an order even though he tried not to. “As it is, you’ll have to wear clothes and your skin will be sensitive. So, make sure you do everything exactly as the doc laid it out.”
“I knew you were going to be bossy.” She let go of him, gave him a snippy look and headed for the master bath.
Sevastyan made his way downstairs, put on the coffee and met with Mitya and Ania on the front verandah. The property had been in Ania’s family prior to him buying it from her. He’d made quite a few extensive renovations to it and he was a little anxious, afraid she’d be upset. It had been her childhood home and he knew she loved it. Not only had he renovated the house and garages, but a good part of the two hundred acres had been planted in grapes. The Dovers didn’t make wine, but they sold the grapes to a winery. He had reduced the vineyard by half, wanting to replace it with trees.
Ania immediately hugged him, her face lighting up the moment she saw him. If she was upset or uncomfortable with the changes he’d made, she certainly was adept at covering up, and he knew her better than that so he assumed she was fine with them.