Leopard's Prey(144)
“I told you to get out of there.” His eyes went glacier blue, always a bad sign. “You could have been killed. I know you heard me. Maybe not out loud, but you knew I wanted you out of there, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” she admitted complacently. She snuggled closer to him.
“Gage told you to stay the hell out of there, to wait for backup, didn’t he?” Remy insisted. “And you heard him.”
She looked up at him. Met his beautiful cat’s eyes. “Yes, I did.” Totally unrepentant.
“And you ignored all of us.”
She smiled at him. “Of course. Did you really think I’d leave you with him? He’s a genius, an amazing creative artist, but he’s totally insane. The FBI is taking over from here. They’ll put him in a hospital for the criminally insane.”
“Bijou, you didn’t even have a weapon. Not even a gun.”
“He would have cut out your eyes just to try to capture a way to reproduce them. Or maybe he would have tortured you to try to get you to look like the hunter again. Whatever he planned, Remy, I wasn’t about to leave you there alone with him.”
“You took a hell of a chance. He could have killed you.”
Bijou wasn’t going to back down or apologize, or even give him reassurances that it would never happen again. She loved Remy. He was hers. Her family. She would protect him just as fiercely as he protected everyone around them. She realized how difficult it must have been for a man like him—a man of action—an alpha leopard—to lie helpless and see his mate put herself in harm’s way for him. But he had to understand and accept who she was.
“I’m probably the only person in the world who was safe from him. He saw me as a person, as real. Not one of his life-forms.”
“That’s not the point.”
“No, it isn’t. Even if I knew he’d try to kill me, I would have gone in after you and I would have done the exact same thing. Stall. Get into a position to attack him if he made a move against you, and I would have done it.”
He huffed out his breath. “You’re in so much trouble. The minute I get you alone.”
She laughed softly, happily. “I’ve been in trouble every night since you got out of the hospital. Your . . . um . . . punishment is kind of sexy.”
Immediately she felt his reaction. His body moved more tightly against hers, his thick hard length pressing into her through their clothing. He groaned softly. “Don’ say sexy. We have to get through the celebration and be civilized for a little while here.”
“You brought it up.”
He bent his head to her exposed neck. Her hair was up in an intricate do that made her look more elegant and very much the lady, out of his class. He couldn’t wait to start removing pins and letting all that soft silk fall all over his skin. His teeth teased at the vulnerable spot between her neck and shoulder.
“As a warnin’, Bijou. I need to spank you a little bit harder to get your attention.”
She laughed, winding her arms around his neck, trying to melt into his body. “You have my attention, Remy Boudreaux. You’ll always have my attention. I’m madly, crazy in love with you.”
“I know,” he said complacently.
She dug her fingers into his ribs. He hunched a little, laughing.
“I know? That’s your romantic response when I declare undying love for you?”
“Well, I do know.” His eyes were even laughing.
“Your sexual skills are quite up to par so now we’re goin’ to have to work on your romance skills,” she told him.
“Up to par? Did you just say up to par? Woman, you really are askin’ for trouble. Superior skills in that department.” He danced her off the dance floor and right around the corner of the building, across the sprawling lawn down to the grove of trees. “We’re getting the hell out of here so I can do a little provin’ of my point.”
“We can’t just run away from our own wedding celebration,” she protested, but she didn’t stop moving.
Remy tugged at her hand. “I know you’re especially good at undressin’, Blue. Try doin’ it on the run.”
His jacket and tie went floating behind him.
“Oh my God, you’re serious,” Bijou exclaimed, caught somewhere between laughter and shock. “I’m in a wedding dress.”
His hand tore at the pins in her hair even as he dragged her through the trees toward the swamp. “And it’s damned beautiful, but I personally like you with no clothes on. And so do our leopards. Come on, Blue, let’s be bad.”
“There’re like a million buttons.”