He smacked her ass. Not hard. Just a little teasing, playful smack that left an intriguing red handprint on her left cheek. He liked it. He bent his head again and pressed a kiss into the middle of the palm print.
“Ouch.” She glared at him. “I’d repay you in kind, but I’m too hungry, Timur. You need to feed me to keep my strength up. Evangeline gave me a couple of days off, so I wouldn’t have all the security guards and their leopards going crazy.”
He liked that there was laughter back in her voice. “That’s a good thing, because I wouldn’t like it if I had to cut out their hearts.”
“You’re so bloodthirsty.”
He laughed and sat all the way up, putting his feet on the floor. He had a few sore muscles himself. “Pancakes?”
Her eyes lit up. “Absolutely.” She was up and off the bed. “I’ll go brush my teeth and join you in the kitchen. I can do prep work.” She was already heading toward the bathroom again. She glanced at him over her shoulder. “I told Evangeline that when I went back to work, I could handle the shop for a few days on my own to give her some time off.”
His first thought was a resounding no. He kept his mouth shut. Evangeline looked as if she needed a few days off, and the reason she’d hired Ashe in the first place was because she needed her. Ashe had the experience, and he’d seen her in action. She was fast. He wouldn’t make up his mind until he’d taken the time to interrogate their prisoner, and he wouldn’t do that for a day or two. He wanted the hit man to have time to stress over his situation. To really think about what it meant to be taken to a place no one knew about. A place that was soundproof and far below the house where he’d come to kill the occupants.
The man had been stripped, so there was no chance of his having a pill to kill himself while he waited for Timur to decide the time was right to ask a few questions. Timur had found the more time given, the easier the interrogation. Imagination was a huge tool in his favor, and right now, he couldn’t leave Ashe. Her female was in heat and that meant his woman needed him as much as her female leopard needed his male.
He padded on bare feet to the guest bathroom and quickly showered. He found her in the kitchen making coffee. His woman made really good coffee. She looked good as well, dressed in a long flowy dress. It was a midnight blue. She turned away from the coffeepot and sent him a smile that raised his temperature by several degrees. Clearly, she wasn’t wearing a bra, and her breasts pushed at the tight confines of the dress’s bodice.
“I thought I’d make you some coffee to get you going, Timur. They have everything in this guesthouse. Even an espresso machine, and it’s a good one. Guests aren’t going to want to leave.”
“Would you rather live here, or in the house you’re staying in?”
He wanted Evangeline’s house. He’d wanted it since the first moment he’d been in it. He’d broken in late at night when she was asleep. That was before he’d met her. Before he’d ever been to the bakery. He knew his brother was completely enamored with Evangeline and as his brother’s head of security, he’d investigated her.
Evangeline’s house was perfect. There were the wide-open spaces he needed. He liked that he could be working in the kitchen and yet see all the way through to the living room. He didn’t need big, the way Fyodor did. He liked that the house was more intimate. He liked the location, the neighborhood with the huge park and rolling hills stretching out behind it. He could run Temnyy nightly and not put anyone in jeopardy.
If Ashe preferred this guesthouse, he would accept that. He would be happy anywhere she was, and the estate had massive amounts of property to run his leopard. More, he’d be close to Fyodor at all times and that would mean less time spent away from his woman.
Ashe perched on a barstool and watched him get the ingredients he needed to make her breakfast. He enjoyed spending time with her. He really liked the way she watched his every movement, as if he intrigued her the same way she did him.
“Evangeline’s house is awesome,” she said. “The minute I walked in, I knew it was perfect. I understood why she bought it. She told me it took all her spare money, money she really needed for her shop, but she couldn’t resist it.”
“Was she sad about moving?” He began mixing the batter, his gaze on her face. He liked watching the different expressions that flitted across her face when she talked.