He caught her wrist and tugged when she turned back toward the bedroom. “If you fall asleep in the bathtub, Ashe, I’ll put you to bed.”
She wrapped one arm around his neck and leaned into him. “Thank you for being so sweet to me, Timur. I don’t know what I expected, but you kept me from being afraid.”
He frowned, unable to discern exactly what she’d been afraid of. “I think the shooter was after Temnyy. The initial shot was to take him out, not Godiva.”
“I don’t know about that, I guess that should have made me afraid, but mostly, it made me angry. Whoever was shooting at us was doing so from a distance. What a coward.” She stepped into the bathtub and slid down until the hot water was up to her neck. “I meant I was afraid of Godiva and Temnyy getting together. It was … intense.”
He turned off the taps and sank into the water with her, letting it soothe the aches in his muscles. “Leopard sex is always intense. It’s never easy, baby, not even later, when she’s not in heat.”
“The leopards are still going to want to be together physically? I thought leopards only were with each other when the female was in heat.” She ducked her head under the water to soak her hair, came up and slicked it back off her face and then leaned back against the porcelain. “My parents never talked about that side of it.”
“We’re shifters. We’re not quite human, and they aren’t quite leopard. We have different rules and different needs.”
“I guess that makes sense, but seriously, they’re going to have to slow down. I thought I was in good shape, but I feel like someone took a baseball bat to my body.”
His heart stuttered. “You should have told me it was that bad.”
“What were you going to do? Godiva gets hot and she makes me that way. I can’t seem to control myself any more than she can. I don’t know why I’m such a baby. Every other female shifter has to have similar experiences.”
They weren’t his woman. Women were different, and she had a small frame. His male was big. He was big. He dwarfed her in size the way Temnyy dwarfed Godiva. He should have considered that. She’s feeling battered, Temnyy, he chided the male. You should have taken more care with her. He was really angry with himself, not his cat. It was his responsibility to take care of her and under the circumstances, with her heat driving them, he didn’t seem to have much in the way of control.
His leopard ignored him. The cat was driven by his nature. “Those other women aren’t you, Ashe. You’re mine. I don’t like you hurt.”
Her lashes fluttered, lifted and those amber eyes were focused on his face. “You steal my heart, Timur, every single time.”
She smiled at him, and he felt that pierce through his armor easily, mostly because she’d stripped him of every shield. He was left naked and vulnerable, completely exposed to her.
He didn’t reply, but he did take the cloth and soap to wash her carefully. He rinsed her hair and then helped her stand. Drying her hair wasn’t easy, so he just wrapped it in a towel while he dried off her body. She didn’t try to help. She just stood there for him, looking as if she might fall over any minute.
“I’m in love with you, Ashe,” he said. “I’m not offering you a lot in the way of white picket fences and social status, but I can tell you I’ll love you with every breath I take. I know no other man will love you better.”
Her amber eyes didn’t leave his face. “I’m very grumpy in the mornings, Timur.”
“You are?”
She nodded solemnly. “And I’m a terrible cook. Worse, I have no real desire to learn. You know how they show the little woman with the apron in her kitchen waiting anxiously for her man to come home?”
“I’ve seen that, yes.”
“That is never going to be me. If you’re really, really lucky, I might make you a sandwich and even then, I can’t promise that it will taste good.”
“I see.”
“I totally lied when I said I’d take cooking classes. That’s never going to happen.”
“I was fairly certain of that.”
“There’s more.”
He picked her up, cradling her close to his chest as he carried her through to the bedroom. “I don’t know if I can take more.”
“You might as well know the worst.”
“What is it?”
“I’m a terrible driver. I never really learned properly, and I’ve had several wrecks.”
“Several?” He placed her in the bed and pulled up the covers.
She nodded solemnly. “Six. And three other near misses. One that might have been a wreck, because I rear-ended him, but he didn’t want to exchange information.”