Timur looked up to meet Ashe’s eyes. His stomach dropped the way it always did when he looked at her. All those strange somersaults. She smiled at him, making it worse. She might not be able to bake him cookies, or cook his dinner, but he didn’t give a damn. She was perfect.20TIMUR stared out the window into the night. Every breath he drew into his lungs brought Ashe in as well. She lay facedown, sprawled out on the bed, her favorite position. She looked like a star with her arms wide and her legs spread apart. Her head was turned toward him, but her eyes were closed. She had that beautiful sated look he was coming to know on her face.
He loved the way she looked at him, especially when he made love to her. She always looked a little shocked when an orgasm swept through her. Every time. She also looked at him as if he were the best man in the world. How that happened, he didn’t know, especially when he brought her nothing but danger. He was determined to spend the rest of his life making certain that look never turned to disappointment.
He sighed. She was a warrior. She wasn’t going to ever sit at home with a dozen kids, happy to never know what he was up to. She would insist on knowing. The moment she thought there was danger, she would lock their children in a safe room and go on the offensive.
She’d defeated three of Rafe Cordeau’s leopard soldiers. They were men with terrible reputations, men who enjoyed using their leopards to hunt humans in the swamp, mostly prostitutes, but occasionally an enemy of their boss. Beau had recruited them when Rafe was killed, knowing their proclivities, allowing them occasionally to continue by using the girls he got from Ulisse.
His woman, Ashe Bronte Mostafa, had kicked their asses. She’d used weapons she had available to her, leaving Jeremiah armed so he could hold off anyone who got past her. Ashe had done that. She’d made her decisions quickly and she’d been efficient. The entire battle hadn’t lasted a full five minutes. She’d noted the time. That meant she’d made four kills in under five minutes. One had been in leopard form.
His heart still pounded every time he thought about her going up against Gilbert Tregre and his leopard. The man was evil and his leopard even more so. She’d tried to gloss over the telling, knowing he wasn’t going to like how she’d done it, but she was alive, and that was what mattered to him. She’d been quick thinking, courageous, and she’d stayed alive.
Anton had answered the question of why Gilbert Tregre had challenged Timur for Ashe. Like Anton, Gilbert had been close enough to Ashe that he felt the difference in his leopard and wanted to give him that gift of calm. Had he just realized Evangeline could do the same thing years earlier, he might have been a different man, or he might have been a worse one. They’d never know.
They’d closed the bakery for a couple of months stating they were expanding. Building was in progress. That meant replacing the floors that would have evidence should they ever be under investigation. Putting the two shops together allowed Fyodor and Timur to build in more defenses besides just bulletproof glass in the front. He should have replaced the windows in the kitchen when he’d replaced the front of Evangeline’s store.
“Come to bed,” Ashe murmured sleepily without opening her eyes.
“I like looking at you.” He wasn’t lying. He loved looking at her.
“I like feeling you next to me.”
He laughed. He couldn’t help it. Joy always welled up when he was near her. “You sleep like a starfish, all spread out. It isn’t like I can fit.”
“You fit perfectly.”
“Don’t try seduction. I’ve already taken care of you tonight. Twice. You’re becoming insatiable,” he teased.
“If that’s the only way I can ever get you in bed with me, I have no choice then.”
The laughter in her voice felt like velvet rubbing caresses over his skin. How did she do that? How did she make him feel so happy? What had really changed? He was in a dangerous job, with cops believing he was a criminal. If the criminals found out what they were doing, there was no place in the world any of them would be able to hide for long. None of that mattered because Ashe made it better.
He settled on the edge of the mattress, his palm on the curve of her right cheek. He spread his fingers wide. “You make my life so much better.”
Her lashes fluttered and then lifted. She angled her head so she could look at him. “I’m so in love with you, Timur.”
“I live in a very dangerous world, malen’kiy smerch . You might be my little badass tornado, but we’ll have a family. You’re going to get pregnant, and our children will have to go to school with other children whose parents won’t want you or them around their families. Money can buy a lot of things, baby, but the looks they’ll give you won’t be nice. They’ll whisper behind your back …”