In this pulse-pounding novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Leopard series, animal instinct unites two elite shifters whose heads are at war with their hearts.
Gorya Amurov might be known as his family's peacekeeper, but the leopard inside him wants nothing more than to claw to the surface and unleash hell. A harsh life has shaped him into a vicious fighter with a calm exterior, but Gorya knows it's only a matter of time until he loses all control. Deep down, he truly believes he'd be better off dead, and that no woman will ever accept him as a mate....
Maya Averina has spent years hunting the criminals who destroyed her life, and she always takes down her prey. She keeps to herself, stays under the radar, and never loses focus. But with her body burning up and her mind distracted by her first heat, an ambush takes her by surprise. Now she's trapped, an unmated female shifter about to be sold off to the highest bidder. Maya is ready to fight her way out—until the most dangerous, powerful man she's ever encountered arrives to set her free....
Excerpted from Leopard's Hunt by Christine
Feehan Copyright © 2024 by Christine Feehan. Excerpted by permission of
Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or
reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Gorya was
back to using his hand like a seductive weapon, his palm stealing
around to the nape of her neck, where his fingers settled
in her thick hair. It was impossible not to be aware of the way he
gathered the mass into his fist, and she slowly tilted her head up toward his.
“Kissing. I’m going to kiss you.”
Thunder
roared in her ears, nearly drowning out his soft murmur. She was sure she hadn’t heard him correctly. “Kiss me?” she echoed faintly.
She should have expected it.
“Yeah, baby,
I’m going to kiss you. If I don’t, you’re going to start thinking about it and
you’re going to panic again.”
He was right, but she might panic now. “I don’t know how to kiss.”
“That’s fine.
We’ll learn together. We’ll just practice until we get it right.”
His head had
come closer to hers. Much closer. She could see the fine lines etched into his skin. Those lines
represented the trauma he’d suffered as a child. Just seeing those creases
settled her. She identified with him. She wasn’t threatened by him. She was
needed by him.
His lips
curved as if he knew what she was thinking. His warm breath reached
the left corner
of her mouth. Her entire body went taut in anticipation. Every nerve ending came alive. Little goose bumps
rose on her skin. His lips brushed hers lightly—a delicate touch, but she felt
it like a brand. Her stomach fluttered. A thousand butterflies lifted in
flight.
Kissing was so intimate. She should close
her eyes, but she was mesmerized by the way his
eyes continued to change color, darkening with desire to a deeper blue, the
silver ring around the blue thicker. This time she could read the stark passion
mixed with growing affection for her. Growing need. Not just the need of a lover. There was
that, but it was so much more.
Like her, he wanted a much
deeper relationship. He wanted something real with her.
Her hands
came up of their own volition. She wasn’t going to be passive
and put this all on him. He didn’t kiss women. Like her, he found kissing
others much too famil-
iar. If they were in this together, she was participating fully. She was
terrified that she wouldn’t be able to be sexually intimate with him. She was
the one afraid her past experiences would
prohibit her from having a normal
relationship. He was being gentle. Taking care to intro- duce her to their world of shared intimacy
and vulnerability slowly and
carefully.
His lips merely feathered along hers. Teased and coaxed. Always gentle. Little flashes of flickering flames seemed to touch her and were gone, leaving her wanting more. He didn’t try to rush into kissing her. He took his time, savoring the taste of her. The feel of her. Outlining the curves of her lips with his tongue. Memorizing her. She caught the images in his mind. All the while, he never closed his eyes, staring into hers as if he could see right into her soul.
Maya had never been so aware of another human being. He was
everywhere. Surrounding her with his strength. His heart. Letting her into his
mind. Pouring into hers slowly. Carefully.
It wasn’t an invasion or a takeover. It was a joining.
A promise. He deliberately shared
himself with her. Opened
himself up to her. Made himself vulnerable.
Maya did the same, staring into his eyes. Giving herself to him the same way. A vow to him
that he would be her only. She would give him everything she was. There was
no expectation of perfection. Both accepted the other for the broken, damaged
person they were. They were going into the relationship with their eyes wide
open.
He slanted
his head, and his mouth
settled on hers.
Her lashes fluttered down as he rubbed his lips over hers and then traced the seam with his tongue. The floor tilted and
rocked. She gripped his shoulders, needing an anchor so she wouldn’t go
spinning off into space.
Author Bio and Link(s)
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Christine Feehan is the New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the Carpathian series, the GhostWalker series, the Leopard series, the Shadow Riders series, the Torpedo Ink series, and standalone romantic suspense novels. Learn more online at www.christinefeehan.com.
Photo credit to Michael Greene
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