Her Billionaire Lion: A Zodiac Shifters Paranormal Romance: Leo Page 7
She opened her mouth then closed it again, but glared at him.
“Those broken glasses weren’t an accident.”
“Okay. It was a Greek thing, then?”
“No. When we break plates, it happens at a celebration.”
“Okay so it was…”
“On purpose, to hurt you.”
“How can you know it was directed at me and not an accident?”
“Because you were the only one who took off her shoes and outside the door lay a case of broken champagne flutes. Had you run outside for any reason, you would have sliced the hell out of your feet. And possibly needed medical assistance.”
“How ridiculous.”
Jaison came running at full speed. “You need to see this. It’s Kalista’s room.”
“How pissed am I about to be?”
“On a scale of one to ten?” Jaison grunted. “Off the fucking charts.”
He cursed in Greek. “May I carry you back to the house?”
She fumbled and paled before she nodded.
Lifting her back into his arms, he moved with speed and dexterity no human could have matched. When they reached the second floor, three of his betas waited outside her door, anger radiating off them with scorching heat. Reluctant, he placed her on her feet. “Stay out here for a minute.”
“But—”
“Please don’t argue with me. Not when it comes to your safety.”
She nodded, but she didn’t release the hold she had on him.
“I’ll be right back. I trust Jaison, so you must, too.”
One hand on the door, he braced himself for what he might find. But when he stepped inside, at first glance, the bedroom appeared untouched. Knowing Jaison would never raise an alarm without reason. He noticed the light through the open en suite door and headed there. His lion roared. A large crack star burst from the center of the mirror. How it hadn’t shattered into pieces on the floor, he couldn’t imagine. Kalista’s makeup and toiletries lay strewn around the room as if someone had slammed them into the wall. “What else?”
“The closet,” Gio said.
He stormed to the walk-in closet in the bedroom. Her shoes remained on the shelves, dresses and blouses hanging, organized by color. But on the center island sat a cardboard box, reeking of the metallic scent of blood. Tipping the box, he cursed again. The limp body of an asp lay at the bottom. “You killed this in here?”
“I found it while performing a security sweep.”
“How the hell did a horn-nosed viper get on the island?”
“We don’t know—yet.”
“I want the rest of the island swept.” There might be more. They had a few non-venomous snakes on the island but no vipers. Had she been bitten, they had no anti-venom. Although unlikely to kill her, the bite would have put her in the hospital for a long stay. This had been about hurting her, getting her off the island with distance between him and her. A snake bite would have succeeded. “Where did you find the snake?”
“Under her pillow.”
“Dispose of the box before she comes in here.”
“Yes, sir.” The man grabbed the box and exited through the balcony doors.
Outside the suite, Jason stood in front of the doorway, legs apart, arms crossed. Kalista sat on the floor with her back to the wall. She scrambled to her feet when he stepped out. “Are you sure you want to see it?”
“I will imagine the worst otherwise.”
Even with the snake removed, the damage would be startling. “In your bathroom.”
She followed him into the bathroom and gasped. “Why?”
“Someone wants you gone.”
“Because you want me?”
“Yes.”
“And they think this will send me running?”
“I believe so.”
“They don’t know me very well, then.” She squared her shoulders, and her chin went up. “If they thought this would run me off, they were wrong.”
“Vasílissa mou.”
She cocked her head at him. “What did you just say?”
“I called you my queen.”
“Not princess?”
“Never princess.” He stalked around her. “You are a woman in charge of her destiny. Though I yearn to take care of you, you stand on your own and need no man. You are a queen.”
“Your queen.”
“It is ever my hope.”
“After two days?”
“When your soul finds its other half, how long does it take?”
“Five minutes,” she whispered on a soft exhale. Then, louder, she admitted, “I knew the moment you asked me not to lie to you about being hungry.”
If he touched her right now, he would make love to her, and this room was tainted. Filling his chest until his lungs could hold no more air, he asked, “Do you want to stay here tonight?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I want to stay with you.”
“What do you need to bring with you?”
“My small bag on the high-back chair.”
His stopped her from picking up the bag. Unzipping it, he prepared for the long reach of a viper strike, but he found nothing inside but her personal items, including her passport. “Would you be opposed to us putting this in the safe?”
“No, but if the person who doesn’t want me here is smart, she isn’t likely to do anything with my passport as it would keep me here longer.”
“Good point.” He had already deduced the perpetrator was most likely a woman so he applauded her intuition. Grabbing the handle with one hand, he lifted the bag and with lightning quick reflexes, grabbed the neck of a second snake as it lunged from its hiding place underneath. Her scream bounced off the marble walls and echoed in his head. He would never forget the sound. “Get her out of here.”
At his nod, Jaison lifted her and carried her from the room. Leonidas couldn’t focus on killing the snake with her in the room, and he couldn’t get her out of the room with the snake in his hand. Gio came in with another box for the remains of the second viper. “I want this whole building searched. Then I want the island gone over with a fine-tooth comb. No bags coming to the island get onto the boats without being thoroughly searched.”
“I’ll get the trackers on this now. Your rooms, first?”
Leonidas lifted the bed and flung it over, half expecting to find a nest of vipers. “My room first because she will be in there tonight. Close this room off. Then I want it taken apart from the plumbing to the fixtures.”
“Do you think there are more?”
“No.”
“Should we be searching for nests?”
“I think both snakes are male. Even if they were female, it’s not mating season nor time for them to birth their young. But I don’t want to find out we have an infestation in August. So we need to make sure we find who brought them and how many.”
“Did they think one wasn’t enough?”
“Jaison found the first one under the pillow and assumed the room safe. Their plan worked to that extent. I need to check on my mate, and then I need to let my lion out.” He stormed from the room. Entering his bedchamber, he found Kalista sitting in the center of his very large bed, in the pool of the skirt of her blue dress. As he got close, she threw herself at him, checking him over for marks. “It didn’t bite me.”
“How did you move so quickly?” she asked
“When you are in danger, I act. Are you okay?”
“Yes, but he isn’t.” Jaison stood in the doorway with his back to them. “I tried to tell him it wasn’t his fault.”
“Shhhh. Don’t worry about Jaison. I’ll deal with him. I want you to make a list of things you need for the evening.”
“If I can borrow a T-shirt to sleep in, I don’t need anything else until morning. Oh, and a toothbrush. Mine is floating in the toilet.”
“A toothbrush it is, but you won’t need a T-shirt.” He winked and headed for the door. “Jaison.”
Hi
s strongest beta turned, head bowed. “Alpha, I failed her.”
Gripping the other man’s arm, he squeezed. “You didn’t fail her. You protected her.”
“I shouldn’t have laid hands on her.”
He indicated with a jerk of his head that they leave the room. Casting one last glance at Kalista, who sat motionless on the bed, he closed the door and moved the conversation into the hallway. “You had to get her out of this room. If it comes to touching my mate or having her in danger, I will put her in your hands any day.”
“The trackers have swept your room. They smell and sense nothing in here. No one who isn’t supposed to be in here has been.”
A female lion strolled by and gruffed. “The trackers didn’t enter my room in lion form, did they?”
“Yes, but I took Kali out on the balcony before they came in, and I told her they needed the room empty while they checked it over,” Jaison said. “I banked on the fact she wouldn’t want to see another snake.”
“At this point, Kalista is so worried about you, she would have done anything you asked.”
“Me?” Jaison’s brow furrowed.
“Empathy is a great trait in a queen.” Leonidas focused on the closed door. “And your protectiveness is a great trait to guard my mate.”
“You still trust me?”
“With her life. Which means mine.”
The lionesses exited and shifted, Malaya stood before them naked in her tanned perfection. “If the lioness is shifted, I could track her. She masked her human form with perfume.”
“You’re sure it’s female?” he asked, walking into the room.
“Completely. There are no other animals present in her room or yours. Two trackers are going through other rooms, but I only smell the vipers in this room. We will start from the house outwards for any signs of more snakes and for this bitch.”
If his top tracker couldn’t sense anything else, nothing would be found. He did one last scan of the Marble Room. Someone had righted the bed, but the rest lay in chaos. Trackers never seemed to leave a space the way they found it. On the dresser, her bag emptied of its contents, presented a silent monument to the mess of an evening.
Putting everything back, he grabbed the purse and the romance paperback opened to page ninety-eight on the side table. Howling with her Lover. The cover featured a half-naked man, with a woman in his embrace; in the corner a wolf silhouetted by a full moon.
When he returned to his room, he found her where he had left her cross-legged in the center of his bed. His cock jumped. “Your room is cleared. It’s safe if you want…”
“Can I stay in here with you?”
“Yes.” He placed her purse on the side table. “I grabbed your book, too.”
“Oh.” The blush started at her cheeks and spread across her face and down her neck. “I picked it up in the airport.”
“Interesting reading?”
“It’s okay.”
“The book says it’s third in the series. So, you didn’t read the first two, just dove into book three?”
She gaped then bit her lip before throwing her arms up in defeat. “Okay. I read the first two in the series as well. I’m a sucker for paranormal romance with shifters and vampires.”
“Shifters and vampires?”
“Can we talk about something else?”
Absolutely not. “What kind of shifters?”
“You can’t really care.”
“Oh, I do.” He climbed onto the bed and lay on his side beside her. “Tell me what animal would you want as your hero?”
“A big cat.”
“A good choice. Why?”
“I have never been a wolf person, I guess, and bears are too hairy.”
“You have put some thought into this.” He kissed her bare shoulder. “Any cat in particular?”
“A tiger.”
“What?” He paused.
She giggled. “This is the Island of Lions. I would be a fool to say I choose a tiger when my very own Leo lies beside me.”
“Tease me at your own peril, vasílissa mou.” Brushing his knuckle down her arm, he pushed himself up. “I hate this but I have to deal with something before I can turn in for the night. Will you be okay in here on your own?”
“I think so.”
“Jaison will be right outside, but I can ask Helena to come sit with you.”
“I don’t need a babysitter. Besides, I have my book.”
He pulled the second to the bottom drawer out, removing a T-shirt with his favorite football team’s logo on it. A gift from his sister he had never worn. “This might be more comfortable.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll be back as soon as possible.” Brushing his lips against hers, he groaned. When he opened the door, Jaison stepped to the side, but he paused beside him. “Let only the direct circle in, you and Gio. If she requests something to eat, I want it to come from the cousins and only from them. I don’t trust the staff from the other prides, not with her life.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I believe this is directed at her. No one else.”
“Me, too.”
“Thank you.”
“With my life, Alpha.”
Leonidas sprinted down the stairs and outdoors, stared up at his bedroom window, stripped, and shifted. His lion stretched and wanted to roar, but venting his anger would have to wait. By now, word would have reached to the village about an incident at the villa, but techno electric beats and flashing lights in the ballroom offered evidence the events earlier hadn’t dampened the teens’ party.
Positioning himself at a point on the island where those in the village and in the safe shifting area could hear, he roared his displeasure. The island went silent. He centered all the anger sitting in his gut and roared again. His betas responded first, followed by the roars of others. Hell would be paid, and the pride took notice.
Chapter Five
Leo is driven
Soft rays of warm sunlight poured into the room as the hard body holding her tight brought her to attention. Sometime during the night, he’d returned and slid into bed without waking her. Peeking under the covers, she confirmed he lay beside her naked. Her perfect man’s rumbling snores resembled a purr, raising goose bumps on her arms. She needed to stop reading those books before she went to bed.
Her dreams had been filled with images of lions and sounds of roars rending the air. Shimmying deeper under the covers and into his embrace, she sighed.
“If you aren’t careful, we will never get out of this bed.”
She lifted her head enough to see the clock’s blue numbers reading 7:21. “I need to call my father.”
“Agapi mou, lie back down. It’s after midnight in North Carolina.” He hauled her back against him. “I called them before I came to bed. He is stable and resting.”
She called him a couple of times but still felt a pang of guilt about being here and so happy when her father was in the hospital. “He also said stop feeling guilty.”
“Easier said than done,” she mumbled.
“I suggested bringing him out here to rehab.”
She sat straight up and looked down at him. “What? Why?”
“Why do you think?” he asked through one open eyelid. “Come back to bed. Sleep. Need. More.”
“I didn’t leave the bed.” She scooted back under the covers, facing him this time.
Running his hand up her bare leg, he stopped on her ass, pulling her close. “If you aren’t right here, you aren’t in bed.”
“This is ridiculous. And you can’t just lie here and waste the day away.”
“A second spent with you in bed is never a waste.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Turn around and go back to sleep. You have a full day ahead of you.”
“Fine.” She turned and rubbed her bottom against the evidence of his intense attraction to her. “There must be something you want more than sleep.”
He mumbled something, but she couldn’t understand it, so
she rubbed against him again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Then his hand gripped her hip hard, pressing her against his erection. “Keep it up, and you are going to get seriously fucked.”
“I think that is the point.”
He moved his hand up to her face and covered her eyes. “Need sleep to satisfy you.”
“I could do the work.”
His hand moved over her mouth. “Sleep, please.”
“Leo.”
One second she lay on her side with him behind her, the next she found herself flat on her back with him over her. “If you were more experienced, if we had made love before, I would take you now with no concern. But”— He rubbed his face. “I’m both horny and exhausted. I have the very thing I have always wanted, my mate in my bed. But you are, by some miracle, a virgin, and my willpower is about to snap. Without my self-control, I might hurt you. I won’t mean to, but it will happen. I don’t want to spoil what we have, nor your sexual awakening, by not being 100 percent on my game.”
His amazing eyes resembled a cat’s when he spoke of her. What word had he used? Mate? “Should I apologize?”
“No, never. Just give me a few hours to sleep.”
She nodded. “What time did you get in?”
“Thirty minutes ago.”
“What? Where have you been?”
“Hunting for the bitch who tried to hurt you.”
“Did you find her?”
“No, but we will.”
“What will you do when you find her?”
“I would like to rip her to pieces but, in the end, it is your call to make. You are the injured party.” He rolled onto his back.
“Go to sleep.” Kalista snuggled into the crook of his arm and listened to his breathing slow, his heart rate calm. Once sure he had fallen asleep, she eased out from his protective embrace. Unlike her room, his had wall-to-wall plush carpet making her escape silent. Careful not to make a sound, she opened the door and eased it closed behind her. “What the hell?” She whispered clutching her breast to calm her beating heart. As if her nerves weren’t on edge enough, opening the door to find someone sitting there might have pushed her over. She should have expected it, but she hadn’t.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Cosima said standing from a cushy chair which had not been in the hall the night before.