nearly crashing into her as he matched her pace, turning her so that she ran in a different direction. Rachael, deep inside the leopard's body, laughed and cleared a fallen tree trunk, waited until he joined her and pounced him. They rolled over in the soft vegetation, scrambled to their feet and raced off again. The male shouldered her several times, knocking into her so that she ran in the direction he chose.
They splashed through two puddles, sending up wide sprays of water. They nuzzled each other beside a large fruit tree with a hundred flying fox watching them from above. The two leopards rolled in the shadow of tall trees and chased a herd of barking deer for a few minutes. Always he rubbed his body along hers, nuzzled and licked her fur, urging her to keep moving when she would have lain down.
Her leg was burning, her sides heaving from the wild, playful fun. Twice she tried to crouch on the ground, indicating the need for rest. Both times his heavier shoulder struck hers. She snarled at him. He snarled back and pressed into her, nearly knocking her down. He was enormously strong. Rachael began to grow apprehensive. She was limping, doing her best to keep weight off her injured leg. Still he pushed her on. She looked around her and realized she recognized the area. Rio had brought her back home.
Snarling, she whirled around, ears flat, swiping at him with her paw. He was lightning fast, dancing away from her, and then running flat out, knocking her off her feet so she lay on the ground trying to regain her breath. At once he was on her, pinning her down, his teeth driving into her shoulder. He held her still and simply waited.
Rachael knew what he wanted. What he was demanding of her. He wanted her back in her other form. Stubbornly she growled at him, grimacing to show her displeasure. The position of submission angered her, but it also left her feeling vulnerable and afraid. She tried to wait, but she knew he wouldn't give in. His teeth bit down harder into her shoulder, his hot breath fanning her neck.
Furious, Rachael reached for her intellect, her human brain, her human body. Rio might have the upper hand as a male leopard, but he wasn't going to boss her around as a human woman. She should have seen that he was circling back to the house. She should have recognized what was in his mind and taken steps to stop him.
Already she could feel the change start. She didn't want it. Didn't want to go back to human form and face whatever was going to happen in her future, not after running free in the forest, but it was already too late. She felt it first in her head. The need for her human body. She felt the contraction of muscles, the sudden burning in her leg. She heard a cry escape her throat, half human, half animal as the pain in her shoulder increased.
Rio released her immediately but didn't make the mistake of stepping away. The huge leopard stood over her as she thrashed for a moment in the miracle of the change, then sprawled beneath him in human form. She lay on the ground, facedown, her shoulders shaking slightly, and he knew she was crying. He touched her with his muzzle, rubbing along her back to reassure her.
Rachael rolled over, punching him hard, her eyes blazing with fury. She pummeled the male leopard, uncaring that he could rip her throat out. Uncaring that leopards were notorious for their tempers. Rio leapt sideways away from her, shifting as he did so, catching her wrists when she followed him. He swept her feet out from under her, tumbling her back to the ground, going down with her so that his larger body pressed hers into the thick mat of vegetation.
'Calm down, Rachael.' He bit back laughter. The last rays of the sun hit her face, the soft sheen of sweat on her body. Leaves and twigs decorated the riot of curls and she was surrounded with a bright aura. She radiated fury and sex. He couldn't help seeing her that way. She made him happy, even when she clearly wanted to scratch his eyes out. 'Did you really think I was going to go crawl in a hole and live a miserable life without you? What kind of a man do you think I am?'
'You're an idiot, that's what you are,' she spat back, although his words took most of her fury. She hated that, hated that he could defuse her justified anger with a few charming words, his brilliant eyes, so intensely hungry when he looked at her, and his blazingly sinful, wicked mouth. 'Damn you, Rio.' She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
Lightning streaked in his veins, sizzled through his bloodstream. He was alive again, his heart beating and his lungs working. He lifted his head, his green gaze burning over her face. 'Damn you back, Rachael. You left me. You made me feel and then you just left me. You didn't even have the guts to talk it over with me first. Damn you to hell for that.' He caught her head, held her still and devoured her. Kiss after kiss.
She tasted his anger. It was hot and spicy and ferocious. She tasted his love. Tender and hungry and consuming. And she wanted him. Forever. For all time. As short a time or as long a time as she could have him.
Rachael lay in the pine needles staring up at his beloved face. 'I'm sorry, Rio. I didn't mean to hurt you. I should have had the courage to talk it over with you. I thought I could live here in the forest, in my other form. I thought they wouldn't find me if I was a leopard. At least I could still be close to you.'
He shook his head. 'If you're one of us, then so is your brother. The sniper, the one they called Duncan, he had to be the one who put the cobra in your room before you went on the river. And he had to be the one who tried to kill you a couple of nights ago. He shifted into the form of a leopard. Only a few of us around the world can do that. He had to have known you're capable. They would bring in hunters. Eventually they would kill you. We can't run scared. If I've ever learned anything in this life, it's that we have to think something all the way through.'
The needles poked into her bare skin. She stood up gingerly. It was far easier maneuvering through the forest in leopard form than human. 'I don't want you hurt.'
'And you think your brother will try to hurt me?' He took her hand, tugging until she walked with him toward the house. He pulled twigs and leaves from her hair and tossed them aside.
She flashed a small smile. 'I feel a bit like Adam and Eve.'
His hand tightened on hers. 'You have to talk to me about him. I don't want to harm the man, but you have to give me something to work with, Rachael. You either trust me or you don't.'
She stood at the bottom of the large tree, staring up into the canopy where his house was hidden. 'Do you think it's a matter of trust?'
He rested his palm on her bare bottom, helping her up to the lower branches. She pulled herself up using the creepers hanging like streamers. Rio stood back watching her body, the flexing muscles, the curves and hollows. She had a beautiful butt. He grinned as he leapt up to the lower branch easily, caught the creeper, his hands above hers, his body caging hers between his and the tree trunk. He pressed against her, much in the way of a dominant cat, his teeth nipping her shoulder, his breath teasing her nape. 'I
Instead of pulling away or stiffening as he expected, she leaned back against him, rubbing her alluring derriere against his thickening groin. 'I do trust you. I trust you completely with my life. I'm here with you. I've chosen you. I've always chosen you.'
And she had. She knew it. She had always chosen him. Would always choose him. 'Don't you feel it, Rio? We've always been together. I know we have. Somewhere else, somewhere good.'
He shook his head, urging her up to the house. 'It wasn't somewhere different, Rachael. There's always been blood and bullets and things to fear. But we managed them together. That's what we do. We live our life the best that we can, together, facing whatever comes our way.'
She pulled herself up to the verandah. Her clothes were lying in a heap where she'd stripped. She picked up the shirt, held it to her. 'I love him, Rio. I know he's done things, horrible, hideous things. People think he's a monster and they think I should help destroy him. But I can't. I won't. I understand how he came to be what he is.' Very slowly she pulled on the shirt. Rio's shut. It seemed everything came back to Rio. 'Do you really think we were together in another time?'
His brilliant green gaze drifted over her. 'Don't you?'
She leaned against the chair and smiled at him. 'I think you're beautiful, Rio. I thought it then too, wherever we were. I remember that much.'
He stepped very close to her, his body crowding hers. Tall, muscular, broad shoulders and incredible strength. He caught her chin firmly and tilted her face up to his. There was no laughter in his eyes. 'Don't ever do that again. Don't leave me. I think you tore the heart out of my chest with your bare hands.' He felt like an idiot saying it. He didn't write poetry and he didn't know the first thing about romance, but he had to find a way to make her understand the enormity of what she'd done.
She lifted her hand to map his face, her fingertips very gentle. 'I won't, Rio. If you're willing to take the chance, I'll make my stand, here, with you.' She stepped back when he reached for her. 'I want you to know about me before you make up your mind.'
