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roar and wake her up or keep staring in stunned disbelief.
    Women didn’t succumb to boredom during his embraces. Especially not the woman meant for him.
    A light shake didn’t rouse her. Her eyes remained shut, and her thick golden lashes, lightly coated with mascara, fluttered against her cheeks.
    Now what?
    He was at a complete loss as to what to do next. He couldn’t very well carry her to his room—with its bed and privacy and... He could just imagine the lynch mob if he did that, and with good reason, considering the debauchery that could happen.
    Forget taking her to her room. Again, no one would ever believe he wouldn’t take advantage.
    A bad-ass reputation was sometimes a hindrance.
    What did that leave? He couldn’t simply abandon her here on the ground, at the mercy of anyone, alone and unguarded.
    No one must touch. Guard our woman. Even his tiger knew that was a bad idea.
    Sigh. Only one thing to do, since kidnapping her was probably also out of the question—these lions were such spoilsports. He sat. Cross-legged on the ground, he draped her body across his lap and held her cradled. It was oddly intimate, even if he was the only one conscious for it.
    It also didn’t go unnoticed.
    Luna, wearing a suspicious scowl, soon confronted him.
    “What the hell are you doing with my girl Teena?”
    “Trying to be a gentleman, which I’ll admit is very taxing. I do not know how the heroic types do it all the time.” Keeping his hands to himself when so many curves beckoned took willpower.
    Crouching down alongside him, Luna cocked her head before saying, “You’re a weird dude.”
    “The correct term is noble boyar , or you could call me prince.”
    She snickered. “Next thing I know, you’ll be wanting us to add charming and trying to convince Teena she’s your Snow White.”
    “Do you think my kiss would wake her?” A proud kind of guy, he didn’t admit it was a kiss that had bored her to sleep in the first place.
    “I don’t know, and I don’t think you should try.”
    “Are you about to lecture me on staying away again?” He couldn’t help a roll of his eyes.
    “No, I wasn’t going to tell you take a hike. Actually, I think you should stick around for a bit.”
    Almost did Dmitri drop Teena, his shock was so great. “Stay? Why? So you can better plan how to cause my demise? Do you need time to fetch some rope and find a tree?”
    “Oh, we don’t need time for that. Uncle Peter’s already got something all mapped out. Auntie’s roses will fetch a fine price this year if he goes through with it. But, no, that’s not why I think you should stay. If you’re truly serious about Teena—”
    “I am.” Spoken with the utmost truth.
    “Then you can prove it by dating her. You know, do things in a normal fashion. Show her family that she’s not just a set of hips. Give Teena the chance to really get to know you. If this is real and meant to be, then—”
    “When I ask her to marry me, she shall agree, and I will have my bride.”
    “If she agrees.”
    “Oh, she’ll agree.” He knew it, didn’t harbor a single doubt, which was why he handed his lovely little kitten off to Luna and some other cousins, who promised to put her to bed. His utmost faith that she would fall madly in love with him was why he sent a text to his henchmen cancelling the plans he’d made during the ceremony to kidnap her.
    Off to bed he went, pleased with himself, and the world. Even the guard outside his door couldn’t ruin his fine mood.
    Guard me all you want. I’ll be here in the morning, wooing my bride.
    Or at least, that was what he planned to do. Fate had other ideas. It seemed the ranch had sporadic cellular signal, which meant his last text never reached his men.

Chapter Six
    Awareness came with the speed of cold honey spooling from a dangling spoon. Slowly. So slowly, and that was why it took the third time for her to grasp someone spoke.
    “Say I do.”
    “Hunh?” Eyes closed, and the lids