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shouldn’t tell her, but what the hell difference did it make now? She belonged to him and she was in the jungle. She’d brought him to her— sent for him. “Conner Vega,” he answered, his gaze locked on hers, daring her to accuse him of lying. His voice wasn’t quite normal, but at least he hadn’t killed her companion. He’d held on long enough to get control and had allowed Rio to get the man out of harm’s way. Death was in his eyes. He knew that, just as pure loathing was in hers.
    Her eyebrow shot up. She made a little moue with her lips. She radiated heat mixed with fury. His heart jumped. His cock reacted, engorged and hot. Need punched, hard and mean. His crime was unforgivable. He understood that intellectually, but the animal in him refused to accept it. She was his—that’s what the animal understood. She was alive, in the same world and she belonged to him. And right now, her body was throwing off enough pheromones to draw every male within a hundred miles. He drew a deep, shuddering breath of air into his lungs and held on grimly to his control.
    “Is that your real name?”
    “Yes. Why did you bring me here, Isabeau?”
    Breath hissed out between her teeth. She had small white teeth. Her leopard was different—rare. A clouded leopard perhaps. There were so few of them. She was curvy, yet streamlined, muscles fluid beneath her skin, the mark of their species, her hair thick and long, nearly impossible to keep short. She didn’t know her own power; he recognized that as well. She didn’t know she was safe from him and her fear beat at him. Ugly. Like a sin. A man’s woman should never be afraid of him or his strength.
    “I left Borneo because I didn’t want to take a chance of running into you. I can do my work here, the plants and species I’m looking for are in this rain forest. I needed a guide and the Embera tribe was kind enough to provide one for me.”
    And her guide would have been a man. A growl rumbled in his throat and he turned away from her, unable to keep his leopard from leaping at the scent of her, at the idea of her in close proximity with a man. He closed his eyes, trying not to allow the vision of her body wrapped around someone other than him.
    She shot him a look as he began to pace, trying to rid himself of the ferocious need building in his body. He could barely breathe with the intensity of the demand. He’d never experienced anything like it. Sweat poured off of him. Desire was wicked. Sharp—hammering at his skull, until even his teeth ached. His body painful. He was acutely aware of the leopard prowling beneath his skin, so close to the surface, waiting for one moment when he wasn’t on guard so the cat could take what was his.
    “I’m so sorry I’m boring you, but I paid a good amount of money for your time.”
    He knew she was misinterpreting his uneasy pacing as disinterest, but he shrugged, not bothering to explain the danger she was in. “Get on with it.”
    “I became friends with Adan Carpio . . .”
    This time he couldn’t stop the leopard’s reaction, the terrible fury, the jealous rage consuming him. He whirled on her, flames feeding the heat in his eyes. She gasped and stumbled back, flinging one hand out to catch at the back of a chair for support.
    “And his family. His wife. And children,” she added hastily. “Stop it. You’re scaring me. I don’t like feeling threatened. You wronged me, in case you’ve forgotten.”
    His gaze moved over her face broodingly. Dwelled on her soft, trembling mouth. On her throat—so vulnerable. He could sink his teeth there in seconds. His gaze moved down—touched her breasts. Her lush, full breasts—he remembered the soft feel of their fullness. She was a little smaller than most of their women, probably the clouded leopard in her, but he liked her that way. He liked every single thing about her. Even her temper.
    “I haven’t forgotten anything.” The growl rumbled in his voice.
    He was acutely