Leopard Tails Duet

Leopard Tails (Duet)
Isabella Jordan
All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2020 Isabella Jordan
Excerpt from Submissive

Isaak Stahl looked up when the woman he knew as Neva Kolenkov walked into his coffee shop.

Every day at the same time, she came in for coffee and the Russian tea cakes he personally made. She sat in the corner booth, the one closest to the door on the right side of the room. A ragged notebook was always tucked under her arm and she sat scribbling away in it most of the time she was there. He wondered what she endlessly wrote about in those damned notebooks and was vain enough to dream she'd written about him at some point. Was it too much to hope that he interested her the way she intrigued him?

The young woman was Russian and from the same cursed town as he. That town in their native land was the birthplace of the dark magic that enshrouded the two of them and all their kind. They were the pure blood descendants born of a great evil that had befallen that small village so many centuries before, fated to life as half human and half beast. Inside them lived the black leopard, always hungry and eager to take control in its lust for freedom and blood. Fear could bring about the transformation from human to demon leopard. So could sex with one who was not their kind.

Yet the fact that he could fuck this woman, whose demon blood was as pure as his, from now until the moment his heart stopped beating wasn't the only reason he wanted her.

Isaak wanted her because she tried so hard to fly beneath the radar. She fought to stay invisible, beneath anyone's notice. She spoke very little to his waitresses and to him not at all. She hardly made eye contact with anyone.

He sensed her fear of him. When she thought he wasn't looking, she watched him with haunted green eyes like he was an evil thing that would consume her if given half the chance. Neva seemed to regard all men that way. He'd seen the anxiety darken her eyes many times when various male patrons entered the shop while she was there.

He wasn't proud of the fact that her fear and her timid demeanor drew him to her. So many nights he'd dreamed of unveiling her beauty in his bed, unraveling the secrets she harbored inside. From the first moment he'd seen her, when he'd arrived in the States, he'd recognized her as a woman who'd been hurt in some way. She made him feel the fierce need to protect her. In a darker place inside him, she made him want to dominate her in every way.

She presented a great mystery and he intended to unravel it no matter how long it took him.

Isaak had time. He had no family left. No one left but those like him.

Now most of what was left of their kind from their homeland had gathered in the States, in the small town of Madden, Maine. There were some Americans who lived among them who also had the demon blood, but according to Vitali Kerensky, they'd been created in laboratories. They had strange ways and Isaak tried to avoid any personal interactions with them.

"Oh!"

A crash followed the distressed cry of the woman consuming his thoughts. The white shards of a broken cup littered the puddle of coffee on the floor by Neva's booth. She was frantically pulling napkins from the metal holder on her table so she could clean up the mess.

Liv, a human girl who was his best waitress, headed in her direction with a mop in hand. Isaak easily snatched it from her grasp while she came to a halt and stood gaping up at him.

"Nyet. I'll take care of it," he told her. "Watch the counter for me."

"She's going to run right out the door if you go over there," Liv told him, leaving the bucket of soapy water she'd brought.

The girl was likely right. Still, he had to start somewhere with Neva.

"I'm so sorry." Neva's eyes rounded, watching his approach. "I will pay for the damage."

"Nyet. Accidents happen, yes?"

Liv also brought him a small broom and dustpan. Her expression was sympathetic when she glanced at Neva. She was quite capable for a young human. He nodded to her, pleased when she returned to the counter where he wanted her.

With no other patrons in the shop at the moment, he had an opportunity to talk to Neva who was now crouching on the floor picking up the broken pieces of the coffee cup.

"Please, let me."

The moment he crouched on the floor to help her, she backed away. She returned to the booth, looking like she wanted to shrink completely into it.

He stole glances at her as he leisurely scooped up the shards from the coffee cup using the broom and dustpan. Despite her efforts to blend in with the background, Neva was an incredibly beautiful girl. Her dark hair was pulled severely back into a ponytail at the back of her head. The features of her face were tiny and perfect. High cheeks, slender nose, slim lips. She wore no makeup but then she really didn't need it. Especially with those beautiful green eyes. Her eyes were glittering and exotic, slanting up slightly at the outer corners in a way that defined the women from his land.

Yet there were so many shadows behind those extraordinary eyes. He wanted to know what they looked like filled with desire, longing. He wanted to sweep those shadows away like so many useless cobwebs.