His lips quirked at one corner as she stared back at him silently.
"You can't run, and you can't hide. Not from this." She was already realizing that. That didn't mean it was any easier to accept.
"Jonas can assign someone else to protect me then," she told him. "I don't want you here." She wanted him with a need that sometimes bordered on a craving. From that first meeting a year before, when he had walked into the library, she had known a need for him unlike anything she had known for anyone else.
And her need was going to cause complications, she could feel it. She had made the mistake years before of having a short affair with Zane until he realized his need for the job was stronger than his need for a woman. But that relationship had taught her how to spot a problem male. And Noble was definitely a problem male.
"I'm your best bet to stay alive," he told her.
"And what was Jason?" she asked, her tone biting. "You didn't even warn me you had anyone else watching me. He died needlessly."
"All breeds die needlessly," he informed her roughly. "It's a war out there, Haley, and you're smack in the middle of it now. Get that in your head. You will not survive alone. You will not survive without me. Period. Until we figure out what the hell happened, you're stuck with me." She came off the bed, denial raging inside her.
"Find someone else. I told you, I don't want you here."
"And I told you, sorry 'bout your luck," he snarled, those wicked, wicked canines flashing at the sides of his mouth.
Haley fantasized about those teeth sometimes. Fantasized about watching them rake over her br**sts, nip at them. Sometimes she dreamed of them at her neck, her shoulder, biting against her, holding her in place as he took her.
The animalistic quality of those dreams had always shocked her to her core and left her wet and hungry for days on end.
As she faced him, she felt that arousal, a constant companion anytime he was near, and forced herself to back away from him.
"You act as though all you need to do is place distance between us to alleviate the sweet smell of your hunger for me," he bit out, shocking her. "Do you think I can't smell your desire a mile away?" She shook her head. She couldn't face this tonight, not on top of the blood and death that surrounded her. She felt as though her body and her soul were stained with guilt.
"This is why you can't be here," she whispered. "I'm not stupid, Noble. I'll distract you, and you'll end up dead."
He shook his head and moved closer. Just a few steps, just enough to warn her that he wasn't going to pay attention to her.
"We'll definitely distract each other," he promised her, his voice low, vibrating with lust. "There's no help for it. And that will be our advantage."
She shook her head fiercely. "It's not an advantage. You know better than that." She backed farther away from him, jerking in surprise as she came against the wall behind her. She watched, her breathing harsh, heavy as he came closer, stalking her, his expression becoming intent, heavy with hunger.
"You're my mate, Haley," he told her, his voice heavy. And it didn't sound like a good thing. It sounded much too close to the stories that were devoured in the magazines that featured the breeds prominently, with stories of lust-crazed hungers and desires that defied believability.
"I can't handle this from you," she whispered, as he came closer, almost touching her, his chest inches from the rapid rise and fall of her br**sts as she stared up at him beseechingly. "Can't you see that, Noble? I can't deal with fairy tales tonight, or with you here."
"And I can't deal with another man watching over you." He reached out and touched her cheek, his knuckles rasping over it.
He rarely touched her. In the year he had been coming to the library, she could count on one hand how many times his skin had actually touched hers.
"Do you know what a mating is?" His head lowered until his lips caressed her ear. Haley let her head rest against the wall, her body feeling weak now while the blood began to pump hard and heavy through her body.
"The tabloids," she whispered. "They're not true."
"Not precisely." He rubbed his cheek against her.
The curiously gentle stroke of his cheek against hers did more to her than she could have imagined possible. Her lashes drifted closed, sensual weakness invaded her body as her sex began to heat, to clench with empty need.
"Not precisely?" she whispered, as his head lifted, and he stepped back slowly. "What does 'not precisely' mean, exactly?"
"It means, soon, you'll find out, there's no escaping me, Haley. And there's no escaping what you need from me. Soon."
He stepped back farther. "You need to rest. The next few days won't be easy for you, and I don't want to complicate that. But there's no forcing me out of here, there's no running from me any longer. We will see this through together."
Haley bit back her protests. She had been raised by her Scottish father and two older brothers, she knew male determination and arrogance, and if she wasn't mistaken, then Noble had more than his fair share of both.
As he left the bedroom, she slumped against the wall and breathed out wearily. Fear was like an animal trapped inside her, as was her grief. And like the desire she felt for Noble, she had no idea how to handle either emotion.