"Keep that up and you're going to make me come." His voice had lowered, thickening with arousal as his eyes gleamed with heated hunger.
"You are insane."
"I'm so f**king horny I'm about to come in my jeans just listening to you hiss." He grunted in irritation. "Insanity is probably closer than you think it is." The pain of her arousal before the doctor had begun the hormone treatments had been horrible. Did he suffer too? She frowned, drawing in the scent of the room deeper than she had allowed herself to this point.
The smell of male arousal was intoxicating and thick. It permeated her senses, rushed through her brain, and sent her heartbeat to a thundering speed as she felt her mouth fill again with that strangely sweet taste.
"Does it hurt?" she whispered, fearing the answer. Knowing the answer.
"No, baby, it doesn't hurt." Lance sighed heavily. "It's just aggravating as hell." And he was lying. Why was he lying when telling the truth could guilt her into giving him what he wanted? He could have easily played the wronged male and had her in his bed hours ago.
"Then why aren't you moving?" she asked him then. "You've been in that same position for more than an hour. Sit up."
She could see his erection outlined by his jeans, pressing hard against the material.
"I think I'll just lie right here for a while." He chuckled instead. "Did I mention I'm a little low on rest myself?"
He hadn't slept in two days, not enough to matter. He had watched over her, protected her when she couldn't protect herself.
Harmony licked her lips nervously. "When I was wounded, the men who fought off the Coyotes found me a week later. I was very ill."
His gaze sharpened on her.
"They had known then about the Coyotes. They hunted them; I wasn't certain why." She hadn't known then, though she knew now. "They nursed me back to health and protected me. They never told me exactly why they had no scent. But sometimes, if I'm in trouble, they know it, and they show up."
"Does Jonas know about them?"
"The information contained in the Breed database on me isn't everything the Council had," she revealed. "I don't know why Jonas has hidden the files on the few times the Coyotes actually managed to capture me, but those reports aren't in there. Just as the reports reveal that each time I was captured, the same two men rescued me."
"Who were they?"
She glanced away for a second before turning back to him. "I can't reveal their names to you, Lance. Their lives…"
He held his hand up. "I don't want names. Why do they watch you, Harmony? What do they want? What does Jonas want?"
She shook her head, a frown creasing her brow.
"Jonas wants me dead, Lance. But he can't kill me without giving me a chance to redeem myself first. But make no mistake, he hates me."
"Why?"
She inhaled painfully at the question.
"I killed his mother. The only person at those labs who cared anything about Jonas, besides me. And I couldn't show him how much I cared, or I suffered for it. Madame LaRue was very possessive of her personal creation. As for why the others help me, it benefits both of us. They help me, I help them. It's enough that they've been there."
"So why tell me this much now?" he asked her, rather than pursuing the information further.
"You protected me while I slept," she whispered. "You didn't have to do that. You deserve to know what you're facing."
"You're my woman, Harmony," he growled. "I always protect what's mine." She shook her head slowly. "I can't belong to you, Lance. Not ever. In six months, when this is over and I've redeemed myself by Breed Law, then I'll leave. If I can manage to keep my enemies from finding me that long. You can't afford to take me as your woman, any more than I can claim you as anything of mine. Doing so will only get us both killed."
"How much longer can you fight alone? How much longer, Harmony, before Death gives up because she can't kill enough monsters or save enough children?" he asked as she moved to turn away from him.
"Why are you doing this?" It was a question she had fought for too long now herself.
"Why can't you just let it go, Lance?"
"Come here." His voice gentled.