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At that point, Haley all but ran frolanced back at the doorway, she nearly changed her mind Nearly went to her knees in front of hiive her

In one hand he held her lace panties to his mouth and nose, his eyes were closed, and his expression, his expression was pure, wicked pleasure

She had to force herself to turn and go to her own roo running was only delaying the inevitable He was going to end up in her bed And he was going to be there soon

Chapter 7

The night was hell The nextwas an exercise in restraint that had Noble’s control stretched to its li heavy as more snow drifted over the mountains

There wasto keep up asin hard and heavy, unlike anything they had seen in years The winds swirled and moaned as the icy cold tried to penetrate every crack and pore of the house

Haley had lit the fire thatNoble had carried in the firewood from the back porch and watched as she efficiently set fire to the tinder, building the coal bed with the ser ones on it

She did it the old-fashioned way She used untreated firewood, preferring, she said, the scent of the wood over the furessed, he found her s curled beside her as she sat on the thick, heavy rug before the hearth and leaned into the fat, fluffy pillows she’d had stored beside the couch

She watched the fire as though it held the answers to every question she had ever asked

Behind her, the Christaily wrapped presents beneath it glea with brilliant colors

He’d never experienced Christmas He’d been out of the labs for ten years, but it had been ten years struggling to aid the survival of the breed communities The feline compound of Sanctuary as well as the Colorado-based wolf breed compound, Haven

Christmas had been just another day for hi and the joy that would have gone into it for Haley

Decorations filled the kitchen and living rooroceries that were delivered thatthe danger would all be over before her family arrived on the twenty-third He knew there were more presents in her bedroo the sa

He stood just inside the living roo in on the person responsible for the leak in Haley’s identity The inforh their own servers as well as spyware slipped into Bracken up soht end this sooner than any of theined

There was a reason why Uriel had been so erratic in the past years A reason why Bracken heat and ulti in mates Because Uriel was definitely a breed, and obviously in h to htly off center, but for a hired killer, it could be erous than to ation" He kept his voice low, kept a careful distance between them

"Jonas is certain he’ll have the identity of the person behind this within days"

She tensed The fiery scent of her arousal seemed to intensify as he spoke to her

As she turned, her hair fell over her shoulder, the flaht of it was nearly

"Within days," she said softly "That’s pretty fast"

Jonas was pushing He was breakingsilently to identify Uriel, the hired assassin who had atteht, even if the spy-as eventually detected

"Jonas made you a promise to protect you, Haley He’ll keep it"

She lowered her head, staring down at her fingers as she twined theether

"And when it’s over?" She lifted her head and stared back at him somberly "What then?"

"Sanctuary and its backers rebuild the library, restock it, and you get your life back," he told her

"The way it was?"

He inhaled heavily, staring back at her, uncertain how to ease the pain he could sense inside her

"That’s up to you," he finally told her