"Let me check the house first."
He was out of the bed in a bound. Smooth dark flesh rippled with muscle as he moved to the surveillance equipment. He checked the screens, then grabbed his weapon, and-moved from the bedroom naked to make his rounds through the house.
Haley pulled on the gown and robe that he had collected for her earlier, when she had meant to finish dinner. He had distracted her that time. When he returned, she was belting the robe and pushing her feet into warm house shoes.
"I'll shower." He entered the bedroom moments later.
She almost grinned at his decisive statement. She had showered earlier, then had allowed him to convince her to lie beside him a little while longer.
While he petted her. Just stroked and touched her. For the moment, the incredible biting need that had filled her had eased, leaving her warm and languorous, a glow of satiation filling her.
Another unfamiliar feeling she thought as she moved into the kitchen and checked the roast in the slow cooker. Opening the refrigerator she pulled out the potatoes and carrots she had cut earlier that day. Emptying the water from them, she rinsed them and placed them in the pot.
Half an hour, she decided as she turned the heat up on the food.
She moved into the living room and refueled the glowing embers of the fire, watching as the smaller logs caught, and the flames began to lick over them greedily.
She turned and stared at the brightly lit Christmas tree before moving and rearranging a few of the presents beneath it. The bottom of the tree was surrounded by gaily wrapped boxes. Hanging on the limbs were small, Christmas-patterned bags that held much smaller presents. A silver ring for her mother. A necklace for one of her sisters-in-law, a bracelet for another. There were earrings for several of the college students who helped out at the library and almost always joined Haley and her family for a few hours on Christmas Eve.
The house was always filled on Christmas Eve. Her parents, brothers, and their families would arrive a day or two before, and laughter and joy always filled the air as they dragged mattresses from the attic and made room for ten extra people in the small house.
A smile tipped her lips at the thought of Noble's reaction to that. If he was even here.
She straightened one of the bags and frowned at that thought. Breeds weren't known for their Christmas spirit; she wondered if Noble would at least be patient with the friends and family who piled into her house that holiday week.
"What are you thinking of so hard?" His arms came around her as he pulled her against his bare chest. He'd donned jeans, but he was barefoot and sexy and tough and hard.
"Christmas." Her fingers curled around his wrists. "I bought you a present, you know?"
She looked back at him in time to see his surprise.
"Why would you do that?" he asked her, as though he truly didn't know the reason why.
"Because it brings me joy and always reminds me what Christmas is all about."
"It's all about giving presents?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.
"No, it's not about giving presents. Giving presents reminds me of what the season is all about."
"And what's it all about for you?" he asked her, still staring at the tree, his eyes narrowed, his expression thoughtful.
"It's about life. About celebrating my beliefs and my family. About the connections we don't always consider through the rest of the year. And it's about love. Our love for those who fill our lives."
"So you buy presents?"
"Or make them." She grinned. "Or bake them or cook them. Or simply stopping by to wish them a happy holiday and showing you care. For me, it's the joy in the giving, Noble. In remembering all the joys that have been given to me throughout the year."
He was strangely quiet then. He stared at the tree, then back at her. His gaze flickered. "What did you get me?"
She almost laughed. For the slightest moment, just the briefest breath of time, she might have glimpsed an almost boyish eagerness in his face.
"It's a surprise," she whispered teasingly.
He glanced down at her. "It's about tormenting those who receive, isn't it, Haley?" He growled. "Do you have any idea how curious a cat can get?"
"If you peek, then all you'll get is coal in your stocking."
Noble's head swung around, a completely involuntary act to stare at the mantel. And there was another stocking. One that hadn't been there the day before.
Something in his chest constricted as he turned back to her.
"Why did you do that?" he asked her then. "I've not bought you anything."
"You gave me yourself." She stared back as though there were a question in her statement.
Noble nodded slowly. "Every part of me." And every part of him reached out to her.
"Then I don't need anything else."
"But you gave me yourself as well," he stated confidently. He knew she belonged to him. The mating had been strong, already she carried the scent of him mixed with her own, just as he carried her scent within him. They were bonding, perhaps now, only physically, but she would bond with him emotionally he knew, if she hadn't already.
He saw things in her. In her eyes, in her expressions, in her touch. Perhaps his little librarian just hadn't wanted to admit to what she felt for him. But he knew she did indeed feel for him.
"And I love giving presents." Her smile was soft and filled with happiness. "That's part of the fun, Noble. Knowing there's a present and wondering what it is."
He stared back down at her, faintly confused by that.
"Breeds never celebrate Christmas."
"I celebrate Christmas every year," she whispered. "And on Christmas Eve, my entire family descends. My brothers and their families, my parents, and on holiday nights friends and neighbors are always dropping in. Every Christmas Eve we go caroling in the park, and we laugh and drink hot chocolate and freeze our butts off walking back."
"And you do this why?" He fought the feeling of confusion that swept through him.
She was quiet then. The Christmas lights flickered over her face, multihued and giving her expression an almost otherworldly hue.
"Because I love doing it," she finally said, sighing. "Because I feel close to my family, my friends, and to my beliefs."
He nodded slowly. "You feel closer to your God," he said.
And she smiled.
"Dinner should be ready." She pulled from him slowly, catching his hand and drawing him to the kitchen. "And we have all these cookies. After we eat, I have about ten million paper Christmas bags to start filling with chocolate chip cookies."
"And those are for?" But he followed her, because her smile was teasing, warm and filled with joy.
"For the breeds at Sanctuary. Cassie Sinclair told me once that they go nuts for chocolate chip cookies. So Callan Lyons was kind enough to give me a number for the bags I needed, and I've been filling them for weeks."
He paused, ignoring the tug on his hand. "That's over three hundred breeds at the moment, Haley."
"And just think, over three hundred smiles when they taste my delicious cookies. I make very good cookies."
She did indeed. She made cookies that melted in the mouth and made a breed think of chocolate ecstasy. But Noble wasn't certain if he wanted to share those cookies, and her smiles, with other breeds. But one thing was certain, he wasn't about to dim the pleasure the thought of it brought to her eyes.
As they shared the late dinner, she managed to convince him, and how she did it he wasn't certain, to make sure those on duty were fed as well.
One by one they came in, ate a plate of heaping roast, potatoes, and carrots, with fresh-baked bread. They were sent off with a handful of cookies.
Even that damned mongrel coyote that trotted at Mordecai's heels was given a bowl of fragrant roast. And he stared at Haley with adoration as he stuck his snout in the bowl and lapped it up.