Jacob by Jacquelyn Frank Page B

however, were a dark storm of energy and emotion. His forehead creased with frown lines and his brown-black eyes radiated something bordering on hostility. Isabella’s entire chest tingled with the rush of it, his prickling emotions popping like fireworks in her brain.
    “Thank you, but I am sure I can manage on my own,” Isabella insisted, her feelings torn between her upset that Legna had been disturbed from her rest and that Jacob was just plain disturbed. All she wanted was for everyone to be calm and to go about their normal routines.
    “Isabella.” Legna spoke again in that soft, compelling voice of a diplomat, which Bella had discovered was Legna’s role in her brother’s court. “Though we do not wish to curb your freedom, Noah has expressed great concern at the thought of you leaving our circle of protection. Please consider, knowing all that you do now, the dangers that might present themselves to you. Until we know the nature of your significance to us, and ours to you, we would feel much safer if you were to remain here or remain protected by allowing for a Demon escort when you travel.”
    “Legna... ” Jacob warned, the threat in his voice coming through with sheer masculine authority. “We have no right to ask such a thing of her.”
    “Actually,” Isabella spoke up, cutting off the female Demon’s retort, “I wasn’t planning on leaving. I just wanted to talk to my sister, touch base, say hi. You know, boring stuff like that. It’s a pretty mundane task and certainly not worth all this concern. Honestly,” she said, looking down at her dust-covered hands and rubbing them together, “you’ll have a pretty hard time getting me out of that library of yours. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. So complex, so... ” She looked at Jacob, meeting his eyes even though their intensity so overwhelmed her. “Your culture is fascinating. I can’t even begin to fathom how far back these records go. The dedication it must have taken to build that archive is incomprehensible. You couldn’t drag me away if you tried.”
    Isabella took her eyes away from the compelling depth of the black gaze he had fixed on her so raptly. She was a conundrum to him, and she knew it. She could sense that his reaction to her mere presence was an overriding confusion and a moral storm within him. She felt the urge to retreat back to the library, to place herself at a safe distance from him. Not that she was afraid of him—actually, to be honest, her surprising lack of fear in the face of such fearful prospects was what disturbed her. She was not using discretion in her thoughts or the impulsive reactions of her physiology when he was near. Like all things, wisdom came with experience. She had nothing to draw on for guidance when it came to the way she felt around Jacob.
    “You do not owe us so much of your time, Bella,” Jacob said, extracting her from the circle of her thoughts. “In fact, we are the ones who owe you. Why do you make our trouble your own so willingly?”
    “You said it yourself,” she replied quietly, not even realizing that her feet were taking her toward him, closing the gap between them of their own volition. “I’m somehow a part of all this. Somehow my destiny has become linked with yours.”
    Legna might as well have not been there for all they were aware of her in that moment. The King’s sister was overcome by a sensation of connection, an electric joining between the two of them that was blatant as well as ignorant of the forbidden borders it toyed with. As an empath, Legna was a conduit for the sexual and emotional tension in the room. She was flushed with it, her skin misting with warmth. These were permissible feelings, in spite of the fact that they were the most intoxicating collection of desires she had ever felt as an empath.
    Noah had made her duty clear. She was to monitor the Enforcer. At the slightest hint of uncontrolled behavior, she was to summon the King with all