As Axe headed back for the professor, it was amazing how much less he wanted to kill the guy. In fact, as he came up to that table with its banks of papers, he didn’t even feel like hurting the human. Mostly.

The man bun had to go, though—and in fact, Axe did have a nice serrated hunting knife on him that could do the deed. Somehow, though, he doubted that was within the scope of his professional duties.

Troy shrank back in his seat, but that didn’t last. Axe reached into the man’s brain and erased the short-term memories of the aggression that had been thrown the guy’s way. And then Axe stuck out his hand.

“Hey, I’m Axe. I’m Elise’s bodyguard. I don’t want to interrupt you two, so I’ll just camp out”—he glanced around—“over there in that chair. You do your thing, I’ll do mine, and we’ll get along just fine.”

Provided you keep your hands off of my girl, he tacked on.

Not that Elise was his.

Shit.

The human winced and rubbed his temple like something hurt up there, but he got to his feet and shook Axe’s palm. “Pleased to meet you. You can’t be too careful these days—remember that shooting down near Manhattan last month? And then there was another out West in California.”

Axe nodded. “You got it. Dangerous times. So I’ll just be over there. You guys get to work.”

As he walked over to a low-slung chair that had almost as much padding as a piece of toast, he was very aware of Elise looking at him like he’d sprouted a horn in his forehead—and he couldn’t resist arching a brow at her.

Parking his ass, he steepled his fingers and watched her.

’Cuz that’s what bodyguards did, right?

But he also kept an eye on everything else, too. Without moving his head, he constantly scanned where they were, tracking the movements of the few-and-far-between students who wandered around like zombies, all hollow-eyed and worn out. A skeleton crew of staff were on duty, too, and he ID’d them based on their age demographic and the fact that they didn’t look like they’d been living off of coffee and vending-machine dinners.

The library was so quiet that even though Troy and Elise spoke softly, he heard their convo just fine. Lot of discussion about passages in the final papers. Debates about certain students’ trajectories at the university. Questions about whether something had been plagiarized or properly cited.

Whatever that meant.

Man, Elise was so smart, he was intimidated. She threw around terms he didn’t recognize the way a pro tennis player covered a Grand Slam volley. And then it came to her desertion … distillation … dissertation?—and everything was ratcheted up even higher on the IQ scale.

Her thesaurus … theory? … thesis? … was about bipolar treatment in adolescents and whether or not kids could appropriately be diagnosed with the mental disorder during puberty. Whatever that was. And how they should be treated, both pharmacologically speaking, and in terms of talk and art therapy.

Big stuff, and Troy was clearly impressed.

When Axe checked his watch a little later, he was surprised to find that three hours had passed and the pair of them were starting to pack up. Axe got to his feet and stretched, but kept his distance because he wanted to show her that he wasn’t a wild animal—and it wasn’t like he couldn’t hear what they were saying, anyway.

And yup, he knew Troy was getting ready for some kind of ask because the guy started looking over at Axe, his eyes jumping around like he was a kid about to put his hand in the cookie jar.

Axe glanced at Elise. The female had looked over in his direction a number of times, and he had to admit, he enjoyed the attention. At the start of the night, it had clearly been because she was wondering whether he was going to fuck off the new-leaf routine and pounce on her little human buddy—but later, he got the impression it was something else entirely.

Which again, made him warm up even more to good ol’ Troy.

When there was an awkward pause, Axe smiled at them both. “Anything you want to say to her can be said in front of me. I’ll take it to my grave.”

Elise had to give Axe credit. He’d not only backed off, he’d functioned with perfect professionalism, staying out of the way, but keeping close enough so that if anyone approached the table or tried to do something, he could respond in an instant.

It gave her a lot of hope.

What was difficult? Hell, nearly impossible?

The feel of those eyes of his on her. For some reason, his yellow stare made her feel more alive, her skin prickling with sensation even though he wasn’t touching her, the urge to check and see if he was still looking at her a constant, underground buzz in her head.

“So …” Troy glanced back at Axe. “Ah …”

Of course, Axe telling the man he was free to speak had helped override the awkward sooooooo much.

Not.

“Yes?” she prompted Troy. “I mean, if this is about Christmas, I told you, I’m totally fine to work. We’ll just have to meet somewhere else.”

“Um, yeah.” Another glance at Axe—who was standing right there, a little smile on his face like he was enjoying how antsy Troy was. “I think we’re done with the finals, though. And your dissertation is about ready.”

“I’m feeling good about it.”

Troy cleared his throat. “Are you prepared to help me with my winter-break seminar, still?”

“Absolutely. You want to plan that out tomorrow? When do the classes start?”

“Ah …” The human took out his cell phone and fiddled with it. “January third. I have thirty students signed up, almost all non-trad professionals in the field.”

“Great. I can’t wait.”

As she zipped shut her backpack, he blurted, “How’d you like to have dinner with me tomorrow night.”

Elise jerked her head up. Blinked. Tried to process the invitation.

Which was nuts. She’d been well aware of where things were headed the night before. Funny, though, meeting Axe had changed so much. Too much.

And she refused to look in the male’s direction.

Then again, she didn’t need actual eye contact to get a load of the arrogant pleasure on his face: He was assuming she was going to turn Troy down, and he was going to be happy about it.

You better slow your roll, buddy, she thought with uncharacteristic rancor.

“I’d like that, Troy.” She formed a smile with her lips. “That would be great. But it needs to be after eight? Is that too late?”

The fact that Axe bug-eyed gave her a gotcha in the center of her chest. Not that she was proud of it.

God, what was she doing here?

“That’s perfect.” Troy grinned in a way that made his eyes glimmer. “Would you like me to pick you up?”

“Ah … it’s probably best for me to meet you. Where were you thinking?”

As they discussed alternatives—seafood was out for her, he liked Thai, she preferred Chinese, how about that Brazilian steakhouse, Ignacio’s, fantastic-it’s-a-date—she kept her peripheral vision on Axe.

He was not happy.

“Well, I’ll see you then.” Elise drew on her coat and one-strapped her backpack. “And thank you again. I’m looking forward to it.”

“Can’t wait.”

Troy had a dimple on one side. Who knew, she thought as she pivoted and started walking off.

Axe was silent as they left the building. But he didn’t need to say anything for her to know what their next argument was going to be about.

Out on the lawn, she turned to him and put her hands on her hips. “You’re not coming with us.”

That brow of his went up. “To where? Ohhhhhh, on your date. Yes, I am.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Wait, let me get this straight. You want me to be professional, except when you don’t?”

“I would like some privacy. And we’re not going to school.”

“You don’t think your father would want you covered on a date with a human? I’m very sure he will.”

“It’s not necessary.” Okay, that sounded lame even to her own ears. “I’ll be fine.”

He was silent for a moment. “Okay. As you wish.”

Uh-huh, right, he was going to agree with her on this one.

And as she waited for more to come at her, for the electric sparks to keep flying between them, she prickled with heat, roared with awareness, watched that full lower lip of his in anticipation of it moving again.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you back. I have to go to training now, and I need to change into combat clothes.”

Wait … what?

Axe motioned forth. “After you, m’lady.”

Elise blinked. And then told herself that it was insane to be disappointed they weren’t going to keep fighting.

“Do you have something else to say to me?” he prompted.

“No, I don’t,” she muttered as she closed her eyes … and willed herself back home.