Page 69 of Her Chosen Protector

“I figured.” Asher could feel Leo’s laughter through the phone line.

Eden had never thought she’d be so excited to savor a mint, but here she was trying to make the little candy last. And as stupid, stupid, fucking stupid, as it was, she wanted this time with Asher to last.

She remembered when it had come to the end for her Grandpa York. He’d been living at the ranch.

He’d been on oxygen for the last two months of his life, and he talked to Eden a lot since she was the only child still at home. He said he wanted to leave the Earth having lived as joyously and with as much grace as possible. She’d always taken those words to heart. She just never thought that she might be faced with the possibility of dying at twenty-eight.

The mint was down to a nub. She looked in the tin and grinned. There were nine mints left. If the worst happened, then she and Ash would at least die with nice-smelling breath.

“What are you smiling about?”

“Nothing.” She looked up and saw him staring at her. “Everything. This. You. Me.”

“Well that clears things up,” he said wryly.

She cocked her head. “You spend a lot of time laughing at me, have you noticed that?”

His brows drew up. “Huh, you’re right. Maybe I should start calling you Cullen. Do you sing karaoke? Do you spend much time in Florida?”

“Nope.”

“Still,” he said as he made his way over to her, “you tickle me, Ms. York.”

“I’ve done things to you Mr. Thorne, but I don’t remember tickling being one of those things.”

He shook his head, smiling. “Ah, there you go again. I’m entertained once again. And here we are without a deck of cards or indulging in sex. It’s amazing. It’s as if we like one another. Who’d have guessed?”

“You just set a low bar is all,” she grinned up at him.

“Honey, if you’re interested in tired old sailor like me, I’d say you’re the one who has the low bar.”

Eden plucked a mint out of the tin and stood. “Open up,” she said as she held the candy against his mouth.

He didn’t.

She swept the mint across his bottom lip, tempting him until he finally sucked it from her. But he held her fingers hostage, sucking them into her mouth. Her entire body went into meltdown.

Who cared about a condom? Really, in the big scheme of things, did it matter? What mattered was making love with this man. Asher must have seen what she was thinking.

“No, Eden.”

“Yes, Asher. I refuse to possibly spend my last hours on this Earth depriving myself of something that I so dearly want.”

“You don’t know me,” he protested.

“I’m twenty-eight years old. I’ve had three lovers in my life, and I can tell you unequivocally that I have never known one of them as well as I know you. All three times I thought I was in love, but the emotions you’ve pulled out of me make my feelings for them mere shadows.”

“Eden,” he sighed.

“Truth.”

“I choose dare.”

“That choice wasn’t on the table,” she admonished as she wrapped her arms around his chest and stared up at him. “Truth.”

“All right. Truth.”

“I’m not asking for love. That would be nuts. But a connection? Do you feel it?”