Page 13 of The Virgin's Chosen Dragon

Theo picked up a towel and held it out for Eden. “Hurry up, I’m starving,” he called. “I haven’t eaten in hours, and all this playing in the water made me hungry.”

“Okay, you big baby, let’s go see what there is to eat,” she said, coming out of the surf. “I bet there’s something good in the basket Max delivered.”

He wrapped the towel around her, then leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “I’d complain about him spying on us,” he said, taking her hand and leading her away from the water. “But he brought us food, so I won’t.”

“You two seem close,” Eden said, looking over at him. “Have you been friends for a long time?”

“Since college,” he said. “There were eight of us in our friend group. We’re all still close even if we don’t see each other that often.”

“That’s nice. Barbie is the first real friend I’ve had since……well……a long time ago,” she said. “My mother doesn’t approve of wasting time with silly things like friends, and I spend so much time studying that there isn’t really time anyway.”

He didn’t say anything as they got themselves situated. “Your mother has a lot of strong opinions, doesn’t she?” He finally asked, unable to think of a better way to put it. “She sounds like…well……I don’t know…”

“A controlling, overbearing, helicopter parent,” Eden supplied for him. “Yeah, I know. I try not to think about it too much, but there’s not much I can do about it right now. The only reason I’m here alone instead of with one of the horrible companions that she hires to watch me is because of a mix-up with the employment agency and a bunch of lies I told.”

He started unpacking the picnic basket. “Eden, you’re an adult. You should be able to travel on your own,” he finally said, unable to hold his tongue. “I understand being protective, but a companion, that’s ridiculous.”

Eden let out a long sigh. “You don’t have to tell me; I have to live with it every day. I should have put a stop to it a long time ago,” she said. “I should have rebelled when I was a teenager, but I was so busy trying to please her, I was graduating from high school before I realized that she’d taken complete control of my life.”

He filled a plate of food and handed it to Eden, but she set it aside. “I know what that sounds like, but what you have to understand is that my mother’s entire focus; the only thing she wants is for me to become a doctor,” she said. “It’s a family legacy, and for some reason, she became obsessed with me continuing the tradition, whether I like it or not. By letting her take over my life, I fell right into her trap.”

“What do you mean?” he asked. “What did she do?”

“I let myself become so dependent on my parents that without their money, I wouldn’t survive,” she said. “I’m twenty-two years old and I’ve never paid a bill, never drivena car. I don’t even know how to shop for my own food. The one time I tried to fight my mother and stand up for myself and explain that I didn’t want to be a doctor, she threatened to cut me off without a cent. I realized then that my only hope was to do what she wants and go to medical school, but as soon as I’m done and I have a job, I’m done with them.”

“Oh, Eden, I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through all of that,” he said, gathering her into his arms, wishing he could fix it for her. “If your mother wasn’t there to stop you, what would you do?”

Eden looked up at him, then down into her lap. “You’re going to think it’s silly, a waste of my intelligence, or something,” she said. “But what I’d really like to do is become a teacher. I love kids, and I can’t think of anything better than helping them grow and learn. My mother says that would be a total waste of my intelligence.”

“I don’t think that’s silly at all,” he said. “In fact, I bet you would make a great teacher, and you already have your degree. I bet it wouldn’t take much to get your teaching certificate.”

“One more semester of classes,” she said, looking up at him. “I checked it out, but it’s impossible. I wouldn’t have any money to live on.”

“Maybe I could help you, give you a loan or something,” he said. “It’s not like it would make any difference in my bank account. Then you could do what you want, and your mother couldn’t say anything about it.”

She smiled up at him. “That’s a sweet offer, Theo, but I’m not sure that would be a good idea,” she said. “If I’m going to break away from my mother, I have to do it on my own. I have a plan; I just have to be patient and do what she says for a little longer. That’s why this summer is so important, especially now that I’m on my own for the first time. I don’t wantto waste a minute of this time, and hopefully, I’ll learn something while I’m here.”

“Are you asking me to have sex with you again?” he asked, a teasing smile on his face. “Because you’ve almost convinced me that I should.”

Eden’s cheeks turned pink. “I wasn’t asking…I mean…not this time,” she stammered, then laughed. “If I said yes, would you do it?”

“Oh, sweetheart, I’d love to say yes, but until you stop thinking about it as having sex, the answer is still no,” he said. “But you might be able to convince me to kiss you if you ask nicely.”

“Well, I guess I’ll just have to take what I can get,” she said, shifting in his lap and sliding her arms around his neck. “Theo, will you please kiss me?”

“It would be my pleasure,” he said, before he lowered his mouth to hers.

***Eden***

When Theo finally pulled away, it took Eden a few seconds to emerge from the storm of sensation. “I’ll have to remember that asking nicely works much better than demanding anything from you,” she said, still a little breathless.

Theo grinned at her. “Just don’t push it,” he said. “Now, how about we eat this food before it goes bad?”

Her stomach started rumbling loudly. “I guess I am hungry,” she said. “And Max went to all the trouble of bringing it all the way out here, so we better not let it go to waste.”

They rearranged themselves and began to eat, a comfortable silence between them, but she started to get curiousabout Theo’s life. “What about you?” she asked. “What do you do when you’re not on a tropical island?”

“I work in the family business as an investment banker,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Mostly I just shuffle paperwork from one place to another. I’m not exactly high on the corporate ladder. That would be my older brother. He’ll take over the bank when my father retires.”

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