Page 60 of Protected from Malice
Disappointment flashes across her face, but she quickly hides it.
“So.” She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “How is Indy?”
I put a few inches between us again, but I’m not sure whose sake it’s for—hers or mine. “He’s at the gym with Ace.”
Her brow wrinkles. “He went to the gym?Now?”
“Sometimes it helps,” I explain. “Working out, I mean. Pushing yourself to the point where all you can do is concentrate on getting through the physical part of it.”
Understanding dawns. Eden nods. “So he doesn’t have to think about how upset he is.”
“Just for now. Just until it’s not as fresh.”
“I get it. Like my self-defense classes. Or when I’m home, I work on my puzzles. It’s not physical activity, but it keeps my mind occupied on other things.”
“Exactly. Like hiking for me. Or running.”
Her lips twitch. “Or playing your trivia games?”
“Like playing my trivia games,” I agree. “Wracking my brain while I try to remember who scored the winning run in the final game of the 2018 World Series or which of the elements is the heaviest.”
“Oganesson.” Eden grins. “I had to memorize the atomic number and mass of all the elements for my organic chemistry class.”
Her smile makes my heart lift. “Of course you’d know all of them, Brain.”
“Well, I had to. The professor made us. It’s not like I did it for fun.” She nudges my arm. “I bet you studied the periodic table just so you could do better in trivia. Am I right?”
I nudge her back. “Maybe.”
Eden thinks for a second. “I bet we’d be good playing trivia together. You know, at one of the trivia nights the bars host? Have you been to one of those before?”
“Seen them? Yes. Actually competed? No.”
“No? There must be some decent places in Corpus Christi. Aren’t there?”
“I suppose. I don’t go out much, really.”
Well, aside from the occasional hookup, but I’m not mentioning that.
Besides, if Eden were there, I wouldn’t go to the bars at all.
“I went a couple of times with some people from work,” Eden says. “It was okay. But they were more interested in drinking and checking out all the other people. Not in actually winning.”
“Oh, so you’d get all competitive, huh?” I tease. “Would you have official team T-shirts made? Assign study topics to everyone?”
She blushes. “Maybe.” A beat. “Is that weird?”
As I look at Eden’s sweet face, I’m seized with the urge to wrap her up and take her with me everywhere. Carry her around so I can always protect her.
It’s the craziest feeling. I’ve always felt protective of Eden—probably excessively so, considering she’s not mine to protect. Butthis.
It’s not just desire. It’s need.
And it’s all-encompassing.
I’ve never been a romantic guy. But this… It feels like my heart cracked wide open and Eden walked right inside.
My pulse thunders so hard I’m surprised she can’t hear it.
