Page 26 of Dearest Protector

Talk to me. Talk to me. Talk to me, Ariel.

I blinked hard as those words rolled through my mind like I’d heard Ben saying them before.

Probably because he was so damn persuasive.

Oh, holy hell. Maybe Ben and I weremeantto be closer, to be friends.

Maybe if we werefriends, it would help me forget how much I wanted him to kiss me.

Since I wanted to get over this stupid attraction I had to him, I was willing to try almost anything.

“Okay, friends it is. What else do you want to know?” I asked tentatively.

“Everything,” he answered succinctly. “Tell me about your accident, and about your career in New York before it happened. Your childhood. Your likes and dislikes. Whatever is on your mind. I’d really like to know.”

“Only if you’re ready to share, too,” I said cautiously. “This friendship can’t be one-sided.”

“Agreed,” he said firmly.

I called him on his proposition to be friends. “Then you go first. You know enough about me from Katie. I still know almost nothing about you.”

Surprisingly, he started talking without a single hesitation. He began by telling me about the accident that had killed his father years ago and had left Ian in pain and isolated for so long.

My heart ached as he explained, and he made himself so vulnerable as he recalled those painful memories that I knew our relationship would never be the same again.

Chapter 6

Ben

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Ben?” Ian questioned as we ate the lunch Ariel had just brought to my office at Blackwood Technologies headquarters. “It’s not like I mind that we get something substantial for lunch all the time now, but do you really know what you’re doing withAriel?”

I hadn’t asked Ariel to drop off food for lunch at my office, but she’d done it anyway. Every single day since we’d had dinner together at my place a week ago. And she always included lunch for Ian, too.

I’d only run into her once here in the office when she’d delivered food.

Today, I’d been tied up in a meeting, but my secretary had informed me that my lunch had arrived as soon as I’d left the conference room.

Unfortunately, Ariel had been long gone, off to run other errands.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said to Ian as I reached into the hot bag and claimed my warm sandwich wrap that Ariel had made at my house.

I smiled when I realized there were no chips. Instead, she’d made a side salad filled with fresh vegetables that she’d stored in another bag.

I popped off the lid and started with the salad.

Since we’d decided to become friends instead of just boss and employee, Ariel had felt free to nag me half to death about my nutritional habits and my unhealthy relationship with takeout junk food.

Like the woman had any right to lecture me when she hadn’t eaten enough to maintain her weight just a few weeks ago?

I’d learned a lot about Ariel, and although she loved junk food, too, she’d almost never given in to the urge to consume it during her dancing years. She’d always been on a strict regimen to nourish her body without extra calories.

Now, she seemed to be hell-bent on feeding me things that would fuel my body without the junk and to make sure I got food on a regular schedule.

In her mind, it wasn’t healthy for me to down a protein shake, work out every morning, and then not eat until evening.

Hell, she was probably right, but I rarely thought about food after I arrived at Blackwood. My work here had always been all-consuming.

Maybe it was a little pathetic, but it actually felt good to know someone cared whether or not I was eating right.

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