Page 62 of Dearest Protector

Compared to some of the pain I’d experienced in the past, this procedure had been relatively easy.

“I’m ready and I’m starving,” I told him eagerly. “Is your mom here?”

He grinned. “Of course. You don’t think she’d turn down an invite, do you? I think she likes you more than she likes me.”

He was being absurd, and he knew it.

Marilyn adored her boys, and she never stopped talking about Ian and Ben whenever we spoke.

I sighed. “I’m glad she’s here. She’s been really good to me.”

I adored Ben’s mother.

She’d come over several times during my recovery, and we’d gotten to know each other pretty well. Marilyn Blackwood was probably the sweetest woman I’d ever known, and it was very clear to me why Ian and Ben loved their mother so much.

Ben shot me a grin. “I’d say you’ve been good to her, too. She was thrilled when you offered her that original print she admired.”

I shook my head. “I was happy to give it to her. It was no big deal.”

Ben’s grin grew wider as he swept me off the bed and picked me up like I weighed next to nothing. “You, Ariel Prescott, are a very big deal. You’re turning down offers for commissioned pieces right now that are coming from some very reputable places.”

I swatted him playfully on the arm after I’d quickly put the other one around his back to keep my body balanced. “Only because I have to. I can only do so many commissions and still keep turning out new original work myself. I’m also not quite used to doing something that didn’t originate in my own brain. God knows I’d like to do them all. Everyone is offering me a small fortune just for one of my pieces. Ben, I am capable of getting downstairs on my own.”

I couldn’t bear weight on my foot quite yet, but Ben did have an elevator and I had crutches. It wasn’t like I hadn’t had plenty of practice getting around on crutches after my accident.

“They’re offering so much because your work is unique and outstanding,” Ben said matter-of-factly. “And I know you can get around if you have to, but you don’t have to. I’m here, and I don’t want to chance you getting another injury. We don’t need to go through that again.Youwould probably get through it, but it would probably killme.”

I laughed. An honest to goodness, carefree laugh that had been coming out of me a lot more often lately.

I knew Ben was joking…mostly. But he was so deadpan that his comments about my surgery and recovery were thoroughly amusing.

Had he been overprotective with me? Had he been as worried as I was in the beginning?

Yep. Definitely.

Had he been a bossy pain in the ass sometimes?

Absolutely.

Had he made me crazy with his demands and his over the top concern?

Truthfully? No.Because I knew he was genuinely worried.

However, I had teased him to death once I was feeling well enough to give him a hard time.

In all honesty, Ben had been amazing.

He’d doted on me like a man who cared, and I couldn’t chastise him forthat.

I would have been the same way if our positions were reversed.

“I’m fine now, Ben,” I said softly as he walked to the elevator. “It doesn’t hurt like it did in the beginning.”

“And I’d really like to keep it that way,” he answered succinctly. “Don’t get me wrong. I want to see you walking again. I just don’t want anything to happen to that foot before it’s strong enough to handle the stress of walking.”

I hit the elevator button for the downstairs automatically since we’d done this so many times before.

And then I hugged him, closing my eyes as I savored his masculine scent. I stopped myself just short of burying my face in his neck so I could absorb that clean, tantalizing smell of man, musk, and some kind of mysterious pheromones that sent my female hormones into a frenzy.

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