“I see you trying not to laugh. They could be doing that. Wouldn’t that give them a more precise shot? You know Perez doesn’t want to destroy the contents of the safety deposit boxes.”
“She has a point,” Leo said.
“How is Señora Azua?” Eden asked.
“She’s out of surgery. She’s supposed to wake up on her own in two hours. If she doesn’t the surgeon has okayed a shot of adrenaline.”
What the hell? “Why not now?” Asher asked. They didn’t have time to wait.
“He said it would be a bad mix with the anesthesia still in her system. They have to wait.”
Eden stood up and put her hand around his waist. “It’s going to be okay. I swear, they’re going to do the ramp. We have time.”
“Asher, no matter what they’re trying, we have time,” Leo assured him.
“Yeah, but what you just said is that the bank has basically collapsed in on the basement. What’s the assessment on us getting out through the vault door?”
Again, there was a pause. “Hold on, I’m patching you through to Ezio.”
“Why—”
“Asher,” Ezio started. “Nic, Raiden, and I are on our way to you.”
“Okay,” Asher said slowly. “How? What’s available?”
“Not a lot,” Ezio admitted. “The stairs from the lobby to the documents floor are non-existent. Kane blew a hole through so we could climb down through there. The documents floor has some crawl space.”
Asher knew immediately why those three were the ones who were doing the crawling—they all had leaner body types than the rest of the team. Solid muscle, but leaner. “How far along are you? Is there any way to get some kind of protective gear for Eden to wear?”
“Already taken care of,” Ezio said.
Shit, he should have known that. Still, he worried about Eden.
“We hope we can be there by the time Señora Azua wakes up to tell us the vault combination, but it’s slow going.”
“Be careful.”
“Always.” Ezio signed off.
“How much more juice does your satellite phone have?” Leo asked.
“About two hours,” Asher told him.
“Turn it off for an hour and forty-five minutes. Nothing to be done in that time.”
Asher hated the idea of being out of contact for so long, but when the real action started, he’d need the phone.
“Okay. I’ll turn it on in an hour and a half.”
“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?”
His hand came up and tucked her hair behind her ear.
