Page 17 of Her Noble Protector

Raiden Sato.

Her head shot up and she looked at the patio blinds. Then she looked over at the clock on her microwave. Eleven seventeen p.m. Was he still here? Why would the super soldier—scratch that, Navy SEAL—from Miami have come to her house? Sure Camilla might have been worried, but having him come all the way to visit her made no sense.

She licked her spoon and pushed up from the floor, then went to throw the cups into the garbage under the sink and grimaced when she saw that it was overflowing with food she’d made but couldn’t eat.

Her head dropped. There was no way she could go outside.

She plodded out to the living room and turned down the A/C, then curled back up on the couch and stared at the plastic bag of trash.

“Lisa, did I hear you moving in there?”

Lisa jerked her gaze away from the kitchen and focused on the blinds leading to the patio. She tucked her knees up closer to her chin.

“Lisa?”

If I ignore him, will he finally go away?

She looked at the patio door blinds and bit her lip.

Do I want him to go away?

The tap on her window made her damn near jump off the couch.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She must have let out some kind of yell.

“Everything scares me. But that really scared me. Don’t do it again, please.”

“I promise, I won’t. Feel like talking?”

Lisa pressed her lips together, tight.

He didn’t say anything for what seemed like eternity.

“Lisa?”

“What do you want to talk about?” she asked.

“Wanna talk about the book?”

The book?

Then, as if he could read her mind, “You know, Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card. I finished it tonight.”

As if her brain were coated with syrup it took a long moment for Lisa to remember the book that she had left on her patio. It had seemed like years ago. She’d remembered that had been the first book in a new-to-her science fiction series that she’d been so excited to finish. It wasn’t just years ago, wasn’t it a century ago?

“I read a lot of science fiction fantasy, myself, not straight-up science fiction, but this is off the charts,” Raiden said.

She smiled against her knees. He sounded so nice. And happy. Maybe even excited, and that was nice.

“You read fantasy?” she asked.

“Yeah, Tolkien, Donaldson. But this might start me on science fiction. That is, when I do read.” He laughed.

Oh, his laugh was nice. She tried to remember if she’d seen him when he’d laughed in either Mexico or Miami. She’d seen him smile before, and it was beautiful.

“Heinlein,” Lisa said.