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“Your friend is a very smart woman,” Ethan remarked after Scarlett had left. He raised an eyebrow and added, “Very bold, too, to threaten me in my own home.”

Phoebe wrinkled her nose. “They still think me a little girl to be coddled and protected.”

“To be coddled and protected and spoiled to an inch of your life, yes,” Ethan replied. “A little girl? I would beg to differ.”

His eyes ran from her hair down to the rest of her in appreciative appraisal. His eyes darkened as his lips curled into a wicked smile.

“Most definitely a woman,” he purred.

Phoebe felt her face heat up, even as the rest of her tingled at his words.

A woman, indeed.

With womanly desires.

And he knew just how to stoke the banked fires with expert ease.

She felt herself choking at the thought of him stoking… other things. Immediately, she sat down, turning away from him as he let out a deep, throaty chuckle and took the seat opposite her.

As if he had summoned them by some sort of magic, one of the servants came and cleared away Scarlett’s cup and saucer and brought out a fresh set for him.

As Phoebe sipped her tea, a red box with fancy gilt designs slid into her view. It looked to be a confectioner’s box, but it did not bear any establishment’s name upon it.

She set her cup down and tilted her head slightly to the side, her curiosity instantly piqued.

Truthfully, she had never tried a sweet she did not like, and in the past few days, Ethan had taken to bringing her favorite pastries and sweets over for tea.

“What is this?” she asked him curiously.

His mysterious smile had her heart fluttering in her chest. “Something new. I heard you liked chocolate.”

Well, who did not? Chocolate was God’s gift to mankind.

She opened the box hesitantly and sighed when she saw the little blocks nestled inside, arranged in neat rows. Even from where she sat, it smelled heavenly, and she could almost imagine that decadent sweet coating her tongue.

“Can I have one?” she asked him, her fingers itching to pluck those little blocks one by one and pop them into her mouth.

“Most certainly. Have all of them, if you wish.”

She sniffed. “I am not such a glutton, you know.”

Except that she was. She could finish a whole box of sweets in the space of a breath, but he did not need to know that.

She daintily picked one of the blocks and placed it into her mouth. Immediately, her eyes closed in absolute rapture, and a moan escaped her lips before she could stop herself.

Oh my goodness, it’s absolutely delicious!

The rich bitterness, tempered by the mellowness of milk and the sweetness of sugar, coated her tongue and set her senses dancing. It was wickedness in a little block. It was?—

Her eyes flew open in surprise.

Only to meet Ethan’shungrygaze.

“If I had known this was how you would react to chocolate-covered candied fruit…” he growled.

Almost immediately, Phoebe scrambled for the box and covered it with her hands. “You are not taking these away!”

Ethan looked at her in shock, before bursting into laughter.