Page 25

Chapter Ten

A fter Mick had listened to her explanation– conducted outside, in a low whisper– and she’d stopped laughing, Eden accepted Jed’s offer of a decent drink and walked the short distance from Mick’s front door to his own.

Empty of his family, his cottage felt a lot bigger this time, and chaos-free.

She walked straight over to the bigger of his leather couches and flopped backwards onto it.

She closed her eyes, took in the quiet and waited for her heart to slow down to a gallop. That had been one hell of a close call. And when she felt up to it, she and that damn cat would have a chat about staying out of bloody fridges.

She opened her eyes when she felt the cool, smooth surface of glass against her arm. She saw the wine glass Jed held and took it. ‘You have no idea how much I need this,’ she said, immediately lifting it to her lips and allowing the Chardonnay to slide down her parched throat.

He sat down next to her and stretched out his long legs. Eden ignored her prickling eyes and tried to swallow down her sneeze. This was Jed’s house, and she couldn’t ask him to take a shower or to change his clothes, that would be rude.

She’d just sit here, and… atchoo! Damn, that felt like she’d expelled a lung.

Another sneeze built up in her nose, and she couldn’t hold it back.

Without saying anything, Jed rolled to his feet, beer bottle in his hand, and walked down the passage.

A few minutes later, she heard the sound of a shower running.

Eden tipped her head to the side, surprised by his thoughtfulness.

He came across as being grumpy and reticent, someone who did what he wanted when he wanted, so she was a little confounded by his attempt to make her feel comfortable.

She sipped her wine and tried not to imagine water sluicing over his muscled body, her fingers in his wet hair, warm water sliding over their lips as they kissed.

She wiggled deeper into the cushion, and squeezed her thighs together, unable to stop the images of long, muscled legs, his hair pushed off his face, his lips on her bare breast…

The cold tiles behind her back, the hot water, the length and hardness as he pushed?—

‘Want pizza?’

His question caused her hand to jerk, and wine spilt over her hand and onto the boldly patterned carpet beneath her feet. She looked down and winced. ‘Sorry.’

He shrugged. ‘My fault, I didn’t mean to scare you. And don’t worry about the wine, Mick spills hers all the time.’

She started to smile but it died when she took him in. His wet hair was finger-combed back from his face, and his biceps strained at the sleeves of a faded blue t-shirt. Hewore chino shorts, and was, once again, barefoot. He looked chocolate-mousse-cake good.

‘You showered,’ she said, mentally wincing at her inane statement.

He lifted one big shoulder. ‘I sat down next to you, and you started sneezing. I went to shower. No big deal.’

It was. She wasn’t used to people going out of their way to make her feel more comfortable and she wasn’t sure how to handle the rush of warmth. Oh, she understood physical attraction, knew what to do with lust, but this unfurling spark of like? No freaking idea.

Jed walked over to the fridge to pull out a bottle of water. He drained that and lifted his eyebrows. ‘So, pizza?’

Should she stay? Here? With him? Alone? There were so many reasons not to.

‘Do you get deliveries out here?’ she asked, to delay having to answer.

Jed released a derisive ‘ pfft ’. ‘I make my own from scratch. I semi-bake, then freeze them.’

Of course, he did. Who was this man?

‘Are your pizzas as good as your lasagna?’ she asked, genuinely curious.

His eyes, direct and filled with confidence, met hers. ‘Sweetheart, I do everything well.’

She believed that. From riding to polo, to being a good son, to being a good brother, he was a man who believed in excellence. She had no doubt he brought the same level of skill to the bedroom. The thought made her feel hot. And flustered all over again.

‘Pizza sounds good,’ she said, just managing to construct a clear sentence.

‘Plain Margherita or fully loaded?’

She’d enjoyed too many crappy vegetarian pizzas as a kid. Meat-free pizza was an abomination. ‘Fully loaded,’ she told him.

Jed nodded, disappeared into his pantry attached to the kitchen and emerged with two frozen pizzas in hand. He slung them into the oven set to low and grabbed another beer from the fridge. He leaned his butt against the counter and grinned. Then he started to chuckle. And Eden immediately knew why.

‘In the fucking fridge,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Damn, I’m never going to forget today.’

Eden rested her glass against her forehead and closed her eyes. ‘Mick was pretty understanding,’ she said.

‘That’s because she could easily imagine it happening to her.’

Eden stood up to look out of his open French doors to the private garden and released a sigh.

She liked his sister, liked that she was fun, didn’t sweat the small stuff– or the big stuff, like a cat in her fridge!

– but she loved the fact that she was a great mum.

Not having had one herself, she knew Mick had the mum thing nailed. ‘She adores those kids,’ she murmured.

‘Does their dad see them often?’ she asked, wondering if she was overstepping any boundaries.

Jed sipped and rested his beer bottle on his knee.

‘Not really,’ he replied. She looked at the wine in her glass, and down at her feet.

The big kitchen seemed smaller than it did before, and Jed seemed bigger.

The smell of his shower gel and shampoo mixed with the aroma of pepperoni and garlic, and her tastebuds watered.

For Jed or the pizza?

Both. But if she had to choose… who needed food?

Jed closed the distance between them and suddenly he was an inch from her, their mutual heat an almost tangible shimmer.

Her pulse thudded in her ears, so loud she was sure he could hear it, and she reminded herself to breathe.

Eden knew she should step back and look for a plausible excuse to let this moment fade away, but his copper-coloured eyes, fierce and determined, caught hers.

‘It’s a terrible idea,’ she muttered, her whisper hitting his lips.

His mouth quirked, his maddening half-smile promising trouble. But there was a softness to his eyes, in the thumb that drifted over her jaw.

‘Maybe,’ he said, his voice low and unsteady as he invaded her personal space.

He placed his hand on her lower back and yanked her into him, her stomach connecting with his groin.

She immediately noticed he was happy to have her there.

He lowered his head until his lips were an inch from hers.

Neither of them moved, neither willing to break, to yield. To be the one to back down or away.

She felt herself cave, surrendering and softening, desperate to repeat their out-of-body kiss. She needed his mouth on hers, to be in his strong arms… It didn’t matter who made the first move, someone had to and it might as well be her. Be brave, Eden, reach out and take what you want.

She lifted her heels to stand on her toes. Overwhelmed by the desire in his eyes, she averted her gaze, landing unfortunately on his fridge door. It took a second, maybe two, for the photo to come into focus. A dark-haired woman with Jed’s smile beamed at her, her arm around Tara’s waist.

Tara. Shit!

Eden felt Jed’s lips hit hers and tensed.

She slapped a hand on his chest, wrenched her mouth away and dropped back to her feet.

Jesus, she couldn’t do this. She wanted to, she did– more than she wanted her heart to keep beating– but there was a picture of Tara and his mum on his fridge!

Tara, the woman who might end up in jail because of her.

‘Whatever is going on in that pretty head of yours, push it away,’ Jed told her, sounding a little desperate. She noticed that his lower lip was slightly chapped, that he had a scar on his chin and that his dark stubble held the odd fleck of grey.

‘I haven’t been able to stop thinking about our kiss last week. I want to kiss you again. Everywhere .’

She jumped, just a little, shocked by the heat in his fabulous eyes, the seriousness of his expression.

Oh, God, she needed to be strong, to step away from him. But she’d have to explain her Sudden Onset Hesitation.

He narrowed his eyes and pulled back. ‘What’s the problem?’ he asked, his voice rough with frustration.

She hauled in a deep breath, hoping to push blood into her brain. ‘Having sex with you is a complication,’ she admitted.

He picked up a lock of her hair and allowed it to slide through his fingers, a tender action that was at odds with his unreadable face. ‘Why?’

‘I’m Troyden’s niece. You’re his stepson.’

‘There aren’t, thank God, any blood ties between us,’ he murmured, looking fascinated by her hair. ‘It’s perfectly okay for us to sleep together.’

‘I’m leaving soon,’ she told him, grasping at the thinnest of straws. ‘I’m going travelling, to Croatia.’

‘So? We can sleep together until you do,’ he told her, his tone both confident and assured. His big hand lightly encircled her throat, his thumb on her jaw. ‘It’s not like I am asking you for a commitment. I was thinking more along the lines of a one- maybe two-night stand, or possibly a fling.’

No, she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t risk it. Because with Jed, it wasn’t just attraction or a passing crush– it was more. Bigger, deeper, brighter. He felt dangerous.

She glanced at Tara’s picture again. She knew what it was like to be left behind, to be the one who almost mattered. If she opened this door, she risked falling for him. And how would she cope when the truth was revealed and he decided she wasn’t enough?

It was too much. Too scary, and too risky.