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She pulled back and handed him a shaky smile. ‘I’m okay.’ Well, apart from the fact that she was hiding her relationship with the Bancrofts from him, that she didn’t know how she was going to walk away from him and this place, that she might, possibly, be falling in love with him…

Apart from all that, she was just dandy. Jed didn’t look convinced and so she squeezed his arm. ‘I’ve had a long time to get used to my reality, Jed.’ It was time for him to talk now. ‘Just as you have. But I can see that Henry pushing to acknowledge you as his brother has floored you.’

He pushed his other hand through his messy, thick hair. ‘That’s the understatement of the century.’

She waited him out, not knowing whether he’d open up and let her in. She’d learned that Jed never did anything he didn’t want to do.

‘He says that his life wasn’t as great as it looked.’

She heard doubt in his voice. ‘And you don’t believe him?’

He half-turned to face her, his expression stubborn. ‘As a kid, he was entitled, rich, superior, and annoying as hell.’

‘You are the stepson of a billionaire, Jed,’ Eden gently pointed out. ‘With respect, you were probably just as entitled and just as much of an arse. All teenage boys are. Rich teenage boys are the worst.’

He sighed, twisted his sexy mouth and looked away. ‘Stop being sensible, Eden,’ he grumbled.

She smiled at his surly tone. ‘People change, Jed, you know that. Henry isn’t the teenager he used to be.’

She lifted their joined hands and kissed the back of his hand. ‘So, here comes a hard question…’

He groaned. ‘Oh, shit.’

She lowered their hands to rest them on his thigh and rubbed her thumb along the side of his palm. ‘Are you trying to punish Henry because you can’t punish your biological father?’

He was silent for so long that Eden knew she’d hit on a seam of truth.

But she had to tread carefully because if she pushed too hard, he’d shut down.

Possibly forever. ‘Give Henry a chance to explain. Judge him on what he says, not on your assumptions. Judge him on the person he is now, not who he was back then. Also…’ His lips tightened and she knew he was, mentally and emotionally, slipping away.

‘Don’t do anything you’re not ready to do, Jed. Give yourself the gift of time. If you aren’t ready now, he’s just going to have to wait until you are.’

‘But what if he announces our connection?’ Jed demanded. ‘He can tell the truth, and he will be believed.’

Henry wasn’t going to do that, Eden assured him.

‘How can you be so sure?’ Jed asked, a little petulantly.

She smiled. Despite Jed wanting to believe he was a dick, Henry was, fundamentally, a nice guy.

Effortlessly charming, sure, a little superficial to those who didn’t know him, but Eden suspected that his surface urbanity and charisma were skin deep.

The man had more depth than most imagined. ‘I think he’s a good guy, Jed.’

He snorted. ‘You just like his car and the way he looks in a suit.’

Henry did look great in a suit, and she did like his car, but she wasn’t that shallow. ‘I think I like him because I see in him what I see in you.’

‘We are nothing alike, Eden,’ he protested, scowling.

‘You’re both hard-working, persistent, talented and determined,’ she replied, and then waved her hand airily. ‘He’s better-looking than you, but four out of five isn’t bad.’

Jed glared at her, but she now knew him well enough to see the glint of amusement in his eyes. ‘But he didn’t make you scream earlier, did he?’

‘No,’ she solemnly replied. ‘And he never will. Besides, I think he has a thing for your sister.’

‘Bullshit.’

‘Between Kit and Henry, Mick’s got her hands full.

’ To be fair, she couldn’t be certain she was right, but something about the way Henry tensed when Mick was around, how he became ten times more intense, suggested he’d caught feelings of some kind.

It was highly possible, because he was a man and not very emotionally evolved, that he’d yet to recognise them for what they were.

It certainly explained why he hadn’t been that disappointed when she’d fobbed him off.

Jed pulled back to place the back of his hand against her forehead. ‘Are you feeling alright?’

She swatted it away. ‘God, men can be so dense. Kit teases Mick because he doesn’t know how else to capture her attention, and Henry’s eyes follow her everywhere.’

Jed jumped up, bunched his fists and lowered his thick eyebrows. ‘I will kill both of them if they make a move on my sister.’

Eden suppressed her grin. Mick was strong and capable, confident enough to juggle both men, but if Henry’s quiet crush on her was a way to get the half-brothers communicating– even if they had to fight to do it– she was all for it.

‘You should tell Henry that. Tell him your sister is off limits, but I bet he tells you to get stuffed,’ she cheerfully stated.

‘I can scare him off,’ Jed assured her. ‘I’m a pretty scary guy.’

But Henry wasn’t the pushover Jed thought he was. ‘Henry’s a lot like you, Jed. If there was someone you wanted and you were told to back off, what would you do?’

‘Try harder,’ he admitted.

She pointed her finger at him and mimicked pulling the trigger. ‘Exactly.’

Jed reached down to hold out his hand for her to take. He effortlessly pulled her to her feet and she bounced off his chest, but he snaked a hand down her back and pulled her into him. ‘You’re bloody annoying, Eden,’ he murmured, sliding his lips across hers.

Her lips curved upwards. ‘I know, my mother has told me that often enough.’

He tunnelled his hand into her hair, his broad hand covering most of her head. ‘I didn’t mean it that way,’ she heard the remorse in his voice and sighed.

‘I know you didn’t, Jed.’ She nuzzled her lips in the scruff on his jaw and kissed the outside of his mouth. She moved her mouth to his ear. ‘I liked what we did earlier, by the way.’

‘Me too. Let’s do it again,’ he suggested. ‘I’d suggest the stable, but I’d prefer for you to still be breathing at the end of it. Let’s go back to my place?’

Why did he even bother to ask? Didn’t he know, by now, that she would follow him pretty much anywhere?