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So, when Jed Harris committed, he went all in.

She tipped her head back to gaze into the gorgeous eyes she would look at for the rest of her life.

‘Thank you. Thank you for giving me a family, for saying that.’ She lifted her hands to hold his face, his stubble rough under her palms. She tasted the unfamiliar words on her tongue, a sentence she’d never spoken before, one that was as unfamiliar as Farsi. ‘I love you.’

He seemed to understand the importance of this first time, the full impact of her words because his eyes glistened with emotion. She couldn’t say he was tearing up, but it was close. ‘I love you, too. So much. I’ll love your more tomorrow, and the day after.’

When their lips met, she tasted his banked passion, all the words they’d yet to speak, the stories they’d yet to tell.

Trust and faith, laughter and magic, it was a dizzying combination of flavours.

This was the essence of who they were, what they meant to each other, a taste and scent profile that would form the basis of their life together.

Pure, intense and, for now, uncomplicated.

Oh, there were going to be times when they’d lose the intensity, when anger and misunderstandings would cloud their feelings, when sadness or stress would taint their relationship, and when they would think they’d lost the magic.

But she’d remind him, and herself, of this moment when time stood still and everything seemed possible.

Instead of deepening their kiss and letting passion sweep them away, Jed pulled back and gathered her to him, his big arms around her, enveloping her in his strength and solidness. Nothing could touch her when Jed held her like this.

She looked at his long legs. His boots were dusty and scuffed, his white jodhpurs stretched over muscled thighs. She couldn’t wait to go home, she wanted him naked again, to be at the mercy of his clever hands and wicked tongue.

Jed sat up straight and pulled a face. ‘Don’t look at me like that, Eden. We still have to go back to the tent,’ he complained.

‘Do we have to?’ she whined. ‘We could just sneak away and spend the rest of the night in bed.’

‘Oh, we’re going to do that, but not for a few hours yet,’ Jed confidently stated.

He picked up a strand of her hair and wound it around her fingers.

‘Once I get you to my place, I’m not letting you go.

Thank God my cottage is an easy commute to the big house where, I hear, Troyden is turning the music room into a study for you. ’

The music room was a smallish reception room, with bright light and an awesome view of the polo field where Jed routinely practised. She’d have to put her back to the window or else she would never get any work done when Jed was training.

‘So you know about Troyden’s offer for me to run his foundation?’ she asked, crossing one leg over the other. She placed her elbow on her knee and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. ‘Are you okay with that?’

‘Very. You’ll consult with Troyden, but you’ll report to Al via Justin. I know it will work out just fine.’

She appreciated his confidence in her, more than he’d ever know.

‘But it’s up to you. If you want to do it, do it. If you don’t, I’ll support you.’

‘Alistair won’t let me say no,’ Eden explained, smiling. ‘Mick will whine until I agree. Troyden will give me his puppy dog expression?—’

‘So maybe you should just cave in now and agree?’ he asked, laughing. Then he placed his forearms on his knees and turned his head to look at her. ‘Can I get super serious, just for a minute?’

She didn’t want to. She didn’t want them tainting the moment, after they had declared their love for the first time. She wrinkled her nose and sighed.

He took her hand and wove his fingers through hers. ‘I meant what I said about loving you more in the future than I do right now. I know I hurt you when I didn’t believe you, but I promise you Eden, that’ll never happen again.’

‘And I hurt you when I said I didn’t need you. I do, Jed. So much.’

He nodded, looking fierce. ‘Going forward, our relationship will top my priority list. I will fiercely guard our love, Eden, because it’s been hard-won and infinitely precious. I will not allow anything or anyone to threaten what we have, this love we have found.’

It was time to put down all their baggage, to start a new journey. She couldn’t wait. Jed waited for her eyes to meet his and her breath caught at the love she could see in his. ‘Deal?’

She nodded, relief and happiness causing her eyes to mist over and a couple of tears to fall. ‘Yes, absolutely. You will always be my priority too, Jed.’

He squeezed her hand, and the corner of his mouth kicked up. ‘Good to hear,’ he replied. He stroked her cheek and brushed his lips across hers, then he deepened their kiss and Eden sighed. She was home. Finally.

After a few minutes, he pulled back and put a little distance between them but kept a possessive hand on her thigh. ‘We’ll move your stuff to my place tomorrow. I plan on keeping you naked for the next twenty-four hours, so you won’t need clothes for a while yet.’

She loved how confident he was, how decisive. Mick would call him bossy, and she was right. She loved him intensely, and his personality was jet-fighter forceful, but she wouldn’t allow him to steamroll her. Not without a pushback at the very least.

‘Maybe we should take some time to reset our relationship, to ease our way into it,’ she suggested, suddenly scared that this was too good, too soon.

‘Neither of us have been in a committed relationship, and I’m not sure if living together should be our next first step.

Maybe we should take some time to digest everything and to allow the family and anyone else who cares, to get used to the idea of us being a couple. ’

Jed stood up and looked down at her, his eyes narrowed.

Without speaking he reached for her hands.

Instead of pulling her to her feet, he boosted her up and over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold.

One moment she was on her feet, the next her head was looking at the streaks of dirt on his very fine bum.

‘Jed, what the hell?’ she spluttered.

‘By the way, why aren’t you sneezing?’ he asked, as he started to walk. ‘I’m covered in horse dander, but you’ve yet to react.’

She hadn’t sneezed much all day, hadn’t had the time to. Maybe she was building up a tolerance to equine dander. She slapped his shoulder. ‘Maybe if you put me down, we could discuss my allergy and other subjects, like reasonable people.’

‘Mm… no . But when we get back to the tent, you need to take an antihistamine,’ he told her, patting her bum.

Forthright, alpha, single-minded, more than a little arrogant.

But, God, hers . Eden bounced along as his long stride ate up the grass beneath his feet.

They were on the path and the sounds coming from the main tent got louder.

She turned her head and saw the slightly shocked and amused faces of spectators bored with the speeches in the tent.

She slapped Jed’s back. ‘Put me down, dammit!’

He ignored her and walked into the tent. Using her core muscles– ouch!– she lifted her torso to orientate herself; Jed had stopped in front of the stage. His family, including a gorgeous, green-eyed stranger with a buzz cut and heavy stubble, stood in a half-circle in front of him.

Eden reached back to make sure her dress covered her in-the-air bum. Bloody Jed! She heard the whirr of cameras clicking and the flashes seared her eyeballs. She had no doubt many people were recording this moment on their phones.

Brilliant. She was going to kill him.

‘You done being the Duke?’ Jed asked Henry, allowing her to slide to the ground.

Eden’s feet hit the ground and she swayed, but Jed’s arm around her waist steadied her.

‘I’ve got you,’ he told her, and a warm glow burned away her irritation at being handled like a sack of flour. She’d found her someone…

Jed looked back up at Henry who glanced at the microphone in his hand and nodded. ‘Yep. I’m done.’

Henry joined their family group, his eyes bright with curiosity.

Eden looked at them, her heart sighing. For once Al wasn’t on his phone.

Mick had both her arms wrapped around the blond guy’s waist, who Eden recognised as Kael, the elusive, and very hot, photojournalist brother. Troyden simply looked amused.

‘Eden and I are together and it’s serious,’ Jed stated, his deep voice carrying across the tent. ‘I love her, she loves me. I want her to move in with me, but she thinks we need time because you lot need to get used to the idea of us. I call bullshit, but in case she’s right, get over yourselves.’

Right, well. That was one way to make friends and influence people.

Jed, acting as if he hadn’t just lobbed a conversational hand grenade at his family’s feet, looked at his younger brother. ‘And it’s about bloody time you got your arse home, Kael,’ he stated. ‘I’d hug you, but I’m keeping a tight grip on Eden here.’

Kael lifted a blond eyebrow, green eyes mischievous. ‘I’d rethink that, Eden’ he murmured, grinning. ‘He’s a grumpy, bossy bastard.’

He was flirting and Jed was not amused. She laughed. ‘I know, but the heart wants what the heart wants.’

‘I thought you were going to move in with me for a while, Eden,’ Henry asked. Eden shook her head. He was making it sound like they’d come to a firm arrangement, when they’d only floated the idea in the most general of terms. Yeah, he was messing with Jed.

Jed glared at Henry, who held his do-it-and-die stare. After thirty seconds, Henry threw up his hands and looked at Eden, his expression amused. ‘Sorry, Mary, but there are no longer any rooms at the inn.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Wuss,’ she muttered, sending him a mock-glare.

Henry laughed and walked up to her to kiss her right cheek, then her left. Because Jed didn’t let her go, she, Henry and Jed shared a lot of personal space. ‘I’m happy for you, Eden. If you get sick of him, you know where I am.’

Crank, crank… More winding up.

Judging by the fact that Jed was bristling again, it worked. Men.

Mick pushed her way between Jed and Henry to pull her into a tight, hard hug. ‘Welcome to the family officially, E. I’m so glad to have you here to balance out the testosterone, especially now we have another pesky brother back home.’

Over her shoulder, Eden eyed Kael. And what a fine brother he was. He was a few years younger than Jed, fit and blond, beautiful in a rough and ready way. Nothing to see here, just another bold and beautiful Troyden Castle stepchild.

‘Weren’t you the one who begged me, sometimes multiple times a week, to come home?’ Kael asked Mick after she’d released Eden from her tight hug.

Justin tipped his head to Kael. ‘He’s younger than both Jed and Henry,’ he said, not bothering to be subtle. ‘Better-looking too.’

She couldn’t help her giggle and slapped her hand over her mouth. Her eyes met Jed’s and although he looked grumpy, there was laughter, and love, in his eyes. Teasing, she’d remembered, was their love language.

‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ she told Justin, and smiled at Kael. ‘When he can’t keep up with me, I’ll give you a shout.’

‘Funny girl,’ Jed murmured, his eyes heating. ‘We’ll see who’s begging for sleep later.’

Eden blushed, and his siblings, even Al, laughed. Eden looked at Troyden, who’d yet to say anything. She held out her hand to him and when he took it, she sent him a wobbly smile. ‘Thank you for creating this awesome family, Troyden.’

Troyden hugged her tight and rested his cheek against her hair. In her uncle’s arms, she turned her head to look at Jed, eyes on her, his face saturated with love. Over her head, Troyden cleared his throat.

‘It hasn’t been perfect, but it’s been fun. We’ve argued and screamed at each other, hurt each other and there were days when I would’ve given everything I had for a quiet, calm house.

‘But family’, Troyden said, his arms around Eden’s back, holding her to his chest, ‘is a choice of the heart. Parenting you lot has been the joy of my life.’

‘Great speech, Dad,’ Jed replied. ‘Now, will you please give me back the love of my life?’

Troyden let her go and Eden walked over to Jed, to step into her spot within the Castle family, next to his side.

She stood on her toes to kiss his sexy mouth, smiling when he fed her a soft, intense ‘you belong with me’ kiss.

She’d found her place. And her person. Life didn’t get much better than this.

She was, she decided, the dictionary definition of riding high.