Page 89 of Riding High

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 tokillhim.

‘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.’