Page 33 of Riding High

‘I don’t want to intrude…’

Oh, she so did, because she didn’t want to spend her last night at Elmsleigh on her own.Weird, because being alone was something she excelled at.

‘It’s lasagna, Eden, not a business meeting.’

‘Okay, that sounds lovely.Can I bring something?’

‘Maybe a bottle of red?’Mick suggested.‘And for God’s sake, don’t buy one, nick one from the wine cellar.The cheap, supposed-to-be-drunk bottles are on the left.Troyden’s precious bottles, supposed to be kept until he is ten minutes from dead, are on the right.’

Right.No, left, the cheap bottles were on the left.‘Are you sure he wouldn’t mind?’Eden asked.

‘He’d be annoyed if you didn’t,’ Mick told her, sounding cheerful.‘Come up at about six, the second to last cottage on the left.’

Wait, wasn’t her cottage the second on the left?Isn’t that what she said the first night they met?‘I thought your cottage?—’

‘Gem, you’re holding your kitten too tightly,’ Mick interrupted her.‘She looks a little hot and bothered.’

Since the kitten was fast asleep, neither she nor Gemma knew what Mick was going on about.

‘Mum, chill,’ Gemma retorted as they approached the long field where four riders, including Jed, all dressed in jodhpurs, knee pads and a variety of shirts, cantered up and down the field, swinging their mallets and hitting a ball.She followed Mick to the pole fence and watched as she elegantly climbed to sit on the top rail.How she did it one-handed, Eden didn’t know.Eden followed her up, far less gracefully, and took the kitten Gemma handed to her.It was still asleep, and she stroked its nose with one finger.

‘He seems to like you.’

The deep, growly voice created fireworks on her skin, and Eden looked up to see Jed sitting on a cocoa-coloured pony, his big hands holding the reins lightly.Beneath his helmet, his hair was damp with sweat and light stubble covered his cheeks and jaw.His honey-coloured eyes glowed between sooty eyelashes and against his tanned face.He smelled of horses and hay and sunshine…

Eden released a sneeze that started in her toes and rocketed up out of her body.Another one chased it, and she sneezed again, louder than before.

The kitten raised its head, gave her a filthy look for being disturbed and dug its tiny, but sharp claws into her skin.Ouch.

‘Antihistamines not working then?’Jed asked, his deep voice rolling over her.She narrowed her eyes at his smug tone.

‘Maybe I’m not allergic to horses; maybe I’m allergic to you,’ she shot back, blinking her watering eyes.

‘I’ve never had that effect on a woman before,’ Jed replied.

‘I’m sure that’s what the first man who passed on syphilis said as well.’Eden took the crumpled tissue Mick offered her and, with the fleeting hope it was clean, wiped her nose.She waved her hand at Jed and his pretty horse, who seemed to be doing the salsa.‘Can you please back up a bit?’

Jed and the horse pulled back a yard or two and Eden drew in a deep breath.She looked down at her arms, didn’t see any spots and realised that her eyes weren’t watery.The pills were working.Damn that she was allergic to horses, as she would like nothing more than to stroke that velvety head, to rest her forehead against that dark, rich neck.

The pony’s or Jed’s?Either would be good.

God, what was wrong with her?Why was she thinking of Jed as someone she’d like to get to know up close and very personal?He had a smart mouth and was as annoying as a persistent mosquito, but he had the body of an athlete, muscular and graceful.

She was just reacting as any normal woman would when a good-looking specimen crossed her path.Females of every species wanted to give their offspring good, strong genes so it made sense that pretty boys–men!– turned heads.

It was nature, and impossible to fight.

But she could look and keep her hands firmly in check.Window shop but not walk into the store.Look, but not touch.Okay, you’ve made your point, Eden.Enough now.And do start acting like the grown woman you profess yourself to be.

‘You still haven’t apologised,’ Eden told him, scowling at him.She might not have seen him for a while, but his accusation that she was a gold-digger still rankled.

‘I’m sorry you were upset by that remark.’

That seemed too easy.She suspected that life, and women, were a little too easy for this man and he needed to work a little harder.Wait, hold on, that wasn’t an actual apology.He wasn’t sorry for what he said, but for how she felt.

‘I thought I trained you better than that, Jedson,’ Mick said, scooting up closer to Eden in a show of support.During a drinking session at the pub a few nights back, Eden had told Mick exactly who she was, and that Jed thought she was gold-digger.‘That was a half-arsed apology.Do better.’

Jed’s eyes didn’t leave her face.‘Stay out of this, Michaela.’