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‘Bed?’ he asked, and the broken gravel of his voice would have been enough to get her there with him even if she hadn’t spent the last three days going out of her mind with wanting him.
‘Bed.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘REMIND ME AGAIN why we waited three days to do that?’ Rufus said, his eyelids as heavy as his limbs. Beside him, Jess was still trying to catch her breath, and he pulled her closer with an arm around her waist.
‘Because we’re idiots,’ she said, turning towards him and pressing a kiss to his chest before settling her head on his shoulder. ‘Just so you know, I’m not waiting three days for round two.’
She yawned; Rufus tensed. No, because in three days the snow would probably be gone, and so would she. But now was not the time to be thinking like that. Not when Jess was warm in his bed and there was still a foot of snow down the lane. There would be plenty of time to lament how little time they’d had once this was over.
Jess reached for the phone in her jeans pocket, where they’d landed on the floor, and he turned to spoon her, pulling the blankets close against the cold air of the bedroom. ‘It’s past midnight,’ she said, dropping the phone on the bedside table and turning in his arms. ‘Merry Christmas.’
‘Merry Christmas,’ he murmured, kissing her again. ‘This is absolutely the best start to a Christmas Day I’ve ever had.’
‘I should hope so.’
Rufus woke in the morning to goose bumps on his shoulders where the blankets had been tugged down, and the tip of Jess’s nose cold against his chest. He grabbed a couple of blankets from the floor and tucked one around Jess as he eased himself from under her arm, and then wrapped the
other around himself while he went to tend to the fire. They had been too distracted to remember to build it up last night and were paying the price for it now.
He poked the last few embers and added some kindling, waiting for the flames to lick up the knots of newspaper before adding a few logs.
He looked towards the bed where Jess was still sleeping soundly, and smiled. He wished that he had known to wish for her before now.
He shivered in the chill of the room and pulled on more layers, knowing that the great hall would be positively arctic with the fires burned down low. He opened the door just a crack, not wanting to wake Jess, then decided to wrap the blanket back around himself as he went out into the cold.
* * *
‘Nice cape,’ Jess said, and Rufus turned towards her. She’d startled him, she realised, and wondered what had him so distracted that he hadn’t heard her coming. She slipped her arms around his waist under the blanket and pressed her cheek into his chest, hoping that this wasn’t about to get weird. With morning afters, there was generally at least the option of a hasty exit if one of the parties decided that they were having second thoughts. But neither she nor Rufus had an escape route—even if one were needed.
He turned to rest back against the Aga and opened the blanket far enough to wrap her up with him as he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers.
‘Good morning,’ he murmured against her mouth. ‘I was going to bring you coffee.’
‘Then I should have stayed in bed. I was cold, though. Thought I’d see if I could find someone to warm me up.’
‘How’s that going?’ he asked, his hand cupping her cheek as he turned her head to one side and trailed kisses along her jaw.
‘I found this great big guy with a cape...’ she said, eyes rolling as Rufus’s lips found the spot on the side of her neck that made her utterly melt. ‘I’m wondering if he’s up for it.’
‘He was planning on making you breakfast first, so you’re going to have to decide what your priorities are.’
‘Sex, food or coffee? You really want me to choose?’
‘You’ve got about three more seconds of that,’ he said, his voice cracking as her hand slipped into the waistband of his trousers, ‘before coffee and breakfast are off the menu.’
She held up her hands, all innocent, as she took a step away.
‘Feed me. Caffeinate me. Take me to bed. In that order,’ she said, laughing. He shoved a plate of toast at her.
‘Eat quickly.’
‘Efficient. I like it,’ she said, sliding onto the bench on one side of the big oak kitchen table, staying close to the heat of the Aga. ‘Are we meant to be cooking already?’ she asked, glancing at the big clock on the wall and trying to remember how long Rufus had said that the turkey would take to cook.
‘It’s already in the oven,’ he said. ‘It’ll need hours, so we don’t have to do anything yet.’
‘Good,’ Jess said, finishing her toast. ‘Because I was planning a few more hours in bed. Are you coming?’
