Oh, that. For a moment there she had thought he knew, had guessed, she was too attracted to him for her own good, which would be just too embarrassing in the circumstances.
But he was perfectly correct about her relief earlier; her mother really was hard work.
‘I’m not so sure about the “just think of me as a friend of Meg’s” remark.’ She gave him a reproving look, hoping that nothing she was saying or doing was betraying how totally aware she was of him.
He grinned unabashedly. ‘Would you rather I had told your mother I’m just the man you picked up in a snowstorm?’
Meg drew in a sharp breath, even while inwardly she admitted, within very wide guidelines, that he spoke the truth.
She glared at him. ‘I’ll be more than happy to put you down again!’
‘In this weather?’ He glanced out at the heavily falling snow. ‘There’s gratitude for you.’ Even as he shook his head reprovingly his eyes were laughing at her.
One thing was becoming more and more apparent to her by the second: the snow falling steadily outside was such that Jed was never going to make it back to the cottage today.
‘Do you really have some luggage with you?’ She frowned. ‘Or did you just make that up?’
He grimaced. ‘I have an overnight bag with me. I never thought I was going to get back to the cottage today, Meg,’ he added as her eyes widened at the admission. ‘There’s a hotel in Winston; I was going to try and book in there for the night.’
There was no way she could allow him to do that after all that he had done for her and Scott. And if he wasn’t to stay in a hotel tonight, then he would have to stay here.
He was so close to her now, the weather cocooning them in a world of silence, that at that moment nothing else seemed to exist but the two of them, the very air between them seeming electrified with expectation.
As if becoming aware of that himself, Jed’s eyes darkened, his narrowed gaze moving down to the parted softness of her lips.
Meg instinctively moistened those lips with the tip of her tongue.
‘I really can’t let you do that.’ She didn’t get any further, staring up at Jed in fascination as he looked down at her only briefly before lowering his head, his mouth easily capturing hers.
It was as if the time since earlier this morning had never been, her lips parting beneath his as he deepened the kiss, pulling her into his arms, although the stowing box between them stopped them getting as close as Meg would have liked. Wanted. Desired.
His hair felt so thick and silky against her fingers, heat building inside her as she met the fiery passion of his kiss.
A blast of cold air gusted inside the Range Rover as the door beside Meg was wrenched open, Meg pulling away self-consciously from Jed to turn and look at her brother-in-law, Jeremy’s teasing expression telling her he knew exactly what he had just interrupted.
‘The two of you have been gone so long Lydia sent me out to make sure you hadn’t somehow got lost in the snow,’ Jeremy drawled, smiling, seemingly impervious to the falling snow.
She had only met Jeremy twice, once when he’d come to the flat one evening to pick her sister up for a date, and the second time when the two of them had told her they were engaged to be married, but on both occasions she had rather liked him.
Although she wasn’t too sure she liked the fact that he had caught her and Jed—well, in an embarrassing situation if not a compromising one.
‘Lydia did? Or was it David?’ Jed was the one to respond to the other man sceptically.
Jeremy gave him a rueful smile. ‘Oh, it was definitely Lydia—her tea is getting cold, I’m afraid.’
Meg watched as the two men shared what could only be classed a male understanding look.
How did Jed do that? Meg wondered with some bewilderment. He had quite effortlessly silenced her mother earlier, immediately charmed her father, remained totally immune to Sonia’s sensual charm, and now he and Jeremy were exchanging looks like conspirators in a war.
Jed’s mouth twisted ruefully. ‘Please tell Lydia we’ll be right in,’ he drawled dryly.
Jeremy turned to give Meg a friendly smile. ‘You’re looking really well, Meg,’ he told her warmly before closing the door to return to the house.
The implication being that the way she looked had something to do with having Jed Cole in her life.
She shot him a glance. ‘We really will have to stop doing that.’
‘Will we?’ he mused softly. ‘Why?’
‘Because…well…’ she frowned as she pushed back the heavy curtain of her hair ‘…two strangers caught in a snowstorm together and all that.’
‘We’re hardly alone, Meg,’ he mocked pointedly. ‘And I don’t think we can be called strangers any more, either,’ he added teasingly.
No, they weren’t, were they? she accepted a little dazedly as they got out of the Range Rover to collect the luggage from the back. But she would be a fool to read more into a couple of kisses than there really was. Because as soon as the snow cleared Jed would be on his way. Back to New York, probably. And she would never see him again.
Don’t, for goodness’ sake, get involved, Meg, she told herself firmly as she helped carry the luggage inside.
At the same time having the feeling her warning might have come too late.
Jed knocked on the door to Meg’s room, waiting for her to answer, and when she didn’t he opened the door and went inside anyway, sure that she was in there.
She was, lying on one of the single beds, an arm up and draped over her eyes, Scott already fast asleep in the other bed, angelically beautiful, a large red sack draped over the bottom of the bed.
Jed padded softly across the room on bare feet, intending—well, he didn’t know what he intended doing, only that he was drawn to these two like a magnet. He wasn’t sure what that meant, either.
‘It’s far too early for Father Christmas,’ Meg murmured without moving the arm from over her eyes.
‘Damn it, woman, you startled me. I thought you must have fallen asleep,’ he said irritably as she shifted her arm slightly to look at him.
‘No,’ she assured him flatly. ‘I’m certainly not asleep.’
Jed stood next to the bed looking down at her. ‘Then what are you doing?’
She sighed, her arm falling back to her side, her eyes closed now. ‘I’m lying here trying not to scream. What are you doing?’ she demanded with some alarm as he moved to stretch out on the bed beside her.
He lay back with his eyes closed. ‘The same as you—trying not to scream. That has got to be the weirdest afternoon I’ve ever spent. Are you usually that polite to each other?’ His own family was noisy and boisterous, a row usually breaking out between a couple of them within minutes of their meeting up again.
‘Usually, yes.’ Meg frowned.
He gave a disgusted shake of his head. ‘And who changes for dinner when it’s just family?’ he continued disbelievingly, having known himself dismissed a short time ago when the whole family had risen to go upstairs to their respective bedrooms to change for dinner.
Except Meg, of course. She had escaped over an hour ago after giving Scott his tea in the kitchen, coming back to announce, much to Scott’s disappointment, that it was now time for his bath before going to bed.
When Meg hadn’t returned after an hour Jed had been sure that she must have fallen asleep too, this the first opportunity he’d had to check up on her.
He opened one eye at Meg’s continued silence after his last statement, only to find she had propped herself up on one elbow and was now looking at him. ‘What?’ he asked tersely.
She shook her head, turning away slightly. ‘You shouldn’t be in here,’ she told him quietly.
‘Why shouldn’t I? We’re more than adequately chaperoned.’ He gave a pointed look at the sleeping Scott. ‘Although I didn’t get the impression earlier that would be such a problem, anyway,’ he drawled as he turned back to look at Meg. A blushing Meg. ‘You should have seen your face earlier when your mother asked if we would be sharing a room.’ He had found it difficult at the time to contain his humour at the look of shock on Meg’s face; now he gave a teasing grin at the memory.
Although he had to admire the dignity with which Meg had informed her mother that she and Scott would be sharing a bedroom, not Meg and Jed.
But Lydia had still allocated them adjoining rooms, with a communicating door between, the doorway he had just come through.
Meg shook her head impatiently, her face pale. ‘I can’t imagine what my mother was thinking of!’
Jed raised dark brows. ‘Possibly treating you like the adult you obviously are?’ he suggested, having found Lydia subdued most of the afternoon, seeming to watch them all rather than taking an active part in the conversation, such as it was.
Although Scott’s obvious excitement at the approach of bedtime had more than made up for any awkwardness there might have been between the adults—and there had been plenty of that, the undercurrents in this family so deep Jed hadn’t had time to try and work them out yet. It appeared the little boy and his grandfather had become firm friends, which wasn’t surprising; David was as warm as his youngest daughter.
‘I somehow doubt that.’ Meg’s mouth twisted sceptically at his suggestion about her mother’s motives. ‘It’s more likely that she meant to be insulting.’