‘I counted the bedrooms and there’s just enough for all of us,’ John commented. ‘So, where are you sleeping, Jessica?’
Every single Sherwood, plus wives and partners, perked up. Her mother leaned forward in her chair. Her grandmother chuckled. Faces turned either speculative or protective and Jess threw Luke a desperate look.
Ah...this was the downside of a large family. The extreme lack of privacy. ‘I offered Jess a place to sleep in my house for the duration of your stay. Since we do need to do some work this weekend, we thought that was the most practical solution.’
‘So are you sleeping together, and if you aren’t, why not?’ Liza raised her eyebrows. Liza didn’t give him a millisecond to respond. ‘Are you involved? Married? Gay?’
‘Mum!’ Jess shoved her hands into her hair from frustration.
‘What?’ Liza sent her an innocent look. ‘I just want you to be happy. And if you and Luke are just work colleagues then I have at least three young men who want your number.’
‘Good grief,’ Jess moaned. ‘I told you—Luke and I are friends. Just friends.’
‘Then maybe you and Grant can get back together?’ Patrick suggested. ‘I saw him last week. He was asking about you.’
A chorus of approval followed his suggestion and Luke felt his teeth grinding in the back of his jaw.
‘He isn’t seeing anyone else,’ Chris commented. ‘We took him out for a beer and he was crying into it, saying that you were the best thing that ever happened to him. Can’t understand it myself, but there you are.’
‘He’s a nice guy, Jess,’ John agreed.
Jess sent Luke a look of abject misery and mortification. He now knew what she’d meant when she’d said that her family didn’t respect her privacy and that they had no concept of emotional boundaries.
Patrick waved his wine glass in the air. ‘And he’s a mean fly half. If he’s prepared to forgive her for being so anal then she should consider giving him another chance.’
Clem shook her head at Kate. ‘For a doctor, your husband can be extraordinarily thick on occasion.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Kate grumbled.
Jess pushed her chair back and stumbled to her feet. Luke saw the white ring of pain around her mouth and knew that she was at her limit—physically and probably mentally—and certainly not up to dealing with her family. When she swayed on her feet his protective streak flashed white-hot, and he was out of his chair to catch her as her knees buckled. He’d been wrong. She was way past her limit.
‘Okay, that’s enough,’ he said in a hard voice.
Luke wound his arm around her waist and felt Jess’s arms creep around him. He looked at each of her brothers in turn.
‘God, you lot are a piece of work. Can’t you see that she’s not up to dealing with your crap? She’s got ten stitches in her leg and she’s battered and bruised.’
His glare had Patrick’s retort dying on his lips.
‘Jess and I—hell, I don’t even know what’s what between us. But—’ he looked at Liza ‘—it is between us. And the next person who mentions her going back to that waste of oxygen she caught screwing another woman, in her bed, will get his ass kicked. By me.’ Luke lifted his hand to cradle Jess’s head against his chest. ‘I am taking Jess home. She’s had more than enough. She’ll see you in the morning—if she’s feeling up to it.’
Luke guided Jess out of the room and a silent Sherwood family watched them leave.
Nick broke the shocked silence that followed. ‘Well, well, well. Jess has finally found a man who has a bigger set than she does. Good for her and it’s about time. Pass that wine, Grandma, you’re hogging it.’
* * *
For the second night in a row Jess slept in Luke’s bed—in the proper sense of the word. There had been no euphemisms involved because shortly after carrying her up the stairs he’d handed her some painkillers and bustled her into bed. Her head had barely hit the pillow and she was asleep.
Sexy she was not.
Jess rolled over as she smelt coffee and swallowed saliva as Luke walked into the room, dressed in nothing more than a low-slung towel over his slim hips. Lord, he had a beautiful body...
He smiled down at her as he put the cup of coffee on the bedside table. Jess sat up and squinted at the clock. It was just past nine—an unusual time for Luke to be showering.
‘When I came back from the lands your brothers were about to go for a run and invited me to join them,’ Luke explained, sitting on the bed next to her. ‘Obviously it was a test. Competitive bunch, aren’t they?’