‘We’re missing something,’ she said, and Rufus narrowed his eyes at her.
‘What’s going on?’
‘I want to see you in a stupid Christmas hat,’ she said, shaking the cracker at him now.
‘Give over. I wore your bobble hat for hours. Wasn’t that enough?’
‘Nope. You wore the hat because I was saving your life. This is to entertain me, and I find that I’m full of Christmas spirit. And that means you have to wear the paper hat.’ He scowled at her and she pouted shamelessly. ‘Unless you want to ruin Christmas completely.’
He groaned as he pulled the cracker, and the contents spilled onto the table between them. Jess picked out the hat from among the detritus and stood up, leaning to pull it onto Rufus’s head. But then a pair of muscled arms was wrapping around her waist, pulling her into his lap.
She shrugged, trying to suppress a smile. ‘Fair trade,’ she said, pulling the hat further down onto his head, linking her hands behind his neck and leaning back to get a better look at him.
‘Very festive.’ She laughed at his frown and pulled her phone out of her pocket for a selfie. ‘Are you pouting for the camera?’ she asked.
‘No. Just for you,’ he said, finally breaking and cracking a smile. ‘What’s brought about this sudden burst of festive cheer?’
She shrugged, and couldn’t help but notice that Rufus’s eyes dipped to her cleavage as she did so. Good. Having his mind there fitted perfectly with her plans for the rest of the day.
‘Oh, nothing,’ she said, shrugging again, and very much enjoying the expression on Rufus’s face when she did so.
‘Just been thinking about a few things. Deciding a few things.’
His brows drew together for a moment.
‘Good things?’
‘Very good things,’ she confirmed, pulling herself close again, until her nose bumped against his, and his eyes closed as a smile spread over his face. ‘I’ve decided not to be sad at Christmas any more.’
‘That sounds like a good decision,’ Rufus said, his hands curving round her bottom and pulling her in tight. ‘Let me know if there’s anything in particular I can do to make you happy.’
She smiled, and brought her mouth to his.
‘Oh, I’ve got an idea or two,’ she said, between kisses.
‘Well, Merry Christmas to me,’ Rufus gasped.
CHAPTER NINE
JESS LISTENED TO the drip-drip-drip, wondering whether rain indoors was something that she should be sufficiently concerned about to pull Rufus’s arm from around her waist, open the hangings on the four-poster bed and extract herself from the warmth of the quilts and of the man sleeping soundly beside her. But the constant sound of water was causing another problem—one less easy to ignore—and that cast the deciding vote. She would set all sort of speed records diving into the bathroom and be back in the bed before the sheets had cooled.
She inched out from beside Rufus, untangling their legs and pulling gently on her hair where it was caught beneath his head.
He moaned softly as she slipped from the sheets, but she pulled the bedclothes higher and watched as he drifted back into sleep. Without her. She stood and looked at him for a moment, not able to put her finger on why that should cause such a sharp pang of regret. This wasn’t the first bed that she’d slipped from before dawn. Not the first time she’d left someone sleeping, not even realising that she wasn’t beside them any more. Rufus was dead to the world. It absolutely was not rational to be annoyed at him for something he had done—or not done—while he was sleeping. She grabbed a blanket from the foot of the bed and wrapped it around herself as she went through to the bathroom.
When she returned, Rufus still slept soundly. And there was still that drip-drip-drip that had made it so impossible for her to fall back to sleep.
Drip.
She spun, looking for the source of the sound.
Drip.
She spun again. That was it. There was no point getting back into bed until she’d found where it was coming from and reassured herself that the ceiling wasn’t about to cave in on them both.
Drip.
It was coming from near the window. She crossed to that side of the room, checking the floor for puddles and the ceiling for suspicious-looking damp patches, but couldn’t see anything out of place.