Page 56 of The Doctor's Christmas Bride (Lakeside Mountain Rescue 1)

Bryony rummaged in her bag for her hairclips and gave a groan of frustration. ‘I think I left them at work.’

‘Left what at work?’

‘My new hair slide.’

Jack glanced towards her and frowned. ‘You look great. Leave it down.’

Bryony lifted a hand and touched her hair self-consciously. ‘I look as though I’ve just woken up.’

‘Precisely.’ Jack gave her a wicked smile, his voice a lazy, masculine drawl. ‘As I said—you look great.’

Was he flirting with her?

Bryony felt her stomach turn over and she looked at him, trying to read his mind, but he was concentrating on the road again. She stared at his strong profile, her gaze lingering on his mouth.

Something felt different about their relationship, but she wasn’t sure what. He hadn’t laid a finger on her since that one incredible kiss, but something was different. He looked at her differently.

‘I can’t think why Sean booked it all the way out here,’ Jack grumbled as he turned the car up a narrow road and put his foot down. ‘There must have been somewhere closer.’

‘He wanted to just give us a grid reference and see where we all ended up,’ Bryony told him, removing her gaze from his mouth with a huge effort. ‘At least we managed to talk him out of that one. Do you want me to look at a map?’

‘I know where I’m going.’

Bryony looked at him in surprise. ‘You’ve been here before?’

‘No.’ Jack glanced across and gave her a sexy wink. ‘But men have an instinctive sense of direction.’

Bryony rolled her eyes. ‘Which means we’re about to get lost.’

But they didn’t get lost and less than twenty minutes later Jack pulled into the restaurant car park with a smug smile.

‘I am invincible.’

‘Unbearable, more like,’ Bryony muttered, shivering as she opened the door and the cold hit her. ‘It’s going to snow again. It’s freezing.’

‘Men don’t notice the cold.’ Jack locked the car and held out a hand. ‘Don’t want you to slip, Blondie.’

‘Believe it or not, I can put one foot in front of the other quite effectively,’ she said tartly. ‘I’ve been practising hard lately and I’ve finally got the hang of it.’

Ignoring his outstretched hand, she stalked towards the restaurant with as much dignity as she could given the amount of ice and snow on the path. She didn’t dare take his hand. She was afraid she might never want to let go.

The rest of the team was already there and they had a fantastic evening, laughing and eating and drinking. Halfway through Jack looked at Bryony.

‘You seem to be on water. How do you fancy driving the Ferrari home tonight?’

Her eyes gleamed. ‘You trust me to drive your Ferrari on ice?’

‘I’ll be beside you. What can go wrong?’

But when they finally left the restaurant, several inches of snow had fallen and Bryony looked at the road doubtfully.

‘I’m not sure about driving—we could cadge a lift in one of the four-wheel-drives.’

‘They’re full,’ Jack told her, pushing her gently towards the car. ‘You’ll be fine.’

Bryony drove slowly but gradually she got the feel of the car and her confidence increased. Surprised by the lack of teasing from the passenger seat, she glanced sideways at Jack and realised that he’d fallen asleep.

Turning her attention back to the road, she turned right and followed the road for a while then gradually realised that it didn’t look at all familiar.

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