Page 69 of The Billionaire Land Baron

She giggled. “What kind of girl are you?”

“A total girly girl,” he said, grinning. “I love girl talk and pillow fights…”

At that, Shelby rolled away and grabbed a pillow. She got to her feet, unsteady on the mattress with the pillow clutched in her hands. “Well, let’s go then, City. Show me what you got.”

He grinned and grabbed a pillow, trying to dodge as she started hitting him before he even got to his feet. And then they were both swinging pillows at each other’s faces and laughing. After a few minutes, Shelby tossed her pillow and he followed suit. Before she could question whether or not she should, she started jumping on the hotel bed.

Jake laughed and joined her, both of them flying up and down, her hair whipping around her head, both of them looking ridiculous in the mirror across the room: he in a suit, still wearing his jacket, and her in the short black cocktail dress.

When they were both breathless and sweaty, he ordered room service and they moved to the suite’s couch still in their formal wear, enjoying a leisurely and private dinner. As long as he could pretend that this moment and this room was all they needed to know in the world, so could she.

Shelby layback against the couch cushions, her legs stretched out on the coffee table. She wiggled her toes. “Thanks again for the spa day,” she said. “Believe it or not, I’ve never had a pedicure. Or a manicure. Or…basically any of that stuff.”

Jake grinned. “I aim to please.”

“You did,” she said. “You do. Thank you.”

It was almost ten o’clock. Probably time to call it a night. They’d eaten steak and fingerling potatoes and had some kind of dessert that the guy who wheeled up the tray set on fire. It was all amazing. Shelby could feel the way the night was drawing to a close, though, like Cinderella moving toward midnight, ready to run right out of that one slipper.

Jake reached across the couch for her hand, wrapping her fingers up in his. “What do we do, Shelby?”

His question stilled her. This was the same thing she’d been asking herself for the past day and the days before that. “I don’t know,” she said. “What can we do? I mean, what options do we even have? You live and work in Chicago. And I can’t leave Lucky. I think that pretty much leaves us stuck where we are. Which is…not together. It seems impossible.”

His thumb traced over her hand. Her chest ached. She waited for him to say something, anything. Didn’t he have some kind of solution? Would he leave Chicago for her? She wanted more than anything for him to say that she was wrong. If anyone could figure something out, he could. Because money could make things easier, right? But he did not speak.

She turned her face away toward the dark windows and the lights over the lake outside.

After a few minutes, he sighed and pulled her close. She let herself be drawn to his chest, but she did not look up at his face.

“Shelby, I don’t know what to do. But I know that I want to be with you. To figure out what this is. I want more time.”

She sensed the hesitation. “But?”

“This is a tricky time for work and I can’t stay. Not right now.”

“I understand.” Shelby worked to keep her voice even.

“But I could come back. I could…”

She could almost hear the thoughts in his head as they turned over. Shelby sighed. “Maybe this is just what we have. This right now. I don’t want to mess that up thinking about what won’t work.”

Jake squeezed her tighter and planted a kiss on her head. “Don’t say it won’t work. Don’t give up on the idea of an us.”

“Give me a reason to have hope, Jake,” she said.

He shifted her until she was turned to face him. His eyes roved over her face, looking wild and desperate. Taking both of her hands in his, he kissed her fingers. “Hope in me, Shelby. I haven’t…I don’t do this. You are so special. You took me by surprise. I don’t know what’s next, but there is something next. There will be an us.”

He took her hand and put it against his chest. She could feel his heart beat through the thin cotton dress shirt. “Do you feel it? Is it this way for you too? Tell me if I’m wrong.”

“You’re not wrong,” she said quietly. Putting his hand to her chest felt too intimate, so she pulled his hand to her neck, where her pulse was racing.

His fingertips rested there as he searched her eyes. And then he pulled her to him, his lips again assuring, promising, and asking. She kissed him back, each movement of her lips one more yes.

When they finally pulled away, breathless, Shelby felt more at peace. They didn’t have answers, but that could wait. They would find them or make them. She groaned, touching her lips. They felt raw and swollen. Her chin and cheeks too.

“I think you broke my face,” Shelby said.

“Do I need to fix it?” He leaned in as though to kiss her again. Giggling, she pushed him back.

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