Page 29 of Long Story Short

But now I had to.

With a sigh, I sat up and stretched, letting out a loud yawn. I touched my hair. It was tangled from my tossing and turning, and I hadn’t bothered to remove my make-up so there was mascara imprinted on my pillow.

On the bedside table, my phone lit up with a message. I saw Jake’s name flash up on my screen and my heart quickened instantly. I took a breath and read it.

Morning, Freya. Would you like to have breakfast together?

I exhaled. No immediate calling our kiss a mistake. I was relieved about that. No declarations about it being the best kiss ever again, but maybe he was unsure how I would feel when I woke up. And my mind was all over the place. Still processing the fact that Jake Richards had kissed me. How good it had felt. How I wanted more.

I realised I hadn’t responded to his text. I was nervous to see him but I wanted to see him too. And it wasn’t like I could hide in this hotel room. We were still at the conference together. It was better to see him sooner rather than later before I could overthink too much about the situation.

Sounds good. When shall we meet?

He replied quickly.

Can you be ready in 45 minutes? Meet you outside our rooms…

I jumped out of bed and sent a message back as I hurried into the bathroom to get ready.

See you then!

Diving into the shower, I made myself look as good as I could in the forty-five minutes I had. Remembering what he had said about liking my outfits, I pulled on my favourite dress – it was short and white with tiny sunflowers on it – along with my favourite boots. I left my hair loose, did quick, basic make-up and was spritzing myself with my floral perfume when there was a knock on the door. I took a final look in the full-length mirror. I still looked a bit tired from lack of sleep but much more like myself again.

I opened up the door. Jake stood there wearing light-coloured trousers and a white shirt, looking extremely handsome. His hair was ever so slightly damp from the shower I assumed he’d not long had, which then led my thoughts astray and I had to try to stop myself thinking about him in there. He smiled warmly, oblivious to my naughty thoughts, thank God.

‘Morning.’

‘Morning,’ I replied.

‘Are you ready?’

‘Sure.’ I stepped out, closed the door and then we headed for the lifts together. I could smell Jake’s familiar aftershave as we got in one.

‘How did you sleep? I was a little bit distracted to get much,’ Jake said as the doors closed. He turned to look down at me and when our eyes met, my breath hitched as the memory of the way he had held me and kissed me flooded back.

‘I didn’t get much sleep either,’ I admitted.

‘You were on my mind,’ he said.

I smiled. ‘Yeah? You were on my mind too.’

‘I was really hoping you didn’t regret our kiss. Because I didn’t.’

Happiness washed over me that he felt the same way about it. ‘Nor did I,’ I said, my cheeks heating up a little bit at both my confession and remembering his lips on mine.

‘Good.’ Jake smiled at me as the lift reached the ground floor and the doors opened up. No longer alone, we stepped out and made our way to the breakfast room without any more talk of kissing. I wondered though if he was still thinking about it like I was. We were shown to a table for two at the back of the room. I looked around but couldn’t see Liv or Tessa, which was a relief as I would have been hopeless at pretending this breakfast was normal. I recognised some people also attending the conference but thankfully, no one spoke to us.

Over at the buffet section, I tried not to glance at Jake too much as I got myself a large coffee and a plate of scrambled eggs, toast, bacon and a side of fruit and yoghurt, but it was hard. Twice, our eyes caught, and we smiled at each other. It was nice knowing he was looking over at me too. I went to our table and Jake joined me with his coffee, and a full plate too. It seemed we both needed lots of fuel after our lack of sleep.

I took a gulp of my coffee while Jake cleared his throat. ‘So, we had a kiss that we don’t regret but we are here working together,’ he said quietly so no one could overhear us.

I nodded. ‘You have your second author panel later this morning,’ I said, trying to focus on said work and not how handsome he looked across the table.

‘I’ll do better this time,’ Jake replied with a wry smile.

‘When I couldn’t sleep,’ I said, keeping my eyes on my plate as I felt shy admitting how much that kiss had played on my mind, ‘I checked social media and everyone is talking about what you said at the reader session yesterday. I did see some people praising you for trying to make it right but just as many are on the fence about what you said yesterday. We have a lot of work to do to convince them that you can be their favourite romance author again.’

Jake nodded. ‘I know. I will do all I can to win everyone round.’ Then he gave me a small smile. ‘But I have to admit right now, I’m mainly thinking about winning you round. Am I stillyourfavourite romance author?’

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