Page 28 of Long Story Short

Better to regret what I had done, I knew that. My heart was thumping in my chest, my pulse pounding in my wrist and behind my ear, and Jake’s hand was on my neck, making me lean heavily on the door in case my knees gave out. He smiled at my answer, and closed the space between us.

Even though I had said yes, my body still startled when his lips found mine. It had been a long time since I’d been kissed. And this was Jake Richards!

But a second later, I was kissing him back. His mouth was firm and confident on mine. His stubble brushed against my chin slightly roughly but I didn’t mind it. The kiss deepened and his tongue found mine, and his hand on me tightened ever so slightly. I couldn’t stop a moan from escaping my mouth into his as I arched towards him, wanting to be even nearer. He took the hint immediately. His arm came down from the door to hold me around my waist, drawing me into his chest as our kiss turned even more passionate. I lifted my hands from the door and wrapped my arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe to reach him, our mouths never parting as we moved closer.

Jake made a contented noise and then finally tore his lips from mine. I took in a breath. I felt dizzy. My eyes opened to watch as he leaned down to kiss the corner of my mouth then press small kisses on my chin, along my jaw, then down the side of my neck. I gasped. He moved to the other side, letting go of his hold there as he kissed me where his hand had been. His kisses were soft but accompanied by the roughness of his facial hair. His arm around my waist held me firmly. Everything about the way he was handling me felt just right. When he lifted his head back up, our eyes met. He touched my lips, which were tingling. ‘When you anticipate a kiss for a while, your expectations can be too high. But that exceeded all of mine.’

Fuck. I quickly pressed myself back against the door because that kiss followed by such a romantic sentiment threatened to send my trembling knees over the edge. And I really didn’t want to fall over in front of him again.

‘You’ve anticipated kissing me?’ I asked when I was able to form a coherent thought again.

Jake grinned. ‘Ever since I found you sprawled on the floor at Heathrow airport with a penis pencil in your handbag.’

I burst out laughing. ‘You did not want to kiss me then!’

‘I have never met a girl like you, Freya. Seriously, I have never wanted to laugh so hard but also help someone so badly as I did in that moment. Since then, you’ve occupied my thoughts quite a bit. And God, when I saw Mulberry flirting with you, I realised how badly I wanted you for myself. Even though I knew I shouldn’t want you…’

I looked at him. ‘Are you sure it wasn’t because you heard me say I haven’t had sex for three years so you thought I’d be easy?’ I asked archly.

We stared at one another.

Then Jake started laughing. ‘This is what I mean. You’re not like anyone else. Jesus, Freya.’

I smiled. ‘Well, just so you know, even though that was an epic kiss, I’m not easy.’ I stepped away from the door and pulled out my key card to open it up.

‘I meant what I said about treating you better than you’ve ever been treated if you were mine…’ Jake’s voice turned even rougher when he said the word ‘mine’.

Suddenly, I wanted to be his. And I’ve never wanted to be anyone’s before. But I knew I needed to be careful. I knew I had to tear myself away otherwise I never would. ‘I should go to bed.’

Jake smiled. ‘You should. Goodnight, Freya.’ He leaned in and gave me a soft kiss on the mouth. ‘I’ll try to sleep but I know I’ll be thinking about that kiss.’

‘Me too,’ I admitted. I giggled, then rolled my eyes. ‘Goodnight,’ I said firmly to both him and myself then I walked into my room and closed the door behind me. I ran to the bed and dived on it, laying on my back and staring at the ceiling.

I giggled in the darkness, reaching up with my finger to touch my lips. I could feel Jake’s on mine still. The roughness of his facial hair. The way he’d held me with delicious pressure. The way I had longed to be even closer to him. My body had wanted more. So much more. And it had been a long time since I’d felt that way. That craving, that ache, that need for someone. It was almost unbelievable I was feeling it for Jake.

But if I was honest with myself, I had fantasied about Jake long before we’d even met. Reading his books had made me wonder about the man who could write such romantic stories. And that man himself had not only kissed me but told me the kiss had exceeded all his expectations, and then told me that if I was his, he’d treat me better than I’d ever been treated.

Did I want to be his?

Was that even possible?

Had he meant all of that?

Or had we been swept up after our New York date?

I had no idea what the morning would bring but I knew that I would be thinking about his kiss most of the night. Jake’s kiss was unlike anything I’d had before. That made me think his kisses could quite easily become addictive. But I couldn’t lose my head. He had been right when he said there were a ton of reasons why we shouldn’t think about kissing again, let alone anything more. This was a work trip. Jake had always intimidated me. We were leagues apart. There was a big age gap…

…and he was keeping something from me.

But my body and my heart didn’t care here, in this moment.

They wanted Jake to call me ‘mine’.

I was definitely in trouble.

20

A stream of sunlight poured through a crack in the curtains pooling on the bed. The sheets were bundled up around me after my restless night. I turned over with a groan to look at the time. It was eight o’clock. I had no idea when I had finally drifted off to sleep but it had definitely not been until the early hours. I had replayed my day with Jake over and over again in my mind, spending a lot of time reliving our kiss against my hotel room door. It felt somewhat like a dream and I hadn’t wanted to wake up from it.

---