Page 46 of Long Story Short

‘Of being like him.’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t think you are. You didn’t give up on love. You started writing again; you gave Hayley a new book. And I’ve read it.When I Met Youis your best book yet. That can’t be written by a man who thinks love doesn’t exist.’

‘I started writing it before Dad told us. It took months for me to be able to even open up the document again.’

‘But you did. And you’re here trying to save your career because it means something to you.’

‘Freya, you are…’ Jake didn’t finish that thought but kissed me, rolling me onto my back. He trailed kisses down my neck to my chest, moving his hand between my legs. I gasped as he touched me. He lifted off me and raised an eyebrow. ‘How much sleep do you need tonight?’ He grinned and I knew he was done talking. I was so happy he had opened up to me, though and had trusted me with his secret. I felt closer to him. This felt so different to anything I had ever had before. I wanted to keep it. But I knew that was a secret I wasn’t able to trust him with yet.

So, instead, I giggled. ‘Who needs sleep?’

* * *

Voices outside the room awoke me with a start the following morning. I opened my eyes and looked at Jake’s sleeping profile. Our legs were tangled together and my palm rested on his bare chest. Images from last night replayed in my mind like a movie. It had been so romantic to dance with him in Times Square, and then when we came back to my room, that sweetness turned into something smoking hot. I bit my lip remembering how good Jake’s kisses and touches had felt.

And then he had finally opened up to me. Hope sprung in my heart that Jake might see this as something that could carry on once we went home to London. He’d told me about his father, and how it had affected him. Why he had lied to Davis but also almost gave up on writing about love. But he hadn’t. He was here fighting for his career and he was finally being honest about the past six months. I loved the fact he had listened to me. That he respected me. And had wanted to tell me the truth. That meant more to me than he probably knew.

I looked at the clock on the bedside table and sighed. We couldn’t stay much longer in this hotel room, unfortunately. After breakfast, the conference was having a final morning event to showcase all the authors and their books for the last time. Everyone apart from Jake pretty much had a stand in the room that readers could stop at to buy books or merch, have things signed, or just meet their favourite authors. Jake had refused to have a stand but we still needed to be seen there. It was our last opportunity for Jake to be around readers and the industry, the last chance to fix things. I had no idea if that was possible but we had to try.

And then there was going to be an end-of-conference dinner and party, before we had to pull ourselves together for an early flight home. We’d have to pack after breakfast and check out too. There seemed to be a long list of things to do today but snuggled next to Jake, I wished we could blow them all off.

‘I can feel you thinking hard.’ Jake’s eyes opened. He pulled me closer. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Just thinking about what we need to do today and then we’ll be leaving and then…’ I trailed off because I had no idea what would happen after that.

Jake reached out to brush back a strand of my hair and then cupped my cheek. ‘It’s going to be a full-on day for sure. You enjoyed last night, though?’ Jake asked me softly, drawing his fingertips down to touch my lips.

‘I did,’ I replied. ‘Did you?’

‘You know I did.’

‘It will be strange being at the conference today and not being like this,’ I said, gesturing to us still entwined.

‘Can I keep my hands off you?’ Jake pulled me in for a lingering kiss.

‘You need to,’ I said seriously when we leaned back from each other. Liv’s warnings ran through my mind. I watched as Jake looked confused. ‘I don’t think we want anyone to find out about us here,’ I said. ‘Hayley is still silent. If we can’t make things right, I could lose my job and you could lose an agent. If she found out what we’ve been doing, we definitely would lose everything.’

‘I wouldn’t care if she dumps me; you’ve done more for me these past few days than she would have done.’

‘I can’t afford to think like that,’ I explained. ‘I’m just starting out. She could ruin my career before it even starts,’ I added worriedly. I was already unsure if she wanted me to keep working for her.

‘You really are worried about your career?’

‘She was furious.’

‘Yeah but we’ve made progress since then…’

I shook my head. ‘Not enough. Her silence speaks volumes.’

‘I don’t want to ruin anything for you,’ Jake said sincerely. ‘Hayley won’t find out about us, okay?’

‘Thank you but how we can salvage things enough to get you a new book deal and for me to keep my job, let alone get a promotion, I have no idea…’

‘How about I come up with something? And while I think about it, we make the last moments together in this hotel room count.’

‘We can’t. I should have a shower and then we need to have breakfast and start the day.’ I found myself curling closer around him. I really didn’t want to have to leave his warm, strong embrace. Especially now we had agreed we couldn’t show any signs of being anything other than colleagues after we left my hotel room.

‘Hmm,’ Jake said, holding me tightly too. ‘Hard to let go of each other, isn’t it?’

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