‘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?’

‘I’m so comfy,’ I agreed. ‘But I know we have to get ready.’

Jake leaned in and kissed me again. I let out a sigh but kissed him back, my fingers threading through his hair as he moved his to my waist. ‘I might be addicted to kissing you,’ he murmured into my ear.

‘Oh yeah?’ I purred back. ‘I might want you to be addicted to kissing me.’ I brushed my lips against his but then I sighed. ‘I really should have that shower,’ I said reluctantly.

Jake’s eyes twinkled then. ‘If you really don’t want us to let go of each other, we could have a shower together?’

The thought of Jake wet and naked with me was instantly appealing. ‘I think that’s a very good idea,’ I admitted, wanting to prolong us being together for as long as possible. I tried to think if I had ever done that with a previous partner but I definitely hadn’t. I probably would have been too worried at being so exposed but last night, Jake had made it very clear that he found me sexy and loved my body, and I hadn’t felt nervous or worried.

I extracted myself from his arms finally, my body instantly feeling the loss of his. I wondered if other couples also felt sad when they had to let go of each other and start their days like I did.

Not that we were a couple or anything.

Jake climbed out of bed with me and we stayed naked so that helped the loss of his embrace a lot.

Jake took hold of my hand and led me into the marbled bathroom. The shower was thankfully a large walk-in one so after he turned on the shower, we stepped in it easily together. The water was hot instantly, steaming the room up around us as we got under it.