Davis leaned one arm in the doorway like he was in a Booktok romance and I kept a couple of feet between us – being alone in a room with him wasn’t something I felt 100 per cent comfortable with.

‘I mean Jake is just like his father, isn’t he? A lady’s man. After anyone in a skirt… even if they are inappropriate,’ Davis said, the smirk on his face annoying with a capital A.

‘What are you talking about?’ I said, my cheeks flushing when I thought about me and Jake. But I was sure he was nothing like his father.

‘I saw you,’ Davis said then.

‘Saw what?’ I asked, suddenly nervous. He looked way too happy.

‘I saw you with Jake earlier in the lift. Kissing. I know you two are sleeping together.’

35

I stared at Davis’s triumphant face in horror. I had been aware of someone watching before the lift doors closed when Jake and I went up to my room. Now I knew who had seen us. And it was the worst person possible: Davis Mulberry. The man with a huge vendetta against Jake and who had been unable to bring him down once, and was likely itching to try to do it again. He could tell Hayley about us. And she wouldn’t consider promoting me then. She would likely fire me instead.

Panic surged through me.

‘Are you joking?’ I said, hoping my voice didn’t come out squeaky. ‘Kissing Jake? What are you talking about?’ I added in my haughty voice, hoping that using that tone and by staring into his eyes, he wouldn’t sense I was lying. I gripped the wine glass tightly in my hand, wishing I could turn back time and not kiss Jake until those lift doors had fully closed.

Davis sighed as he dropped his arm from the door. ‘I hoped you wouldn’t lie to me; I saw you two in the lift, so don’t kid a kidder. What happened? Jake fooled you into thinking he could do real-life romance as good as he can write about it?’

‘Ha,’ I said, knowing that I needed to change tack and act like him, not myself. ‘Fine, you got me; Jake kissed me,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘But what you didn’t see was after the lift doors closed, I slapped him.’

‘You slapped him?’ Davis repeated, unable to stop himself from grinning.

‘Of course I did! Can you imagine? He’s ten years older than me, and we work together; it was highly inappropriate. There is nothing and never will be anything between us,’ I said firmly. ‘Like you said, Jake can’t do an actual relationship and that’s what I’m looking for. I don’t trust anything he says.’

Davis nodded. ‘You’re wise not to, Freya; he’d eat a pretty little thing like you for breakfast.’