‘And what do you do with women?’ I fired back, still annoyed he felt he had to step in between me and that twat of a crime author in the first place. As if I would be interested in Davis Mulberry! And I was also annoyed with myself for talking about my personal life somewhere it could be overheard. It was yet another power imbalance between me and Jake, and I hated it. I wished he would feel intimidated by me, just once.

‘I’d treat you better than you’d ever been treated before.’

My breath caught in my throat as we stared at one another. Was that a general or a specific promise from him? He used the words ‘I’ and ‘you’… I couldn’t believe he was flirting with me though so I stepped back in case I got carried away. ‘I’ll take your word for it. No need to warn me off Davis Mulberry; he’s the last man I would want. Like you said, and overheard, I’m waiting for something special.’

‘Aren’t we all?’ he replied softly. ‘I’m glad to hear you don’t need warning off Mulberry; he’s not worth your time.’

‘I wish you’d realised that before you let him rile you up at the panel today,’ I said, desperate to stop talking about romance with Jake Richards. It was too crazy. We needed to focus on work. Our relationship was strictly business only.

Jake sighed. ‘I really am sorry about that, Freya. And I have been thinking about what you said. But opening up isn’t easy, is it?’

‘No, it isn’t,’ I agreed. ‘You’re not who I thought you were after reading your books,’ I blurted out.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I suppose I thought that a man who could write so beautifully about love and romance and matters of the heart would be someone who could open their own heart. When I first met you, I thought maybe you were putting on a professional front, that there was more going on beneath this cool guy vibe…’ I waved my hand in front of him, ‘…you have going on. But I think I was wrong all along.’ I turned to go but then my loosened tongue just wouldn’t stop. ‘Oh, I met Kelly Shepperd. I think she’s the only one pleased about the panel today: that you’d finally admitted she didn’t make it all up. But she told me that maybe you let her publish that article because you didn’t want something else to come out. So, I don’t know now, Jake. Do you hate romance or not? Like who is Jake Richards really? And will I ever get to meet him?’ My words hung in the air as we looked at one another.

‘I don’t know, Freya,’ Jake said after a moment. ‘Would you want to meet him?’ he added hesitantly.