‘I want to believe it,’ I said breathily.

‘I want you to. I know there is a list of reasons why we should keep things professional but there is a spark here, though, isn’t there?’ Jake asked me, hope evident in his voice.

‘There does seem to be,’ I said softly back, unable to tear my eyes off him.

‘Hmm,’ he murmured. He reached out and gently touched a strand of my hair. ‘I can’t believe you’d even look twice at me, though.’

My eyebrows shot up. ‘I feel that way about you,’ I admitted before I could stop myself. This seemed so surreal. Jake Richards. Bestselling author. Telling me there was a spark between us and he couldn’t believe I might want him.

‘Are you serious?’ he asked me.

‘Are you?’

His fingertips moved to touch my cheek. I felt my pulse speed up instantly. I was sure he would be able to see my chest starting to rise and fall rapidly. He was so close but was still keeping the space between us. I wondered if he was considering kissing me. Then I realised a man had never considered it before. Never taken the time to do so. I replayed previous kisses in my life. Drunken ones, awkward ones, all hurried and sudden… This was so far removed from any of them.

Jake trailed his fingertips down to my chin then to my neck, cupping me there under my ear. ‘I would love to kiss you,’ he said, his eyes moving from mine to my lips. Then he moved them straight back again. ‘But I want you to know I would understand if you said you didn’t want me to. I’d like you to decide, Freya. Tell me yes… or no. Okay?’

A man had never asked me if I wanted to kiss him before. It shouldn’t have felt like a big decision but somehow, it did. I could look back and wonder ‘what if’ and regret not diving in, or I could dive right in and then regret that. Was it better to regret what you did or didn’t do in life?

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I want to kiss you.’

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!