I smiled. ‘Well, just so you know, even though that was an epic kiss, I’m not easy.’ I stepped away from the door and pulled out my key card to open it up.

‘I meant what I said about treating you better than you’ve ever been treated if you were mine…’ Jake’s voice turned even rougher when he said the word ‘mine’.

Suddenly, I wanted to be his. And I’ve never wanted to be anyone’s before. But I knew I needed to be careful. I knew I had to tear myself away otherwise I never would. ‘I should go to bed.’

Jake smiled. ‘You should. Goodnight, Freya.’ He leaned in and gave me a soft kiss on the mouth. ‘I’ll try to sleep but I know I’ll be thinking about that kiss.’

‘Me too,’ I admitted. I giggled, then rolled my eyes. ‘Goodnight,’ I said firmly to both him and myself then I walked into my room and closed the door behind me. I ran to the bed and dived on it, laying on my back and staring at the ceiling.

I giggled in the darkness, reaching up with my finger to touch my lips. I could feel Jake’s on mine still. The roughness of his facial hair. The way he’d held me with delicious pressure. The way I had longed to be even closer to him. My body had wanted more. So much more. And it had been a long time since I’d felt that way. That craving, that ache, that need for someone. It was almost unbelievable I was feeling it for Jake.

But if I was honest with myself, I had fantasied about Jake long before we’d even met. Reading his books had made me wonder about the man who could write such romantic stories. And that man himself had not only kissed me but told me the kiss had exceeded all his expectations, and then told me that if I was his, he’d treat me better than I’d ever been treated.

Did I want to be his?

Was that even possible?

Had he meant all of that?

Or had we been swept up after our New York date?

I had no idea what the morning would bring but I knew that I would be thinking about his kiss most of the night. Jake’s kiss was unlike anything I’d had before. That made me think his kisses could quite easily become addictive. But I couldn’t lose my head. He had been right when he said there were a ton of reasons why we shouldn’t think about kissing again, let alone anything more. This was a work trip. Jake had always intimidated me. We were leagues apart. There was a big age gap…

…and he was keeping something from me.

But my body and my heart didn’t care here, in this moment.

They wanted Jake to call me ‘mine’.