I opened up the door. Jake stood there wearing light-coloured trousers and a white shirt, looking extremely handsome. His hair was ever so slightly damp from the shower I assumed he’d not long had, which then led my thoughts astray and I had to try to stop myself thinking about him in there. He smiled warmly, oblivious to my naughty thoughts, thank God.

‘Morning.’

‘Morning,’ I replied.

‘Are you ready?’

‘Sure.’ I stepped out, closed the door and then we headed for the lifts together. I could smell Jake’s familiar aftershave as we got in one.

‘How did you sleep? I was a little bit distracted to get much,’ Jake said as the doors closed. He turned to look down at me and when our eyes met, my breath hitched as the memory of the way he had held me and kissed me flooded back.

‘I didn’t get much sleep either,’ I admitted.

‘You were on my mind,’ he said.

I smiled. ‘Yeah? You were on my mind too.’

‘I was really hoping you didn’t regret our kiss. Because I didn’t.’

Happiness washed over me that he felt the same way about it. ‘Nor did I,’ I said, my cheeks heating up a little bit at both my confession and remembering his lips on mine.

‘Good.’ Jake smiled at me as the lift reached the ground floor and the doors opened up. No longer alone, we stepped out and made our way to the breakfast room without any more talk of kissing. I wondered though if he was still thinking about it like I was. We were shown to a table for two at the back of the room. I looked around but couldn’t see Liv or Tessa, which was a relief as I would have been hopeless at pretending this breakfast was normal. I recognised some people also attending the conference but thankfully, no one spoke to us.

Over at the buffet section, I tried not to glance at Jake too much as I got myself a large coffee and a plate of scrambled eggs, toast, bacon and a side of fruit and yoghurt, but it was hard. Twice, our eyes caught, and we smiled at each other. It was nice knowing he was looking over at me too. I went to our table and Jake joined me with his coffee, and a full plate too. It seemed we both needed lots of fuel after our lack of sleep.

I took a gulp of my coffee while Jake cleared his throat. ‘So, we had a kiss that we don’t regret but we are here working together,’ he said quietly so no one could overhear us.

I nodded. ‘You have your second author panel later this morning,’ I said, trying to focus on said work and not how handsome he looked across the table.

‘I’ll do better this time,’ Jake replied with a wry smile.