Chapter 23
Dylan was quiet for a minute then he shifted over on the bed before propping himself up on an elbow to look at me. ‘Why does it have to be the last night?’
I raised an eyebrow. ‘Because…’ I said, gesturing between us. ‘We’re enemies, remember?’
‘Enemies don’t kiss like we do; they don’t fuck like we just did,’ he said, his tone harsh.
I sat up on the bed. ‘Are you mad at me? Why? We just had a great time.’
Dylan sat up too. ‘That’s why I’m confused you don’t want to do it again.’
‘Have I dented your ego or something?’
Dylan jumped off the bed. ‘I swear, you are the most frustrating woman I have ever met! How can you keep saying we are enemies when we just went to bed together? I told you, I can’t stop thinking about you.
You have been driving me crazy.’ He threw his hands up in the air then back down. ‘And you’re still doing it now!’
‘Right back at you,’ I said dryly. I got off the bed too and walked over to my overnight bag to pull out my pyjamas. ‘Look, we’re tired; maybe we should just sleep on it and talk in the morning,’ I suggested as I started to pull them on, not wanting to be naked with him any more.
Dylan grabbed his clothes and pulled them on with a sigh. ‘I meant what I said about wanting to help you.’
‘But you still want me to sell the farm,’ I pointed out.
‘But what if that’s in your best interest?
I really like the patch idea, I can see you might be able to create something that will bring people to the farm, but will it be enough?
What if you do all this work, spend money, put in loads of effort and time, pin all your hopes on it and then it fails anyway?
I’m asking this because I care about you.
I’m not sure I can watch you fail, Willow,’ he said urgently as we both got dressed, not looking at one another.
‘You don’t care about me; you hardly know me,’ I snapped.
‘What you care about is pleasing your brother. You want him to respect you, and you see this deal as the way to do it. You just want me to sell. Maybe this was all about that too…’ I gestured to the bed.
‘That’s why it can’t happen again. Why we should just keep things business between us.
We both have so much at stake. This will just distract us. ’
‘This was just a distraction to you?’ he asked quietly then.
I turned to face him and I couldn’t ignore the hurt look in his eyes.
‘We just need to focus on the next few weeks, don’t we?
’ I said in a slightly softer tone because it had been hot being with him.
My body did want more. But I needed to think with my head instead.
I wanted to save my farm and he wanted me to sell it.
It couldn’t end well between us. Why set ourselves up to get even more hurt at the end of our pact?
One of us had to lose. We should just forget tonight had happened, surely?
Dylan looked away from me. ‘I guess so. I’ll let you get some sleep. See you for breakfast.’ He picked up his coat from where I had slung it on the floor and left my room without a backward glance.
I let out a puff of air. Somehow, he had made me feel bad. But I knew I was right.
I walked into the en suite to get ready for bed and glanced at my reflection. My hair was loose and tousled, my lips were pink and puffy from Dylan’s lips and my cheeks were flushed.
When I thought back to the feeling of his touch, a small smile appeared on my face.
Then I bit my lip.
I had made the right decision, hadn’t I?
* * *
My phone alarm rang out early the next day, causing me to groan as I grabbed it from the bedside table.
I’d had a restless night’s sleep after going over my conversation with Dylan for hours, like one of those songs you can’t get out of your head.
I wished I could crawl under the duvet and hide from everything for a few days.
That was impossible, though. I had my farm to save.
Alongside the man who wanted me to sell it, but who had given me quite possibly the hottest night of my life. It was fucked up.
I climbed sleepily out of the bed and headed for a shower, hoping it would wake me up.
I had important things to do today and this made me think that pushing Dylan away last night had been the right thing to do.
He had already distracted me from the task in hand.
I couldn’t let him do that again. Even if part of me wanted him to.
After my shower, I pulled on jeans with a cardigan along with my boots and put my hair back up into a bun, trying not to think about Dylan telling me to take it down last night.
But flashbacks kept returning, even though I tried to bat them away.
I grabbed my coat and bag so we could leave straight after breakfast, then I headed downstairs, wondering if I should have knocked on Dylan’s door but I decided I needed coffee before facing him.
The problem was, when I walked into the inn, Dylan was already sat at the booth we’d had the night before, a cup of coffee and a plate of food in front of him while he scrolled on his phone.
‘Having breakfast too?’ the landlord called over to me, causing Dylan to look up and see me before I could hide.
‘Um, yes,’ I said, walking over, knowing it was silly not to as we had to spend the rest of the day together, even though I was kind of dreading it.
‘Can I get a latte, please? And…’ I glanced at Dylan’s plate as I sat down.
‘That looks good,’ I added, seeing the eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes and pile of toast, thinking that was the fuel I desperately needed.
‘Just replying to some emails,’ Dylan said, barely looking in my direction.
‘My brother is firing work at me; I think he’s sceptical about how much I’m getting done while I’m staying with you.
But I’m doing this meeting for him this morning, which he’s grateful for as it’s miles away from where he lives. ’
There was a babbling edge to his conversation but it was preferable to an awkward silence.
My latte thankfully arrived and I took a long gulp from it before I spoke.
‘We have a busy morning ahead then we’ll be back at the farm.
I mean, if you are still coming back there?
’ I asked, wondering if he would cut and run after last night.
I honestly wasn’t sure whether I wanted him to or not.
It would make life a lot less complicated, but I couldn’t deny the fact I might miss him if he did.
‘We made a pact,’ Dylan said simply. He nodded as the waitress brought over my breakfast. ‘Eat up and we’ll get going.’ He went back to his phone and I looked down at my plate.
I hated this new-found tension between us. You would have thought the tension would have evaporated after our hot night together but somehow, it was worse now we’d decided that it was to be one night, and one night only.