As I finally finished my lunch, my thoughts driftedright back to Iris—and they stayed there the rest of my shift. Front and center in my mind was kissing her in my kitchen, along with the way her body felt pressed up against mine—soft and supple. I imagined her bare underneath me, begging me not to stop, as I brought both of us intense pleasure for hours on end.
I also thought about our date tomorrow. I wanted her. God, did I want her. But I also wanted to take her out, to show her that I wasn’tjustafter sex. She deserved more than that. She deserved better than me, but for some reason, she was willing to overlook that.
Which was dangerous, because the more I thought about her, the more I realized I was already falling hard for her, which was all the more reason I wanted to give this a shot—a real shot.
Over the last few days, I’d noticed she had a hard time accepting a compliment. When I mentioned how gorgeous her body was the other day, she’d accepted the praise with a smile, but there had been some hesitation—a little flicker of doubt in her eyes. I wasn’t sure if that was from her upbringing of not having a loving, affectionate family in the beginning, or if she’d dated some asshole in the past who’d chipped away at her self-esteem and brought her down so she didn’t know her own worth.
By the time I got home, I tried to burn off my excess energy with Sarge, taking him on a long walk. Didn’t matter, though. The second we were back, he flopped in front of her bedroom door like he was waiting for her to come back. I couldn’t blame him. I felt the same pull.Clearly, I wasn’t the only one in this house thinking of Iris.
I grabbed dinner and dropped onto the couch. I’d eaten in front of the TV for years without a second thought, but after a few nights of sharing the table and meals with Iris, the silence felt lonely for the first time—even hollow.
I had leaned over to grab the remote from the table when I saw her bag of craft supplies. Needle-something, she’d called it.
My fingers itched to text her, to use it as an excuse just to see her name light up on my phone. I pulled it out and then paused—her sister was in town. She deserved that time with her. I could wait until tomorrow.
Tomorrow—a date where I planned to pull out all the stops.In my twenties, I never bothered. Back then, it was all about quick, no-strings, with a woman who wanted the same thing. But I was older now, and Iris wasn’t some fling. She was already under my skin, in my head, and in my bed in ways I couldn’t stop imagining.
Still, no harm in a little reminder. Maybe even a picture.
Me:
Hey, Iris. Enjoy your time with your sister. Just letting you know you left this here. I’ll bring it tomorrow when Ipick you up. 6p okay?
Iris:
I think I was a little distracted this morning and totally forgot it. ;)
Iris:
Thank you. And yes, 6p is perfect.
I really wanted to make a comment about her being distracted, but I chose to let it go. I was a forty-year-old man acting like a teenage boy. I chuckled at the thought. If my teenaged self knew that I had a date with a woman who looked like Iris tomorrow, I think I would have spent the next twenty-something years looking forward to it.
I grinned just thinking about it. And that grin stayed on my face for the rest of the night.
16
“The universe is expanding, which explains why my jeans are too.”
—It’s science
Iris
What a busy day.
It started off fantastic with me making out with Hector and him asking me out on a date—yes, please!
Soon after, it shot off into nonstop busy with me racing to get changed into my work clothes and off to the office and then trying to get all my work done before my sister showed up.
The only problem was everything derailed when I got to work. Apparently, Agent Andrews had called my boss this morning to inform him about the break-in to my apartment and that they weren’t entirely sure it was random, which meant they wanted to make sure our building took extra precautions.
I walked into the main room with six people allstanding around as our boss explained the details of our new security measures for everyone. Then, all eyes turned to me.
“You were robbed?” Leah shrieked.
“Technically, they never stole anything,” I tried to explain, but Christine cut me off.
“More importantly, why didn’t you call me?” Christine asked, looking offended. “You could have stayed with me.”
