“Iris, are you all right?”
“Your hands on me feel wonderful, Theo. I feel the heat wherever they touch.”
He turned her slowly, keeping his eyes on her face and not the tantalizing swell of her breasts.
“If you are scared. If anything we do frightens you, then you must say, Iris.”
“And you also,” she replied.
She then raised her first finger, and he remembered. Raising his, they linked.
“There must always be truth between friends.” They both whispered the long-ago pact.
Iris then pressed her body to his, and Monty forgot everything but the feel of her.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
Iris didn’t think she’d ever forget the moment Theo dropped his guard and let her in. Let her see the vulnerability he’d fought so hard to keep hidden. Both of them had been hiding, but here in her room, she felt stripped bare. Her emotions were there for him to see, as his were for her.
“Your touch is unlike anything I’ve felt before, Theo.”
“And yours warms me, Iris.”
She felt his lips in her hair, the gesture so sweet it brought tears to her eyes. Was this what others had? Those that cared, did they share this kind of tenderness?
“You are so beautiful, Iris.”
“No.”
“Yes.” He eased her back from him. “When I first saw you in the Raine ballroom, I felt like I couldn’t breathe.”
His face was serious as he studied her.
“You have grown into everything I knew you would become.” His finger ran down her cheek to her neck. “Strong, intelligent, and so beautiful.”
Iris shook her head.
“It will take time, but eventually you will erase him from your life. Erase what he did to you, and here, now, tonight, that begins.” His words were a vow, and she almost believed him.
His fingers touched the skin above the neckline of her chemise, and she shivered at the contact.
“Let me make you feel what I see when I look at you, Iris.”
“Yes. Oh yes, Theo, I want that.” And she wanted to feel something other than resentment and anger. Maybe then she could forget and start living.
His fingers traced the band of cotton and then slid inside to touch the swell of one breast. Closing her eyes, she fought back anything but the wonder of his touch.
This was Theo. He’d never hurt her like her husband had.
“Just feel, Iris.”
His fingers teased and stroked the skin until the coil of ice inside her thawed.
“I want to see you,” he whispered.
She nodded, and his hands lifted the chemise up and off her body. Iris couldn’t look at Theo as she stood before him naked. She’d learned to loathe her body since her husband had told her he owned it.
“You are exquisite, sweet Iris.”
