He had no grand romantic gestures—just a bag of semi-hot pretzels and his heart to offer.
He had to hope it would be enough.
He made his way over to the bed, sitting down on the edge.
“I don’t want to work on a hex.” Iris’s voice was muffled from the pillow.
“Why not? Haven’t I earned it?”
The lump on the bed jolted as Iris dropped onto her back, the blankets falling down to reveal her red-streaked face and puffy eyes.
“What would you do? Give me a tail? Turn me into a werewolf groomer? A vampire tooth-sharpener?”
“I don’t want to speak to you,” Iris said, not falling for his weak attempt at a joke.
“If you don’t want to talk, will you listen?”
Her gaze was guarded, but she didn’t object.
“I know you might not be willing to accept this, but I promise you, I did not set us up to be papped like that. I didn’t, and wouldn’t, invite that kind of invasion. We haveenough scrutiny on us. The last thing I want is the media prying into our rare private moments.”
Iris’s gaze slipped. “It was Henry, wasn’t it?”
“In a way. It was more of a misunderstanding. One I made clear can never happen again.”
Iris sucked in a deep breath, her soft, vulnerable gaze lifting to his.
“Why didn’t you come for me?”
“I knew you were upset. I didn’t want them chasing you down. I tried to distract them so you didn’t have to deal with that. I thought you would go home. Then we could talk.
“I don’t think I realized how hurt you were until I came home and found you hadn’t returned. I thought I’d lost you,” he admitted, his voice cracking. “I thought you’d gone back down to the ocean floor and that I would never see you again.”
“You would have forgotten me in a day. I’d have been replaced in a week.”
“Iris,” he said softly. “You think you’re forgettable? You turned my whole world upside down. You made me question everything I thought I wanted. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since you threw your drink in my face. And I don’twantto stop thinking about you. Not in a week, not in a lifetime.”
He saw her softening, but the tremble in her lower lip said she wasn’t quite there yet.
“Yesterday was supposed to be ours. No plans. No press. Just you and me. I should have made sure our peace was protected. I just … underestimated how necessary it was to make my boundaries known.”
She looked at him, a glimmer of hope hidden in thosegorgeous eyes of hers. “So what’s different now? What stops this from happening again the next time the campaign needs something shiny to parade in front of potential voters?”
“What’s different now is that nothing in this campaign—nothing in this whole damn city—has ever felt real until you.
“Everything I say in interviews and on stages is polished and practiced. Every handshake is a strategy based on polling and research. But with you? With you, I have no idea what I’m doing. I don’t know the right things to do or say. And it’s new and scary. But it’sreal. It’smine.
“I can’t lose you, Iris.” His voice was hardly more than a whisper. “Not to them. They don’t matter, not anymore. All that matters is you. And if there’s even a chance that you want to give me another chance, I promise I will do everything I can to protect you.”
She exhaled shakily, arms wrapping around her bent knees. “I want to believe you.” Her voice was quieter, raw around the edges. “Ido. But you and I both know that the spotlight, the cameras, the questions—they’re a part of your life. And I can’t fake it like you can. I can’t put on a smile when I’m upset or angry. I can’t be perfectly polished and know all the right things to say and how to act. And we both know I would be a liability to you.”
“You are not a liability. You’re the reason I remembered I’m a person at all.” His voice shook, earnest and bare. “Before you, I didn’t even know I was running on autopilot. Smiling, shaking hands, pretending to be whoever the people wanted me to be. You made me want something for myself. Made me crave something real. You have to see that.”
The hope battled the fear in her eyes.
“It could all fall apart,” she said. “The optics. The campaign. We both know I’m not meant for public life.”
“Good,” he said without hesitation. “I don’t want someone meant for something as fake as public life. I want you. Wild, wonderful you.”
