As her fingers trailed up his quad, heading dangerously high, he couldn’t seem to keep himself from squirming. Unfortunately, the motion made the material of his boxer briefs graze across his hardness, dragging a hiss out of him.
He wasn’t sure where her hand may have continued to explore if given the chance. But just then, Finn heard the beep as someone’s card was scanned at the door, making him jump up a step and adjust his shirt so it covered his lap more fully.
“For goodness’ sake, this is a public pool, you—” the woman who entered started to rant as she looked at Iris’s bare upper half. Until she caught sight of her tail. “Oh, sorry,” she murmured. Her gaze skirted away.
In response to her words, though, Iris quickly wrapped her hands across her chest, shielding her body from view.
Suddenly, Finn hated modesty standards in society, simply because they made Iris ashamed of her nakedness.
“We’re just about done here,” Finn said. He shrugged out of his suit jacket and draped it around Iris’s shoulders.
“Thanks,” she murmured as she slid up onto the top step, then pulled her tail out of the water so it could dry.
He watched, fascinated, as shimmering scales gave way to flawless skin. Every version of her was pure perfection.
Iris pulled his jacket down, and Finn reached out to fasten the buttons as more and more skin appeared.
While Iris waited for the rest of her tail to fade away,Finn gathered her scattered clothes, then helped her to her feet.
“All yours,” he called back to the woman who was pretending not to watch them.
He told himself that the way he wrapped an arm around Iris’s waist was to sell the authenticity of their relationship when the news eventually broke about it, so no neighbors would say that they’d been living like siblings instead of lovers.
But he just really wanted to hold her.
They were silent on the walk back to the elevator, but as they climbed toward the penthouse, Iris—studying her feet at first—said, “Thank you.” Her head lifted, her pretty eyes full of a depth that made it feel like his heart was sinking into them. “Really, thank you. I needed that.”
“Of course,” he said, his voice choked. “I will leave you the card so you can swim anytime you want.”
This wasn’t part of the campaign plan. No one had warned him what to do when pretending started to feel real.
“That would be great. But I guess I should invest in a bathing suit,” she said as she stepped out of the elevator.
There was no rational explanation for the disappointment he felt at that declaration.
Except, of course, for the one he was trying not to let himself think about.
That he was beginning to have actual feelings for his fake fiancée.
And he had the sinking suspicion that those feelings would not be returned.
10
Iris
“Morning, Willow,” Iris called.
She crouched down to overturn one of the garden stones in the courtyard behind their apartment building. A full-body shiver racked her system at the scurry of a dozen little pill bugs. They left one in their wake, curled up on its side, long dead.
Iris gagged as she reached down toward it.
“I think, at this point, if the bug boards aren’t working yet, they’re not going to,” Willow said. She walked over to her tree, lovingly stroking the hanging leaves.
“He looks pale each time he has to pass them by. It might be wearing him down.”
“How many are there now?”
“Four. It nearly takes up the whole hallway. Mostly spiders. There’s an almost alarming number of dead spiders around the building.”
