Her feelings had always been a mess, but now her body had joined the rebellion as well.
And tonight, she had to fake a fairy-tale romance, knowing it was all lies. Knowing her skin still tingled from the truth.
Both her body and mind felt tugged in a dozen different directions.
On the one hand, she had wanted that more than she even wanted to admit to herself, had enjoyed every second of it. But on the other … what in deep-sea disaster was that?
Yes, Finn was an almost devastatingly good-looking man. And, sure, she could understand her body having a biological attraction to him physically.
But that face and body of his belonged to a man who was more political talking points than personality.
Her desire shouldn’t have been able to overpower her common sense. Or standards.
That was it.
No more spicy books.
No matter how much she loved them.
The last thing she needed was to let that happen again.
As it was, she had no idea how she was going to be able to go out to dinner with him and pretend to be all lovey-dovey—to sit across from him at a table, all the while knowing that just hours before, he’d had his hand between her thighs; he’d felt her falling apart for him.
This was going to be a nightmare.
But there was no way out of it now.
12
Iris
“Where is my sweet sea spawn?” Monty called as Iris stood in front of the bathroom mirror, fully dressed but stalling for time.
“Getting ready to go out for our first official date,” Finn told the pelican. “Do you think you could … nudge her along for me? We really need to get going if we want to keep our reservation.”
“Beauty cannot be rushed,” Monty said dramatically. “But I’ll see what I can do.”
Iris heard the flap of his feet down the hallway.
“Darling, your human is twitching. And you are beautiful enough.”
Iris opened the door, getting a whistle out of the bird—who was now wearing a ridiculously loud turquoise vest.
His gaze moved over her floor-length baby-pink dress with its sweetheart neckline, thin straps, and dainty floral embroidered design.
But the second his gaze got to her face, his head cocked to the side.
“What happened?”
There was a lot she shared with Monty. Her intimate life was not one of them. At least not in detail.
“I don’t want to go,” she admitted. It was true enough.
“I didn’t want to let Priestess Alana pluck my feather for a spell, but alas, we have to suffer for our dreams.”
“But this isn’t my dream.”
“Dining at one of the most buzz-worthy restaurants in the city is absolutely the dream, my darling girl. I’m not at all jealous. Now, chop chop.”
