He kissed her like the sea claimed the shore—slow at first, then all-consuming. Her breath caught, a gasp tangled in the pull of the undertow.
One of her arms wrapped around the back of his neck. The other grabbed the material covering his bicep.
But even as she sighed against his lips, Finn’s mouth moved from hers.
His forehead was on hers again.
“That should be on the front of a bunch of gossip papers tomorrow,” he said, making her heart sink.
“Oh, goodie,” she said, turning away from him to hail a cab.
To an onlooker, she probably looked like a woman desperate to get home to continue the intimacy they’d started on the sidewalk.
Only she knew that she wanted to get home and as far away from him as quickly as possible.
She’d thought they’d made some sort of strides over their meal. The conversation got easier, even if the topics became a lot less intense after speaking of the loss of his parents and his motivation to go into politics.
Clearly, though, it had all just been part of the show for him.
If the man was able to fake akisslike that, if he could so convincingly manufacture intimacy, there was nothing about him that she could trust.
She’d been a fool to think otherwise for even a moment.
She needed to get home, get changed, get some sleep, then wake up in the morning and kick her plans into overdrive.
But she was going to need some reinforcements.
13
Finn
“You’ve forgotten your talking points five times in a row. What is going on with you?” Henry slapped his notepad on the desk.
“I don’t know.” Finn dropped down onto the couch, slamming his head back to stare up at the ceiling.
He did know.
He just couldn’t tell Henry.
He’d waltzed into the office that morning brandishing a pile of website printouts, beaming over the quality and angles of the kiss on the street outside the restaurant.
Apparently, the people were ‘eating it up.’ He’d gone on and on about the talking points in the articles on each website.
Since no one knew Iris’s identity yet, they were dubbing themThe Mer and the Mayor.
“Are you getting sick?” Henry asked. “We can go get you hooked up for some fluids. Maybe one of those immunity cocktails like we did last year.”
“I’m not getting sick.”
“Are you sure? Because we can’t afford to have you down and out for a week at this point in the campaign.”
“I’m sure. I just can’t focus today.”
“Maybe you need to hit the gym. That usually helps to shake out the cobwebs.”
“Maybe.”
Henry watched him for a moment, then sighed.
