He wanted to embarrass her in public?
Fine.
Two could play that game.
“Ask me anything you want.”
Then she did something she swore she would never do: she plastered on the fakest smile imaginable.
And threw any trace of media training out the window.
16
Finn
He’d looked for her for over an hour after Marsha finally let him go.
He genuinely couldn’t stand the woman. She was pushy and backed up all of hersuggestionswith something that sounded a lot like a threat.
But he couldn’t afford to tick off any of the paranormal organizations. They had a lot of influence. And while he was leading in the polls with humans, he was still trailing behind with paranormals.
He had to play nice.
He had to shake hands, smile, and laugh while making soul-crushingly polite small talk.
While all he wanted to do was find Iris. Because there’d been something in her eyes before she’d walked off that had his stomach tensing.
Something heated, but under that, vulnerable?
Or maybe he was just projecting what he wanted to see there.
“Finn, finally!” Henry said, rushing up to him, his tablet in his hand, a panicked look on his face.
“What are you doing here?” Finn asked, looking past his campaign manager to scan the streets for Iris.
“I need to talk to you.”
“Can’t it wait? I’m trying to find Iris.”
“Oh, I can tell you whodidfind her. Porsha DeWinter from Channel 16.”
“What?”
“Yeah, she gave a full interview to a news station. Without you present. Talking about you and your relationship.”
“That can’t be—” he started to object. Iris knew the rules. She was only supposed to speak to the media with him about their relationship. It was important for them to present a united—and in love—front if they wanted to be able to sell their marriage to constituents.
But Henry was already bringing up the video and hitting play.
“This is Porsha DeWinter, Channel 16 News. And I’m standing here at the Fae Pride Parade with Princess Iris Marivelle. Princess, I saw you standingveryclose to mayoral hopeful Finn Westrock.”
“Did you?” Iris asked, a telltale glint in her eye that answered the question without words.
“I have to say, the two of you makequitethe pair. How did you like the parade?”
There was a spark of something in Iris’s eyes right then. But it was gone before he could pin it down.
“I think it was totally fin-tastic.”
