“No, of course not. You’re absolutely right; it’s your pool too. If you’ll excuse me.”
By the time he made it back to the apartment, Iris was locked up in the bedroom with Monty, leaving him to go into the bathroom, strip, and clean up in the shower.
The taste of her lingered.
But he had the sinking feeling that her sighs, her moans, her shivers, and kisses would be nothing but memories soon.
17
Iris
“So, you gave in to a biological need,” Selene said as the two of them walked down the road after Iris showed up at the bookshop for an emergency meeting after a conversation with Monty devolved into a dramatic plotline in one of his dramatic romance shows.
She needed to call in reinforcements to talk it through.
Because what the hell was that?
Not bad enough that she’d let him go down on her, but then she’d climbed on him, and they’d humped on the chaise like a couple of horny teenagers.
“It’s not the end of the world. You’re both adults. And, I mean, youarea mermaid.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Iris asked over a mouthful of soft pretzel. Her third one. Thankfully, Selene was the kind of friend who didn’t judge her for trying to bury her feelings with food.
“That you’re, you know, innately sexual. It’s part of who you are.”
“It’s part of who weallare.”
“Yeah, but to a lesser degree. I mean, even if this is all complete nonsense, you canclaimthat’s all it was if he decides to confront you about it.”
“True,” Iris agreed, feeling a little of the tension in her shoulders lessening. They’d been inching up since she’d run out of the pool room. She was starting to worry she might need to get them surgically removed from her ears if she didn’t calm down.
Not just because of what happened, but what it meant. Or didn’t mean. She couldn’t stop herself from obsessing over what Finn might be thinking about it. Was there regret? Was he brushing it off? Did it even register as a mistake to him … or was it just another political complication he had to manage?
And, worse, why the hell did she care so much?
“I have to ask,” Selene said as they approached the entrance to the park.
A large sign hung from the wrought-iron fence.
No werewolves in the dog park.
There was a big wolf-man in the background with a red X across his body.
“Ask what?” Iris asked, scrunching up the piece of parchment paper her pretzel had been wrapped in and tossing it in the trash.
“Well, howwasit?”
How was it?
Spine-tingling.
Soul-shattering.
Consuming.
Devastating.
But more than all of that: stupid. So incredibly stupid.
