“You did?”
“Yes.” Her stomach was waging war against her other organs as she looked up at him. “Did you want…more that night?”
He paused. Why did he pause? Didn’t he understand the magnitude of a quick answer at a time like this?
“I can’t even begin to tell you how much I wanted that night.”
“But why didn’t you try more than once then?”
At that he laughed. “I thought you were in love with Alex.”
“Alex?” she snorted.
“You weren’t?”
“Of course not. I was in love with—”
His eyes held her captive as she was about to blurt out the most long held secret of her life.
“Say it, Iris. Because I’m saying it too. It’s always been you, Iris. I’ve been in love with you—”
“I love you, too, Tristan.” At their exchange, her heart sailed away on a boat into a sunset. He was perfect, and now he was admitting that he was perfectly hers. It was too good to be true.
“I desperately want to kiss you now.”
“I think you should.”
“You promise you won’t run away?”
“Why would I run away?”
“You’ve done it before.”
“What? When—”
“When we were playing that little game with your doll—”
“You mean when I was nine?” she screeched.
“Shhh…” he cupped her jaw with his hands. “Yes, when you were nine.”
“You can’t possibly hold that against me.”
“I can’t. Not any longer. But I can hold you against me, can’t I?”
“Please.”
And then she saw his eyes—black, heated, all-consuming. He was about to devour her, and that’s all she wanted.
Chapter 6
“Kiss me, Iris,” he pleaded, an inch from her lips. Yes, he had stolen their first kiss. He could admit that. So for their first real kiss as adults, he wanted her to take.
When she didn’t hesitate, he upbraided himself for taking so long to ask this of her. But even the years spent waiting weren’t wasted, for their friendship had developed into something unbreakable. So he didn’t permit any negative thoughts while she leaned forward.
It was a soft brush of the lips. Like a feather. Her breath tickled his lips. And her familiar mint and rosemary scent filled his senses.
“We should go somewhere else. Somewhere soft—”