Page 13 of Iris
Everything is bathed in red, the music pumping loudly at the DJ booth. Rose isn’t at the bar; she and the other two are at a booth across the floor. I end up weaving around drunken dancers trying to do the macarena. Buttercup is laughing at me as I finally manage to get into the booth next to her.
“It looked like you were doing some fancy moves to get over here,” she offers as she snickers at me.
I roll my eyes as Rose pushes a glass of water to me. She is probably one of the most gorgeous red-heads that I’ve ever seen. Her guys are wrapped around her finger.
“Hi, ladies, how are you doing?” Rose looks at me with a knowing smile. “So, I hear you’ve got two men. How are you handling that?”
Rose looks over her shoulder toward the bar where Finn is helping serve drinks. He glances at her with a steamy gaze that would make any woman wriggle in place. She turns back to us, biting her lip but we can hear the giggle she tries to hold back.
“Right to the heart of it. No catching up? No finding out what’s going on with your lives?” Sighing dramatically, I take a sip of the water. “Fine. It...uh, went well. Dorian and Noah both showed up last night and I about swooned. They have history in Cuba, I guess. All I know is I’ve never seen something as hot as those two making out in front of me.”
“Really?!”
“Holy shit!”
“Oh, my goodness!”
Their replies come out all at once. Laughter bubbles up within my chest. I hold my hands up to ward off the questions that keep coming.
“We’re going on a date together in two days. Dorian claims we’re mates, but we’ll have to see. Sure, I want to jump him and ride him like he’s a bucking bronco, but that can happen after I actually believe this is all happening.”
Jasmine shakes her head. “Why can’t you believe it? Don’t you deserve to have some fun?” Just as she says that she looks at the bar. “There’s a hot piece of ass that’s been looking over here for a good five minutes. I think he’s looking at you, Iris.”
The water that’s halfway down my throat comes flying back out as I sputter. Luckily, it barely misses Rose, who just raises an eyebrow at me. Maybe the water is just scared of her.
“What?!” I sputter, looking over my shoulder. “He’s probably looking at you or Rose!”
“He’s not stupid enough to look at me.” Rose pronounces proudly as she gives Finn a flirty glance.
Buttercup nudges me. “Go say hi anyway.”
Right. Go say hi to a total stranger who may or may not be oglingallof this. When I have a date with two luscious men already in two days.
Fuck it.
I grab one of the shots on the table, down it, and stand. This is going to go badly, but I'm going to do it for the girls. My confident stride falters when I get a good look at the man.
Oh, holy moly. He couldn’t be real. Can we say Tall, Dark, Broody, and Mysterious all wrapped up in one?
The man is tall, probably a little over six feet. His skin is a dark olive tone, his piercing grey eyes rooting me to the spot. My eyes roam over his face greedily. He has a diamond shaped face with cheekbones that make me want to run my fingers along them. He’s shaved his black hair on the sides of his head, leaving the top just long enough he can run his fingers through the loose strands. I want to hate him for his perfectly plump lips.
Did Hades just pop up from the Underworld and give life to him? There’s no way he could have been birthed any other way. He has sin and bad boy written all over him.
Nope. There’s no way I’ll be able to even say hello to this guy without making a fool of myself. Turning around to go back to the booth, I don’t get to go a step forward before there’s a searing heat against my back and a low voice, more like a growl, in my ear.
“Fancy a dance?”
The girls all give me double thumbs up. Traitors to the sisterhood!
The heat against my back doesn’t go away. The guy even chuckles so low, I’m pretty sure I'm going to faint if he does it again with his mouth against my ear.
“Well? Are you going to turn around?” Hands settle on my waist. “I’m all for grinding on the first dance, but don’t you want to know my name first?”
What am I doing? I'm not this withering mess! I'm Iris, the owner of FFS! I can handle this hot piece of devil's pie! Stealing my spine, I turn around, and look up and up. it's the guy. Mr. Tall, Dark, Broody, and Mysterious. He is smirking down at me with a flash of white teeth.
“There she is.” His hands go back to my waist.
My mouth has dried out. I have to swallow twice to be able to talk.
