Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 132649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Iris watched the frustrated aborted movement of his hands as they strained toward her for a second and then fell limply to his sides.
His words, spoken in that harsh, broken voice, still echoed through her mind, and gave her a clarity she’d been missing for weeks.
“I once told you that if you wanted a life with me you have to be prepared to live it with me, remember? Out in the real world, where everybody thinks they own a piece of you.”
He nodded warily.
“Well, I got a taste of that now and I can’t say I like it much… that ownership people seem to think they have over you, that possessiveness where I’m seen as competition or a threat, as an easy target to take potshots at.”
“Iris, I’m so—”
“Ssh,” she interrupted gently, stepping toward him and placing her fingers over his lips. “The time for apologies has passed now. Let me speak, okay?”
He swallowed, and his lips moved against her fingers, but he said nothing, just nodded.
She dropped her hand and folded it into a fist, trying to alleviate the tingle caused by that brief brush of his mouth against her skin.
“I also told you that I don’t want you to give up your career and live a life of obscurity because of me, that I refused to let you use me as an excuse to hide from your demons. Well, I’d be the hypocrite I once accused you of being if I turned you away and gave up our shot at happiness because I allowed my fear of the public and press to dictate my decisions. The decision I have to make right now is twofold: do I love you enough to trust you with my heart again? And do I love you enough to live in the public eye, possibly under constant scrutiny, having everything from the way I dress, to my mental and emotional health discussed and criticized and mocked.”
“Iris, I told you, I’ll resign…”
This again, she sighed impatiently and held up her forefinger, effectively shutting him up.
“Trystan, do you love what you do?”
He was saved from replying by the perfunctory knock at the door.
“Christ,” Trystan barked beneath his breath, running an unsteady hand over his short, spiky hair. “Yes?”
The door opened and Chance’s head popped around it.
“Sorry to disturb, but word’s gotten out that you’re here.”
“What the fuck?” Trystan blurted. “How?”
“Sorry, Iris, seems you have a mole in your operation,” Chance said somberly, then ruined the effect by grinning like a dopey kid. “I’ve always wanted to say that. Anyway, seems like someone called the press on the sly. Brand EPS’s pap insider alerted head office and the word’s filtered down that the vultures are headed this way. So, you’re going to have to continue this discussion someplace more secure.”
Trystan sent Iris a tortured look, and she knew it was because he believed this confirmed everything she’d just said about his life.
She offered him a small, reassuring smile.
“Should we continue our discussion at your place?” she asked, and his face just about melted with relief. “I’d love to see Luna again.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’ve missed her.”
“About continuing, I mean. Because… Iris, I need you to be sure.”
She cupped his jaw, her thumb finding the familiar ridge of the completely healed cicatrix slicing through his stubble.
“I’m sure.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed heavily and he covered her hand with his own, pressing it against his skin for a second, before nodding.
“Let’s get out of here,” he murmured, bringing their joined hands down between their bodies and interlinking their fingers.
It was relatively easy to slip away from the wedding. Chance brought the car round the back entrance and Iris’s parents both hugged her before slanting equally menacing warning looks at Trystan, and ushering them out.
By mutual, unspoken agreement, Iris and Trystan didn’t talk much in the car. Saving the weighty conversation they needed to have for when they had more time. Instead, Trystan told her about his visit home, about his family and friends, while Iris talked about her new group of friends, her writing, and her brief stay at Chance and Colby’s.
While they gently and tentatively filled in the blanks of their time apart for each other, they couldn’t seem to stop touching and staring as if they were unable to believe that they were actually here, together, close enough to touch, breathe, feel and caress each other.
It wasn’t at all how Iris had planned this discussion to go. She’d hoped to remain emotionally distant until they figured out what the future held for them, but to be here with him like this with no words, no conflict or confusion, or chaos to muddy the waters between them…
It was sublime.
They were each so entranced by the other’s mere presence that the privacy glass unceremoniously sliding down between them and Chance was jarring and intrusive.