AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He didn’t look happy with her response and Iris sat up, clutching the duvet to her chest.
“Trystan, we’re both adults with healthy sexual appetites. We’d just been through an intense experience and I think this was just a way for us to work through some of that extreme emotional distress.”
“Right.” His eyes were troubled as they ran over her face, but he didn’t say anything more. He frowned and propped himself up on an elbow to cup her cheek, his thumb gently stroked her cheekbone.
“Your skin didn’t react well to my beard,” he muttered. “Does it hurt?”
She shook her head, only now becoming aware of a slight tingle on her cheeks and in her neck.
“It looks uncomfortable.” He seemed unhappy, as he inspected her face carefully, his fingers tender against her abraded skin. “I’m sorry.”
“You’ve said and done plenty of things to apologize for, Trystan,” she told him, a small smile on her lips. “But this isn’t one of them.”
He sat up next to her, the duvet slipping to his hips, leaving that impressive upper body on display, and Iris greedily looked her fill. He’d kept his shirt on earlier, which had been a crying shame. Now her hands longed to explore that beautiful expanse of tanned, muscled flesh, but she wasn’t sure where they went from here.
“I think it’s time for a shower,” she said and he quirked an eyebrow at her.
“Together?”
She laughed at the optimistic question.
“Nice try, mister,” she said, snatching up a pillow to cover her nudity as she climbed out of bed. She stood next to the bed and stared down at Trystan, who remained propped up against the headboard. The duvet had slid an inch further south, but Iris kept her gaze determinedly on his face and continued to speak. “But I think maybe we both need some time to think about what just happened.”
“It’ll be impossible for me to do anything but that,” he said with a little grimace. “Look, I know this is all a bit much and you’re justifiably angry with me. I get it, I really do. I behaved reprehensibly but, Iris, I really fucking want you. I have practically since day one, which is why I’ve been so damned hell-bent on keeping you at a distance.”
“I think…” She paused, choosing her words very carefully. “That, while what just happened was lovely, Trystan, that’s probably as far as it goes for us.”
“Why?” His question was edged with frustration.
“Because I believe you see me as some kind of challenge, a prize to be won… someone taboo and off limits to you. I don’t belong in your world. And judging from the way you’ve cut yourself off here, isolated yourself from your charmed life and your glamorous friends, my ordinariness is appealing and different—and what you believe you want right now. You think you crave normality, but what you really need is to go back to your reality and face whatever demons drove you away in the first place.”
“You need to stop psychoanalyzing me, Iris. Why I’m here is none of your fucking business.”
“Trystan, you’ve run away from your life and your responsibilities to hide in this godforsaken place like a big old chicken. You need to stop behaving like a two-year-old having a tantrum and, together with your shitty manager, figure out what you’re going to do about your future.
“Because while what he did to me was wrong, it was also an act of desperation. The bastard is so damned keen to get your attention and snatch you back to the real world that he dragged my unwitting arse straight into your mess. So, excuse me if you think I’m out of line, but this became my business when your manager tricked me into coming here and you chose to deny knowing about my reasons for being here.”
She turned away from him, heading toward the bathroom, trying not to care that her bare butt was on display. After all, he’d seen pretty much all there was to see of her by now and she knew that her her self-consciousness was a little absurd under the circumstances.
He remained silent after her impassioned rebuke, and Iris was almost convinced he would allow her to have the last say, until she reached the en suite door.
“Iris?”
She paused in the doorway, shoulders tensed and back braced, as she waited for whatever he had to say. She refused to turn and face him, even though she knew by now how crazy it drove him when she wouldn’t look at him.
She could sense his aggravation and frustration in the long pause before he finally spoke again. “Your most ridiculous assumption lies in your belief that I think you’re ordinary. I think I may have mentioned before that nothing could be further from the truth.”
She couldn’t help it, his words—spoken with such passionate sincerity—forced her to turn and face him. She needed to see for herself if the feeling she’d heard in his voice was visible in his eyes, or on his face.
But disappointingly, his expression revealed not a single emotion. His eyes seared into hers and she actually found herself flinching beneath the scorching ferocity of that gaze.
She remained silent in the wake of his astonishing words, not entirely sure what to make of them. In the end, she turned away and stepped into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her with quiet deliberation.
thirteen
Iris remained in her room for the rest of the day and most of the following one. Luna had come scratching at the bedroom door about an hour after Iris’s awkward, silent breakfast with Trystan.
Iris had let the dog in and Luna was now stretched out on the bed—taking up pretty much all of the mattress space—and snoring away contentedly. Iris had retreated to the comfortable easy chair in the corner and, after updating her journal, had tried writing a few chapters. But her concentration was blown, and she couldn’t stop thinking about Trystan, and the things they had done to each other yesterday.
