Chapter Thirteen
Dylan and his band had just announced an intermission when Matt stood and asked, “Will you take a walk with me, Iris?”
Iris looked at Matt and stood as well. “Yes.”
“Iris and I are going to take a stroll around the courtyard,” he said to Deena, Charm and Shauna.
Deena’s face lit with a smile. “We’ll be here when you guys return.”
Matt held Iris’s hand as he led her out of the ballroom.
He hadn’t let go of it since following Deena and Charm to their tables.
He had kept it encased in his through the first half of the band’s performance.
Not only that, more than once she had felt his gaze on her.
For a while, they appeared more focused on each other than the musical group’s performance on stage.
Others were milling around in the hallways. Matt and Iris kept walking, side by side and holding hands, with little or no conversation between them. They would pause periodically to admire some of the building’s ornate and elegant designs.
“Have you been here before?” he asked, when they stopped to admire yet another art piece.
“Yes, several times for weddings and other parties. I can even recall coming here to hear my mom play when the symphony held a concert here. What about you? Have you been here before?”
“Yes. I recall a time when my godfather contemplated buying it but changed his mind.”
“Oh.”
They continued walking, stopping periodically to admire several pieces of artwork on the walls.
Iris wondered if he could feel the sexual chemistry that had been simmering between them since she had made her presence known to him tonight.
Chemistry that was threatening to ignite if they didn’t somehow find a way to contain it.
Thinking that talking might do the trick, she was about to tell him what the earlier incident with Candy Sumlar had been about when he said, “I didn’t know you were coming here tonight.”
She glanced over at him. “Shauna needed a date and asked me to come with her at the last minute.” She paused and then said, “I didn’t know you were coming tonight either.”
He nodded. “Deena needed a date and asked that I come with her at the last minute as well.”
Iris shook her head. “Last-minute dates. Aren’t we lucky?” she said, teasing sarcastically.
He smiled. “It seems so.”
She stopped walking when they reached an area that led into a beautifully lit courtyard with numerous flowering plants and benches. “Matt, about that incident earlier with Candy Sumlar.”
“Yes?” he said, offering her a seat on a bench. She took it, and then he sat beside her.
“There was a reason I pulled that stunt earlier.”
He nodded. “Would you like to tell me the reason?”
“Earlier tonight, I overheard Candy and her agent plotting to pull you into a PR stunt. She needs to stay in front of the media to remain relevant and was going to use you to do so. If you noticed, there were photographers ready to take photos of the two of you together.”
“I noticed. Instead, they got pictures of you and me,” he said, winking at her. “I appreciate your timely intervention.”
She felt heat spread in her stomach with his wink. “As your public relations specialist, it’s part of my job.”
He frowned at her words. “That might be true, but I also consider you a friend, Iris.” He then glanced up at the sky. “It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is,” she said, glancing into the sky as well. It seemed that reminding him of their business relationship bothered him.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of the band. He stood. “I guess that’s our cue to go back.”
“Yes, I guess it is,” she said. A part of her wished they could stay out there longer. Why was she having conflicting emotions where he was concerned? One minute she wanted it to be all business between them, but then another minute she wanted…
Iris didn’t want to think about what she wanted from Matt. It was too sexually arousing to even consider. It would be breaking all her norms and tossing caution to the wind. It would be doing something she hadn’t done since her college days. Mainly, it would be taking a walk on the wild side.
She stood, and Matt didn’t back up, which placed her body smack against his. That same body that looked so hot in his tux. That same body she often envisioned naked in her dreams when she was about to lick it all over.
“I meant to tell you earlier how nice you look tonight, Iris.”
They were standing so close that not only were their bodies touching, but their mouths were mere inches apart. “Thanks. You look nice yourself.”
At some point, she had expected him to take a step back. He hadn’t. Instead, he released the hand he’d still been holding and wrapped both of his hands around her waist. “I know we agreed not to mix business with pleasure,” he said, “but…”
She nervously licked her lips. “But what, Matt?”
“But I want us to change that policy.”
Iris licked her lips again and saw how his gaze followed the movement of her tongue. “Why would you want us to do that?”
She didn’t think their bodies could get any closer, but when he inched a little more toward her, they did. He then leaned in to whisper in a throaty voice, “Because I’m dying to taste you, here and now.”
Iris was dying to taste him as well. Instead of telling him that, she placed her arms around his neck. The moment she did so, his mouth swooped down and captured hers in a kiss so hot, so deliciously greedy that she heard herself moan.
This was what she remembered, what she often thought about, and what she had longed for again.
The feel of his mouth against hers, while his hands methodically stroked her waist before moving toward her back to gently caress her there, while taking her mouth with a hunger she felt in every part of her body.
Especially the area between her legs that had started to throb.
She had gotten acquainted with his tongue the last time they kissed, and she was getting acquainted with it again.
There was something with how he was using it, capturing hers and sucking on it hard.
Although she shouldn’t admit it, she loved this connection to him.
He had a way of kissing her that made her feel desired to a degree she hadn’t been accustomed to before meeting him.
Matt was a man who held nothing back in his kiss, and she had a feeling it would be the same way if they ever shared a bed.
Sensations rippled through her at the thought of that happening.
Her mind fought such a notion one minute and longed for such a thing the next.
She knew she needed to end the kiss, but for the life of her, she couldn’t.
Instead, she began kissing him back with hunger.
Then, on instinct like before, she began grinding her body against his.
She felt it. She felt him. He was very aroused, but so was she.
Matt was the one to pull away slowly, but not completely.
He stared down into her eyes, and the look she saw made her wonder why she was fighting this.
Why had she deliberately put roadblocks in the way of having an affair with him?
Especially when she wanted this? When she wanted him?
Deep down she knew why she had fought anything developing between them, but at that moment she no longer wanted to fight.
“Matt…”
Before she could say how she felt, he had recaptured her mouth and was kissing her again with a hunger that had her moaning. And this time when he released her mouth, he whispered against her moist lips, “I want you, Iris.”
Deciding to tell him how she really felt, she said, “And I want you, too, Matt.”
As if her words had been something he’d been waiting to hear for a long time, he smiled and then kissed her once more with a greed she felt all the way to her toes.
And she kissed him back with all the desire she felt for him.
When he finally released her lips, like before when they’d kissed on Dillon and Pam’s porch, she dropped her head to his chest and breathed in his manly scent.
When she finally lifted her head, it was to look into the heat of his eyes.
Mercy. Could a man honestly desire a woman that much?
But then she figured he was probably seeing the same degree of need in her eyes.
She could no longer ignore that need racing through her veins.
Somehow Matt had unleashed her passionate side, and she doubted it could ever be contained again.
“We need to finish this, Iris.”
She knew what he meant and totally agreed. “I came with Shauna, and you are Deena’s date.”
He chuckled. “Haven’t you figured out yet that we were set up?”
She raised a confused brow. “Set up?”
“Yes, by Deena and Shauna.”
“You think so?”
“Yes. It was too coincidental that we were both asked to be their dates at the last minute. Besides, I overheard Charm reminding Deena about an after-party that she and Shauna were invited to at Dylan and Charm’s penthouse suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel.”
“Hmm…” Iris said, thinking about what he’d said, and knowing he possibly was right. They had been set up. She knew Deena and Shauna had become friends while at Westmoreland Country. Like Pam, Shauna had never cared for Warren. Said he was too arrogant. And she thought Karlton was too clingy.
“Come to think of it,” Iris said, “both Deena and Shauna seemed awfully pleased when you said we were taking a walk in the courtyard.”
“I bet they were. Just pretend we’re clueless as to what they’re up to, okay? They went to a lot of trouble to pull this off, and I’d hate for them to think they failed,” he said, leaning in to lick the corners of her lips.
She met his gaze and desire raged through her with what he was doing to her mouth. “But they didn’t fail, did they?” she asked breathlessly.
He gently caressed the side of her face. “No, sweetheart, they didn’t fail.”
His term of endearment sent butterflies through her stomach. It had sounded so right. “If your suspicion is true, will you take me home later?”
“I’ll take you wherever you want to go, Iris,” he said in a deep, husky voice that heightened the sensations flowing through her.
She began nibbling on her bottom lip. She wasn’t sure what tomorrow would bring. It would be for her and Matt to decide. The only thing she knew for certain was that she wanted him and needed to be with him tonight. And if that were all she could have, she would take it.