8. Iris
8
IRIS
My phone buzzes in my purse for what feels like the hundredth time since I sat down at the table.
“You want to check that?” Brax asks as he pushes his empty plate to the side of the table.
“No,” I tell him, but the sheer frequency has me worried that something is wrong.
“My phone hasn’t stopped vibrating in my pocket.”
“Really? It seems we’re both in demand tonight.” I smile at him, wondering if the night is almost over.
“My family is nosy.”
“That’s how my friends are,” I explain as I set my fork down on my plate, unable to finish another bite.
“I like them.”
“My friends?” I ask him .
He nods. “The two you were at the bar with were great. They really love you.”
My insides warm at the information I already knew. They’d jump in front of a bullet for me. I had to beg them not to go after Lucas and castrate him, because I like having them around and didn’t want them to go to prison for me. He wasn’t worth it. “They’re pretty great, but they’re nosy and bossy.”
Brax chuckles. “It could be worse, yeah? No one could care about either of us. I guess we’re lucky.”
I laugh softly as I wipe my mouth. “I don’t know if it’s luck. Sometimes they go a little too far.”
David approaches the table, throwing a dish towel over his shoulder. “Was everything good?”
“Good?” I say, giving him a big smile. “It was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.”
David tips his head to me. “You’re very kind and beautiful.”
Suddenly, I hear a low rumble coming from Brax’s side of the table. I drag my gaze to him, and he’s staring daggers at David.
“No worries,” David says to him. “Don’t get your hackles up, buddy. I know she’s yours.”
My eyebrows pinch on their own as I stare across the table at Brax. She’s yours. What in the world?
“This is our first date,” I blurt out for some reason, not thinking before speaking.
David’s eyebrows rise. “Really? ”
“Don’t even think about it, David,” Brax warns him, showing me a side of him I haven’t seen before.
David laughs as he touches Brax’s shoulder. “I’m married now, Brax. Relax. Down, boy.”
Brax pulls in an audible breath as I sit here confused as hell. Where did this side of him come from? It is a little more aggressive than I’ve seen him before, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that a part of me likes it.
Lucas never made a point of letting anyone know I was his. Looking back on it now, I know it had less to do with me and more to do with him. He was still playing the field, while I thought we were in a committed relationship. He didn’t want anyone to know his dating status because he was always on the lookout for his next lay.
“You’re lucky I love you like a brother,” Brax tells David. “You did that shit on purpose.”
David slaps Brax’s shoulder playfully. “Maybe. I always like to see how you’ll react, and that reaction was very telling.”
“Asshole,” Brax mutters, to which David laughs again.
“Dessert?” David asks, ignoring Brax’s comment.
“I couldn’t,” I tell him. “Everything was so good. I should’ve stopped eating halfway through my meal.”
“I’ll have something wrapped up for you two to take with you. Good?” he asks Brax and not me .
“Yeah. You’re a good man, David, even if you still like to test my patience.”
“Give me a call sometime. Maybe we can double-date,” David tells Brax before the two of them shake hands.
“I’ll do that.”
“I hope to see you again,” David says to me with a spark in his eye.
“Maybe,” I tease, but I hope to see him again soon too.
Not because I’m interested in David, but I really like Brax. Even though his name sounds like a dinosaur, Braxasaurus-Rex has my belly flipping out of lust, not fear.
“Work your magic,” David says to Brax before wandering away.
“Maybe?” Brax asks with one eyebrow raised.
I laugh, liking his playfulness. “The night hasn’t ended yet. There could be some major disaster.”
“Like what?”
I stare at him across the table, wondering how much fire I want to play with. My body makes the decision before my mind has a chance to stop my mouth from opening. “Maybe you’re an awful kisser.”
I think he’s going to give me a light response or laugh, but again, my mind isn’t firing on all cylinders.
Brax leans forward, his upper body covering half the table. He brings his face close to me and stares me straight in the eyes, no hint of a smile on his lips. There’s a seriousness around him that makes the air heavy, and suddenly, it’s hard for me to breathe.
“Are you ready to find out?”
I gulp, almost swallowing my tongue. Do I want to find out? Heck yeah. My body’s been ready since the moment I walked into the restaurant. But my lips haven’t touched another’s in over a year. What if I’m the bad kisser in this situation?
“Um,” I mumble, at a loss for words.
“Cat got your tongue?” he says with a hint of a smirk.
Staring into his eyes, I feel my heart race uncontrollably as my stomach twists and turns in anticipation. “No.”
“No?” He leans closer, and the smirk from a moment ago is gone. “No, you don’t want to find out, or no, a cat doesn’t have your tongue?”
This is it. This is my chance to take the lead, something I’ve never really been good at with the opposite sex. I stand and turn my gaze toward him. “You comin’?” I ask, throwing him a more sinful smirk than he gave me a moment ago as I shrug on the coat that’s just been brought to me, along with our to-go desserts.
He rises from his chair immediately, grabs his jacket, and takes a step toward me. I instantly move, heading right for the door. I don’t look back as I slip outside, the cold air almost sizzling against my overheated skin .
I don’t make it two more steps before Brax grabs my arm and spins me around. Without saying a word, he pulls me flush against his body as his eyes search mine. Snow falls around us like something out of a fairy tale. The city noise dampens like we’re in a private bubble no other sound can penetrate besides our labored breathing.
“You want this?” he asks, his eyes scorching into my soul.
“Yes,” I breathe, unable to do anything else.
My body’s yearning for his touch. It’s been far too long since I’ve felt a burning need inside me, and it’s so intense, I wonder if I’ll spontaneously combust if he doesn’t press his lips against mine.
The worry vanishes when he takes my mouth hard and fast as he slides his hand up the back of my neck, tangling his fingers in my hair. Every nerve ending in my body that has been dormant for years suddenly comes alive.
My body melts against his, wanting his warmth and craving the hardness of him. My mind is filled with thoughts, but nothing is processing because I’m too lost in the roughness of his kiss.
I press my palms against his stomach, moaning as his teeth nip at my bottom lip before his tongue slips into my mouth, dancing with mine. I trace the lines of his abs with my fingers as I move my hands to his back, trying to find a way to tether myself to him…to this moment .
My toes curl in my boots, something I’ve never experienced before. Everything feels new and different from the past. Is it because it’s been so long or because it’s him? I don’t have time or the ability to decide because he moves one hand up to my face, cradling my jaw in his warm palm. I open my lips wider, letting his mouth have free rein over mine.
And just as quickly as it began, the kiss ends. He pulls away, leaving me panting for more.
“Your place or mine?” I ask, not ready for the night to be over. This is a different side of me, and if I don’t act on it, I’m not sure I’ll ever be this bold again.
Brax sweeps his tongue across his bottom lip, and my knees wobble at the memory of how he tasted. “My truck,” he says as he grabs my hand, pulling me down the sidewalk. “There’s no time to drive anywhere.”
“No time for what?” I follow him, letting him lead me toward his truck.
“I need more.”
“I’ve never done it in a car,” I blurt out, and I almost trip as the realization of what I just said crashes over me.
Brax stops abruptly and turns to face me. “We’re not doing it in the car, Iris.” He shakes his head and smiles down at me. “I’m not that kind of guy, but I want to kiss. I want to touch you, and I don’t want to wait. ”
“We’re not going to do it?” I ask, confused.
He shakes his head again. “Not yet.”
Part of me is crushed by his statement. It has been far too long since I’ve had an orgasm that wasn’t of my own making, and I was looking forward to seeing if Brax had the ability to give me one. I have full faith that he has the skills, and probably the experience, to make it the best one of my life.
I haven’t made out in a car since high school, but if that’s what Brax wants to do, I am all for it. Kissing and heavy petting will be the perfect way to end this evening until he’s ready for more. Maybe I’m not what he expects or wants, but he’s willing to give me a little more to remember him by.
But as soon as my feet come unstuck from the snow and my body moves with his, I remember he said not yet. That gives me hope. Maybe I won’t have to memorize every moment I’m about to experience to last me until the next time I see some action.
When we round the side of the restaurant and walk into the parking lot, I see a truck that’s idling in its parking spot.
“I heated it up already,” he says as we approach the beast. “I don’t want you to be cold.”
I don’t bother telling him it would be impossible for me to get hypothermia with the amount of heat coming off my body from need. He opens the door for me, something that still makes my heart skip a beat. The man has old- school manners, and every minute I’m with him, the more points he gets in the perfect date column.
“In you go,” he says as he opens the door and waits for me to climb inside.
I take his hand as I step onto the running board and situate myself in the front seat. I glance around and am happily surprised that it’s a bench seat. Making out wouldn’t have been possible in my sedan because the middle console would be in the way, but this…this was made for action.
Maybe I’m not the first woman to be in this position either, but as soon as that thought enters my mind, I push it away.
It doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past. The only thing that is important is this moment, and I am going to do my best to live it to the fullest.
The windows to the truck are blacked out, giving us much-needed privacy for what I hope is about to happen.
Brax opens the door to the driver’s side and sloughs off his coat, throwing it behind the seat before he climbs in. “Take it off,” he says as his eyes drop to my long wool coat. “It’ll be in the way.”
I don’t argue because he’s right. And the last thing I want is something in the way of whatever he’s about to do to me. I slide my arms out of the jacket and push the bulky fabric down behind me.
He presses a button on the dashboard, and the steering wheel moves farther away from him. “Come here,” he says, patting his lap. “Climb on top.”
I nearly swallow my tongue at the thought of sitting in his lap. The only thing that would make it better would be if we were naked. I’d give an appendage to feel his hot skin flush against mine.
“My dress.” I glance down, suddenly hating my fashion choice. I wanted him to see my body, but the tight fit of the material makes it impossible for me to swing my leg over his.
“Pull it up.”
I grunt in frustration. Men. It’s not that damn easy to bunch up a dress to my hips when I virtually had to squeeze my body into the fabric. “But…”
“All the way up. No one can see.”
I glance around, and my eyes catch on the front windshield. We’re facing the side of the brick building. There isn’t a window in the truck through which anything would be visible to anyone in the outside world. On top of that, it’s dark outside and there’s barely any light inside the cab of the truck besides the faint glow from the dashboard.
I immediately go to work on shimmying the bottom of my dress almost all the way up my hips until my legs have free movement. I’m in his lap a moment later, straddling him.
As I settle, I drag my gaze to his face, finding him staring at me with fire in his eyes.
“Good?” he asks .
“Good,” I reply before he moves his hand to the back of my neck, pulling my face toward his.
I place my hands on his shoulders, closing my eyes as our mouths meet, the fireworks from earlier sparking back to life behind my eyes.
My body slides forward, my aching center pressing against his hard, fabric-covered length. I moan at the contact, wanting more.
Again, I lose myself in the feel of his lips against mine. The hardness of the kiss that I crave like it’s my lifeline to this universe.
He settles his warm palm on my hip, gripping me roughly as he digs his fingers into the fabric bunched around me.
“What do you want?” he asks against my mouth.
“You,” I breathe in response.
“You want to come, baby?”
“Yes,” I moan, pressing my middle harder against his cock.
“Ride me,” he murmurs before kissing me deeper than before.
I move slowly at first, rocking my body forward in long, slow movements as his tongue tangles with mine where our mouths are connected.
The feel of his cock is overwhelming against my sensitive skin that’s covered only by a pair of silk panties I wore in case I got lucky tonight. I can’t stop the pressure building inside me from coming on too fast and strong. That’s what I get for going years without the feel of a man against my skin.
I’m panting into his mouth, moaning as an orgasm crashes over me out of nowhere. He digs his fingers deeper into the meat of my hip, almost to the point they’ll leave a mark. But I can’t complain. The mix of pain and pleasure is absolutely perfect as I grind against his dick like my very life depends on it.
Brax moans as my movements slow and the orgasm starts to wane. “Fuck,” he groans against my lips. “That was…”
“Too fast,” I answer for him as I pull away from his mouth, trying to catch my breath.
“I was going to say hot.”
I laugh, suddenly overcome with feelings and sensations. “Oh.”
His fingers tighten behind my neck as he pulls my face closer. “I’m not done.” I gasp as he moves his hand from my thighs to my damp panties. “We’re just getting started, baby.”