“You should have,” I told her, pressing closer, slowly but steadily hemming her in. “Why didn’t you?”
“A lot of reasons. Some of them. . . complicated. I don’t want to talk about me. I want to talk about you. How have you been? What have you been up to?”
I shrugged. It was on the tip of my tongue to blurt out that I’d been doing nothing so much as missing her, but I stopped myself.
It would be just too pathetic.
“Have you been seeing anyone?” she asked.
I tensed. I didn’t like that question, didn’t like the way she asked it like it truly wouldn’t bother her if I were.
“No,” I said, stressing the word, because I wanted to say so much more, and moreover, was terrified to ask her the same question.
I was pretty sure I knew the answer, and I really didn’t want to hear it aloud.
“Really?” she asked, looking pleased, at least. It was the tiniest, most minuscule sop to my ego.
“Really. God, what did you think I would say?”
“I was gone for two months. It seems well within the realm of possibility that you may have moved on by now. Certainly, if you wanted company of the female variety, you’d have no trouble finding it.”
“You know I’m not a social creature,” I said through gritted teeth, that small sop to my ego soaring away on the briefest gust of wind.
“But you have been going out with your friends. Meeting up for coffee, even going to bars, right?”
What the f**k? Had she been stalking me?
The idea was too ludicrous to humor for even a second.
“I have no notion how you guessed that, but yes, I’ve been going out a bit more with friends. Trying to join the land of the living, as it were.”
“How’s that working out for you?”
I shrugged, trying to work past my agitation and just seize the moment at hand. “Okay. I’m getting used to it. I do enjoy talking to my friends. I’d forgotten.”
“I read that magazine interview you did. I enjoyed it. And the pictures were phenomenal. I take it your friend, Lourdes, came back for that photo shoot.”
How did Iris know her name? Had I told her at some point?
I couldn’t remember doing that, but I supposed that was irrelevant.
“She did. It took a few hours, but it wasn’t too torturous. You really won’t so much as give me a hint about what you’ve been up to?”
She smiled and shook her head slowly. “Well?” she asked.
My brows drew together. I had no notion what was going through her head at any given time. “Well what?”
“Aren’t you even going to kiss me hello, Dair?”
Now that…
That I could wrap my mind around. At least we were on the same page about something.
I leaned in and rubbed my lips against hers, slowly, back and forth, smudging her pale pink lip gloss, eating at her mouth, licking it off, then delving inside to taste.
She pulled back within a few short moments, moving sideways so her back was no longer to the wall. “Wait. I wanted to do something with you. I saw this on my way in.”
She grabbed my hand, tugging me to follow her.
And, of course, I followed.
She led me into one of those ice cream shops that let you choose your own ingredients, and after they mixed them all together, and you tipped them, they sang some loud song that made me wish I wasn’t a habitual tipper.
“Sit down. I know just what to get, but I want to surprise you.” She smiled at me over her shoulder as she walked away.
Her eyes scrambled my brain. I couldn’t even properly check out her ass until she’d turned them from me.
She’d said she wanted to surprise me, but I watched the entire thing from my chair, mouth dry, fists clenched.
She chose the sweet cream flavor, mixed it with cinnamon and topped it with powdered sugar, shooting me that sweet, wicked smile of hers from time to time.
I was wearing a T-shirt, but I found myself pulling at my collar, as though the loose material was too tight. I’d thought about her a lot since she’d left, but my memories hadn’t done justice to the way she made my blood pressure rise with just a glance.
It was out of hand, to say the least.
She joined me, sitting close beside me instead of across, her left hand going to my knee to rub as she arranged the first small spoonful of the sin she was weaving for me.
“Let me take the first bite, make sure it turned out right,” said Iris.
I swallowed hard and watched.
“Do you think of me every time you taste cinnamon now, baby?” she asked, the most irresistible twinkle in her eye.
I didn’t even have words for that bit of torment.
She absolutely knew what she did to me.
And she loved every second of it.
I could only nod.
“Me too. It’ll never be the same.” She leaned in very close, giving me a stellar view of her cle**age.
Her voice lowered to just above a whisper. “Just the smell of it, Dair, and I’m wet.”
I swear I forgot my own name, where I was, and how I’d gotten there as she took that first luscious bite.
I watched raptly as the cold spoon pushed past her lips into her mouth, her tongue swirling over the bit of cinnamon flecked ice cream.
Fucking hell.
As though it wasn’t overkill, she kept that spoon in her mouth for a long while, licking it, sucking it until it went past clean and clearly into dirty.
Finally she pulled it free, smiled, and reiterated her earlier mind-boggling statement. “Wet.”
I shut my eyes, done for and aware of it.
She was soothing chaos.
Like that first taste of anesthesia, before you lost your senses.
Or the venom that numbed you before it killed you.
I really couldn’t decide which.
The verdict was definitely still out on that.
“Ready for a taste?”
Fuck me and her loaded questions.
But I opened my eyes, nodded, and took everything she offered with no hesitation.
And there it was. That flavor that had been assigned to a memory I could never forget. The sweet spice of the cinnamon, the powdery texture of the sugar, and that sweet creamy flavor that tied it all together.
Yep, I was ruined for cinnamon.
She’d known it and I knew it now.
“So good, right?” she asked.
I had to agree. So good, indeed.
The ice cream was nearly finished before I glanced around at our surroundings. I didn’t think I’d looked at anything but Iris since we’d walked in.
The place wasn’t packed, but it wasn’t empty either.