Page 72 of Iris Kelly Doesn't Date

Hands on her face. Soft and sweet, scents of ginger and bergamotwashing over her. She immediately calmed down, more from the shock of Iris’s closeness than anything else.

“No,” Iris said. “Stevie, I don’t think she knows.”

“Still?”

“Still.” Iris tilted her head, swiped her thumbs over Stevie’s cheeks. “You’re sort of adorable, you know that?”

Stevie just stared at her. Iris stared back. It felt like a lifetime of just...looking.

And nothing about it felt fake at all.

“Then why do we have the twin bed room?” Stevie asked.

Iris smiled softly. “Why indeed.”

“I’m confused.”

Iris laughed and pulled away, heading to her suitcase and heaving it up on one of the beds. “You’ll figure it out. As for me, I’m going to put on my sexiest bikini and get in that pool as soon as possible.”

She glanced at Stevie, brows lifted in a question. Stevie, however, didn’t know the answer. She only knew that she wasn’t sure she could take a bikini much sexier than the one she’d already seen Iris wear at the Belmont.

“Join me?” Iris asked.

“Um...”

“That wasn’t actually a question.”

“Right. Yeah. Okay.”

“You did get a new bathing suit, right?” Iris asked.

“I did, yeah.”

“Is it sexy? It really needs to be sexy, Stevie.”

Stevie laughed. She couldn’t help it. Iris’s tone was both teasing and firm, and smiling just seemed to come naturally around this woman.

“I think it’ll do,” she said, and hoped to hell Iris agreed.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“WILL THIS DO?”Stevie asked, smoothing her hands down her bare stomach as she came out of the bathroom.

Iris smiled, forcing her jaw to keep from dropping. Stevie’s swim top was halter-style and black, but it had a bit of lace bordering the edges. She had on a colorful blue-and-orange-patterned jacket-style cover-up, that mysterious heart tattoo on display. The look was somehow feminine and neutral at the same time, and it worked. It really, really worked.

“Yeah, that’s... that’s perfect,” Iris said. “What about me?” She spread her arms, revealing what she knew was a killer green bikini. Triangle cups, strings everywhere. It barely covered her ass, which was half the draw, especially since it was clear Iris’s purpose here was a little more convoluted than a simple fake dating scheme.

Granted, fake dating wasn’t exactlysimplein nature, but this was no longer just about Stevie saving face with her friends and ensuring a smooth Shakespeare production.

This was about jealousy.

Iris couldn’t believe Stevie didn’t see it—the glances, the sniping at Van, the room change.

Adri was jealous as fuck.

Iris had suspected as much when she and Stevie had run into Adri at Bitch’s last week, but now she was positive. And she wasn’t sure how she felt about it, or how Stevie would feel once she figured out what Adri was doing. Iris didn’t want to point it out, more because it was possible she’d read the entire situation wrong and didn’t want to cause Stevie any more anxiety than necessary. Iris didn’t know Adri. She barely knew Stevie. Hell, maybe this was all some big cosmic plot to get the two of them back together.

They’d been together for six years.