Page 160 of Iris
Violet bites her lip. “I need to make sure we get out of here with as little fanfare as possible…I don’t want to spoil Pen’s ball or your chances, Iris…”
Heath comes over. “You won’t. She has someone interested enough.”
As everyone else starts to file out, Pen enters the room. “I’ll give them five minutes before my staff take them all out the discreet way.” She glances at me. “As for the Monarch…that exit is on her.”
I’ve lost my chance to speak to her, she means. At least for now.
“You’ll be okay, too,” Violet whispers to me. “Remember, family’s important, but don’t let Heath push you around too much.”
She gives my hand one last squeeze before letting me go.
Pen takes the opportunity to loop her arm through mine and lead me out of the room and into her small study across the hall. She closes the door once we’re inside, cutting off the music and noise from the party.
I’m still a big bundle of nerves after everything with Violet, but I suck in a deep breath to try and calm myself down.
“Well,” Pen starts as she taps her can to the floor twice, “that certainly wasn’t the entertainment I had planned for the evening, but it did get the heart skipping, didn’t it?”
“Yeah…” I sigh, “it did.”
Tilting her head, Pen regards me with a bit of sympathy. “Miss Gardener, I’m afraid things…are starting to strain in Sabine. I hear rumors of unrest in the Lower Side, and there’s talk about rebellion against the Council.”
Why do I feel like she’s saying this because she knows more than she’s letting on? Specifically, about my, Killian, and Xavier’s involvement with the Nightshades?
“But, even though we had only a few meetings, Mr. Riven seems to hold more than what’s on the surface. He seems honest, and dare I say, kindhearted. But your Mr. Black…” She pauses, studies me. “He’s slippery, a dark one, who reminds me a bit of Sophine back in the day. It’s a compliment in a way. He’s ambitious, but that ambition can also blind him to what’s right in front of him.”
Pen reaches for a small package on the mantel and passes it to me. “For little Emmie.”
I hold it in my hand, confused. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because, my dear, a time’s coming where you’ll need to make a tough decision,” she says. “There are many rights, many wrongs. You’ll need to decide which is worth it, and who and what you’re willing to sacrifice.”
She means my heart or my family’s tattered reputation.
There’s no way I can have both.
The evening wears on. Thank goodness for Mari who’s the perfect emotional support, and Mom who has turned intoa genteel mama bear, keeping others who have too many questions away.
We leave at midnight, and I’m beyond ready for bed. Well, actually, I’m ready to put all the things that Pen didn’t say to one side, text with Vi, and then maybe indulge in some flirting with Killian and Xavier.
Killian’s wild, dirty ways of spanking thrill me, scare me, and turn me on, especially when I imagine the big, silent Xavier watching.
My heart kicks up a notch. Maybe I love Killian, too, but I dance around the whirlpool of need he opens, the need to taunt him to the edges of sanity, while I know Xavier’s there as a steady relief.
And Xavier… I close my eyes. Gentle, rough, wild in a different way, but his flirting as Mr. Scarsby makes me flutter inside, and I want that.
I want them both.
They feel like home.
I—
“My office, Iris,” Heath says, the moment I put my hand on the stair’s railing to follow everyone else upstairs. “Now.”
With a sigh, I turn, and trail in after him. I don’t have the energy for his nonsense right now.
Immediately, Heath starts pacing in front of Dad’s huge wooden desk he took over after his death.
“Whatever I did, I’m sorry,” I say, hoping to speed this verbal lashing up.
