Page 37 of Home for the Holidays

“I can understand,” Heidi started softly, “if you still need to keep up the charade.”

“I’m relieved, truthfully. I am a horrible liar.”

The darkness of Heidi’s eyes had become so alluring that Iris literally had to force herself to look away.

“I could have believed you two were together,” Heidi said. “Maybe in another world.”

“Yeah? Even after this morning’s events?”

Heidi’s cheeks flushed with pink. “I was filled with confusion, sure, but I chalked it up to bad luck.”

“Did you not see the copious amount of eye-fucking I was doing to you?”

“Oh?” Heidi pulled back, her eyebrows raised, and pursed her lips. “You were, hmm?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely.” Iris chuckled. “Lady, I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. And not to mention theliteralfucking that occurred in the bathroom…”

Heidi pulled in a sharp breath.

“Just so we’re on the same page here, I would never cheat. I typically don’t even let myself get to a point where cheating would be an option, but I digress…”

“Good to know,” she said softly. “Today has been a whirlwind, hasn’t it?”

“That’s putting it mildly.”

Heidi cleared her throat. “So, um, you couldn’t take your eyes off of me, hmm?”

“Come on,” Iris answered, point-blank. She raised her brows and stared at Heidi. “Do you genuinely think I would have come back in, grabbed you, and pulled you into a bathroom if I wasn’t completely taken by you?”

She turned her head, focused on her drink, and shrugged a solitary shoulder. “I have a hard time believing anyone would be taken by me.”

“Oh, Heidi, I promise you, if you were with me, I’d spend every second making you believe it.”

Heidi’s face filled with emotion. “You would, hmm?”

“To put it bluntly,” Iris said as she leaned closer, “I am having a hard time not ripping your clothes off right now.”

“Goddamn,” Heidi whispered, licked her lips, then looked away. “Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?”

“No clue.” Iris smirked. “But who wouldn’t want to spend the rest of their days with a MILF?”

Heidi leaned her head back, laughed, and all Iris could do was admire her profile, her neck.Goddammit.

Once her laughter died down, Iris said softly, “I’m glad I met you how I met you. Like,extremelyglad.”

“Good.” Heidi ran her fingers down the highball glass of her drink, then up again before she raised it and took a sip. All Iris wanted to do was be that glass, be the glass as the pink flesh of Heidi’s bottom lip pressed against it. She was feeling all sorts of ways, maxing out her already overloaded brain capacity.

The espresso martinis were getting to her. That much was obvious. But even without the help of alcohol, she was falling deeper and deeper into this woman as the minutes passed. “Are you seeing someone?” Iris’s voice was soft when she asked. She wasn’t quite sure why she asked. It didn’t matter one way or another, but finding out that maybe Heidi was single wasn’t a bad thing.

“I don’t want to talk about me.” Heidi’s eyes flitted to the bartender. To Sandy.Oh, great.Good way to get her drink spit in if she wasn’t careful. “Areyouseeing someone?”

“You mean aside from your gay son?”

“Yes, precisely.”

Iris shook her head. Heidi’s eye contact was enough to cause cardiac arrest. The sad part was, even after being completely honest about never cheating, if Iriswasseeing someone, she’d have probably said no. Something about Heidi’s eyes, her lips, her hands, had Iris ready to risk it all. Falling was not a sport she ever participated in. Yet, here she was, suiting up and ready to be taken off the bench.

“May I ask why?”

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