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Spending a few hours at the office did mean I could return to the condo with iced coffee and freshly made donuts for breakfast — or brunch, depending on who you asked — and Iris didn’t seem to mind that at all. We resumed our work on the couch, only stopping to use the bathroom or get something else to eat. One by one, we were working through every file we’d picked up from Project Night Moon. We were checking each person off the volunteers list my father had given us, and we were piecing together the roles each LLC and shell corporation played —or didn’t, as I’d come to find that several were simply empty fronts with no value whatsoever.
At some point, we broke for dinner, but the sun had long since set, and we were still grinding away. I swirled the whiskey in my tumbler, glancing over at the woman beside me. Iris took a sip of her sparkling water without even looking at it before setting it down, her pen behind her ear, as something seemed to strike her. Her eyes lit up and she leaned forward, her keyboard clacking as she typed something furiously into a search bar.
I had thought she was stunning when we were interrogating Ryan in the field, but I quickly realized she was just as amazing when doing research. It was obvious to me, at least, that Iris had a true talent for it, chasing down leads and dismissing false starts in the time it took me to parse through a few links. She easily outclassed me in that respect, but it didn’t make me jealous. I didn’t even feel like I had to keep up with her as long as I could support her by leveraging my strengths.
A strand of dark hair fell loose from her messy bun, and she reached up to tuck it back, noticing my attention. She turned and raised a brow, a small smile on her lips. “Getting distracted, Eli?”
I shrugged, trying to hide my smile by sipping at my drink. “All work and no play makes Eli a dull boy,” I replied, feeling a little silly for being caught staring while she worked away.
Iris rolled her eyes playfully, looking back at her screen. “All work and no play means Iris is a girl who gets things done,” she countered, already writing something on her notepad before entering a new search.
She was right. We had a case that wasn’t anywhere close to being solved, and me staring at her like a moonstruck pup wasn’t helping anyone. I set my drink down and looked back at my screen, trying to will my focus back into existence. I managed to get about three more layers down on the LLC I was trying to expose when I found my eyes wandering back over to my partner in crime… er, my partner in, well… anti-crime.
The thought made me smile, and I had to tamp it back down.Get a hold of yourself, Eli. It’s like you’ve never seen a beautiful woman before.
But my wolf and I both knew that wasn’t the case. I could practically feel him rolling his eyes at me, his ears pressed into a flat line. Iris wasn’tabeautiful girl; she wasthemost beautiful woman. There would be none who surpassed her — not now, and not ever. My wolf gave a quiet huff, giving me the equivalent of a mental shove.
I knew what he was thinking.It was now or never.
And while before, I would have been tempted to shove him down or ignore him completely… Today, I was pretty sure he was right.Now or never. And I’d never been a coward. Never backed away from a challenge just because I couldn’t be entirely sure of the outcome. That was no way to live life.
I leaned forward,gently setting my laptop on the coffee table. Iris glanced over at me when I moved. “Snack break?” she asked, rocking back against the couch to stretch her arms. Her shirt lifted as she did, exposing a peek of her tawny skin.
“No,” I answered simply, leaning forward to press a kiss to her cheek instead.
Iris huffed gently, trying to swivel to look at me. I could almost feel the way she furrowed her brow. “What are you doing?” she asked, one hand finding its way to my knee. I paused, but she made no effort to push me away. “We’re supposed to be working right now.”
“We need a break,” I murmured against her skin, inhaling her scent deeply. It was intoxicating this close-up. “We’ve been at it since we woke up and did the same thing yesterday. This is how we burn out.”
Iris grumbled. “I’ve never burnt out before,” she argued.
“What do you call yesterday?”
She flushed, pink creeping up from her collarbone to her neck. It looked positively adorable on her, and I couldn’t help but shift slightly, kissing her jaw. Her neck. The soft skin beneath her ear. “Eli…” she sighed. Iris already sounded mellower. Just when I thought she was interested, the hand on my knee moved, her delicate fingers spreading over my chest. She gave a gentle push, trying to put space between.
“Eli… We can’t,” Iris said, her voice quiet. She craned her neck away from me.
I frowned, dragging myself away from her. “We can’t?” I asked, genuinely confused. “Says who?” Had someone spoken to her?Damon?
Iris shook her head. “No, not like that, I just… We’re never going to work out, Eli. You live in London. You have a pack toleadin London. That’s halfway across the world. And once this case is wrapped up…” She trailed off with a shrug but didn’t have to say it. She’d probably pack up her car and head off to the next case, wherever that might be.
I pressed my lips together. She had a point about the pack, but… “That’s years away,” I countered, tipping my head to one side. “You’ve met my father. He’s healthy and hale — and with any luck, he’ll stay like that for a long while. Besides…” I shrugged. “I’m not planning on leaving for Londonnow, or even all thatsoon. Why worry about the what-ifs?”
Iris studied me for a moment in silence. “Because they’re a real possibility?”
I shrugged. “Yes. But we could go on like that. What if the gunman had jumped us first the other night? What if one of us was killed? What if I’m in a horrible accident and never take over the pack? What if your car gets struck by lightning tomorrow and you decide to stay in Texas?” I lifted both my hands up, offering her a small smile. “There’s more what-ifs than we can count. I just — I don’t want to regret what I’ve done, Iris. Or not done. And if it doesn’t work out down the road, then yes, that will fuckinghurt, but I think I would regret not knowing more because I never tried.”
She still didn’t say anything, so I prompted her after a moment. “And what about you?”
“What about me?”
“What will you regret more, Iris? That you tried something and it didn’t work out, or that you never tried something at all, and you’ll always wonder if it could have?”
There was always the possibility, too, that itcouldall work out, but saying that didn’t feel right. Not at the moment. I didn’t want her to think I was being insincere.
Iris seemed to weigh my words for a moment before she gave a tiny nod, leaning in closer. “I already regret things I haven’t done,” she whispered, a tiny confession. “I don’t want to add anything else to that list.”
I smiled, leaning in to meet her halfway. I pressed our lips together gently. “Do you trust me, Iris?” I asked, setting my hand back on her knee.
