Renaissance: A Contemporary Erotic Romance (Iris Series Book 5)

by Rebecca Lynn

  A little sob escaped before she could contain it, and he stroked her face with such tenderness another one bubbled up in her chest.

  “What do you want me to say, Tiff?” he asked so softly.

  She swallowed around the lump. “Tell me what you said before. Again.” All of her vulnerability showed on her face and was heard in her voice.

  “You take my breath away and make me want to pound my chest, Tiffany Daniels. I want to mark you. I want to take care of you and protect you because that’s in my DNA,” he smiled. “But I want to be your partner. I want to be with you in the sweetest and dirtiest of ways.” He nipped at her lower lip, then whispered, “I’ve been wanting you more and more each day, but now it’s just the beginning. And,” he said, finally getting to the phrase that had started it all, “I really do think about forever whenever I’m with you.”

  Happy tears streaked down her cheeks as she grabbed his face to kiss him over and over. He hadn’t said the words ‘I love you’ but he may as well have. After a few moments, she said, “I’ve wanted you since 4th of July.”

  “God, woman,” he groused. “You really know how to hide it.”

  “You made me so nervous, which is unexplainable to me, considering I’ve been around the block a few times, and I’ve been married. It’s very disconcerting, I might add. I don’t like the effect you have on me.”

  The gleam in his eye caused her to swat his arm. He ducked playfully but grabbed her hand, and hummed, “I do. I love making you nervous. I thought I just annoyed you for some unknown reason. You always disappeared whenever I entered the room. I know after a few months we developed a friendship, but I didn’t realize there was an attraction. Emily hinted at it, and I hoped that on New Year’s things had shifted.”

  “I’m the ex-wife of a politician and the daughter of two diplomats. I know how to hide my feelings with a smile on my face. Or apparently make myself scarce when I’m around a man who I think is hot,” she joked.

  His eyebrow went up. “How hot?”

  She shrugged. “You’re alright.”

  He dipped his head and captured a nipple again. She gasped at his sudden movement. “You sure about that?”

  She breathed out a whimper, “Better than alright.”

  “You can do better than alright,” he murmured, then scraped his teeth over the nub only to sink them in a little bit more.

  She let out a deep groan.

  “What was that?” he encouraged around the tightened skin.

  “Hot, so hot, super hot,” she stuttered as her body sizzled under his mouth.

  He kissed up her body and nestled back in so their faces were next to each other.

  “I really didn’t know you liked me on New Year’s. Well, the kiss certainly made me wonder. I’ve heard it was mind blowing.”

  “I never realized how arrogant you were, Doctor,” she grumbled.

  “Hey, you’re the one who said it was mind blowing.”

  “That’s because you had me all jumbled. Normally, I never would have fed your ego so willingly.”

  He kissed her neck. “No? But you like my kisses, don’t you?” He continued consuming her neck, lighting up all of her nerve endings until they were screaming.

  She sighed, leaning into him, and made some kind of noise. Then, she admitted, “On New Year’s I wanted something to happen. I just wanted to be healthy first, for both of us before starting anything up. I was scared. I didn’t feel whole yet.”

  “How do you feel now?” His fingers tickled up and down her side.

  “Perfect,” she whispered, and snuggled into his neck.

  “So you made me wait for six days. Why?”

  “I liked your daily presents.”

  “I hope you were able to make sense of my intentions.”

  “I think the Kama Sutra book made them pretty clear.”

  “Did you like that?” he smiled. “So, you made me wait six days because you wanted to see all my presents?”

  “Well first, I didn’t call because I didn’t care for your uppity tone with me at the dinner party in the back hallway.” She leaned up and nibbled on his neck.

  “So you were getting back at me?”

  “A little,” she said, sucking the skin between her teeth. “Then, I really did have a ton of work to do and I wanted to make sure that when I did call you, my workload would be done and I could be focused only on you.”

  “Mm, I can’t fault that thought process.” He hugged her tighter. “I’d say we’ve come a long way from the day in the cafeteria.”

  She made a sound of agreement.

  “When I saw you walk in that day, with your new haircut? Shit, Tiff. I nearly jumped you in that red dress.”

  “You kinda did. With that hug of yours,” she smiled.

  “I couldn’t wait to touch you.”

  She got serious for a moment. “I didn’t want to be that woman who threw herself at a man when he was already dating someone. I would never do that.”

  “I know.”

  “But I was so ready to tell you my feelings. Well, I thought I told you my feelings but I don’t think you picked up on all of my subtleties.”

  “I didn’t. All I heard was that you wanted to date, and the reality hit me that I couldn’t have you.”

  The silence settled around them a moment.

  “Are you going to tell me what happened with Katrina?”

  He took her hand and played with her fingers. “She’s moving.”

  Tiffany blinked. “Oh.”

  “Her mom is getting worse. Apparently, on one of her last visits there, she interviewed for a position at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles and got the job. She wasn’t going to say anything to me until it was definite, and irony of all ironies, it became definite this last time she was visiting her mom. When I called her about the concert, one of the reasons why I think she was so accommodating, for lack of a better word, to our situation was because she already knew she would be moving.”

  Tiffany processed that for a moment. “Is she okay? About her mom, and you, and everything?”

  “Strangely, she is. Her sister is out there, so I think she’s been missing being close to them, especially after her mom got sick.” He got a faraway look.

  “Are you okay?” She was hating the thought that he’d miss her, but she kept reminding herself that Katrina had been a good friend to him.

  He looked at her a little confused. “Yeah. Why?”

  She shrugged. “I know you two are good friends.”

  He squeezed Tiffany’s hand. “We are, but I’m fine. She needs to do what she needs to do. Her family comes first.”

  “When did she tell you?”

  “She gave me a heads up that she had some changes coming when we were driving to Jeremy and Ryann’s, then in the back hall right before you came out of the bathroom, she just said it.” He pushed the hair back from her face. “She knew, Tiff. She knew I had feelings for you and she and I never really meshed in a romantic way. It was more of an experiment, really,” he said dryly. “She kind of wondered what it might be like with us and wanted to try it out. She made a comment in that hallway right after she told me she was moving.” He grew quiet for a moment. “She said she was releasing me. She knew I had another woman in my life who I really wanted to focus on. And then you walked out of the bathroom,” he said, letting that comment hang. “Had she not said anything, you and I still would’ve had that conversation. I’d been planning on ending it with her. It had been past time to make things right between you and me, Tiff.”

  She clung to him.

  “And your architect?” he continued.

  “There’s nothing to tell, really. He’s a friend and he knew from the beginning I didn’t really think of him that way.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really. His kisses and touches the other night say he felt a little more than you did.”

  “He did, but I was honest with him from day one.”

  “So you just let me think
otherwise?” He began tickling her and she starting laughing, the two of them getting into a tickle fight for a few moments. Finally, they disentangled and he said, “Shower with me.”

  He stood up and pulled her with him, walking toward the bathroom. Once she turned the water on and it heated, they climbed in, letting the hot water trickle down their bodies. It was a tight fit, but in Tiffany’s opinion that was half the fun.

  They chuckled as they moved around each other, each taking a turn under the water and soaping themselves. She couldn’t get over his body. It was so hard with muscles; he could’ve been in a body building magazine.

  His fingers drifted to her breasts often, playfully tweaking at her rings, but then he would let his slippery hands slide down her side and cup her ass, rubbing hypnotic circles there until she was a melting bunch of nerves again.

  His hands continued their lazy perusal until one finally went to her front and settled between her legs. His fingers strummed her expertly and when two of them pushed inside her and his thumb rubbed into her clit, she let her head fall onto his chest.

  “Is that nice?” he murmured.

  “Yeah.” Her hand found and encircled him, squeezing and stroking and teasing.

  They both continued pleasuring each other until they were both panting and knocking into the tiled wall, grappling to finish the other off.

  She frantically pulled at him as she cried out her own climax and a moment later he came on her stomach, kissing her roughly as he growled out his own completion.

  Swallowing the humid air around them, they got themselves under control and rinsed off, finally making their way back to the bedroom where she took a swig of her wine, and he downed a whole bottle of water.

  They got back into bed. “Tell me something,” he finally said.

  “Hm.”

  “How long has it been for you? Before tonight?”

  She settled back into the pillow and looked at him. “A year and a half or so.”

  He pushed her hair back.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “You were so tight,” he whispered, then kissed her softly. “You feel incredible.”

  “You do too,” she whispered back and smiled.

  They settled next to each other, him spooning her from behind.

  “What do you have to do tomorrow?”

  “Not much. I’m all set for Saturday so I was going to get a mani/pedi and just relax.”

  “Good.”

  “What are you doing tomorrow?” She wanted to stay with him all day, all month, all the time.

  “I have rounds from noon to six. Do you want some company after that?” His hand wouldn’t stop touching her, her hair, her arm, her hip...like he couldn’t get enough and neither could she. She finally grabbed his hand and wrapped it around hers so she could kiss his fingers.

  “I would love for you to stay.”

  “I’ll come back after work.”

  “Okay.”

  He nuzzled her neck and she floated into sleep, anticipating her new normal.

  ……

  “Move with me,” he whispered.

  He was inside her, and she arched up to meet his slow thrusts. He pushed her legs back so that they reached up to his shoulders. He moved even slower, looking down into her eyes.

  “You like it when it hurts a little, don’t you?”

  She shook her head then squeezed her eyes shut. Drew...?

  “You like it when I pull on your rings. My rings. You acted like you didn’t want them, but you know you did. You liked the pain.”

  Her head thrashed. No. I didn’t want them.

  “Yes, you did. Admit it, Tiffany.”

  Her eyes flew open as she looked up at Richard, smiling his twisted smile, contorting his face while he fucked her.

  “Admit it, Tiffany.”

  She shook her head no, no, no...

  “NO!” she yelled, coming awake quickly.

  “Hey,” Drew said, his hand on her stomach trying to calm her. His fingers moved up to thread into her hair. “What is it, baby?”

  Her heart was galloping full speed ahead. She calmed her breathing as his hands rubbed her head.

  “Just a dream.” She shifted to rest her head on his chest, still trying to catch her breath. A sheen of sweat coated her skin.

  “About what?”

  She hesitated, not wanting Richard to ruin this moment. She had no idea what had triggered a dream about her ex. She hadn’t thought about him for ages and it had been a while since he’d left her a message. Maybe because she was sleeping next to a man for the first time in over a year? Or all the talk about the piercings?

  She was still wondering when Drew said, “Tiff?”

  She paused. “You and I were having sex.”

  His hand slowed on her scalp and cupped her face, forcing her to look up at him. “It didn’t sound like you were having fun.” His precious face looked slightly concerned in the twilight of the room, so she reached up to touch his lips.

  “I was, at the beginning of the dream.”

  “What happened?”

  “You morphed into my ex.”

  He just looked at her then turned thoughtful. She settled back down and continued.

  “I think maybe all of this talk about the piercings and stuff brought him back into my sub consciousness or something. It’s okay. It was just a dream.”

  “Was he hurting you? You yelled out ‘no’.”

  She was quiet, then whispered, “Taunting. He was taunting me about the piercings. Telling me I wanted them even though I was complaining they were painful.”

  Drew tightened his arms around her and they stayed like that for a while. Eventually, he murmured, “Let’s remove them.”

  She hadn’t wanted to mention it considering his positive reaction to them, but she’d been thinking the same thing for the last couple of days, maybe even longer having had all of these recent talks about Richard and the procedure. They had begun out of manipulation and the desire to hurt, and with Drew she knew they would be different. But she still thought about it.

  “You like them, though,” she said into his chest.

  “I’m starting to think I don’t want anything on you that came from him. But regardless, it’s your body and you need to make that decision.”

  After a moment of thinking, she did just that.

  Chapter 10

  Several hours later, Tiffany decided that waking up next to Drew might very well be her new favorite thing. The sex was out of this world, touching his body was a close second place, but waking up next to him, with his arms snuggled around her took her to a whole different head space.

  His body was so warm. She didn’t want that feeling of absolute contentment and peace to end. They woke up touching each other, then took a long and lazy shower, only to have the afterglow of the morning cut short since Drew was called back unexpectedly to the hospital to check on a patient. He had to leave sooner than they both wanted, but promised he would be back after his rounds at 6pm that night.

  Tiffany spent the day primping and preening, not to mention updating all of the girls.

  TIFF: Major shift in relationship status. Eek!

  The next hour was spent texting, calling, squealing, crying and getting overall encouragements from the women in her life. Ayanna wanted to know what the sex had been like, Emily had said ‘I told you so’, and Ryann just cried and squealed. Janie wanted to have them both over for dinner and wanted more details.

  “So, was it as hot as we knew it would be?” Janie asked with a smile in her voice.

  “God, you have no idea. He likes to take his time. It makes me crazy.”

  “You need to help speed things along. Maybe he’s prepping you,” she laughed.

  “For what?”

  “For when he really lets loose.”

  “What?” Tiffany chuckled.

  “He’s usually such a sweet gentlemanly guy. Maybe he needs you to push him a little, because I don’t care if he’s the nephew
to the Pope, Tiff. He’s a guy. You can be that mix of sexy bad girl, sweet classic beauty, and brilliant business woman. He’ll love all of those differences wrapped into one. It will keep him guessing.”

  Tiffany could almost hear Janie wiggling her eyebrows.

  “I practically had phone sex with the guy. That was so out of my comfort zone.”

  “Yeah, but look what happened. It got him to come over. So now you just need to up the ante a little. Like do something frisky with those piercings. I’m sure those little do-hickeys will help things along.”

  Tiffany sighed at her joke, but then told her of her decision. Janie was surprised but completely understood why she wanted them removed.

  Drew texted her often throughout the day. When changing out her laundry after lunch, she got her first text.

  DREW: Just started my rounds which means I’m one min closer to tonight.

  She bit her lip with giddiness.

  TIFF: I like the way u think, Doctor.

  DREW: That’s not all you’re going to like, Ms. Daniels.

  Tiffany flushed with heat and began fanning herself.

  TIFF: Well. What do I say to that? How about hurry up?

  DREW: Hoping to get there around 6:30.

  TIFF: Great. I’m going to make you some food. Do u have any special requests?

  DREW: I’ll just eat u.

  Lordy. She gulped.

  TIFF: Yes, I’m already on the menu. What else do u like?

  DREW: If we keep talking like this, I might need to find a private room for this convo.

  Smiling, she texted back.

  TIFF: I’ve been told I’m a pretty good talker.

  DREW: Since I know your other talents are even better, we may not get any sleep tonight. In fact, maybe u should take a nap.

  TIFF: Maybe U should take a nap, doc.

  DREW: I think I do need that private room. And anything u want to give me to eat tonight, I’ll gladly take.

  TIFF: Hm. Not sure, but I think that sounded a little naughty.

  DREW: Maybe that’s because I’d really like to be naughty w/ u.

  TIFF: I’m going to like the ‘naughty’ Dr. Huntington. How naughty do u want to get?