“Yeah, right.” Her smile fell. “Just, be careful with the secrets, okay? I’m the last person to give relationship advice, but we both know from experience that concealing the truth is never a good idea.”
Lily nodded, giving her a meaningful look.
Iris glanced away, not quite able to meet her sister’s gaze. She may have been granted Lily’s forgiveness, but nine years of lying about the most impactful moment of their lives was not something that could be fully reconciled overnight. They’d come a long way toward rebuilding trust—thanks mostly to Lily’s compassion—but Iris knew it could be a long time before she was absolved completely, if ever.
She deserved every bit of her sister’s lingering resentment.
“I know,” Lily finally said, letting the heavy, unspoken matter pass. Iris was glad. She didn’t have the energy for self-recrimination today. “I don’t like keeping this from him either. I just wanted to get the information I needed before he got all overbearing and protective.” She smiled dreamily, like “overbearing and protective” were qualities she found endearing and not annoying.
Iris shook her head. If a man ever pulled that with her, well... it wouldn’t end well for him.
“Speaking of secrets,” Lily said, snapping back to focus, “are you going to tell me what’s going on with you and Meph?”
Iris shrugged, studying her chipped blue fingernails. “There’s nothing going on besides the fact that he’s hot and an asshole.”
Lily gasped suddenly, and Iris’s gaze shot up. “Oh my god, you like him! I knew it.”
“What? No. I just said he was an asshole.”
“Ahotasshole. And you love hot assholes. So you like him!”
Iris groaned. Why did Lily have to see straight through her like that? It was unnerving as hell. Maybe Meph was right, and she really was an open book. She wasn’t sure she liked it anymore.
“I’m trying to change that!” she groaned. “It’s a toxic habit. I need a nice, quiet guy with good manners. Who doesn’t talk back or argue. Who doesn’t smoke or drink or party. Who has no tattoos. And no attitude. And no dark, damaged past.”
“And is boring and terrible at sex.”
Iris made a face. “He doesn’t have to be terrible at sex.”
“Have you ever met a guy that fits all those qualities that isn’t terrible at sex?”
She snorted. “Hey, now, that’s not fair to nice guys.”
“You didn’t describe a ‘nice guy,’ Ris. You described a boring guy with zero personality. Mist is a nice guy. He’s loving and sweet. He’s also gorgeous and dangerous and amazing in bed, and he has a dark past. So there. Nice guys can have damage, and they don’t have to be boring and personality-less.” Lily grinned wickedly. “Meph is a nice guy.”
Iris snorted. Only Lily would ever think that about a demon with face tattoos. “No, he is not.”
“He is. He has a great sense of humor, and he’s so easygoing and fun to be around. I get you have a hard time liking him because of what he is, but you have to admit you’ve dated human guys that are worse than him. I’d take one hundred Mephs over one Antoine.”
“He has serious damage, Lil. I don’t know what the hell his demon form is, but when I brought it up, he shut down so fast I got whiplash. He’s hiding something big, and he refuses to talk about it. And did you know he has a binding sigil that keeps him from shifting tattooed on his abs? When I asked him about it, he made some vague remark about how ‘some monsters need to be kept on a leash.’ What does that even mean?”
“Wait.” Lily held up a hand. “When were you looking at his abs and asking him about his tattoos?”
Bugger.Iris shifted uncomfortably. “A couple weeks ago.”
“Why?”
Time to come clean, I guess.“I kind of... had sex with him. Have been pretty much every day since then, actually.” She smiled sheepishly.
Lily gasped. “Oh my god! Here you are pretending you don’t even like him, and you’re havingsexwith him?”
“We’re not in a relationship,” Iris said quickly. “We’re just having sex. End of story.”
“Right. Yeah. Okay.” Lily rolled her eyes. “Because that always works.”
“It will work for us. Neither of us wants commitment, and we were very up front about it from the beginning.”
“Uh-huh.”
