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

by Rebecca Lynn

  “Then it’s decided,” Ayanna said, finishing off her wine. “You don’t have to throw yourself at him, but if you want him, you need to let him know.”

  “I’m not going to cheat with him,” she murmured.

  “Shit, Tiff. I’m not saying cheat with him. And if he does want to cheat, then he’s not the man we all think he is,” Ayanna said.

  “He won’t cheat,” Janie said.

  “Listen, none of us is a saint,” Emily said. “None of us would ever want to think any of us or our guys would cheat. So that’s why it’s so important to be honest and upfront from the get go.”

  They all looked at Emily surprised. She’d had such a hard time being honest about her feelings with Mike, and with all of them when they’d started to get to know each other.

  Emily smirked at their faces and she added dryly, “I know I’ve come a long way with that, and I owe it to Mike for forcing the truth out of me. I look back now, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. No relationship is perfect, but if you’re honest at least you always know where the other stands. Then you make things better before it ever gets to the really bad stuff.” She looked at Tiffany. “Even though as humans we’re all tempted at one time or another, I think there are people who would never cheat. I don’t think any of us would because we respect our significant others too much, and I think the same about our guys, including Drew. If you want something to happen with him, you tell him you’re interested but in a classy way. You can do that because you’re the epitome of class, Tiff. You’ll figure out what to say.”

  Tiffany cocked her head and looked sweetly at her. “Thanks.”

  “This Love Fest needs more wine,” Ayanna barked.

  Janie chuckled, “I’ll get it,” and got up to pop another bottle open.

  “And what’s going on with this Todd guy?” Ayanna continued. “What happened last night after the drinks?”

  Tiffany groaned but smiled. “We’re just hanging out. He’s interested though. He told me so. I told him that I didn’t really think of him in that way, but he’s a really nice guy and he wanted to try things out. He kissed me down by the elevator.”

  “Shit, girl, why are we only just finding this out after being here for twenty minutes?” Ayanna groused.

  “Sorry,” Tiffany said dramatically.

  “What was it like?” Ayanna asked, always wanting details.

  “It was nice. Very short and chaste, but nice.”

  “Well, all I can say is it doesn’t hurt that he’s cute,” Emily said, wiggling her eyebrows.

  “What does he look like?” Ayanna asked, ready for the dirt.

  “Dark blonde hair, hazel eyes, a Marlboro man,” Emily said.

  “Hm,” Ryann laughed.

  “Forget Todd. We want to hear about the hardware being removed,” Janie yelled from the kitchen.

  Tiffany rolled her eyes and cringed.

  “Did it all come out okay?” Janie asked while coming back in with the wine. She began pouring.

  “Yes, thank God.”

  “So, what’s it like down there? All clean and pretty now? Any additional holes you gotta worry about?” Ayanna laughed. “You’re gonna wanna make sure that Drew knows where to stick it.”

  They all guffawed.

  “It’s all good, ladies. All the parts are still there and easy to find,” Tiffany smirked.

  “Well, girlfriend, you are the very first woman I’ve ever known who’s had, and had removed, a clit ring. And I seriously can’t say that without laughing,” Ayanna cackled.

  They all did for a minute.

  “We wanna know why you didn’t get the nipple ones removed,” Ayanna continued. “You’re so kinky!”

  “Ha! I said she was a slut!” Emily snorted and she and Ayanna high fived.

  Lord, these women.

  “Do I have any privacy about this at all?” Tiffany said in mock anger.

  “No way. We wanna know how this shit works,” Ayanna smiled.

  “I didn’t get the nipple ones removed because,” Tiffany hesitated.

  They all looked at her, their eyebrows up, waiting for the end of her sentence.

  Tiffany shook her head at their interest. “Because I happen to like them.”

  “You so want Dr. Drew to do something dirty with your nipples, don’t you?” Ayanna pointed at her. “Or maybe Todd?”

  Ryann pushed her best friend of 20 years over on the sofa. “Would you leave the poor girl alone?” Ryann turned to Tiffany. “Don’t listen to a word she says. She’s like this with me too. She always wants all the details.”

  “Please. You know you love how dirty Jeremy is with you. With his dominating, possessive manly thing goin’ on,” Ayanna laughed at Ryann. “You love all the different ways he makes you come.”

  Ryann blushed five shades of red and shook her head at her best friend’s antics. “Yan, where you got your mouth from, I’ll never know. You’re worse than a truck driver.”

  “Don’t insult truck drivers like that, Ry,” Tiffany said dryly.

  “Hey, I haven’t said the F-word in nearly,” Yan stopped and counted on her hand, “five or six months now.”

  “This is true. You’ve been very good, honey,” Janie said, putting her foot out and pushing at Yan’s leg. “You didn’t even say it when you dropped the knife while chopping last week. I was seriously impressed, like a proud momma.”

  “I know, right? But we digress. Let’s get back to dominating and possessing.”

  They all laughed and groaned at the same time.

  “Whattaya think the appeal is for women wanting to get tied up by their lovers?” Ayanna asked, appearing to settle in for some juicy girl talk.

  “I’m sure not all girls like it,” Ryann pointed out.

  “Excuse me, but how many books did that author sell again? Not to mention the movie. Women, or straight women I should say,” Ayanna clarified, “like to have a man who knows what he’s doing in the bedroom, and who can spice it up. Am I right?”

  They all nodded and licked their lips appreciatively. Janie leaned over and covered Tiffany’s ears lightly. “Luke did this thing to me with my vibrator last night,” she said swallowing, her eyes glazing over.

  “Janie!” Tiffany moaned while cringing, batting Janie’s hands away. There was no way she wanted to hear about the details of her twin brother’s sex life.

  Janie wiggled her eyebrows. “He’s been introducing me to some new activities, and Holy Hotness. Let me just say I, for one, love when Luke ties me up. I never know what he’s going to do to me, but I know it’s going to be good.” She put her hands on her face in slight embarrassment, her face blushing madly, which was a common occurrence given her fair complexion and red hair. She and Ryann were definitely the blushers in the bunch, both having similar coloring.

  Tiffany put her fingers in her ears, even though she was thrilled beyond belief that Janie and her brother were together and engaged. Both of their families had been the closest of friends for decades and Janie had always been like a little sister to her.

  “We like being restrained by the guys we love because we trust them and know deep down inside they won’t hurt us. But when they get all alpha-like, it makes us feel like there’s a little danger there, mixed in with a little surprise and a whole lotta pleasure,” Emily said, sounding like the lawyer she was while finally answering Yan’s question.

  “You should know, Handcuff Queen,” Ayanna laughed.

  Emily shrugged cutely.

  “I can’t believe these conversations we have. Handcuffs, clit rings, pierced nipples, and men tying us up,” Ryann mumbled, still red in the face but smiling.

  “Whattaya think Dr. Huntington’s like in the sack?” Yan asked with a twinkle in her eye.

  Janie, Emily, and Ryann all said “Hot” at the same time.

  Everyone laughed and Tiffany felt a wave of heat pass through her. She pictured his broad shoulders, his muscular physique, his sexy brown eyes…she was feeling pretty hot her
self.

  “Maybe his name should be Dr. Hung-ington,” Yan laughed out loud.

  “Woo hoo!” Janie giggled. “And you’re going to talk to him tonight, right?” Janie asked Tiffany with an eyebrow wiggle.

  All eyes turned to her and she could feel her nervousness taking over. She knew her face was flushed, but all she could think of was Drew naked, and what she was sure was a very impressive package. A split second later, she pictured Katrina and wanted to cry. Katrina was the one getting the impressive package these days; all because it had taken Tiffany too long to get her shit together.

  “Right?” Janie asked again. “You’re supposed to talk about the weekend?”

  “Yeah.” She wrung her hands together in her lap. “But now there’s this little thing with Todd.”

  “Todd is nice, Tiff, but don’t let that stand in the way of talking to Drew,” Emily said. “You said before that this thing with Todd is just casual.”

  “Okay. So what if when Drew calls I tell him I’m interested, then he thinks less of me for just coming out and saying I’ve changed my mind and now I want him? He’ll probably wonder why I’m saying anything to him at all when I know he has a girlfriend now, and then he’s going to think I’m playing games for trying to mess up this good thing, if it is a good thing, and God, what if he thinks I want him to cheat on her with me? I would die if he thought that’s what I was saying because I’m not that kind of person. I just want him to know that if it doesn’t work out with Katrina, I’d love to see where this would go. I mean when he kissed me, God, I’ve never felt so safe, so –”

  “Tiff, breathe,” Ryann interrupted, grabbing her hands still held tightly in her lap.

  She stopped and took a huge breath to calm her motor mouth. She looked at the faces of her best girlfriends, each one showing love for her in their eyes and amusement on their lips. She needed to calm the hell down if she was going to potentially talk to him in an hour.

  “Just go with it, Tiff,” Ryann said, trying to soothe her. “Let the conversation roll organically and see how it plays out. Maybe you’ll come up with a way to bring it up. Even when you tell him you like him, he’s not going to think less of you, I promise.”

  “He definitely won’t. He knows the reasons for your divorce and how public it was. He knows you’re not some kind of home wrecker. Ryann’s right. Just have a nice conversation and see if you can throw it out there in a way where he has to pick up the volley,” Emily said.

  Tiffany rubbed at her head. “How am I a 33 year old divorced woman who still needs advice on how to tell a man I like him?” she grumbled. “I was never this nervous with Richard. Ever.”

  “That’s because Drew’s a good guy, and you can see that maybe something could happen with him,” Emily continued. “And he’s fahckin’ gorgeous.”

  “Yeah, well I thought Richard was a good guy, but I never felt these kinds of nerves. I was excited to marry him. I was so young and naïve. Now, I’m a little older, a little wiser, and I see Drew – hell, I just think of Drew and,” she stopped and fell back on the sofa, blowing air out of her mouth.

  “And you want him to play with your nipple rings?” Ayanna asked.

  They all chuckled.

  Tiffany smiled lightly plopping her head back onto the pillow. “Ugh.”

  “Well at least you don’t have any hardware gettin’ in the way down there now.” Ayanna smiled then blew her a kiss.

  Tiffany threw a pillow at her. It was time to prepare for his phone call.

  ……

  The girls left around ten o’clock, and while Tiffany was cleaning up, she thought of all they’d said. She couldn’t imagine Drew didn’t know her feelings for him. Could he really not have figured it out when they were talking? It seemed ridiculous for him not to have known.

  Just as she was putting the final wine glass in the cupboard, her text went off. She looked at the phone. 10:23pm.

  DREW: Are u up?

  She took a deep breath and responded.

  TIFF: Yeah.

  Her phone rang a moment later.

  “Hey Doc,” she said quietly with a smile. She walked into her bedroom and cuddled into her pillows.

  “Hey,” he said, sounding a little off.

  She paused, then said, “Everything okay? You sound tired.”

  “Just a rough night.”

  “Sorry. The surgeries?”

  There was silence then she heard him sigh into the phone. “We lost a patient tonight.”

  She made a sympathetic sound. “I’m sorry, Drew.” She allowed a moment of silence to pass. “You didn’t have to call me tonight. You must be exhausted.”

  “I wanted to call.” More silence passed and Tiffany couldn’t help but feel elated that he wanted to talk to her. He should’ve been calling Katrina. Maybe he had already.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked quietly.

  “There isn’t really anything to say. There was just too much damage. We all did what we could. Sometimes it’s hard for the families to understand that we’re not God. There’s only so much you can do. Doesn’t make it any easier, though,” he mumbled. It sounded like he was rubbing his face.

  “Where are you right now?” She wished she could hug him. She couldn’t imagine the stress a surgeon had day in and day out, especially when he specialized in trauma and gunshot wounds.

  “I’m in a cab on the way home. Are you at your place?”

  “Yeah,” she said, snuggling deeper into her pillows.

  “You’re on the Upper West side, right?”

  “Yeah.” She swallowed, wondering if he was going to say what she thought he would say.

  He did.

  “Do you mind if I stop by for a minute?”

  Holy shit. She looked down at her jeans and silk top she was still wearing from the girls’ night.

  “Not at all,” she said, slightly flustered and rattled off her address to her place on West 89th Street. She heard him give it to the cab driver.

  “I’m not far from you actually. I live on West 70th near Broadway. What’s it like in your neck of the woods?” he asked conversationally.

  “It’s nice. Quiet.”

  “Good. I need quiet. I should be there in a few minutes.”

  “Okay.” She swallowed her nerves down. “See you soon.”

  They disconnected and she catapulted up out of her bed, straightening her comforter and then running to the bathroom to check her face and wet her cheeks. Her face felt on fire, her eyes were overly bright. She ran to the kitchen next to get another bottle of wine ready, opening it so it could breathe. She knew he was a wine drinker. After that, she pulled out the cookies that the girls hadn’t finished. Maybe he could use a little comfort food.

  Breathe, Tiff. She could almost hear the girls in her head.

  Her buzzer went off a few minutes later and she went to the call button to let him in. She looked down at herself, brushing down the raspberry colored flowy silk top she had on with her skinny jeans. She was barefoot. Should she put socks on? She started to make her way to the bedroom to grab some when she heard the knock.

  Chapter 4

  Tiffany fluffed her hair, rubbed her lips together, and then turned the knob to open the door.

  Drew stood before her in jeans and white sneaks, wearing a long sleeved white Henley covering his chest. The ribbed shirt showed off his muscles to perfection. Her mouth went dry.

  “Hi,” she whispered.

  “Hi,” he said quietly, smiling softly.

  “Come on in.” She let him walk in then closed the door.

  “Great building,” he said, dropping his messenger bag on the floor. He turned to her. “Are you sure it’s okay I just stopped by?”

  Um, yeah. “Of course,” she said sincerely.

  “I just needed to see a friendly face.” His mouth kicked up. He really did look tired.

  “You look like you need a hug.”

  “If you’re offering, I’ll gladly take one.” />
  Don’t overanalyze anything. Don’t push. Just be a friend.

  She looked into his eyes and stepped up to him as he put his arms out then pulled her close. She was immediately surrounded by him while he nuzzled her hair. She wrapped her arms around his neck with his around her waist and sighed contentedly.

  He smelled good, like freshly laundered clothes. Clean.

  “Thanks,” he murmured into her ear. “I needed this.” He pressed her hard to him, his whole front touching hers, from toes to shoulders.

  “That’s what friends are for,” she said back, and she meant it. She wondered why he wasn’t going to Katrina.

  He stepped back, looking drained but peaceful.

  “Do you want some wine and cookies?” she smiled.

  His eyes widened. “Does Superman wear a cape?”

  She chuckled. “Go sit on the sofa. I’ll bring it in.”

  “I’ll help.” He followed her to the kitchen. “You’re place is nice. Very you.”

  “Thanks. How is it ‘very me’?” she asked, curious, just making conversation.

  “Classy, beautiful. With a touch of comfort.”

  She looked at him after she put the wineglasses on the counter. Don’t babble, don’t babble, don’t babble… “That was sweet.”

  He shrugged. “It’s true.”

  They grabbed their wine and dessert, and went into the living room, getting comfortable on the twill burgundy sectional she’d gotten from Pottery Barn. She tucked her feet under her, sitting a couple of feet away from him, resting the wine glass on the side of her thigh.

  “So.” She let the word hang a moment while she toyed with the stem on her glass. Eventually, he turned his head and his eyes met hers intensely.

  “So.” He continued watching her.

  Her heart fluttered and she had to focus so she didn’t begin talking uncontrollably. “Do you want to talk about what happened? You know, about the surgery earlier?”

  His eyes burned into hers and for a second, a sheen of emotion settled over them. He finally looked away and swigged his wine, appearing shaken. While staring into space, he said quietly, “My little brother died of a gunshot wound.”