Stop staring, Al, he scolded himself silently as Iris licked her spoon clean.

The pair of refugees had fled to Valencia’s, looking like they’d just escaped the top of a wedding cake. Iris’s floofy, dusty rose dress was jammed underneath the table, and Alden had napkin bibs for them both to spare any crumbs from ruining their outfits. Alden and Iris were seated on opposing booth seats, enjoying each other’s company as they wrapped up dinner and coffee in waning daylight.

Despite saying she wasn’t hungry, Iris relented and was slowly polishing off a chocolate lava cake and a small slice of raspberry cheesecake with fruit drizzle. She had a habit of licking the spoon clean after each bite, to better savor such expensive and rare a treat as cake.

And the sounds she made…

Iris probably didn’t realize it, but she made the faintest moaning sound every once in a while, causing Alden’s eye to twitch and his knee to hit the underside of their table. The poor man practically choked down his coffee, unable to make conversation while Iris was so engrossed.

It didn’t help that Alden was still feeling rattled after Iris held him so closely in the supply closet earlier. Alden’s thoughts of their encounter kept wandering into dangerous territory, so much so that Alden occasionally winced to keep himself under control.

Once she was finished eating, Iris tidied their dishes and extended a hand to help Alden up. Iris squeezed her partner’s hand ever so slightly and smiled when he stood up.

“Thank you for today,” Iris said.

Alden had kept Iris company for several hours, bought her food and drinks, and refused to let her Saturday go to waste. Short of taking her home with him, Alden couldn’t think of a better ending to this ghastly day.

“You’re welcome, Iris,” Alden replied.

“Same time next week?” she joked.

Alden let out a jolly, tearful laugh at her suggestion. Frankly, Alden didn’t want to go through anything that horrid again, unless it was his own wedding. Even then, there was some debate over inviting Barbara and Alanbee. At that, Iris joined in on the laughter, which cropped up intermittently all the way home.

Reluctant to let Iris leave, but desperately tired himself, Alden drove away once Iris had reached the stoop to her quaint little apartment on Maple and gone inside.

The entire commute home was a blur, fading from one angstrom to the next in a single, fluid motion. It wasn’t until Alden was inside the sterile mansion that it hit him that he was finally home.

And he was painfully alone.

Alden’s muscles twitched and tensed at the uncomfortable sensation as it settled on him. A pernicious loneliness had returned, full-force, after his day out. Sure, the wedding itself was almost a complete bust, but the company he’d had was peerless. They’d only been apart for a half hour or so, yet Alden couldn’t help but feed the ache in his heart with spiraling thoughts of doubt and distress.

I wish… I wish she could have come home with me, Alden begged the vacant expanse around him.

Just once…

Alden flopped on his enormously lonely king-size bed and stared at the ceiling, unable to think clearly after such a harrowing day. His eyes gently closed and Alden listened to the sound of his own breathing, which was interrupted by the noise of a distant door closing. Certain that he’d imagined it, Alden didn’t open his eyes or look up until she was standing beside the bed.

He recognized the scent of Iris’s hand soap before opening his eyes, and Alden Cavendish sat up at the unexpected appearance of his fondest wish in front of him. Iris was still in her dusty rose dress, shyly averting her gaze as she asked.

“C-can I stay with you tonight?”

***

Sitting beside him on the bed, Iris tugged at Alden’s lower lip, sucking on it until he shivered from head to toe. She had a knack for knowing the quickest method of lowering her partner’s defenses, and wasn’t shy about showing her affection freely. Swollen and red from repeated visits to the tender spot, Alden licked where Iris had left her first mark on him.

My turn, Alden thought as he unzipped the modified bodice on Iris’s dusty rose gown.

Iris had made significant modifications to the dress so that it would fit, but had also promised a few upgrades as well. True to her word, the modified dress’s concealed zipper slid smoothly down without catching, allowing Alden access to the spoils hidden beneath. Iris shivered as Alden cupped her tiny breasts with both hands, easily eclipsing them with his palms and fingers.

Alden rolled his tongue over a soft, pink nipple with barely-contained restraint. He circled and licked the tender flesh until it stiffened with an excited shudder. His teeth grazed its surface, pressing together with just enough force to elicit a squeal from his partner. Alden had wanted to suck and tease it until Iris filled the bedroom with resonant cries, but her other side was in dire need of attention.

A true lover of balance and fairness, what else could Alden do but shower Iris's other side with the same vigorous efforts? The excited woman yelped in Alden's arms, spasming at the prolonged torture inflicted on sensitive, rock-hard nipples.

Iris’s fingers dug into Alden’s arms with the same ferocity as she’d had in the supply closet. Cold digits dented into his muscles, but Iris couldn’t possibly hurt him, no matter how frenzied she was from his touch. And even if Iris had managed to injure him, Alden reveled in the exquisite agonies of holding back from claiming her just then.

Call out.

Say my name, Iris…

Alden was confident that he could hold out, that he’d be able to withstand Iris kissing him all over. Well, he would have been able to hold out, except that Iris chose that very moment to turn the tables.

Hopelessly worked up and ready for more stimulating contact, Iris released her grip on Alden’s arms and pushed into his chest with both hands. The startled office manager flopped backward onto the bed, unsure of what the tiny woman was after.

Alden scooched back to bring his entire body onto the mattress and give Iris enough space to maneuver. Discarding the rest of her dress, Iris straddled Alden over his thighs, preventing him from escaping entirely.

What are you—

An insistent clinking of his metal belt buckle jingled at being unlatched. The belt ends landed with a muted thunk and Iris unzipped Alden’s suit pants and thrust her hand inside. Alden shuddered as adventurous fingers fondled him beneath swaths of suit cloth, inciting the frazzled man to stiffen more so in her grasp.

HAH… Alden cried out, completely unprepared for what was to come.

Already bracingly hard and horrifically sensitive, Alden groaned as Iris freed him from the restricting confines of his wedding guest pants. Long, glistening, and needy, Alden throbbed in Iris’s frigid fingers, until the beautiful flower unexpectedly upped the ante on her powerless prey.

Icy fingertips traced every vein with a feather-touch coolness, starting from the base of Alden’s shaft and slowly working her way to the tip. Iris lingered, dragging out the delicious torment as long as possible before working Alden into a frenzy.

It's what he’d wanted, what he’d fantasized about practically every night since the Whitley presentation. Alden Cavendish was shaking with desire at Iris’s touch, but it wasn’t enough.

Iris… Please…

Alden bucked and shuddered at an increased pace and ferocity that Iris worked him into.

Please, I need… I need more…

Hearing his desperate pleas for mercy and release, Iris didn’t give Alden a chance to brace himself or even catch his breath. Alden shuddered in place as Iris bent low and gave his shaft the same personal attention that reddened lips received earlier. An eager tongue drove the poor man insane, until Alden begged aloud for more.

Iris, PLEASE!

Sensing Alden’s frenzy, Iris shifted her meager weight and repositioned right over him as the bed frame creaked to announce her plans. All he could do was loll his head back and moan when Iris descended slowly, swallowing Alden entirely.

So tight…

I can’t… I can’t stand it…

He would have much preferred to be on top, to tower over Iris and indent her into the mattress, but Alden stopped himself from trying. For as light and frail as Iris was, there was a real danger of hurting his partner without meaning to. No, it was better to let Iris take the lead and teach him how to please her.

And Iris seemed to know it, too. As if acknowledging Alden’s consideration, Iris took great pains to ensure that her partner was completely satisfied, even if he wasn’t the one driving their first encounter.

Equally hungry and desperate for him, Iris proceeded to grind and pull, press and tease Alden until his head spun. Iris was insatiable, wild, and positively ravenous as she worked her partner to the point of breaking with expert movements and impossible intuition.

Alden strained not to go off as Iris continued to work him incessantly. Her tiny body slowly pulled away before sliding back down again, her muscles contracting around Alden to demand more of him.

Every sense heightened as Alden writhed on the enormous mattress. Beautiful wisps of dark purple hair jittered with Iris’s movements. Heavenly sounds and contented moans leaked out softly as Iris worked. And that smell.

Iris had a positively intoxicating smell of flowers, soap, and something much sweeter. Alden surrendered to an almost drunken stupor of overwhelming satisfaction at the barrage of sensations buffeting his entire being. If he wasn’t careful, Alden might have passed out from the euphoria of being overstimulating on multiple fronts.

The ferocious woman smothered Alden on all sides, twitching, pulling him deeper, until he couldn’t resist any longer. Unable to contain himself, Alden grasped the bed linens in both hands with white-knuckled tenacity before his entire body seized.

Rippling rolls of exquisite pleasure accompanied a sonorous moan that Alden dredged up from his whole chest. The bedroom filled with his cries of release, enough to echo in the vast, cavernous emptiness of his mid-century mansion.

Alden shuddered after climaxing, his breaths ragged and strained. Finishing so quickly after a protracted siege had left Alden hopelessly overstimulated, and easy to rile from his place on the spacious mattress.

Still, his partner had yet to arrive and doggedly refused to give in without a fight. Iris bobbled with bracing tugs against Alden, her fingers pressing into his sensitive chest as she coaxed him to stiffen again. Alden swallowed hard as he tried to hold out, eagerly anticipating Iris’s climax.

Come on… Please, Iris… I wanna hear…

She was close, so fiendishly close to giving in. Alden’s eyes boggled as he strained not to go off again. He wanted to hear Iris come; he needed to hear it before Alden could surrender entirely.

Iris inhaled in spurts; her body unable to take in enough air between spasms of pleasure. Her dusty rose lips trembled as she strained not to let go. And with each passing second, Alden was driven further into madness, whipped up and desirous for a single word, a single sound from the beautiful woman riding him relentlessly.

Iris, I need you…

PLEASE…

Her lips parted and Iris tilted her head back with a bracing tremor. With one final breath filling her lungs, Iris tensed her entire body, pressed into Alden’s chest, and—

His alarm went off.

6:30 a.m.

Right on the goddamned dot.

Alden’s icy-blue eyes flew open and he staggered to his feet, frantic to race to the bathroom. Of course, there was no trace of Iris around. Looking around the house wouldn’t do any good; Alden knew better than anyone that Iris was practically a ghost, seldom leaving a trace of her presence anywhere. If he had any hope at all of finding proof, there was one sure-fire way…

Dammit.

Alden stared at his haggard reflection in the mirror, his auburn hair mussed, bleary-eyed, and with a tragic lack of ruby-red markings where Iris had sucked his lip. Of the ways to discover that last night was a dream, Alden shuddered to think of a worse one just then.

It had been so immersive, so real that Alden couldn’t possibly have conjured such vivid details. And yet, after spending hours and hours dancing with the wallflower, Alden had no rosettes from enthusiastic kisses to prove that it had happened at all.

Alden shuddered briefly before cupping a hand over his mouth. He’d tried desperately not to think of Iris just then, but an uncomfortable stiffness between shaking legs betrayed him.

“She’s just a friend, Al,” he scolded aloud. “A coworker, and, a-and a really good friend, but that’s all…”

Alden glanced back at the mirror; his reflection wholly unconvinced by such a fiendish falsehood.

But the way she smiles at me…

Thankfully, it was Sunday morning. Alden had the entire day to find a new means of distracting himself from repeated arousals. All he needed was to keep busy and find other things to think about. It was that easy. By the time Monday rolled around, Alden would certainly have everything under control.

Surely…