IRIS' POV
I stood there looking at my husband. His intense stare was focused on me, he wasn't even listening to anything that the man sitting with him had to say. I wanted to look away from him, but I couldn't. His eyes held anger in them and for some reason that pleased me. Was he jealous of Jonathan? I hoped he was. I enjoyed watching his discomfort.
"What have you been—oh" Jonathan started to ask but stopped talking when he saw Julian sitting at the table across from us.
I turned my back on Julian and then I took a seat opposite Jonathan.
"Aren't you going to say hi to your husband or something?" Jonathan asked with a confused expression on his face.
I gave him a small smile. "He's with a business partner. I don't want to interrupt them."
"Well, okay. But he's looking at me like he wants to kill me. Should I be worried?"
I snuck a look at Julian who was still looking at me and then I looked at Jonathan again. "No, don't worry about him." I was determined to take full advantage of this. After that, I gave my full attention to Jonathan. I made sure I exaggerated my expressions with him. I needed Julian boiling with anger where he was. For some reason, that gave me a thrill. I was happy to see what I did to him.
I could feel his eyes burning the back of my head with his glare, but I simply didn't care. I was not going to give him the satisfaction of turning back. Then he would know I was doing all of this for his benefit, and I was going to lose the whole war.
"Oh," Jonathan said while we were talking, looking behind me with fear in his eyes.
"What?" I asked, turning to see Julian walking towards me with a hard look on his face. He was walking with purpose towards us. He was looking right at me and when he finally got to the table, he grabbed my face in his hands and planted a hard kiss on my mouth. I was stunned at first and I didn't want to kiss him back, but it was like I had no control over my body, and I found myself kissing him back. When we finally pulled away from each other, I could see all eyes on us, and I wanted the ground to swallow me whole.
He tipped my chin, so I was looking at us. "Hey, baby." He had a huge grin on his face, and I knew this was punishment for the last hour. I wanted so much to slap myself for not pushing him away and for kissing him back.
"Hey," I muttered with a roll of my eye. He had done that to assert dominance. Kissing me was a way for him to claim his territory. Somehow, I found that incredibly hot, but I was not going to let that show on my face.
"Won't you come and say hi to me and my business associate?" He asked. I turned to look at Jonathan.
"Jonathan and I have to get back to work," I said, looking at Jonathan to back me up.
Jonathan took the hint and nodded, while Julian's glare turned cold again.
I got up from my chair and grabbed my purse. "See you at home, husband," I said with a snort and rolled my eyes.
"See you at home, wife."
***
The day at work had been longer than I had expected it to be, and I was glad to be home and rest. I had so much work to do, I didn't even have time to think about my encounter with Julian. I was so glad I always made it back home before him so I could hide in my room.
I got to my room, took a shower, and then slept for a while. I had no idea I had been asleep for so long till I heard the door to my room open slowly. I turned to look at who was at the door, and I saw a little shadow at the door.
I sat upright to adjust my eyes; I saw one of the twins. I wasn't sure if it was Zoey or Zara who peeped into my room. It was strange, they'd never sought me out before.
The second twin was soon behind her sister, it seemed as though they had not seen me yet. One of them walked a little further into the room and froze when she saw me, she looked like she had been caught doing something bad.
"Hello." I smiled at her softly.
Her sister walked into standing beside her, and they both had curious looks on their faces. Something told me this was not the first time they had been in my room, they looked like they had been trying to sneak it.
"Do you need something?" I asked nicely, not wanting to scare them off.
"Uhm…books." One of them said and her sister looked at her like she'd grown two heads.
"Zoey!"
"I'm sorry. We come here to look at your books." Zara ignored her sister and pointed to a shelf of books in my room.
"Why do you keep talking?" Zoey asked her sister.
I couldn't help the chuckle that came out of my mouth. "You guys like books?"
"Yes." They said in unison and nodded their heads. I came out of bed and clapped my hands for the lights to come on.
I walked the short distance to my bookshelf and then I waved them over.
"What books do you like?"
They looked at each other and then back at me. "Anything." They said once again in unison and then shrugged the same way. It was creepy how much in sync they were.
"Okay," I said and then crouched down to go through the children's section of my library. Sometimes, I liked to indulge myself in a little childhood nostalgia.
"Can you read to us a bedtime story?" One of the twins asked, just as I was pulling out a copy of Beauty and Beast.
I was surprised, but I was pleased. Somehow, it felt good that the twins were not ignoring me anymore.
"Yes. I would be glad too."