Chapter Twenty-Six
Kian
In her haste to leave with her friends, Iris left her phone behind, which I only realized after I sent her the first text and it buzzed in my pocket. Leaving me in a sour mood because there was no way for me to hear her angelic voice. Or text her the whole day.
Rather than catching up with countless reports, emails, and urgent crises, my head was buried in my phone as I stared at our pictures from our trip. My gallery is full of her smiling face, more often than not blushing.
I was very tempted to reach her on Seth’s phone, but I didn’t want to disturb her while she was with her best friends. Especially after she told me things were a little tense between them since she was keeping too many secrets.
I have to constantly remind myself I can’t keep her all to myself twenty-four seven, like our week in Seattle.
Unlike me, she has people and a support system.
Spending time with them is important to her, which means it’s important to me too.
Nonetheless, her evenings and nights are mine, which I won’t share with anyone else.
“Would you stop tapping your foot? I’m already driving over the speed limit,” complains Dash from the driver’s seat. “Cars are yet to turn into rockets.”
I stop instantly.
Why did I think it was a good idea to catch a ride with him?
“Don’t tell me breaking traffic signals is for my benefit,” I calmly retort. “You’re dying to get to your wife.”
“I don’t hear you crying for your safety.”
“Didn’t take you for an idiot.”
The car’s speed slows. Dash leans back, the urgency leaving him. Mine increases as I curse under my breath. The fucker.
One second.
Two.
Thre—
“Just drive faster,” I snap.
“Thought so.”
An hour later, he’s parking outside the residential building and we both get out. The doorman tips his head at Dash as we enter the lobby. As soon as we round the corner toward the elevator, I tense at the tall and broad figure standing there waiting.
Nova D’Cruz.
Once we’re near, Dash slaps him on the back. “Came to get your wife, D’Cruz? I thought she drove the girls here.”
Nova twists his head. “Yeah, she did but—” His gaze lands on me, a menacing sneer spreading across his face. “Sup, homewrecker? Sleep with another’s fiancée lately?”
He doesn’t know.
Ignoring his jab, I step into the cab as it opens to take us upstairs. Unfortunately, the other two men enter too.
“Don’t pass judgment,” says Dash, sensing the tension in the air. “We don’t know the whole story.”
“What is there to know? He seduced Iris after making her his assistant because he hasn’t destroyed Nathan’s life enough,” angrily barks Nova. Instead of keeping his trap shut, he utters the worst possible words. “Never pegged Iris as a cheater.”
I raise my fist to knock him out, but Dash blocks my path, slamming me backward. Separating both of us with a hand to our chests, he glares. “Back down. I am not explaining your bloodied faces to your women.”
“Keep Iris’s name out of your mouth,” I seethe. “Say whatever the fuck you want to say about me. But insult my woman again and I will put you in a casket.”
“Don’t know what she sees in you,” he mocks, straightening his jacket. “Maybe you two deserve each other. Good riddance to Nathan.”
“Think twice before you insult Iris in front of your wife, D’Cruz,” advises Dash. “No one’s going to save your ass from her.”
Nova glowers, saying nothing.
At least someone’s keeping him in line.
The elevator doors open, providing much-needed reprieve from the compact space. Dash steps out first, prowling to the apartment door at the end of the hall. Taking out the key, he doesn’t immediately open the door.
“What?” I demand, seconds away from kicking the door open.
“Fair warning,” Dash says low. “You can never know what’s waiting on the other side when they’re all left together without supervision.”
My brows hike up.
He continues. “The first time I found them arguing and playing Twister in my apartment in the middle of the day. They were supposed to be moving Bianca’s stuff.”
So, they’re troublemakers.
“Last year, they lied and went to Vegas behind our backs,” shares Nova, leaning against the wall. “We found them partying with strippers.”
“And?” I sense he’s holding back on the details.
“Iris got a lap dance and put money in the stripper's G-string.” His grin widens. “With her teeth.”
Is he really talking about my rainbow?
Dash reads my mind, smirking. “Don’t get fooled by her innocent face, she’s just as bad.”
The more they share, the more my hackles rise. “Open up.”
Inserting the key, he unlocks the door. I enter first, my heart racing at the shitty day ending as soon as I see her beautiful face. I want to hug her, listen to her tell me all about her day, and fuck her into oblivion.
Except, the second my ears pick up on the techno music, the kind my little rainbow would never be caught listening to, and the closer I get to the living room, I realize there’s truth to Dash and Nova’s warning.
A few seconds later, the three of us come to a screeching halt.
“Yeah,” mutters Nova, “I am not liking this.”
The room is utter chaos.
Two empty wine bottles and one that’s half full sit on the coffee table, while the floor is littered with bags of chips and other snacks.
“What is happening?” comes from Dash.
The girls are all doing their own thing.
Bianca is on a makeshift ladder made up of a chair and a stool on top, teetering on its legs and looking seconds away from falling, while she reaches for the painting mounted on the wall.
Except her aim is all off because the painting is on her right, while she has her left arm raised and searching on the opposite side.
Dash is by her side in a flash, hauling her down before she falls and breaks her neck. “Jesus, kitten. What are you doing?”
“No! I was so close. I have to redecorate the place.”
“We don’t live here anymore, wifey.”
My eyes stray to my girl lying on the couch, her hair fanned out below, and gazing at the TV screen so raptly that she’s oblivious to the mayhem around her. Her head bobs to the beat of the music.
Warmth spreads through my chest as I take a step toward her.
“Hubby!” cries Rosa, jumping to her feet with the bag of marshmallows in one hand and her phone in the other. “You’re here! Why didn’t you pick up my call? I wanted to order some snacks. I’m so hungry.”
How? I wonder as my shoes crunch the dozens of empty packets of chips.
“You never called, Rose.”
“Yes, I did! Look! I’m calling you now.”
“The phone’s dead, sweetheart.”
How drunk are they?
At her friend’s chirpy voice, Iris’s head snaps in my direction. Our eyes lock. Her face brightens, her blush deepening and blue eyes softening as a breathtaking smile curves her lush lips.
My future flashes before me.
This feeling of happiness and contentment is what I’m going to come home to every night.
“Mr. Severe!”
Yep, flat-out drunk.
In my peripheral vision, I feel the burn of the other two guys’ attention as they hear her call me that.
“Is that what she calls you?” Nova laughs. “So apt.”
“That’s what I said!” Rosalie giggles. “Now, about my snacks… note them down.”
“Why are you moving so slowly?” whines Iris. “Scary reapers are supposed to fly. Look, I’ll show you.”
My stomach dips as she tries twisting onto her back, but slides off the edge instead. I catch her at the last second, shoving the coffee table away. Sitting down, I place her on my lap and tip her face back.
“They’re not drunk,” states Dash from somewhere behind me, just as I notice Iris’s dilated pupils and the faraway look.
“They’re high.”
“No silly, you’re high.” Iris snickers. “You’re touching the sky.”
“Where the fuck did they get drugs in the middle of the day?”
“The freaking brownies,” answers Nova. I look over my shoulder, catching him peering into a brown paper bag and pulling out a piece. Smelling it, he deduces, “It’s pot.”
Rosalie makes a grab for it. “Mine!”
Nova raises it out of her reach. “You’ve had enough.”
“Fine! I’ll have it,” mumbles Iris, attempting to slide off my lap.
I tighten my hold. “No one’s having it, Rainbow.”
She blinks, yanks me down by my tie, and presses her lips against mine. I’m powerless against kissing her back, uncaring about our audience.
Until Bianca smugly teases, “Oh yeah, she’s definitely not faking with him.”
I pull back, running a knuckle down her cheek. “Let’s get you home, yeah?”
“You’re so handsome.” She giggles, burrowing her face against my chest and taking a long inhale. “And smell so good. I wanna eat you, lick you… kiss you all the time.”
Fuck me. A drugged Iris is a horny Iris.
The second her fingers attack the buttons of my shirt, I lurch to my feet. Carrying her bridal style, I stride toward the door. “We’re leaving.”
Her movements sluggish and concentration shot, she still gets the top two buttons undone and slithers her palm underneath. My fingers tighten around her waist, while I suppress a groan at the feel of her teasing hand on my skin.
Switching her position so she has her legs wrapped around my waist, I pull out my phone with my free hand and text Seth to bring the car around.
Iris lifts her head, gaze zeroing in on my cheeks before she taps the sides with the tip of her fingers. Pressing in, she tries tilting it up.
“What are you doing there, Rainbow?”
Concentrating on her task, she mumbles cutely, “Making you smile.”
“Why?”
“I haven’t seen your dimples since yesterday.” Pouting, she chides, “It should be a criminal offense to hide them, Kian.”
“Is that right?”
“Uh… huh.”
“You like them that much?”
“Yes. The sight of them makes me wet.” Caressing the corner of my mouth, she whispers, “So wet.”
If she wasn’t high, I’d fuck her right now.
Staring into my eyes, she sighs, “Help me out here. Smile for me. I can’t think of a joke to make you laugh.”
A chuckle slips out of me at her adorableness.
“There they are,” she purrs, kissing my cheek one by one. “So sexy.”
Satisfied, her arms loop around my neck and her face rests against my shoulder.
I rub her back and cross the lobby after stepping out of the elevator.
Seth opens the back door as we approach the car.
I duck inside and lay Iris on the seat with her head on my lap.
She’s out like a light before Seth even starts the engine.
The smile never leaves my face as I stare at my entire world sleeping peacefully.