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She put her hands on her hips, and now her heart was racing out of hurt rather than desire. “You didn’t tell your own brother we were getting married until afterwards?”
His face showed no remorse. “Of course not. It is not his business.”
“But he’s your brother.”
Zayn shrugged. “And I am his. He did not consult me when he chose Adina for a bride.”
“But you were at his wedding, I’ll bet,” she countered swiftly.
“His was an elaborate royal wedding. He is the heir to the throne, Julia, and he married accordingly. I am free to live my life as I wish. And I wished to marry you without all the fuss.”
She shook her head. “That isn’t it. I know you better than that, Zayn.”
“You do not know me at all,” he whispered harshly. “This conversation is closed. It is time for you to meet your new family.”
“No,” she stomped her foot on the tiled floor. “Not until you tell me why you kept our marriage a secret.”
Zayn crossed the room, so that he was standing just before her. “Do I need to remind you, Julia, how high a price I paid for you?”
She shivered, despite the overwhelming warmth of the day. “I told you, I am not property. You did not pay for me.”
“Let’s not get into semantics,” he rejected stonily. “I bought your father’s worthless company for an over-inflated price. My reasons were two fold. I wanted to remove his financial worries, and I wanted to ensure your compliance as my wife.”
“My… my… compliance?” She smacked her palm against her forehead. “I’m sorry, sir,” she said with a small bow. “How dare I act like an intelligent human being, and enter into a conversation with my lord and master. What was I thinking?”
He compressed his lips, angry with her and even more so with himself. “That isn’t what I meant, and you know it.”
Julia didn’t answer. She didn’t trust herself to speak without saying just what she thought of him. And there was a small part of her now that was afraid. She had loved Zayn and trusted him implicitly, and even when he’d come to England and bullied her into marriage, she hadn’t expected him to carry on like some barbarian once they were married. Foolishly, she’d actually thought he would just get back to his normal self.
“You agreed to our marriage. You knew my terms when you did so. Are you ready to come and show my brother what a loving, devoted bride I have acquired?”
She glared across at him. With a raging torrent of contradictory emotions, she walked slowly to his side and stared up at him. Stepping onto her tiptoes, she pressed a kiss against his lips. She’d meant it to remind him that whatever it was arcing between them, he was as susceptible as she, but her plan worked a little too well. The simple kiss deepened, and Julia couldn’t have said if it was her, or Zayn, who’d done it. But suddenly, his fingers were pushing through her hair, pulling at her bun until her brown locks flowed down her back. He massaged her scalp, then, not breaking the kiss, he moved his hands lower, to the curve of her rear, which he palmed and pushed so that she was firm against his body.
Julia knew that her whole future as Zayn’s wife depended on the next few moments. Denying her body the one thing she wanted, she broke the kiss and put some physical space between them. “I agreed to this marriage,” she said simply. “And my eyes were wide open. But you will never control me, Zayn.”
He was perfectly still in response, so Julia continued.
“You don’t want a wife who does everything you ask of her. You just admitted that you enjoy sparring with me. Well, Zayn, I will never stop fighting you. I think that’s why you chose me – an intelligent, independent woman, rather than your usual bevy of brainless supermodels. You’re sick of people giving you whatever you want. You “bought” me, as you put it, and you got just what you wanted: a woman who’ll stand up to you. So don’t taunt me about your alleged ownership of me, ever again.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Zayn was still reeling from Julia’s surprising statement while he went through the motions of introducing his wife to his brother and sister-in-law. As he had suspected, Amal and Adina had not been able to wait a moment longer to meet the woman who had finally inspired him to enter into marriage. He had been so publicly disparaging of it in the past, that they couldn’t help but be a little shocked by his about turn.
“I even wondered if you might be with child,” Adina whispered to Julia, when the two of them were alone. “But I can see you are not.”
Julia followed Adina’s gaze to her neat waist and shook her head ruefully. “Definitely not. I am not ready for children yet.”
Adina, who had the most translucent green eyes Julia had ever seen, gave her a smile of sympathy. “I am sorry for you then that you must consider it so quickly.”
Julia’s expression showed her confusion.
“Oh,” Adina said, clearly flustered, “I presumed Zayn had told you. He’s strangely protective of Amal in this way. Though I suppose they are close, when I think about it.”
“Told me what?” Julia said, not allowing herself to become distracted by Adina’s musings.
“Amal and I can’t have children,” the older woman said. And Julia knew enough about people to know that her brevity of words hid an enormous depth of grief. It was obvious to Julia, from the way Adina forced an over-bright smile to her face at the same time her eyes couldn’t focus on anything in particular, as though it was a fact so ludicrous that she couldn’t fathom it.
“I’m sorry,” Julia said, keeping her distance. For though she felt pity for her new sister-in-law, she could tell Adina didn’t want to be coddled. That hugging her would make it worse.
