Dancing With The Devil (part two)

Chapter 59: Men

By the time they got home from Oxford, it was quarter past nine. The second they got into the house they each let out a tired sigh of relief. They both got dressed, Astrid into a formal work dress and Jim into one of his Westwood suits without the tie. He just unbuttoned the first two, then three once Astrid had her input, buttons of the shirt. The pair then sat in the front room, waiting for the time of their meeting to come.

"Who's it with?" She asked, her head resting on Jim's shoulder, who was reluctant to answer, "who?"

She propped her head up on her her hand, her elbow on his shoulder, tilting her head.

"Ciaran Walsh," he grimaced and Astrid rolled her eyes and let her head fall back into the crook of his neck.

"Ugh," she groaned, "he hates me. Every time he sees me he just glares at me."

"You don't have to sit in on the meeting,"

Jim chuckled as Astrid widened her eyes and nodded. Jim leant in and kissed her lips, Astrid humming gently as Jim lifted a hand to her hair, brushing it backwards, deepening the kiss. Astrid stopped kissing and just smirked against his lips.

"How cocky of you," she muttered, "what makes you think I'm interested."

"Maybe 'cause we're finally," he paused and smirked, "alone."

Astrid giggled before reconnecting their lips and straddling his hips, pushing him further into the sofa. She pulled away with a large breath of air, sitting back and lifted her hands up to his face, brushing her fingers around his jawline, and into his hair.

"Let's not get too carried away," she said, teasingly, "you have a meeting to go to."

Jim scoffed, "the meeting's coming here."

There was a ring at the door.

"The meeting is here."

She smiled flatly and stood up, pulling him off the sofa to wipe the lipstick from his lips with a smirk. She followed him out into the hall where Jim opened the front door and allowed Ciaran Walsh and two other smart looking men to enter. Astrid groaned and leaned on the doorframe.

"Men," she whispered under her breath, before pushing herself off the wall and approaching the group, "gentlemen," she smiled, slipping her hands into her pockets and standing next to Jim. She nodded to Ciaran, "Ciaran."

He smiled slightly, before looking at Jim.

"Shall we start?"

Jim looked down at Astrid who shrugged. The two turned away from the crowd briefly.

"You don't want to come in?"

"No," Astrid scoffed, "can you see the way he's looking at me."

"He's scared of you."

Astrid scoffed again, "they're all scared of me."

She pushed her lips against his briefly, before he pulled away and lead the group of men into his office.

As they walked into the office, Astrid smiled sarcastically at Ciaran, raising up her hand to present her middle finger in his face. He frowned before looking away and following Jim into the office, the other two men chuckling slightly at her aggression. After they had all retreated into the study, Astrid resumed her original position of lying lazily on the sofa and watching TV, leaving the hard work to all the men.

So much for strong independent women.