Author's note: Fair warning, there is some mature, steamy content in this chapter... If you're squeamish you may want to skip the middle bit.

Chapter 7: Sing For Me

There are some great parts about dating a narcissist. For instance, after an epic round of lovemaking, Zen got up, put on a record and began to serenade me. Yup, that's right, there he was, the silver-haired god in his checkered boxer shorts, using the wooden mallet from the singing bowl as a microphone.

"My love, there's only you in my life…" he started to sing.

I couldn't help but giggle as he pranced from one end of the room to the other, dramatically performing both parts from the duet "Endless Love" the title track from the hit movie of the same name. Somehow he managed to toggle between the two voices. It was hilarious. He used a deep masculine baritone for the Lionel Ritchie part, and a high feminine alto for Diana Ross, which he couldn't quite pull it off. I nearly cried laughing. It was so cute.

As the song went on, Zen continued to ham it up with grand gestures, dramatic looks and pauses. Sometimes he'd go so far as to jump onto the bed, lean in close and sing directly into my eyes.

"...and your eyes, your eyes, your eyes… they tell me how much you care…" he crooned.

It was corny as hell, but when the song got to the instrumental part, Zen got more serious. With an intense look in his eyes, he strode over to the bed, took my hand and pulled me up on my feet. A second later I was in his arms and dancing, wearing nothing but the tee shirt he had on earlier. Holding me so close, he swayed me back and forth. My head on his chest, I could hear his heartbeat. My body became putty in his arms and I knew I was his. I would do anything he wanted. I wanted to do anything he wanted.

When the song got to the "boom, boom, boom" part, Zen pulled me closer to hum the melody close into my ear. I could feel his hot breath on my neck and my body was brimming with anticipation.

"Oh Hyun," I whispered into his neck, and at the sound of his name he squeezed me tight and sighed. I'd never called him by his given name before, and I could tell he liked it.

"'This love I have inside… I give it all to you… My love, my love, my love… My endless love…" Zen continued to whisper the last bars of the song into my ear, and I swear I nearly came undone without him having touched me anywhere near there.

Yes, he was an utter cheese ball and I loved him. I loved him so much in that moment I couldn't see straight.

We swayed back and forth for a while after the song ended until Zen stepped back to cup my cheeks in his hands. He pulled my head close to his, so our foreheads were touching.

"I love you, MC," he said, looking deeply into my eyes. "I really do." He'd said it before, but there was something about the way he said it now that left me breathless, so breathless I couldn't speak. Instead I instinctively reached both my arms up to clasp the back of his neck and pulled him down on top of me.

Zen pressed his lips to mine and it was easy to get lost in the kiss. His lips were so soft, so gentle. I let his tongue part mine, push inside and tenderly explore my mouth. I returned the favor wanting to taste him, enjoying the flavor and feeling of him, getting a little bit drunk on it as our mouths lulled into an effortless rhythm.

I let out a moan as I felt his hands slide up my body underneath the fabric of my shirt and start to fondle my breasts. His fingertips felt like velvet as they smoothed over the round curves of my skin. I shuddered and gasped as he grasped a nipple, coaxing it hard between thumb and forefinger. I started to squirm and wiggle my hips, pressing my thighs together in an attempt to address the heat that was building down there. As much as I was loving his hands on my breasts, I wanted his hands to slide lower…

"Zen," I sighed, and then I got distracted as he pressed himself, still sheathed in his boxers, hard against my thigh. I reached up to slide my hands down his back and began to push and pull at the band of his boxers in an attempt to remove them. Zen stopped touching my breasts long enough to help me wiggle them off, and I sighed again when I felt his bare cock press up hard against my entrance.

Somehow, through all of this, Zen was still kissing me, but he stopped at this point long enough to pull me up to help me remove my shirt. "Here," he whispered as he lifted the last piece of clothing between us up over my head and tossed it to the ground. Zen's red eyes went wide. The light from the full moon was pouring in the room, illuminating my breasts, swollen and round from his touch, nipples hard. "Aw man," he said, his voice low and throaty. "You're so beautiful." He lunged forward, pressing his face to my chest. Taking a nipple into his mouth, he began to suck and circle the hard nub with his tongue. The feeling electrified my whole body. Instinctively, I lifted my hips up off the bed, pressing myself into his hardness so that he gasped.

"I want you, Hyun," I whispered, my eyes dark, lidded with lust.

"What?" he said, lifting his head to look at me. "What did you say?" His mouth was half open and then it broke into a sexy grin. "God, I love to hear you say that, my name… Say it again."

"I want you, Hyun," I said it again and his red eyes grew darker. I felt his cock grow harder, and I reached down to wrap my fingers around the length of it. I let my thumb slide up to the tip and began to swirl the precum around the head. Zen groaned. "Please, Hyun."

Without another word, Zen got up and reached over to the bedside table for a condom. His breath was coming hot and heavy now and he looked at me with beast eyes as he tore the rubber out of the package and rolled it down the length of his shaft. Then he positioned himself on top of me, reaching down to spread my lips.

"Aw damn, Princess," he said, flashing me a sultry smile. "You a little bit ready for me down there?" He removed his fingers, lifting them up to show me, glistening in the moonlight. I watched while, without breaking my gaze, he stuck those fingers in his mouth, tasting me. "You're so delicious, babe," he said. I felt my cheeks flush with heat. I couldn't wait any longer.

"Please, Hyun," I whispered, almost pleading, hoping that the sound of his true name on my lips would get me what I wanted, what I so desperately needed, the feeling of him inside me, now.

He needed no other prompting. "God, I love you," Zen said as he lowered himself down on top of me. Gently he pressed himself into me gradually, slowly, watching my eyes grow wider as I received every inch of him. "Oh…" I sighed with pleasure as he began to move. "Oh, god…"

"You. Feel. So. Good. Babe…" Zen whispered into my ear as he made love to me. The record was still playing in the background, which made it all seem so much more beautiful. I don't know what it was, maybe it was the cheesy song, Zen singing to me in the first place, but I was feeling so sentimental, just overflowing with emotions. That coupled with the sensations of the lovemaking was making everything more intense, and when I came, I believed in that moment that I had never loved anybody, and would never love anybody, more than I loved Ryu Hyun.

Later, after it was over, and we lay together on our backs, panting and holding hands, I told him so.

"You know," I said, rolling over on top of him so that our naked bodies were pressed together and I could look into his eyes. "Zen, honey… Hyun... I love you, too… I love you so, so much." There were tears in my eyes and I said the words slowly with my mouth, but I felt them with my whole heart, my whole body, and he smiled.

"I'm really glad to hear you say that," he said.

Suddenly I felt scared. Staring into his eyes like this, feeling so under the power of his touch, I got this feeling I might lose myself. I touched him lightly on the chin and tried to blink the thought away. "You know," I said with a little defiance, maybe trying to lighten the mood. "I may even love you 'endlessly'… I'm just not going to sing it."

Zen laughed and rolled me over, and then yes, we did it again.

I was an idiot the whole next day at work, remembering scenes in my head from the night before, playing them back in my mind with a stupid smile on my face. At least twice Jaehee caught me in this state of chronic daydreaming.

"Earth to MC," she said to me during a meeting. She reached over to smack me on the shoulder, and when I didn't repond right away, she pinched me.

"Ow!" I said, pulling my arm away. She'd left a big red mark where her fingers had been. "What the heck, Jaehee?"

"Stop thinking about Zen!" She shouted at me from over her glasses. By now I knew that any time she said anything or looked out over her glasses like that, she meant serious business. "This is not the time, nor the place for lustful thoughts," she said.

My cheeks flushed. "Lustful thoughts?!" I said. "How do you know they were lustful thoughts?"

She gave me a piercing are-you-kidding-me look, followed by a believe-me-I-know glare for good measure, both over the rim of her glasses. Did I mention that she doesn't even have to use words to let you know she's business serious?

"Fine," I said, still rubbing the spot where she had pinched me. It still hurt. A lot. "OK, Jaehee, ok…. You've got my full attention now. Let's go over it again."

"It" was a long list of all the action items needed to be taken care of in preparation for the cat commercial shoot, which was happening on Monday. For the rest of the meeting, I tried to pay attention, or at least tried to look like I was paying attention, as Jaehee went over every detail. It was an ambitious plan. Jaehee and Jumin hoped that I would be efficient enough to complete everything and get all the shots they needed in one day. It would save money, and it would save time, a "win-win" as Jaehee liked to call it. I was dubious. There were twelve different scenes and two costume changes. Doing the math in my head, calculating time needed vs. time available, it was an equation that equaled impossible.

There were two tasks that were bothering me the most. Nevermind that I was going to have to literally herd cats, about 24 of them. Apparently Echo Girl hadn't seen any of the plans yet, including the outrageous costumes depicted in the look book. Jaehee wasn't much of a consolation.

"I don't know what you're going to do, MC," Jaehee said. "I suppose you'll just have to find some way to convince her to wear them. There literally isn't anything else to do."

"There must be another option," I said, tracing a finger around the picture of the red velvet chiffon dressing gown with the feather boa fringe, sighing at the high-necked period piece-looking gingham dress that had "somebody's great aunt" written all over it. "Frankly, Jaehee, these are some of the most hideous dresses I have ever seen, and if I think that, i can only imagine what Echo Girl is going to have to say about them."

"Mr. Han was very clear," Jaehee said.

Of course Jumin had picked the dresses. Damn him and his creepy taste and predilections.

"Jaehee," I said. "You know these are awful. There must be something we can do…"

Jaehee merely shrugged her shoulders as if to say not my problem and I sighed. Feeling defeated and in way too over my head, I stashed the task sheet between the pages of the look book and slammed it shut, where it could safely be out of sight and out of mind.

"Frankly," I said, letting my eyes get twinkly. "I'd rather look forward to my upcoming proper Friday night plans." I looked at Jaehee. "You guys are still coming, right, boss?"

Jaehee frowned and looked down at her phone. "I told you not to call me that," she said.

"Oh, sorry, boss," I said smiling. There was something really fun about picking on Jaehee. She was so uptight.

So I hadn't been able to convince Zen to go on a double date with just Saeyoung and Lexi Ann, but I did get him to agree to a larger RFA meet up.

"I just don't know if I'd be that comfortable hanging out with just Saeyoung and his new girlfriend," Zen told me this morning while we were getting dressed.

"Lexi Ann," I reminded him. "Her name is Lexi Ann."

"Yeah, yeah, Lexi Ann," he said, stepping into his jeans and pulling them up. "I mean, they're just kind of weird."

"Weird?" I said, lifting an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Well, Saeyoung just has…" Zen paused. He seemed to be reaching for the right word. "Well, he has what, you know, you might call an 'alternative' sense of humor."

"'Alternative'?" I laughed. "Is that a real PC term for 'weird' or did you just make it up?"

Zen shot me a wry smile, his eyes saying ok, miss smartie pants.

"Well, you wouldn't let me say weird," he said. "But yeah, he's weird… and Lexi Ann, well she just winds him up and makes it worse, because now he's weird and in love."

"Yes, they do get along, don't they?" I said, smiling, thinking of their witty back and forth chatter in the messager app. "It's really sweet, though, isn't it? That they found each other."

Zen turned around and kissed me on the mouth. "Yeah, I guess it is sweet," he said. "But certainly not as sweet as us."

Nothing was as sweet as us.

"So you're in, then?" I said, after the kiss. I looked at him and gave him my best batting eyelashes.

"What, for the double date?" Zen said. He sighed and then I watched as his typically intense red eyes got all soft. "Yeah, I guess I'll go," he said, finally. "But on one condition…the other RFA members have to come, too… You know, in order to round out the awkward."

"Ok, ok," I said, squeezing his hand as a promise. "I'll round up Jaehee and Jumin. You call Yoosung."

Back in the office, Jaehee was still scrolling through pages on her phone, so I repeated the question. "You guys are still coming out tonight, yes?"

Jaehee looked up startled. "Oh yes," she said. "I was just checking to make sure I'd ordered the car. This whole ordeal was rather last minute, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, kind of," I said. "But in my experience the more spontaneous the party, the better it usually is."

"Well, I'll have to take your word for it. I usually prefer a modicum of preparation and planning," Jaehee said and then she snorted. "I made Jumin promise he would not bring up any additional cat projects."

"Do you think he'll listen?" I smiled.

"One can always hope," Jaehee sighed, and I could tell we both doubted it.

We were meeting everyone at Prince Edward Su, a Karaoke bar located in between the business and college districts, which probably meant the patrons would be a healthy mix of business CEO types like Jumin, and college student types like Yoosung. I'd reserved a room for ten guests, just in case anyone had any extra guests tagging a long. I didn't know who was going to show up with Saeyoung and Lexi-Ann, whether it would just be the two of them, or if they'd bring Saeran, Saeyoung's twin brother and/or Vanderwood, his ex-secret agent partner along.

Zen and I were the first to arrive. Zen immediately started skimming through the songbook and writing out his song list. I made a mental note to remind him not to hog the mic.

"Omg, yes," he said, filled with glee. "I'm totally going to rock this one."

"Which one?" I said, trying to peer over his shoulder. Quickly he slammed his hand down to cover the sheet.

"No way," Zen said. "That one's a surprise."

"What if I don't like surprises?" I said.

"You'll like this one," he said with a playful bad boy look in his eyes. He reached out and pulled me close, and all the sudden we were kissing. Zen had me backed me up against the wall and I felt his hand working its way up my bare leg underneath the hem of my skirt when...

"Whoa, hey there," a voice said. "Get a room already!"

I spun around to see Saeyoung and a girl I assumed was Lexi Ann standing in the doorway.

"Well, it is kind of a room," Lexi Ann said.

"A private room for singing is not the same as a private room for coupling," Saeyoung said matter-of-factly.

Zen wiped the lipstick I'd left on his lips with the back of one hand, while extending the other to Saeyoung. "Hey, buddy," he said. "Good to see you."

"Good to be seen," Saeyoung said. He shook Zen's hand and then stepped aside to introduce Lexi Ann. She was cute, a dark-haired girl of medium height and a slim build. She wore glasses like Saeyoung, but her frames were more studious looking, like a librarian.

"This is Lexi-Ann," Saeyoung said, smiling. His was grinning a bit like an idiot, and I could see right away what Zen meant when he said Saeyoung was "weird" about love.

"Hi," I said, reaching out to clasp Lexi Ann's hand. She shook it heartily in return.

"Oh, it's so nice to finally meet you in person!" Lexi Ann said. "I heard you throw a killer party!"

"I hear you throw a terrific one, too," I said. Lexi Ann had organized the RFA's most recent party, but then wasn't able to make it at the last minute. That was when a lot of things had been going on with Mint Eye and Saeyoung's brother, Saeran, who was basically being held hostage until Saeyoung and Lexi Ann rescued him a few weeks ago.

"Yeah," Lexi Ann said, looking apologetically to me and then to Zen. "Thanks for all the work you did, greeting all the guests in my absence."

"Not a thing," Zen said, shaking her hand. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person."

"You're even more gorgeous in person," Lexi Ann said. "I hope you don't mind me saying that." She touched me on the arm, but Zen answered.

"No worries," he said. "I get that all the time."

Lexi Ann and I made eye contact and laughed. I could tell she was thinking the same thing. Oh Zen. I could tell immediately that we were going to be friends.

Jumin and Jaehee arrived soon after and we all ordered a round of drinks. Jumin ordered a very expensive bottle of red wine, which Zen refused to drink and so he ordered beer instead.

"Where's Yoosung?" I said, after we toasted to the evening and everyone's health. "You invited him, right?" I said, looking at Zen.

Zen nodded. "He should be here," he said.

"He's likely gaming," Jaehee said.

"Well, I can fix that," Saeyoung said. He pulled out his phone and typed in a few codes. "All sorted," he said with a smile.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Oh, I just set up a proxy server on his machine," he said. "I figured I'd need to do this someday. I can log in from anywhere in the world, anytime, and kill his connection. He'll be along any moment now."

We all looked at him with surprise and then kind of laughed. How could we not? I couldn't help but picture young Yoosung, intent and deep in gameplay, and then all of the sudden game over.

"He'll be so mad at you when he gets here," Zen said, looking at Saeyoung and laughing.

"Wait," I said, turning to Saeyoung . "How will he know it's you?"

Saeyoung laughed. "Oh, he'll know it's me," he said. "I programmed the kill sequence to flash my picture on the screen. In fact, I'm pretty sure he can't escape out of it… Not even if he reboots his machine. It's programmed shut down his machine for at least eight hours… You see, originally I thought I'd maybe need to do it in order to force him to stop gaming and go to sleep..."

"Yeah," Lexi-Ann chimed in. "Sleep is important for your health."

"You are a genius, Luciel… uh, I mean, Saeyoung," Jumin said. Recently Saeyong had asked everyone to start calling him Saeyoung, not 707, not Luciel. We were all still getting used to it.

Zen swooped in to pick up the mic. "So should we get some tunes on?" He said with a wicked grin.

Lexi-Ann and I gave each other sideways glances and smiled.

Zen started us off with "Heroes" by David Bowie, and I had to admit hearing him sing that low and husky made me weak in the knees. Then, Saeyoung sang "Whip It" by Devo. I thought we'd have to coax Jaehee onto the stage, but she turned into a different person when she was handed that mic. The song she chose was "Like A Virgin" by Madonna, which surprised everyone, and she sang it like a sexy kitten, complete with all the moves. In fact, I think I liked her stage-self better, and glancing at Jumin's breathless look and raised eyebrows, I think he liked this version of his assistant, too.

"Who's next?" Zen said, sliding in and picking up the mic before anyone could answer. "I guess I'll go," he said. "I've got a special one."

He bent over the karaoke machine and punched in a few numbers, then looked up to wink at me and hop up on the stage.

"Ok," he said. "This one's for my lady." The look on his face, the way he was looking at me, I couldn't even describe it. It made me blush. Heck, it made everyone in the room blush.

When the song started, I recognized the hooky staccato guitar opening to Maroon 5's "Girls Like You" and gripped the edges of my seat.

"Spent the last 24 hours, I need more hours with you," he sang.

Ohhhh. My heart felt like it was going to take off and fly out of my chest. He didn't just sing it, he performed it, complete with what looked like pre-choreographed moves and everything. Unlike other performances I'd seen, he was only looking at me. The room was full of people, but we were the only two people in the world. Tears sprung to my eyes. He sang on:

Maybe it's 6:45
Maybe I'm barely alive
Maybe you've taken my shit for the last time, yeah
Maybe I know that I'm drunk
Maybe I know you're the one
Maybe I'm thinking it's better if you drive…

When it was over the room erupted in applause. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Jaehee wipe tears from her eyes, too.

"Oh baby!" I said, rushing forward and crushing him in a bear hug. When I looked up into his face he covered me with kisses.

"God, that was amazing," I said when I caught my breath. "Did you practice that?"

Zen blushed. "Well, maybe a little," he said.

"Well, it was really good," I said, feeling like words were just too inadequate for what I really thought, but we weren't alone and I had my clothes on.

I was feeling like the highest, luckiest girl on earth when Yoosung burst into the room.

"What'd I miss?" He said with a wide blue-eyed grin.