Part 8

Raizo's eyes grew dark. He motioned at a member of staff to bring back his jacket and left enough notes on the table to pay for the dinner twice over. He pulled the jacket over Mika's shoulders and took her hand in his, tracing circles over the inside of her wrist, feeling old scars. This time his own heart was far from calm. It thudded in his chest almost painfully. He drove like a man possessed, neither of them breaking the long silence. Anything left to say that night didn't yet need words. Mika sat in the passenger seat glancing down momentarily at Raizo's aggressive gear changes. When they pulled into the driveway Raizo did his usual perimeter checks in record time. He circled the car to open Mika's door.

Once inside Mika kicked off her heels in relief. Raizo kicked off his shoes. The living room side lamp was on but other than that the room was dim. Now they were alone everything seemed louder, more real. This was the point of no return.

Raizo used the edges of the suit jacket to slowly pull Mika closer to him. "Are you sure?" he asked her one last time.

Mika took one of Raizo's hands in hers and lay a kiss on his knuckles before letting go and slowly, oh so slowly walking off down the hall. Raizo was confused. What kind of game was she playing? When she stopped outside of his bedroom door and let herself in. He had his answer.

He stalked after her into the room and took her face in his hands kissing her passionately while Mika unbuttoned his shirt with nimble fingers. She tugged his shirt free of his pants to allow her to splay the material open and reveal his toned, scarred chest. She trailed her fingers over every healed wound. Ozunu had made a real meal of him. She knew at least some of those scars were from protecting her. Her face went sombre for a moment.

"So much pain." She whispered. "I'm so sorry."

Raizo tilted Mika's chin up to look at him. "Every wound brought me closer to you, Mika." He kissed her sweetly this time, gently and chaste. His eye-line moved to the shoulders of her dress where her own battle scar peaked out from behind fabric. Raizo ran gentle fingers from the entrance wound scar to the exit wound scar and back. Mika shivered when his gaze met hers again while his fingers hooked both the delicate dress straps and pulled them down slowly revealing her full breasts. She pulled her arms out of the sleeves and self-consciously folded her arms over her chest. Raizo continued to peel the fabric down her body, down past her stomach to her hips and further. The realisation she'd been out with him all night with nothing on underneath, nearly undid him. "Oh, Mika…" It was almost a growl. He let the dress fall to the floor and Mika stepped out of it.

"I want to see you," he whispered, placing a hand gently on the arms she had crossed over herself.

Mika slowly lowered her hands to her sides. Raizo traced light fingers over her shoulders, then down the centre of her chest purposely avoiding her breasts. He fluttered light touches down over her hips and across her taut behind.

"You are perfect." He said more to himself than to her.

Mika looked away but Raizo pulled her gaze back. "I mean it."

She smiled at him. "I'm feeling a little underdressed. Unless you just plan on looking at me all night."

Raizo shrugged his shirt off, letting it fall to the floor. He fixed her with an unwavering gaze filled with need and nefarious intent. "I plan to do much more than look at you for many nights Mika."

Mika stepped forward and took over undoing Raizo's belt and pants tugging them down his legs. She then circled her arms around his waist and snaked them down inside the back of his boxer briefs digging her fingers into each cheek. She kissed his mouth, then his shoulders leading a trail downwards of lips on flesh over each scar. She tugged his underwear down as she went, finding him already pleased to be there. She kissed his hip while tugging the briefs down to his ankles. When she rose back up-right Raizo tugged Mika close almost crushing her against his chest. The heat of her body seared his skin. He ran both his hands down her back, leaning forward slightly to cup the top of her thighs. With what seemed like no effort at all he hoisted her up off her feet causing her to wrap her legs around his waist and took her to his bed.

In the early hours of the following morning Mika and Raizo didn't lie entangled in a lovers' embrace but as two spent bodies cast among the sheets. Mika lay on her back, as if she'd fallen and landed there, naked but for the jewellery, she still wore, one arm, palm-up by her head, the other flat against the sheet appearing to reach out to Raizo. The sheets were bunched up halfway down the bed only covering Mika and Raizo up to their waists

Raizo lay on his stomach, one hand under his cheek, his face turned toward Mika, his hair splayed almost obscuring his face. He awoke first, quietly, secretly. He was always a morning person, but he had a new incentive for waking early. He needed to see that the previous night's events weren't all a dream. He didn't move as he opened his eyes to see Mika laying there beside him. Torso bare, breasts rising and falling with gentle contented breath, nipples responding to the cool morning air. She'd never looked so serene. He moved closer to her gently, turning on to his side, propping himself up on his elbow. He leaned over Mika and lay a gentle kiss on her shoulder. When she didn't stir, he lay another on her collar bone, another on the scar on her chest and then another on her left breast. His palm cupped the soft mound while his thumb gently brushed over her nipple causing the peak to swell. His hand then snaked a path down her stomach to dip below the sheets where he found her ready as her legs slowly parted, her body continuing to respond.

Raizo's hand moved slowly at first but when Mika's head began to move from side to side he found the rhythm that caused her eyes to flutter open briefly and utter his name before closing again as her knees rose and her back arched while her fingers gripped Raizo's arm in place should he even dream of moving it from between her legs before she was done. Her breath became ragged and shallow and as Raizo felt Mika contract around his fingers he devoured her mouth and stifled her cries.

When Mika fell back inside herself, she found Raizo smiling at her with a mixture of possession, satisfaction and pride. He drew her close. In the light of day and now with all her senses back Mika felt a blush creeping up her neck. Raizo lay a kiss on her forehead as she lay in the crook of his arm.

"I could watch you do that one hundred times over."

Mika brushed Raizo's hair away from his face and tucked it behind his ear. "I don't think I've ever been woken up like that before."

Raizo smiled and cupped Mika's cheek. "Are you ok? I didn't hurt you?"

Mika shook her head. "Should I be asking you that question?" She traced her fingers over a smattering of scratches on Raizo's upper arm.

"A price happily paid." He bought her hand up to his lips and kissed the inside of her wrist.

"This is so unreal. How did we even get here?"

"seeing you last night was a challenge in restraint my Ozunu training could never have prepared me for."

Mika chuckled while Raizo toyed with the black glass pendant still about her neck. She looked up at him. "Last night, this morning, was nothing like I imagined. How are you single?"

Raizo smiled down at her but his eyes were somewhere else. He rolled on to his back, tucking one hand behind his head, and glanced up at the ceiling. "Ozuno taught us that emotions were a weakness. We were to be shielded from it within ourselves and exploit it in others. They knew they couldn't harbour and groom an army of children in the way that they were, without addressing sex. As soon as we were 14 we were introduced to lessons in pleasure. How to give it, receive it and use it to our advantage when infiltrating a target. It was a weapon. We were forbidden from indulging in our spare time. If found doing so alone or with anyone else the punishment was severe."

Mika wasn't sure what was more painful, hearing more horrific tales of Ozunu child exploitation and abuse or hearing Raizo speak about it so casually.

"My god Raizo." She lay a hand over his heart. "That's awful."

Raizo gave a small shrug, "It doesn't feel so bad when it's all you know. Kiriko's death kept us all in line."

Mika traced circles around a 3-inch scar above Raizo's heart. "So you've been forced all this time to be intimate with strangers but were never allowed to care for anyone?

Raizo took a breath. Mika felt his chest rise and fall. "Loyalty is love. Duty is blood." Raizo turned his body slightly to show the mantra symbols tattooed on the side of his ribs. She'd noticed them before but never thought to ask him what they meant.

Mika shook her head feeling heat building behind her eyes once again. She knew that Ozuno had made Raizo the man he is today. The man that she realised in that instant, she had been in love with for almost a year, but she couldn't shake the anger and frustration she felt at her own helplessness. There was nothing she could have done for him, she knew that. The Ozuno had their hooks in Raizo long before they knew each other but those hooks ran deep. Mika knew that Raizo would carry the ghost of Ozunu for the rest of his life and she needed to realise that he might never be able to be with her in the way she might want.

Raizo felt a single red-hot tear fall from Mika's eyes onto his shoulder. "Mika?"

"I'm so fucking angry at them. And I feel so stupid and selfish. They've taken so much and now we're finally here and I hate that I'm asking myself if it was really you with me last night or just your training. How can you live a life being tortured into manipulating your feelings and not lose something?" Tears streaked her cheeks as she sat up in the king-sized bed tugging the sheet up under her arms. "You should be allowed to explore a life denied you all those years but I'm not Mel and Jacob. I feel like I'm just putting myself back together and I'm not sure I'm strong enough to have you be the butterfly in my life."

Mika scooted towards the edge of the bed and started trying to locate her clothing, not that there was much to look for.

"Mika wait," Raizo sat up and reached out to grasp her wrist before she could get up. He heard what she said, and he understood it but there was no way he was giving up without a fight.

Mika sat on the edge of the bed looking back at Raizo. She hated that the pain now creeping across his face was being caused by her. But surely it was better to quit now than later? She could feel Raizo reigning in his strength. He wasn't trying to restrain her; he was just trying to get her to be still and listen and she at least owed him that.

"I can't tell you that last night didn't involve some of my training. It's the only source material I have but the training is only manifested through my actions. My intentions are my own. When I walked back into that burning building leaving you bleeding on the ground it wasn't to protect myself. Well, maybe it was in a way because I knew at that moment that you would be my undoing. So I stayed away, controlled my emotions just as I was taught. Perhaps it was working, perhaps it was not. I bought this place knowing that although I intended to leave you be, I could still check in on you from a distance from time to time. When Maslow told me you weren't coping well, I felt full responsibility and I knew coming back, seeing you again, would test me but I had to do it. The moment I saw you lying under the water in your bathroom you had my heart, Mika. The Ozuno have been making decisions for me all my life. Please trust me now, to make my own. Trust that I love you, and I will die before I ever hurt you."

Mika turned to Raizo. She'd never seen this side of him before. He was physically and emotionally laid bare. She knew that went against everything the soldier in him was raised to be, and she respected him endlessly. She crawled back on to the bed and reached out for Raizo. He pulled her into an embrace as if they were returning to each other after years apart. This time they kissed tenderly, an unspoken exchange of promises marking the start of their future together.

Thanks for reading and reviewing. This was less graphic than I originally intended (their new tender love just didn't seem like it needed a full blow by blow if you excuse the pun) this chapter also didn't end quite the way I wanted it to but I found I ran out of steam with the story for now. I may return to it in the future if I get a sudden bolt of inspiration though so watch this space.