Author's Note: This chapter feels too short! It's shorter than the rest of the chapters, but I also just didn't want this story to end. However, if I were to drag it out and try to resolve more questions - do they find Eisuke's sister? do Olivia and Eisuke stay together? I would have had to start padding chapters with a bunch of fluff and I didn't want to do that.

At this time I do intend for there to be five parts to this story - one for each bidder. Part 2 will feature Sakiko and Soryu. I'm putting more effort into learning about writing, so hopefully Part 2 will be better than Part 1.

I do feel like this chapter is too short. I hope I've wrapped up everything that you feel needed wrapped up. If you feel like something is missing, just leave a comment and I'll try to add it if it's possible.

I was reading a magazine and Eisuke was working on his laptop when a servant brought in glasses of iced tea for the two of us. Accepting a glass, I thanked the young man and felt myself flush. I was sitting cross-legged on the couch and my short dress was bunched up at the top of my thighs leaving all of my legs exposed. I was in a transition period when it came to modesty. I wanted to say, "fuck it" and relax, but part of me was still self-conscious.
Eisuke left his laptop and sat down next to me on the couch, sipping his tea. "Anything interesting in your magazine?"
I looked at him and pushed my fake glasses up on my nose. After Eisuke and I had started fucking the helicopter had arrived with a box full of sex toys. The box had also contained a dozen pairs of fashion glasses. I wore them most of the time because they seemed to drive Eisuke crazy. "Not really. I want to ask you a question."
"Ask it then," he said with his usual flippance.
"When we were on the jet, well, you kind of said that you would tell me why you're involved in underground crime. It doesn't seem like you would need the money," I said, a little nervous that he was going to get mad at me for asking.
He shrugged and said, "First of all, money equals power, you can never get enough of it. And secondly, you should know that I'm not really an Ichinomiya. I'm adopted."
"Oh," I said. "Does that mean that you could lose your job as CEO?"
"No," he said with an irritated scowl. "Listen to me. My real father was targeted by a mafia boss, a man named Nikaido. He held some sort of grudge against my father and did his best to destroy my father's life. He's a boss, so he could have just had my father killed, but it looks like he wanted to slowly torture him by taking things away from him one by one."
I nodded, thinking that crime and revenge seemed to go hand in hand.
"He destroyed my father's reputation and business, forcing him to declare bankruptcy. He also had an affair with my mother," he explained. "As far as I can tell he got my mother to fall in love with him and then turned on her. He broke up with her and threatened to expose her secrets, he also had some pictures and videos that he said he would release. I don't know if this was his intention, but my mother committed suicide."

I felt a chill run down my spine. I reached over and put my hand on his, but he pulled it away from me with an irritated flick.
"When my mother died, my father disappeared. I haven't seen him since the day they found her. He just walked out and never came back. I was adopted by Akira Ichinomiya. He'd been a good friend of my father and he needed a son to take over The Ichinomiya Group - his own son had gotten involved in drugs and died from an overdose."
Something changed in his eyes. He'd been coldly recounting this messed up history, but now sadness was creeping in. "I had a younger sister. Akira was going to adopt her too, but Nikaido said that he'd been sleeping with my mother for many years and that Hitome was his daughter. A dna test confirmed his claim and he took my sister. I haven't seen her since then, but I've been looking for her for years. Nikaido didn't keep her with him. I don't know what he did with her. I've tried to talk to him, but he won't cooperate. I've been using everything in my power to track her down, but I can't find her."
"What does he say when you ask? Nothing at all?" I asked.
"He said she was happy and told me not to worry about it. He's just brushing me off and playing games," Eisuke said. "During investigations we found a lab tech who Nikaido paid to forge the lab results. My sister is not his daughter. I don't know why he claimed that she was. Maybe it was one last way to hurt my father. He was gone by then, but could have heard that his daughter was supposedly fathered by another man."
"The only way to find my sister is to build up enough power to take on Nikaido. I have the power and the wealth that The Ichinomiya Group gives me, but I need power in the underground. Power and connections and the more money the better. Nikaido is the second most powerful mafia boss in Japan. I have to build my underground organization until I can take him down. I'll get revenge - revenge for my mother, my father, and myself - and I'll get my sister back," he said.
"I see," I said, feeling my stomach turn. People were dying because Eisuke wanted revenge and to find his sister. I remembered what he'd said on the jet: 'There's something special about plotting revenge, it alone can sustain you for a very long time.' And Soryu had described him as driven, even as a child. He'd built his life on increasing his power in order to find his sister and get his revenge. It was terrifying and touching at the same time.

I looked up at him. His expression was aloof. He didn't let his feelings show, but they had to be in there. I imagined him as a child, losing his entire family, as an adult unable to find his sister even though his wealth and power would usually afford him whatever he wanted. I wanted to comfort him and the only method available was my body. I took his glass from his hand and sat it on the table before climbing on top of him and straddling his lap.
I looked into his eyes. His usual smirk was gone and his eyes were dark and clouded. I rubbed my thumb over his lower lip before dipping my head to kiss him, using my lips and tongue to say all of the things that I wasn't able to say aloud.
He was hiding so much pain inside and I just wanted to take it away. I could feel his hesitation, his body was stiff and he was holding himself back. The air was charged with emotion and everything felt deeper than it ever had before. I licked and tugged at his mouth until he opened up and let me inside. I teased his tongue, tempting him, reminding him of the pleasure that we shared, promising to comfort him and surround him with my love.
When I felt his body relax and his tongue began to return my caresses, I felt my heart swell in my chest. I deepened our kiss, pouring everything into it, exploring, sucking and stroking. I buried my hands in his hair and held me to him, moaning into his mouth, trying to draw the pain out of him and replace it with love.
I felt his hands slide under my dress and over my bare ass. I was no longer allowed to wear panties or bras. There was nothing separating me from his touch as his fingers massaged my ass cheeks, making my pussy flood and my clit ache for him. I tore my mouth from his and captured his eyes with mine. I wanted him to see everything that I was feeling as I readjusted my position, pressed my cunt against his bulge and began grinding my clit against the rough denim that separated our skin.
His hands gripped my ass and he began helping me to move myself on his body. I saw heat flaring in his eyes as he said, "Cum for me."

I gasped. I hadn't intended to get myself off, but now that he wanted it, now that he was directing me, I had to have it. I put my hands on his shoulders and moved my pussy experimentally over his jeans, not just mindlessly grinding but paying attention to the sweet hot feel of the fabric rubbing through my wet folds and dragging with an electric intensity over my clit. I kept my eyes locked on Eisuke's the entire time, letting him see the pleasure and ecstasy that I found as I moved on him.
I found the perfect way to rub myself against him and punctuated the rhythm of my movements with cries and moans. As arousal built up inside of me, I began to feel frenzied and my nipples were begging for attention. "Touch my breasts," I breathed. "Please."
Without breaking eye contact, he moved his hands to pull the scoop neckline of my dress partway down my arms, freeing my aching breasts. His fingers began pinching and tugging at my nipples, making my cries grow louder and I moved faster on him, pushing myself to an orgasm while he watched emotions flicker through my eyes. I came hard, grinding my pussy into him, gripping his shoulders and crying out my pleasure.

As soon as I stilled, he pulled me to him, taking my lips in a fierce kiss while his arms wrapped around me. I felt as if I were melting into him, I was breathless and my body was languid after my climax. His lips left my mouth and he dropped kisses over my cheeks and down my neck before turning and lying me down on the couch.
"I want inside of you, now," he said, standing up to remove his clothes.
"Oh, wait! The staff!" I hissed, realizing that I'd completely forgotten myself.
"It's a little late to be worrying about that now," he said with a laugh. "With all the moaning you were doing, I think everyone knows to avoid this room."
Blushing, I thought about insisting that we go to the bedroom, but Eisuke was finished removing his clothes and the sight of his naked body and hard cock was too much of a temptation. I'd be screaming in a few minutes anyway, did it matter which room I was doing it in?
He lowered himself over me, his mouth sucking in each of my nipples and giving it some attention before he licked and kissed his way up to my lips. His kiss was soft and sweet, pulling at my heart and making me ache to feel him inside of me. I wrapped my arms around him and held him tightly to me, spreading my legs as far as I could on the couch and arching up into him, inviting him in. "This is all of me," I whispered. "Take all of me."
Realizing what I'd said, I felt myself stiffen. What had I done? Before I could pull my thoughts together to try to figure out how to fix my mistake, he raised his head and looked into my eyes. "You're mine."
His words went through me in a wave of heat, his eyes were so intense they took my breath away. I wanted to answer him, to confirm his words, but I couldn't speak. His cock was thrusting into me, filling me, making everything else fade away. I wrapped my legs around him, holding him tightly to me in every way possible. His skin was damp with sweat as he thrust himself into me again and again, hard and deep, making me scream with pleasure. I arched and pressed myself against him, matching the rhythm of his thrusts and urging him on. I wanted more of him. More and more. There could never be enough.

(Several days later)

"Soryu!" I was so surprised and excited to see him standing in the living room that I ran over and gave him a hug. "What are you doing here?"
"Of course Eisuke didn't mention that I was coming," he said, pushing me away from him to inspect me from head to toe. "How are you doing?"
"I'm good. I'm getting better," I said, smiling up at him to prove it. "I've been doing lots of work with Ran, and Eisuke and I have worked some things out."
"Look what I brought for you," he said. I looked in the direction that he was pointing and saw a pet carrier on a table.
"Kaki!" I cried and ran over to let her out of the carrier. "She's so big! She's huge!" I snuggled her to me and looked at Soryu. "Eisuke told me that you were taking care of her. Thank you so much!"
"It was no problem," he said and his voice turned serious. "We've all been very worried about you."
"I'm doing good, Soryu. I promise. It was really rough in the beginning but I'm okay. How are Baba and the maid? Eisuke always tells me that they are okay, but he never bothers to give me details."
"Baba is doing well. He's been getting a lot of attention from women because of his injury," Soryu said with a shake of his head. "The maid is going to be released from the hospital in two weeks. Eisuke bought her family an apartment and he's making sure that she's getting the best of care. He always takes care of his people. It's going to take some time for her to fully recover, but the doctors do expect her to be back to normal sometime next year."
I looked down and bit my lip before saying quietly, "And Takahiro?"
"He's gone, Olivia," Soryu said gently.
"Yeah," I said, nodding my head too many times. "Yeah, I thought so. Eisuke wouldn't tell me, but I thought he...he must have already taken care of it."
"It's a sad situation," Soryu said. "But this is a dirty business. Our rules aren't the same as everyone else's. Like I said, Eisuke takes care of his people and that means taking care of threats with no sympathy."
"I understand. I've been trying to get used to the idea. Eisuke said that the guard's children and the maid's daughter will be taken care of - they'll be sent to university and he's set up trust funds for them. I guess in a way it helps to balance things out," I said, wanting Soryu to affirm some of my own justifications for how things worked in Eisuke's world.
"You're right, Olivia," Soryu said. "And I want you to know that I haven't spoken to your friend Sakiko yet. I wanted to talk to you again. Now that you've seen how bad things can get, I thought you might change your mind about letting me offer her a position."
"I…" I was going to tell him to stay away from her, but a selfish thought crossed my mind. "If she does join and she knows about the underground side of things, can I talk to her? Can she be someone that I can talk to about things when I go back to Japan?"
Soryu reached up to rub his hand over his jaw while he contemplated his answer. "I don't think that would be a problem," he replied. "I don't think you'd be able to tell her everything right away, but some things would be okay. I do know that you need a friend. A female friend."
"Thank you, Soryu. Just make sure that you let her know that things could get really dangerous, even if you don't expect her to have to deal with anything like that. She should know that people get hurt and killed," I said.
"I'll do that."
I was so happy at the thought of being able to talk to Sakiko and so happy to see Soryu again that I stepped forward to give him another quick hug, which he stiffly accepted.
"What are you two doing?" Eisuke's voice rang out into the room.
I stepped away from Soryu to smile over at Eisuke. "Soryu's here!" I cried with a smile. "You didn't tell me he was coming."
"It's not that important," he replied, looking down darkly at Kaki who was standing between Soryu and I, hissing at him. "It's time for lunch."
"It is a important that Soryu is here and make sure you're not mean to my cat. It isn't her fault she doesn't like you," I said as I crossed the room to take his arm.
"I haven't done a thing to make that cat dislike me."

After lunch Eisuke and Soryu needed to talk business, so I took Kaki outside to let her play in the grass. It was her first time being outside in nature. After taking a short time to realize that she didn't need to be afraid, she scampered and played for a long time. When she was finally ready to settle down and go to sleep, she had worked her way halfway around the house. I scooped her up and took her in through the side door, walking down the hallway past the kitchen on my way to the living room.
"...I think the safest thing is to give her a small shop to run. She'll have a job to keep her busy, we can ensure the shop is highly secure and all employees can be undercover security."
I stopped in the hallway as I heard Soryu's voice. 'What are they talking about?' I thought, feeling a chill go down my spine. 'Are they talking about me?'
"A shop would be much easier to secure than the hotel. The hotel is out of the question," Eisuke said.
"I also think…" Soryu seemed hesitant to make his suggestion. "I think she needs a constant guard. A live-in boyfriend or husband. Someone highly trained who is with her all the time."
"That's out of the question."
"Hear me out. It doesn't have to be a real boyfriend, just someone that appears to be her boyfriend. It would make her doubly safe. She'll have someone with her all the time and it would be pretty obvious that you aren't messing with her anymore if she's got a new boyfriend."
"It doesn't matter if it's just a fake boyfriend. If they're living together they'll eventually be fucking each other."
"I think at this point we need to get Olivia's input on this. We're wasting our time coming up with solutions that she may refuse."
"She'll do what I tell her to do."
"The cat," Soryu said. I realized that Kaki had slipped out of my arms while I was distracted. She must have gone to Soryu.
"Olivia," Eisuke raised his voice, calling me to come out of hiding.
I forced my feet to move and stepped out of the hallway. I stared accusingly at Eisuke. "You're sending me away. You're releasing me after all of this. There is something wrong with you. I can't believe that you would do this!" I shouted at him. "No. Nevermind! I should never have expected anything else! This is who you are, a fucking asshole who only cares about himself!"
"Olivia," Soryu said, his voice warning me to control myself and not go too far. Eisuke stood up.
"No!" I yelled at him. "Don't you come near me! Don't come anywhere near me!" I turned and ran back down the hallway and out of the house, not stopping until I'd run through a large stand of trees and and out onto the beach on the other side. I couldn't see the house and the people in the house couldn't see me. I was free to have a meltdown without interference or observation.
Tears were already streaming down my face and when I sank down to the sand, I let loose entirely, sobbing and wailing in anger and pain at Eisuke's betrayal. Once again it felt like the rug was being pulled out from under me. I'd had an idea in my mind of how the near future would be - maybe not a forever future - but how things would be for some time. Eisuke and I had seemed to have a connection. He'd opened up to me. I'd thought that he'd started to trust me. I'd thought we'd been building a bond. I didn't believe that he was going to stay with me forever, but from his actions I assumed that things between us would last for a while.
I had been an absolute and utter fool. I knew that he was an asshole. I knew that he used women. He had admitted it to me himself. Why would I have thought that he wasn't using me? Because he'd said he liked fucking me just for the feeling? Because he had no ulterior motive? Because I was a poor fucking maid who didn't have any wealth or prestige or connections to offer him? So he had just used me for the pleasure and now he was ready to move on.
I rolled over and yelled up at the sky, "I can't fucking do this again!" I clenched sand in my fists and beat them on the beach. Again, again and again! I just kept losing everything. I was going to be expected to pick myself up again and pull everything together and move to some foreign country. Probably Canada, a country that I had always secretly despised because I associated it with the father who had abandoned me.
They were going to give me a whole new life to replace my old one. They were going to give me a shop and employee-guards and even a new fucking live-in boyfriend. I took in giant gulps of air and out of habit began pushing all of the bad feelings down inside of me. I struggled to gain control of myself. I wanted to run far away, to escape from Eisuke and this island that had gone from paradise to prison in the blink of an eye. But the only way to get away was to get on the helicopter and be taken away to a ready-made life.
Well, I would fucking take it. I would accept it all and get away from this anger and pain. I would go live in a strange country and live a new life. I didn't want this one anymore. It was too painful, too broken. I couldn't handle it anymore. Give me the fake life. I would take it and pretend to be happy.
I pushed myself up off of the beach. I was covered with sand, especially my face where sand had stuck to my tears. I kicked off my sandals and walked straight into the waves, letting them crash around me and wash the sand from my body. Aching for them to wash away my memories.
I walked out of the water and back towards the house, but I didn't make it there. I stopped next to a tree and screamed as loudly as I could. I wasn't going to leave. I couldn't leave him. I wasn't ready for everything to be stolen from me again, and this time I wasn't going to allow it to be taken away. Not without a fight.
I realized as I stood there, propped against the tree and breathing raggedly from all of the emotions that were charging through me, that I had been wrong all along. I couldn't stop things in my life from being taken away from me. My mother, my education, my home, my job - all of those things I had lost, and I'd pulled myself up from the pain and devastation and moved on. I'd thought I was being strong, and I was, but I was also letting life get the best of me.
And I didn't have to. I didn't have to fall into a pit of despair every time something bad happened to me. I could feel sadness and I could feel pain, but I did not have to allow myself to be knocked down. I could stand tall and move on. I could allow life to wash over me like the waves in the ocean. I did not have to let it push me around.
I took in deep gulps of cleansing air. I felt as if each one was washing away my past and building a strength inside of me. No, not building, but revealing a strength that was already there, hidden deep down below the pain.
There was something different. I was different and no matter what came I was going to meet it head on and take care of it. I was no longer going to be pulling myself out of the abyss time and again and just getting through. I was going to be the master of my own fucking world. I loved Eisuke and it didn't matter if he loved me back, now or ever. I would take what I could get from him. Not accept what he would give me, but take what I wanted. I would be happy with him for every minute that I could and I would walk away with my head held high if he ever said it was over, but I wasn't going to let him end our relationship for just any reason. If he didn't love me, fine, but I wasn't going to leave because he was worried about putting me in danger or he thought he needed to use other women to achieve his goals or because I wasn't part of his plan.
'This is my fucking life now. Mine. And no one is going to hold me back or tell me what to do.' I wanted Eisuke and I was going to hold onto him as tightly as I could. I loved him. Damn his past issues and damn mine, too.
I pushed my sopping wet hair over my shoulders and continued into the house. When I stepped out of the hallway and into the living room, Eisuke and Soryu were still there.
"Hey...," Soryu said, shocked and concerned when he saw the drenched mess that I was, but I only had eyes for Eisuke.
"Our drowned rat has come home," Eisuke said with a smirk on his face. "Don't worry too much, Babe. I'm just sending you to Canada for your own safety. I'll come and visit you."
"Stop smirking. It's something teenagers do."
"What?" His eyebrows lowered and his voice was laced with warning, but I wasn't afraid of him anymore.
"It's something teenagers do. To feel superior to others and to pretend like they don't care. It's a juvenile and mean thing to do. Immature. It's a dead give away that you're trying to prop up your ego by telling yourself lies about how you're superior to others. It's time to grow up, Eisuke. This is real adult life. You've been trying to make a game of things, playing at business because it's so easy for you, playing at crime, too and justifying the ends over the means. Living your life like a cold rich frat boy, partying and using women. You're hurting people and destroying lives without a backward glance, getting revenge like a child, throwing down some money like that solves everything."
"Olivia," Soryu said.
"Don't interrupt me!" I snapped, not taking my eyes off of Eisuke. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to move to fucking Canada to run some shop. I'm not going to be waiting to make myself available to fuck you when you're in town. I'm here by your side and that's where I'm staying. You bought me, and you don't get to throw me away just because you're afraid of your feelings and how your life might change. You don't get to send me away just because you're afraid that you might lose me. You don't get to control everything Eisuke. You can't control your heart and you can't control me. I'm in charge of me now. I'll decide whether I obey you or not, but make no mistake. It is always my decision."
Eisuke had stood up, fury in his eyes. "You will go where I tell you to go."
"I am not leaving," I said, staring right back at him. "I love you and I'm staying with you. I know that I don't really have any control over that. You can send a bunch of men in here to pick me up and carry me out. You can drug me and knock me out and I won't wake up until I'm in Canada, but you aren't going to do those things because you know that it would be too traumatic for me."
He shook his head at my words and started to speak, but I cut him off. "You could walk out the door and get on your jet and leave me here. Except, I don't think you can do that. You love me. Even if you don't want to admit it to yourself. You won't let anyone hurt me and you can't stay away from me."
I walked over to stand in front of him. At some point Soryu had left the room. It was only Eisuke and I. "You're not leaving me behind just because you're afraid of your feelings and afraid that I will get hurt. You'll be brave and I'll be brave and we'll make this work, because I will take anything that life throws at me, but I will not take losing you."
"Don't-" He started to argue again, but I cut him off.
"You lost your parents and you lost your sister, but you don't have to lose me," I said, my voice quiet and gentle. "You can have guards follow me all the time - as long as one of them isn't a fake boyfriend. I've already got one of those."
"You'll still be in danger," he said. "Even with guards. I can't guarantee your safety."
"I told you, you don't get to decide. It's my decision."

As soon as we stepped into the bedroom Eisuke slammed the door, grabbed me, and pushed me back against it. He stared down at me. His eyes were full of lightning. "You're trying to defy me," he said. "And you went into the water without supervision."
"I am defying you," I said, not backing down. "You're not going to send me away."
His mouth came crashing down on mine. I'd always thought his kisses were overwhelming, but this kiss was savage. His lips were hard and commanding, his tongue a sword trying to pierce my soul. I struggled to keep up with him, to meet his demands with an equal amount of ferocity. I channeled my anger into my movements as I submitted my soul to him, but my own tongue demanded his in return. I filled my hands with my desperation and they moved ceaselessly over his body, pulling at his hair with no thought of gentleness, skimming under his shirt to explore his hard abs and pecs, stroking and squeezing the bulge in his jeans.
His tore himself away from me roughly, both of us were panting. "Take your clothes off," he commanded.
I tossed my damp dress aside and watched as he quickly stripped himself. My eyes took in his strong legs, his well defined chest and his cock standing hard and ready for me. 'Mine,' my body whispered as he returned to take me in his arms.
His mouth ravaged mine once again and his hands grasped and squeezed my breasts roughly. My heart pounded, my blood raced, my entire being was crying out for him. Pushing myself into his hands as they pinched my nipples mercilessly, I moaned and shrieked as his mouth sucked hotly at my neck, knowing that he was marking my skin.
I felt as if I were on fire, I needed him so badly that I barely knew what to do with myself. It felt as if my brain wanted to turn off entirely and give my body over to the feelings that Eisuke caused in me. I had to keep pulling my mind back from the dark abyss that it wanted to fall into, afraid that I might black out if I allowed myself to let go entirely. He pulled me from the door and pushed me toward the bed, I moved on clumsy feet, climbing onto the bed with trembling limbs. He took my body in hand, moving me so that I was positioned with my ass hanging off the side of the bed.
He stepped between my legs and I looked up into his eyes. They were burning with a fierce light that I had never seen before, they took my breath away and nearly made my heart stop. He took my ankles in his hands and placed my feet over his shoulders before spreading my folds with his fingers and plunging his cock deep into me with a nearly violent thrust.
Gripping my shoulders, he began fucking me with viciously deep plunges, his hands yanking me towards him with each hard thrust. Closing my eyes, I threw my head back and screamed because of the shock of being filled so roughly, the pleasure of having him deep inside and the satisfaction of feeling like he was claiming me.
I was letting go all control and giving myself over to him when a sound caught my attention, a rhythmic "ugh...ugh...ugh" and I felt as if my heart froze in shock. I opened my eyes and looked at Eisuke. His eyes were closed as he thrust himself into me and with each forward movement his mouth was releasing a moan. He had always been in complete control when he fucked me before. He never made a sound except maybe a small moan when he came. Now he was visibly straining to fuck me as hard and as fast as possible, sweat dripped off his skin and splashed down onto me. As I watched he flicked the hair out of his face with a quick motion of his head and droplets of his sweat fell over me.
He'd let go. In that moment I knew that he wasn't holding anything back from me. I closed my eyes and gave everything to him, letting go of my control and joining him in a sea of pleasure where the only thing that mattered was that he was inside of me and I surrounded him. I came harder and deeper than I ever had before, my body spasming around him, my mouth screaming the intensity of my pleasure.
Soon after, he plunged hard into me and roared with his own orgasm. I stared at him in breathless shock, my body still twitching around him, he'd cum inside of me. I gasped, trying to pull myself together and make my brain work. I felt as if I'd fallen into a different universe. His hands moved over my body and pushed me further up onto the bed, and his body followed. He lay down next to me, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me to his chest.
I lay still in his arms, breathing quiet shallow breaths, afraid to move or make a sound. Afraid to do anything to break the unimaginable and fragile moment that I found myself in.

Hours later I walked gingerly around the house looking for Soryu. Eisuke had fucked me two more times and it was obvious that I was going to have to have a talk with him about how much rough sex my body could handle. Which was unfortunate because I was enjoying it just as much as he was.
We hadn't talked. We'd only fucked and he'd kissed me and held me and something was different. I felt so much closer to him, like he was showing me with his body that he loved me even though he might never say it. I didn't know for sure what it meant, but I wasn't allowing myself to fall into a pit of confusion and depression where I would overanalyze everything that he did or said. Instead I was just going to take what I wanted.
I found Soryu out on the terrace with a laptop and Kaki. When he saw me he raised an eyebrow at me and I sank down gently into a chair.
"Eisuke's sleeping," I said. I would have been sleeping too, but I couldn't rest until I tried to take care of everything. "I want to go over a few things with you."
He lowered his eyebrows and gave me a nod.
"When Eisuke and I get back to Japan, I want some really intense self-defense and karate classes and a personal trainer. I need to be able to take down someone twice my size as quickly as possible. The next time a man puts his hands on me uninvited, I want to break his arm," I said.
Soryu just listened to me, his eyes unreadable.
"I want to learn how to use a gun, and not just on a shooting range with a target that's far away. I want to learn how to shoot someone up close if they're trying to attack me," I explained. I may not like violence or the criminal world, but if I wanted Eisuke I would have to learn to live in it. And I would not be giving him up. "I'll manage one of the shops in the hotel. All of the employees can be security, like you said. It does seem like a lot of trouble to go through to keep me entertained, but I know that I can't just sit around the penthouse all day."
"And Eisuke has agreed to all of this?" he asked.
"We haven't done a lot of talking, but I'm not leaving him. This is how I want things to be," I said firmly. "So, make it happen."
"Are you sure this is what you want? You've had a taste of the danger involved. Even if you are trained in self-defense and have a security detail, there's never going to be a way to guarantee your safety."
"I understand that," I said. "I'm not leaving him."
"Eisuke might be able to be nice to you for a day or two, but it won't be long until he's back to his old self," Soryu said, anger threading into his voice. "A week from now he's going to casually announce that he's going to cheat on you, just like he did before."
I shrugged. "I'll handle that when it comes."
"I think it's best if you take the offer to go to Canada. I'd prefer to know that you were safe from everything, including Eisuke."
I stood up and looked down at him, I wasn't going to continue arguing about this. "If you want to keep me safe, then do what I've asked you to do. If there's anything else that I can do, let me know. But I'm not going to leave him. That's out of the question."
I turned and walked back into the house.

Two weeks later I stepped out of a limo, took Eisuke's arm and looked up at Tres Spades Tokyo. The hotel looked different than before, it looked smaller, less intimidating. I was no longer the scared and struggling young woman that I had been before. I felt stronger, more in control and more capable than I had ever thought possible.
When we stepped into the lobby, the first thing that I noticed was the security cage that stood at the entrance to the penthouse elevator. Although it was fancied up to match the luxury of the hotel lobby, it was still a huge reminder that our lives were in danger and that Eisuke was doing everything that he could to protect us.
We had to pass through a metal detector to get into the cage, but Soryu had explained to me that it would be turned off when we stepped through it. Eisuke and his partners were always armed, and soon I would be too. Inside the cage the guard used a wand to scan over us, checking for wiretaps that may have been slipped into our bags or onto our person without our knowledge. The cage itself was scanning us for bombs.
We had to scan our fingerprints to get into the elevator. The entire hotel had gone from keycards to fingerprints. Eisuke and Soryu were implementing every safety measure that they could find.

I'd expected to feel a sense of homecoming when I entered the penthouse, instead I was completely shocked. Absolutely everything had been changed: the flooring, the paint, the wallpaper, all of the furniture and decorations. It looked like a completely different place.
The furniture was in a new arrangement. No longer did the front door open up to a view of the main seating area. Instead, you had to turn to the left once you stepped into the main room and the furniture had to have been set up to present obstacles to an attacker and to give anyone in the seating area places to take cover.
The guys were sitting in the seating area, and it was the four of them that gave me the sense of coming home. "Mamoru," I said with a laugh, feeling tears prick at my eyes as emotions welled up in me. "They've invaded your space!"
The men had stood up to greet me. Mamoru's chair - a new version - was still next to the window, but now the seating had been arranged around it. He stepped over and gave me a hug. "We've all had to make some sacrifices for the sake of safety. I've got earplugs to block out the nattering whenever Baba and Ota are here."
I accepted hugs from all of them. They were Eisuke's family and that made them my family, too. My heart trembled as I thought of how easily I could have lost all of this. The shooter could have been successful and destroyed these men. Eisuke could have succeeded at sending me away. My hold on this place was only as strong as my determination to stick to Eisuke no matter how difficult things got. It remained to be seen what challenges and craziness he would throw at me to test my love for him.

When Eisuke and Soryu fell into a conversation about stocks and Mamoru fell asleep in his chair, Baba and Ota pulled me aside and apologized.
"We're so sorry," Baba said. "We had no idea that anything like that would happen. We wouldn't have involved you if we thought you would be in danger. And I should have realized that something was wrong in the car afterwards. I should have paid more attention and asked more questions."
"I'm the one who really fucked up," Ota said. "I had to hide far away and I was on the phone. I don't even know how long you were screaming before the call ended. I should have been paying attention. I should have been there for you right away and I wasn't."
Both of the men looked pained as they spoke to me. "I couldn't see what was going on behind that bush. I didn't even know and I didn't take the time to talk to you and find out. I was too caught up in having fun and playing my role," Ota continued, shaking his head in self-disgust. "I can't apologize to you enough. We will never let you get hurt again."
"I forgive you," I said. "I know that you guys wouldn't have taken me with you if you thought I would get hurt. And Baba got shot because of my carelessness. I'm really sorry, too. We should probably just call it even."
"I really don't think you were being careless, Olivia," Baba said, his eyes very serious. "And from what I've heard from the people who saw you, you were pretty beat up yourself. We've all been very worried about you. Especially since the one taking care of you was Eisuke."
I gave a little laugh and said, "Well, I'm going to be taking self-defense and karate and shooting classes. I'm going to be prepared if something like this ever happens again."
"You get fun stuff and we get Sensitivity Training," Ota said grumpily.
"Sensitivity Training?" I asked.
"Yeah," Baba said, looking sharply at Ota. "Eisuke thinks we need to learn to respect women more. Which I already try to do, so the classes aren't so hard for me. Ota on the other hand…"
"It wouldn't be so bad if Ran Nitta wasn't some kind of feminist nazi," Ota complained. "I used to fuck a woman who worked in the auctions and she was involved in a skirmish and got some counseling from Ran afterwards. I know she has to have told Ran stuff about me. That woman looks at me like I'm a bug that she wants to step on and keeps implying that I need intense therapy sessions."
I blinked at Ota in surprise. What in the world was he hiding?
"I don't think Ran really wants to give you therapy," Baba said. "Then she'd have to listen to you talk about yourself for hours. No one wants that."

Later that night when Eisuke led me upstairs, I was surprised to find that the second floor living room had also been completely redecorated. "Did the shooter come up here, too?" I asked.
"No," Eisuke explained. "If they were doing the first floor, they might was well do the second floor, too. And there was too much white furniture. Since your cat's going to be getting orange fur everywhere, that had to be taken care of."
I shot him a warning glace for talking bad about Kaki and he answered me with a smirk. I was laughing when we walked through the door to our bedroom. It had also been redone.
"Oh, I like this," I said, spinning in a circle and checking out the room. The walls had been painted a soft gray and the spread on the bed was a matching gray with a dark vine motif.
Eisuke went over to the bed and flicked the spread down to reveal lavender sheets. "I know you like purple," he said.
"How did you know?" I asked. I didn't remember ever talking to him about colors.
"Every time you wore one of my shirts, you always took a purple one," he said.
I narrowed my eyes at him. The room had been decorated to look like one of his suits, it was way too narcissistic. "You were never around when I wore your shirts. How-"
I stopped as he smirked down at me and shook my head. People had reported that I'd worn his shirts a couple of times and gave so much detail that he even knew the color? It was crazy and I knew that I would have to just get used to it. It wasn't going to stop.
I kicked off my shoes, pulled my dress over my head and climbed into the bed. "Come and fuck me," I said. "I'm going to feel like I'm completely surrounded by you."

Eisuke's Mental Notes 8/18/2018:

...We have returned to Tokyo. Olivia will stay...