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WARNING: This chapter contains a few limes. ^_^ If you don't like those, well, you shouldn't be reading a story rated M. Enjoy.
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An intercom went off at Eriol's desk, "Sir, there's a woman who says her name is Claire Reed here to see you."
Eriol looked up from his studying at that name, "Send her in."
"Yes sir."
The young man unlocked a drawer and put the papers he had been scrutinizing in it, and then made sure it locked back. Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, he prepared for a woman he had not been reminded of in centuries, 'Could she be the reason for all that's going on right now?' He had been doing some family research, the documents he had been studying were originals, and he had seen, magiked off the page, that name. However, hearing that name made it all the more real, and for once, Eriol was not sure what to do about it. He could not summon up a reason as to why the name was so dangerous to him.
When the door opened, his eyes widened at the woman in the door. She bore a pair of eyes shaped in a way that confirmed the things he was beginning to fear, "Hello Reed-san, how may I be of service to you?" He asked politely.
"Cut the bull-shit, Clow," She replied coolly in English, "I know that you know exactly who I am." She walked towards his desk, her hips swaying underneath the silk of her skirt, clinging in the right places, "Could it be that you are still in denial about the situation?"
Swallowing, without breaking eye contact, Eriol watched as she came around the corner and leaned close to him, "I go by Hiiragizawa in this time, Claire. I no longer practice magic, I am a business man."
Her black eyes bored down into his bright blue ones, "Hiiragizawa you say, I think I like your first name better, Eriol?" She cocked her head to the side, "It has a nice ring to it. My current name is Evelyn. And I highly doubt that you no longer practice magic. I can sense its aura around you. It is just as powerful as it was in our first lives." A trickle of sweat rolled down Eriol's temple to his cheek. He could not ignore the proximity of the view of the woman's cleavage, despite the fact that he could not remember exactly what had happened in the past; he definitely had memories of their more risqué encounters. He swallowed again, and came out of his trance.
"What is it that you want?" He asked. Evelyn leaned even closer to him, resting a hand near his lower extremities, and whispered in his ear, "Revenge for something past." She nipped his earlobe, and applied pressure to his groin, "I'm sure you will remember why, I've been looking for you for so many years."
He was stuck. Eriol wanted to move, but knew that if he did, it would give away the fact that Evelyn's administrations were having an effect on him, 'On second thought, she probably already knows that…' He thought ashamedly, 'But it feels amazing.' He almost let out a sigh on contentment when Evelyn began to move her hand up and down, and she moved her nips down his neck, towards his collarbone.
Abruptly, Evelyn stopped her administrations, stood up straight, and walked to the window, "You really do have a nice view." Turning, Eriol tried to keep his composure.
"What is it that you want revenge for?" He needed to get as much information out of her as he could. Eriol feared that if the English woman tried to continue what she had started, he wouldn't be able to control himself; it had been far too long since he had shared the company of a woman.
Smirking, the lady replied, "Just know that all the power contained within those cards is not all yours to begin with. And I intend to take it back, and then some. Those children are so naïve." She walked back to him, "And you should know better." Patting his cheek with a slender hand, she added, "You will come to understand my revenge in more ways than one."
She grasped his hair in one hand and pulled his glasses off with another, and kissed him firmly on the mouth. Eriol let out a sigh and allowed her entrance when she pried with her tongue. Evelyn's skirt hiked up as she went to straddle him, moving her hips ever so slightly. He did not understand why he was allowing himself to kiss her so fiercely. Eriol wrapped an arm around her waist, and set her on the desk in a swift movement. He cupped her full breast in one large hand, caressing it, the other reaching down, working his way around her panties. Evelyn moved from his lips back to his neck and bit him hard, but he didn't care, 'She feels so good against me.' He thought, feeling her wetness between his fingers. He started to fumble with the buttons of her blouse when he heard something shatter as it fell to the floor.
Glancing down momentarily, he saw the fuzzy outline of a picture frame, 'Tomoyo!' He froze his movements and pushed himself away from Evelyn, "Get out." A small smirk formed on her flushed lips, "We will be seeing each other again, Eriol. And perhaps next time, you will understand all of the reasons for my revenge. It is quite simple really." She fixed her skirt and checked her shirt, "Have a good day." She turned to leave, smoothing a stray hair, "And by the way, you might notice strange happenings with Sakura's magic. If you want to figure it out, come to me." And despite the fact that he was furious with himself for allowing things to go that far, he could not help staring at her swaying hips on the way out.
As soon as she exited he raced to the door, locked it and stared down at himself, "God damnit!" He shouted at his excited member, as if talking to it would help, "You stupid, stupid idiot."
Finding his glasses on the desk, he placed them back on, and then reached for the picture frame on the ground. The glass was shattered, but other than that, nothing was harmed, "Tomoyo, what do I do? You no longer live on this earth, so I don't expect you to expect me to be celibate the rest of my life… but I know that you'd be pissed with this situation." Standing the picture back where it belonged, he leaned back in his chair, "She's the fucking enemy! Now I need to figure out why." The fact that she knew who Sakura was did not even occur to him in his foggy thoughts.
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Evelyn was quite happy with her new plan. The encounter with Eriol had been quite a success. She had not expected things to go quite that far with the man, but nonetheless, she had aroused his curiosity, and then some, "That man will come begging for more information." The plan was simple in her head, get Eriol to try to find out things from her, tell a few white lies, have him fall for her, then break his heart and leave him crying in the rain. All at the same time, this would allow her to find out Xiao Lang and Sakura's weaknesses, and at the right moment, steal back her magic, and then kill the girl, leaving Xiao Lang to a broken heart as well, never to be happy again.
The woman's only worry was that Sakura would figure out how to control the most powerful magic before Evelyn could get it back, but patience had served her well up until now, and would serve her a bit longer.
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Sakura was in a world filled with flower petals. They continued to fall all around her like snow, and a never ending stream. She spun around and round, a smile on her face, "Oh, it feels so nice here. I never want to leave."
"Wake up," She heard the flowers say.
Shaking her head, she replied, "No, I don't want to." Suddenly the petals began to shake her, "Come on Kinomoto, time to get up."
Opening her green eyes, she stared up into Xiao Lang's, "Oh, it's you." She firmly shut her eyes again, trying to go back to her peaceful flower petal world.
"No. We need to leave now. Call your assistant and let her know that you made it to Tomoeda. I'll get your bags in the car."
Confused, Sakura replied, "And why are we leaving? We just got here!?"
The young man sighed in annoyance, "Damnit Kinomoto, can you please just do what I say? I'm trying to keep us alive here."
His words seemed to click in her head, "I can take care of dangerous magic!"
"That's not what I meant. Just go get a decent shirt on, get in the car and make the call!" He was nearly shouting, giving her a death glare. The tattoo on his arm rippling as his muscles flexed in restraint.
Sakura realized suddenly that he must mean that the danger involved Yakuza business. Nodding, she ran quickly up the stairs to rummage through her old closet for something, with him shouting at her to not pop her stitches. Earlier she had thrown on a loose button down to replace the bloody remnants of her clothes, but it was a large shirt and was not something to be worn in public. The girl blushed in realization that Li had seen her pretty much naked twice in one day.
Finally finding something, she pulled on the pair of jeans, moving carefully, and a loose T-shirt. Not willing to risk the wrath of Xiao Lang, she went down the stairs as quickly as possible, slipped her shoes on and then spotted the new vehicle in the driveway. It was a simple sedan, with dark tint. Sliding into the passenger side, she noticed her small handbag on top of the middle console.
Pulling out her cell phone, she flipped it open and saw that there were several missed calls. Three from Kasumi, one from her brother, and another was unknown. Immediately, Sakura called Kasumi, thinking that the most important. The phone rang once and the voice of her faithful assistant met her ear, despite the late hour, "What the hell is going on Sakura-chan?!"
She waited a moment as Kasumi went on and on about how worried she was and that she didn't know what had happened to her. After a minute, Kasumi finally stopped talking, and Sakura said, "Well, do you feel better now that you have that out of your system, Mi-chan?"
"Don't ever scare me like that again Sakura! Now what happened?"
Sakura decided to give Kasumi a very short, safe version of the story, "Well, I was so scared when guns went off. The man in the elevator decided that since it was him being the reason I was shot at, he sent me to the airport and on a ride home. I'm safe and sound. He's connected to the government so he made sure I am to remain safe."
"How do you know he is really with the government?"
"He has the I.D. Mi-chan. Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm just laying low for a bit. I went ahead and came to Tomoeda to relax for a few days, 'kay? You finish things up on your side of the country, promise?"
Kasumi sounded reluctant, but agreed to what Sakura requested. Then Sakura decided to steer the conversation to something that would make Kasumi feel safer about Xiao Lang, "He's very handsome, you know, and very kind. He did pay for my plane ticket home."
"Does someone have a crush?" The two girls chatted a moment, and then Sakura finally hung up. She wanted to puke. She may have loved Xiao Lang as a child, but remembering the more annoying sides of his adult personality, she had hated every moment of sucking up to Kasumi with sappy romantic talk.
She saw Xiao Lang make his way towards the car a moment later, as she finished an email message to her brother, and shut her phone. The man lowered himself into the car swiftly and turned the key in the ignition, "Did you lock the door?" Sakura inquired.
"Of course," He replied, "Did you call the assistant?"
"Of course," Sakura mocked, "And I had to make her think that you worked for the government and that I liked you to get her to stop worrying." Leaning back to a more comfortable position, she shut her eyes, "Where are we going anyway?"
"Don't worry about it." He replied back, "And you had to pretend you like me?"
Snapping back, Sakura said, "Don't be so full of yourself. I may have liked you when I was a kid, but I don't like you very much now."
Xiao Lang kept his mouth shut, but his thoughts were churning, 'This could be a bit more fun than originally intended.' He smirked and then pulled out of the driveway. The ride wasn't going to be all that long. They were headed out to one of the safe houses that he owned personally. Only those he most trusted knew of the place. He did not have time to deal with Kuma directly at the moment, and he decided that falling off the planet for a few days until he could figure things out might be for the best. It would give the girl some time to heal, and him some time to work on his memories. And in the mean time, try to see how much he could annoy her.
Inside, he had called one of his men and told them to try and cut a deal with Kuma. Xiao Lang doubted that money would satisfy the man's blood lust, but it would perhaps buy the two some time to be absent without suspicion on his part. Glancing to the left, he noticed the girl was asleep again. The clock said one in the morning, and he didn't doubt that she was exhausted. He was exhausted, and there was still an hour drive left at least. Focusing on the road, he let his mind churn over the videos he had watched for the past few hours.
Sakura was in each and every one of them, dressed up in an elaborate outfit, capturing a card. The later the date, the more often he had appeared. Xiao Lang almost couldn't believe that it was him, but there was no doubt about it. The boy in the movies was him. All he needed to know now was why the family had done so much to hide the magic away, and keep anyone from finding out what had happened, 'Damnit mother, what the hell did you do this for?'
oOoOo
The sound of loud humming and a vibration shook Sakura out of her sleep, adrenalin pumping, "What the hell!? Li!" She reached over and turned the steering wheel so that the car was back in its lane.
"I'm fine," He stated calmly, "We're almost there."
Looking at him, she glared, "You are not okay. That could have killed us. Pull over."
"No."
"I said pull over."
"Kinomoto, I'm fine."
"Just do it!" Amber eyes glared over at her, and he spotted the turn off he was looking for on the side of the road. Pulling the car off of the main road, he put it in park and turned to glare at her some more.
"Happy? I stopped the car."
"I'm driving the rest of the way, and you will give me directions. I'll be damned if I survive a magical attack and then get killed thanks to my driver sleeping at the wheel," He looked at her about to say something, but was cut off, "And what the hell? Why don't you have someone driving us like you've had all day? Especially since you're tired!"
"Are you finished?" He asked calmly. Sakura looked up at him, and did not say anything, "Well I'm glad to let you drive the last two kilometers down this driveway to the house. And I drove because I don't want anyone to know where I am for the next two days or so."
"Well doesn't that sound creepy. How do I know you don't plan to rape me?"
More annoyed now than anything else, Xiao Lang said, "If I had wanted to rape you I could have done that multiple times today, you might remember." Sakura's face flushed bright red at the memory of waking up naked next to him, "This is for safety's sake. You forget I am at the top in the Yakuza world. It's not the magic I'm worried about at the moment."
"Are you saying you're trying to protect me from your opposing goonies?"
Looking at the girl, the way she was sitting against the corner created by the door and the seat, made her look tiny, and vulnerable. Impulsively, Xiao Lang reached a hand out, and reached behind her neck, forcing her forward, "Would that make you angry?"
Emerald eyes gazed up at him, and her brows narrowed, "I don't know, I haven't decided yet." She snapped. Before she could pull away, however, warm lips crushed onto hers. Sakura froze, not knowing how she should react to him kissing her. He grasped locks of hair betwixt his fingers, and pulled her closer to him. Shock fading away, Sakura began to kiss back, hesitantly. A light touch here, a light one there. Her eyes closed, as she began to pay attention to the feel of his lips upon her own. They were soft, yet harsh.
Xiao Lang deepened the kiss when he noticed her no longer resisting, and took in her sweet taste, thoroughly enjoying himself. Sakura's fingers began to tentatively touch his still bare chest. Her thumb unintentionally ran over one of his nipples, resulting in a sharp intake of breath. Immediately, she removed her hand from his chest, but a strong hand grasped her wrist, "Don't stop," He managed to breathe, and then continued his kisses. She ran her fingers across his abdomen now, feeling the hard muscles that were underneath the thin layer of skin.
A wandering hand from Xiao Lang brushed up against her wound, causing Sakura to flinch back in pain. Pulling back immediately, he put the car in gear and hit the gas. He was breathing heavily, as was she, and they drove up the rest of the drive in silence.
The car pulled up to the silhouette of a fairly small house, and as the two got out, Sakura finally spoke, "I've decided. It would make me angry."
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Well everyone, hi! I'm not dead. What crazy days these are what with earthquakes in Haiti and Chicago, freaky winter weather in the South, and crazies crashing planes into IRS buildings 30 minutes north of me. Geez! I'm really sorry it has taken me so long to update. School, work, and design commissions = very time consuming. And I'm also starting a complete edit of Butterfly Kisses. I wrote that back in high school and would like to work out some kinks in the plot and character development. So if you're interested, the original version is still online, so please go check it out on my page!
Now, how about some lime here?? If anyone can give me their thoughts I'd really appreciate it. There's a bit more plot development in this chapter. What has Evelyn got up her sleeve? And will Xiao Lang survive the isolation with an angry Sakura? And when will magic pop up next? Well, next chapter I think will be headed into a more constructive development in plot, as well as Sakura and Xiao Lang's relationship. Oh, and don't kill me for Eriol getting it on with Evelyn.
Please review and give me your thoughts everyone! Your support is greatly appreciated!! Love you guys.
-Hotaru