As The Season Changes
Chapter Three
The sun shone bright as a hot summer day, but still nice to be outside. As Keigo strolled beside Ai at the antique street fair one Sunday afternoon. She wore blue jeans that did marvelous things to her long legs and heart-shaped butt, a screaming orange blouse and a brightly patterned silk scarf. The outfit was so Ai. She hadn't worn the bold colors to attract attention, Keigo knew, although several men had turned to look at her. Ai loved bright colors. Happy colors she'd informed him, eying his tan slacks and pale-blue shirt with disfavor when he'd met her downtown earlier.
The streets were crowded and noisy. Not the kind of place he'd ever have chosen to spend a Sunday afternoon. And certainly not where he would have chosen to be with Ai. He wanted this woman to himself. Preferably in his big, black lacquered bed.
Ai paused beside a table laden with junk. She ran her hands over chipped cups and tarnished silver, all the while chatting comfortably with the vendor, an older woman with improbable red hair and a tired face.
An unexpected business trip had kept him out of the country and he hadn't seen her in over a week. And her face would come to mind at the most inappropriate of times. The more he thought of her, the more he was transported to a place and time where their easy companionship and camaraderie was as natural as breathing.
It annoyed the hell out of him. Nothing good ever came from wallowing in the past. It was no use wondering what would have happened, what could have been. He'd focus on the now. On the woman she has become. And on the feelings she elicits from him.
Keigo admired the way the sun tangled in Ai's dark hair, and the sweet curve of her cheek and mouth as she continued speaking with the old lady. She talked with her hands, too. Animated, alive, interested in strangers. He felt a pang he grudgingly admitted was jealousy.
He wanted her to himself. Yet each time he saw her he became more intrigued by her interaction with others. She put people at ease. The things that drew him to her were the same traits that drew other people. Ai's obvious joy for life, her enthusiasm, her sheer pleasure in everyday things. He glanced at the elderly lady's face as Ai asked about a particular item on the overcrowded table.
The woman was brought to life by Ai's animation, by her interest. It wouldn't have surprised him if she gave Ai anything she wanted from her table of wares.
"She expected you to bargain, you know." Keigo told her as they strolled away with Ai's purchase, a beaten-up, tarnished teapot for which she'd paid the asking price. A ridiculous amount for a piece of junk.
Ai cradled her purchase to her chest. "She's raising her two grandchildren. Oh, look at that!" She grabbed his hand, dragging him through the crowd.
Keigo looked at their clasped hands. Her skin pale and soft, her hand small. He liked the feel of it in his. He liked the joining. And he wanted her more than his next breath. Not just the wanting sexually. Although, God only knew, he urgently wanted her naked beneath him.
"What?" She glanced up to find him staring at her.
"Just remembering how you used to hold my hand." He liked the comfort of knowing that she hadn't lost her joy, her zest for life. Was gloriously, unabashedly alive. Keigo couldn't remember the last time or ever having that... zing, for want of a better word.
The milling crowd faded as Keigo bracketed her face between his hands and brought his mouth down on hers. Her lips felt smooth and soft. He eased his tongue into the warm wetness of her mouth. She tasted of the caramel corn she'd eaten earlier. He'd never cared for the flavor before, but, on Ai, the too sweet flavor tasted like ambrosia.
Keigo stroked down her back and held her lithe body against him in an agony of want. I've lost it. We're in the middle of the street for heaven's sake! Surrounded by hundreds of people—A magnitude-ten shudder traveled from his face to his groin when Ai used both hands to hold his head steady, then lightly stroked his cheeks with her thumbs as he kissed her. Her agile tongue played with his, darting and playing tag until Keigo felt weak and stupid with desire.
Once. That's all he'd need. One time in Ai's bed. One time in Ai. Surely to God that was all that was required to get her out of his system. Saotome Aiko was just to much hard work. He was used to picking up the phone and having his woman available immediately. With Ai he had to watch the ball and concern himself with much more.
Her tongue slipped from his mouth, and an ache of disappointment pressed against his chest. No. His arms tightened about her slender waist. But his Ai wasn't done with the kiss. She brushed her damp lips across his, once, twice, then nipped his lower lip between strong, white teeth, and all the while her soft hands stroked his face.
Keigo knew something had to give. They couldn't rekindle their lost friendship and still become lovers.
She was dangerous... lethal. Damn it, he didn't do commitment. He wanted her to be the same as the other woman he'd dated and slept with. He needed her to be just like them. He wouldn't have it any other way.
She finally pulled her mouth away. "We're going to be arrested if we don't stop."
Keigo looked at her through dazed eyes. "What?"
Ai smiled, her mouth blush-pink, damp and swollen from his kisses. Her unruly hair flew about in the warm breeze.
Keigo took a step back and stuffed his hands in the front pockets of his Armani slacks. "I don't do public displays of affection."
"Really?" Ai's chocolaty eyes danced. "I'll have to remember that the next time you grab me for a kiss in public."
Despite the risk, pursuing Ai held an indefinable, underlying attraction that had nothing to do with her slender body. Something about her made his heart go from zero to a hundred in seconds and he'd be damned if he knew why.
ATSC
Another dinner date. Keigo vowed he wouldn't see this woman anywhere dangerous. Like a street fair. Or a parking lot. Or standing beside her car outside the theater in broad daylight.
There was something wrong with him, Keigo knew. He was incapable of feeling true emotion. Oh, he could fool most people, and he was quite proud of his ability to project the illusion. But the reality was he didn't experience emotional highs or lows like other people. He had some sort of missing gene.
No, the failing was his and his alone. It just wasn't in him to have any depth of feeling. It wasn't a problem. He'd managed perfectly well without it for thirty-three years.
It was easier to move on and not linger when he had an affair. No one got hurt. He was upfront and always told the woman that he had no intention of getting involved. Hell, fact was, he couldn't get involved. It just wasn't in him. It was always her choice if she decided to stay or go. He never admitted he didn't have the emotional fortitude to sustain any kind of relationship.
Take it or leave it. This was who he was. The Glacier King.
Keigo had coldly analyzed his obsessive attraction to and fear of being with Ai. He didn't want her to get to close enough to see through him to his empty heart. He didn't want her to know that what she saw was merely the shell of a man going through the motions. Like Pinocchio, he wanted to be a real boy. Unfortunately, he had a wooden heart. If he had a heart at all.
Fortunately Ai would never know just how much he relished basking in her joie de vivre.
"Are you angry because I went to Paris without you?" he asked, reigning in his thoughts. She'd been quiet all evening.
"A." Ai broke the small loaf of sourdough bread and absently handed him a chunk. "I'm far too busy to go gallivanting off to Europe at the drop of a hat. B, I wouldn't have gone even if you'd asked me."
"Then why are you so annoyed?"
Her brown eyes were so dark they were almost black as she gave him a waspish glare. "You were gone for ten days."
Keigo bit back a satisfied smile. So she'd missed him? "Not a lifetime, surely?"
There was a pregnant silence when she said, "I hate playing games," and suddenly she looked frustratingly lost. Some of the heat left her eyes.
"You do it remarkably well," he told her.
She stared up at him, her eyes huge. "I won't sleep with you tonight."
"A. I haven't asked you to." He smiled coldly. "And B, when we're in bed, we won't be sleeping."
Ai made a low growling sound. "The reason I agreed to meet you tonight was to tell you to go to h—" She paused to look up as a family settled themselves noisily at the table next to them.
"You were saying?" Keigo ground out over the child's shrieks as it's mother stuffed its flailing legs into the high chair their waiter had pulled up. "Ai?"
She turned back, her expression dazed. "What?"
"You came here tonight to tell me to go to... ?" He knew damn well what the little shrew was going to say. He wanted to inform her he would go to hell after he had taken her to bed and made love to her until she couldn't remember her name, let alone give him so much aggravation.
"To tell you..." She looked at him blankly, glanced back at the fussy baby, then in a split second recovered herself. She smiled. Dear God, he had never seen anything more captivating than Ai's smile. "To tell you I missed you," she said huskily.
The waiter must have been trained to wait for the most inconvenient moment. He chose right then to deliver their entree, then fussed with salad and plates and refilled water glasses. Keigo sent him off with a glare.
He couldn't believe she admitted it so freely. Before he went to hell, before he was driven out of his mind, he was going to have to spend at least a week in bed with his infuriating woman. He didn't like this sensation of not being quite in control. She smiled a sweet, gentle smile before picking up her fork.
Keigo had never experienced anything like this in his life. Not when two people's desire for each other was so palpable. Saotome Aiko was just as turned on by him as he was with her. And still she held him off.
Half of him was annoyed by her reticence. The other half admired her restraint. When they did finally have sex he'd better alert the fire department.
He glided his fingers up her thigh. Ai shivered, then grabbed his hand and set it back on the table. For a split second, her eyes flashed. The child at the next table broke into a high-pitched babble capturing Ai's attention again for a moment. When she looked back at him she gave him a dulcet glance and picked up her water glass. Her cheeks were flushed.
She laid her napkin on her lap. A traction of a second later, her eyes met his, a warm, soft smile touched the corners of her lips. A jolt of pure desire sizzled through him.
His heartbeat sped up as he said gruffly, "I want you very much, Aiko darling, so if you don't stop looking at me like that—"
She laughed, that deep, throaty, sexy-as-hell laugh of hers. A couple of heads turned, people smiling reflexively with her. "Behave," she told him sternly.
It wasn't him that needed to behave. Her mouth, pale and free of lipstick, tempted him beyond endurance. Damn her. "Impossible. You wore that yellow dress expressly to make me crazy. It did its job. Now you have to pay up."
He leaned forward for a taste of her smile, slanting his mouth over hers briefly. He felt the quick, unexpected flick of her tongue. Perhaps he'd better place busy restaurants on his dangerous locations list. Electricity shot through him and he jerked away from her potency. After a quick glance his way and a raised eyebrow, Ai resumed eating.
Keigo enjoyed the delicate greed with which she consumed her meal. A silky strand of dark hair trailed down her shoulder. He was sorely tempted to pull out the rest of the pins and see how it would look tangled after their lovemaking. He grew harder just at the thought.
"Tell me about Paris," Ai demanded, leaning forward. "What you like about it. What you hate. What does the city smell like? Did you walk along the Seine in the rain? What's the food like?"
Keigo laughed at her outpouring of questions. So very Ai. Having her focus her entire attention on him was intoxicating. In the flickering candlelight, her skin looked translucent and incredibly soft. Her long, elegant legs were hidden beneath the table, but he could feel the erotic brush of her foot against his calf.
Once the honeymoon part of the relationship ended, he wouldn't have to invest as much time and energy into getting her into bed any time he wanted her. He didn't like wasting the time thinking about sleeping with her. He wanted to do it, and then go back to concentrating on Atobe Industries.
He bought failing businesses, put a competent manager in place, and when the business was once again in the black, sold it off. Much like not having the emotionality to bond with a woman, he didn't form attachments to the companies he purchased either. Everything about his life was controlled, planned and had a finite ending.
And ending of his own choosing.
It had been years since he had taken the time to slowly seduce a woman. It had been even longer since he had wanted a woman as much as he wanted Ai. In fact, when he thought about it, he couldn't recall ever wanting another woman as mush as he wanted Ai. Nor could he recall one who actually listened without trying to impress him—then again, Ai has always been a good listener and conversationalist—which might explain his excruciating patience.
And the fact that he was still around.
Over the past several weeks, and mostly during transpacific phone calls, he'd discovered they still had many things in common: old movies (they'd often spent afternoons viewing them in his theater); American and Old World literature (his personal library had been replete); French and Italian food.
And he'd also discovered she'd become a lot more adventurous. Keigo had no interest in skydiving, bungee jumping or spelunking. Ai's love of dangerous sports appalled him. Not sure why, but wanting to understand this complicated woman better, he brought the topic up again.
"I don't get the fascination," he finally said, after she'd told him about a recent rock-climbing excursion. Where there even places like that in Japan? "What is it about the danger that turns you on?"
"Everything." Her eyes looked mysteriously dark in the shimmering light. Her gaze skittered to the table next to them and back. The toddler was banging a spoon on the high chair tray.
"I suspect it's the same surge of adrenaline you get when you... when, you know, held the trophy after your victory at the Tennis National Championship. That heady rush that tells you you're alive. That feeling of power can't be duplicated. You feel invincible..."
As if you could achieve anything in the world. The unspoken words reverberated through his mind. Keigo felt the air rush out of him. That day felt like a century ago. That competition had been his last official game before his entire focus had shifted to his studies and then university and then to endless work. What amazed him was that she would use that as an analogy. Had she been there? Had she seen him battle to the end for that ultimate win? Knowing he'd never be able to pursue it as more than a hobby?
"Of course, tennis is a much more mild sport. Why don't you come with me the next time I go?" Ai gave him that mysteriously limpid look he couldn't fathom.
"Thanks," Keigo said dryly, thankful for the reprieve. Seems to him, he was developing a repetitive issue of thinking about past events whenever she was around. "But I'll stick with mild sports. At least I won't have any broken bones."
"Luckily, I haven't had any serious injury. Believe me, I'm not into physical pain. Just the rush."
"I don't like you doing anything that has the distinct possibility of leaving you dead or paralyzed." He didn't like the thought a lot, he thought scowling.
She viewed his concern with a strange expression in her dark eyes. Her lips curved in a poignant smile for a moment before she looked down at her lasagna, then back to meet his eyes. "I think this is the first time you've openly worried for me."
Keigo frowned. That couldn't be true.
She continued, as if reading his mind. "Usually you berate me, call me an idiot or something for wanting to do things that put me at risk."
"I doubted anyone, even myself, could stop you from doing what you wanted." His tone was dry.
Ai picked up her wineglass. "With the right incentive..." she toasted him "...you'd be surprised."
TBC...
