Happy Holidays Everyone! Thanks to everyone who reviewed and favorite'd!
As The Season Changes
Chapter Six
Ai wasn't used to answering to anyone. Especially someone who had sent her home at an ungodly hour the morning after with his stony-faced chauffeur, then called her the next day as if nothing earth-shattering had happened. Her car had been delivered back to it's usual parking spot by invisible pixies in the middle of the night.
Keigo had called to tell her he would be in New York for a few days. He'd left two messages on her answering machine while she'd been out working. She'd wanted to ask him if sex with her had been so bad he had to flee the country.
She hadn't wanted to enjoy his lovemaking quite that much. The intensity of climax with him had been almost terrifying, as was the depth of emotion she'd experienced. It had left her shattered and shaky and not quite as confident about her own control of the situation. She couldn't afford to form any sort of emotional attachment to Atobe Keigo.
She couldn't. Wouldn't. Must not.
She was there for one thing. And one thing only.
Ai was getting far more than she'd bargained for when she'd taunted the devil into making love to her.
She wanted to run far, far away.
Ai pulled her car into the narrow road leading up to her apartment complex. Her thoughts had been full of Keigo during the last hundred miles, now she single mindedly tried to concentrate on a hot, steamy bath.
It was midnight, and she was absolutely exhausted. She'd gone to see her friend, Karen who lives three hours outside the city of Tokyo. Leaving early enough to beat the commute traffic and arriving at her house just in time for breakfast.
After she and Karen had talked about the goings and comings since they last saw each other over a cup of coffee, the two women had wandered outside to see the show horses Karen and her husband bred. Their animals had won numerous competitions, they had a room specifically showcasing their trophies and ribbons.
The last time she'd been out here, Karen had put her up on a placid pony and she'd laughingly complained. She'd expected a nice, civilized ride this time, too. But Karen, knowing her preference for a challenge and acuity for danger sports, had put her up on Billy (a mustang). By the time she'd realized that she and the horse had completely different ideas, it was too late. She had the bruises to prove it.
She stepped out of the elevator when the doors to her floor dinged opened. Ai was surprised to find Keigo standing outside her door. He was steamed.
"Where the hell have you been?"
Ai unlocked the door but didn't push it open. "I beg your pardon?" She had a feeling he was going to be the last straw of her day. Keigo stretched over her, pushing the door ajar and following her inside where it was blessedly cool.
"You heard what I said." He started unbuttoning her jacket as soon as the door slammed shut behind them. "Why the hell are you wearing a jacket in this humidity?"
"Yes, but I didn't believe my ears," she said crossly, too tired to move. He was awfully quick with those buttons. The back of his fingers brushed her breasts and her nipples stood up to attention under the t-shirt. "Did you need me today?"
"What's wrong with..." he started, obviously perplexed by her waspish attitude. Until he saw the condition of her jeans and shirt as he drew off her jacket. His blue eyes narrowed. The jeans had been old to start with. They had merely attained an extra patina of real hard work this afternoon. The poor shirt was another matter. Ripped and mangled, it was going to be fed into the trash as soon as she had the energy to do it.
"Who did this to you?" Keigo demanded with deadly calm, carefully drawing the tattered shirt over hear head leaving her in only a bra. Ai couldn't hold back the wince as the sleeve pressed against her arm.
For the last several hours, on the drive home, Ai had fantasized about a long soak in a hot bath, not an interrogation. She looked up at his hard face, curious to see his reaction. "Billy," she said sadly.
"Billy?" Keigo repeated coldly as he paused in his perusal of her technicolor ribs and abdomen.
Ai sighed. "Bucking Billy. The cad. The horse," she emphasized, only because she was too tired to clobber him. "He has no idea how to show a lady a good—"
"Billy is a horse?"
Ai gave him a dirty look. It was weak, but still, she hoped, conveyed her feelings on the subject. "Didn't we make a verbal agreement the other night?"
"Yes," Keigo ground out.
"Well then, why would you think I'd be the first to break it?" You big jerk!
"Excuse me," he said stiffly. "I forgot your propensity for danger."
The most dangerous thing Ai could think of right now was their proximity to the kitchen with its myriad sharp instruments. She sighed again. Murdering him now would make life so complicated. Besides, she'd need energy for that. She heaved another put upon sigh.
Keigo gave her an odd look. "Have you seen a doctor?" He did both a visual and tactile search, his hands cool and unbelievably gentle as they skimmed her body. His eyes were hot and hard. "Do you need to see a doctor?"
"I'm fine the Mihama's called their personal doctor."
"Mihama? As in the breeders?" Keigo scowled, then incensed said. "They didn't bring their vet to check you did they? I'm taking you a real doctor."
"No and no." She wanted more than his impersonal fingers on her skin. Ai looked up at him. "I don't know the procedure here. What am I suppose to do when I want you to hold me? Do I have to wait for sex?" She saw his lips twitch. "Because, believe me, as much as I loved what we did on Saturday night, I have to tell you I don't think..."
"Oh, I think I can handle a little light touching without resorting to my basic animal instinct to throw you down and have my wicked way with you."
His touch was gentle as he wrapped his arms around her, but Ai had never felt anything as wonderful in her life. His firm lips brushed hers. Too lightly, too slowly.
Ai deepened the kiss herself. Her tongue explored his mouth, and he groaned, holding her more tightly. Ai moaned. In pain. He quickly let her go.
"I heal quickly," she promised.
"I know so, this isn't the first time I've seen you battered and bruised," Keigo said dryly as he carefully swung her up in his arms and headed for the stairs. Ai gave a muffled squeak as she went from vertical to horizontal. She'd never been carried anywhere in her life. It felt wonderful.
Ai rested her aching head against his chest. "I thought you'd lost interest," she said so quietly that when he didn't answer right away she thought he hadn't heard her.
"I left town before I was reduced to mauling you on the floor again."
"You didn't maul me." Ai was indignant. How like a man to take all the credit.
Keigo turned on the landing of her loft bedroom, heading for the bathroom. "If I'd known what you'd get up to while I was gone I'd have—"
Ai stiffened. "Yes?"
"I'd have said, be careful." He'd backtracked. Smart man. He put her on her feet, but still held her close to him.
He leaned over, turning the handles, the water gushed into the deep jet tub. "Damn. You're black and blue all over. Why can't you have a nice, quiet little hobby like... needlepoint?" He sighed.
"That doesn't say a whole heck of a lot about my charms," Ai said, imagining what her battered body must look like, yet too exhausted to move as he undressed her as if she were three years old. The bathroom rapidly tilled with steam. "The water's going to overflow."
"I'm not making love to a woman who can barely stand." He turned off the taps when the tub filled to the perfect depth. The man could be annoyingly precise.
"I could lie down," Ai offered. "The bath mat's soft and fluffy."
Keigo shook his head in amusement. "I'll take a rain check. Tell me about Bucking Billy. In."
She stuck a finger into the water. "Too hot." He turned on the cold. Ai stood there, letting him look at her naked, bruised, goose-bumpy body, thinking perhaps she'd fallen on her head. Because having Keigo look at her like this was more arousing than embarrassing.
"Unfortunately Billy had seen my likes before. He was no gentleman. I managed to stay on for three seconds. It felt like three years. He couldn't resist a challenge, either."
Keigo frowned. He was very close, and she noted how the steamy bathroom intensified the scent of his cologne. Her pulse started throbbing. She hoped he'd kiss her. She hoped she had the energy to pucker up when he did. The timing was still right, maybe she could work up the energy...
At some point he'd shut off the water. "Bucking Billy won." Ai wanted to enjoy the hot, steamy water, unfortunately, she was just too darn tired to move. She gave Keigo a pleading look, and he took her hand and assisted her into the tub.
"Ow-ow-ow," Ai wailed as hot water met abraded skin. She didn't feel the least like being brave tonight.
"Needlepoint," he said grimly, picking up the washcloth slung over the spout. Ai slid inch by inch under the water, and watched him froth the terry with peach-scented bubbles.
"Boooring."
Keigo ran the soapy cloth over her chest. She glanced down. Her hard nipples poked out of the water. She glanced up. Keigo had noticed. Would he do anything about it?
"Close your eyes."
Ai looked up at him. "Why?"
"I"m going to wash your face. Close, you stubborn woman."
Ai closed her eyes. The peach-scented cloth drifted across her cheeks, over her nose, climbed her forehead, then brushed down to her throat.
"Wait," he warned before she opened her eyes.
She briefly wondered how he knew she wanted to open her eyes. Ai kept her eyes closed. It felt nice this way. Warm water lapped at her skin as Keigo carefully rinsed her face. She didn't bother opening her eyes again.
She could feel each one of his strong fingers beneath the soapy terry cloth as he washed her throat, then slid down to sweep across her collarbones.
He swore, obviously coming across more contusions. "I hope they sent this nag to the glue factory."
Ai's lids weighed a million pounds each. She had throbbing parts and colored parts and scraped parts, and they were all telling her to shut down and sleep. "He's a nice horse."
"Yeah, right." His hand shifted to her nipples. Ah. Her nipples perked right up at the attention. Other body parts started coming to life, too. She shifted without opening her eyes, water lapped the edge of the tub. She didn't hear any water splashing the floor, so Keigo must've absorbed the overflow. Her lips twitched. "Are your pants wet?"
"Yes." He sounded amused.
Ai blinked her eyes open. He was very close. His pupils had dark violet around the edges. "You could get naked, and come in here with me." It sounded a lot more needy than she liked. "Never mind. I'm not up to any fun and games tonight anyway—oh, that feels great." The washcloth was gone and his slick bare hand was doing cleanup duty on her, apparently, very dirty nipples.
"Like that, do you?"
"Hmmm," she moaned. Her lax body slid farther down into the hot water. Keigo's steadying hand braced at the back of her head was the only thing preventing her from drowning. The fall from Billy, combined with the long drive back in the dark, had drained all her resources. She felt punch-drunk and silly and overwhelmingly glad Keigo was here with her.
"This is the third time I've been naked," Ai mumbled sleepily. Keigo chuckled as his soaping hands smoothed across her breasts and did an intoxicating slip and slide over her nipples.
"In your whole life?" He sounded way amused, she opened one eye.
"In your whole life." She yawned. "You've only seen me naked twice before. Mm, that feels wonderful." She murmured, as he scooped water over her skin. Runnels of hot soapy water tickled her breasts. There was something she'd wanted to tell him, but the steamy combination of the water and the unbearably gentle touch of Keigo's hands made her forget what it was. She'd wanted to say...
"I'm going to be seeing you naked a million more times, Ai," he promised. "Preferably without these." Underwater, his finger traced a bruise on her ribs. But then something she said clicked in his mind. "I take it I've seen you naked once before last Saturday?"
Upon not receiving an answer, Keigo stopped his movements and turned to face her. "Ai?"
She was asleep.
Keigo watched her face as he finished bathing her. He'd showered with women before. He'd bathed with women before. But they'd always been wide-awake and responsive. Washing Ai as she slept was a novelty. Her cheeks had pinked up from the steamy heat. Her ridiculously long, black lashes lay still and spiky on her damp cheeks. Her sweet mouth curved with a faint smile.
Keigo bent his head and brushed his mouth over hers. Her lips were moist and softer than anything he'd ever touched.
Her sweet breasts seemed to float on the water, the nipples soft and petal pink as her lips. He brushed a finger across one velvety nub. It tightened in response. "Damn it, Ai—"
Never before had he wanted a woman so much. So why did it feel so good simply to watch her sleep?
...
She looked her usual bright and perky self the next morning as she walked into the kitchen, haphazardly rolling up the sleeve of a man style lilac shirt she'd tucked into her shorts.
Her eyes widened when she saw him sitting at her kitchen table.
"Well, good morning," Ai said cheerfully, clearly surprised to see him. She was no more amazed than he'd been. He couldn't remember the last time he'd spent the night beside a woman, not making love. And despite three cups of coffee this morning, he was still trying to figure it out.
"Let me," he said standing up and crossing the room, just wanting to touch her. She extended her arm, and he brushed the sleeve down before neatly folding it up to her purple-bruised elbow. Ai's eyes twinkled as she extended her other arm. Her skin felt warm from her shower and she smelled of shampoo.
Keigo frowned. It wasn't man-style, it was a man's shirt. A far too familiar shirt. "Is this my shirt?"
She reddened. "Sort of...?"
He raised a questioning eyebrow at her. Silently allowing her to explain herself.
She sighed, but didn't avoid eye contact as she said, "I took it from your closet. As a memento, you know, when you were leaving to college and I wanted something of yours."
He touched the fabric, softened from regular usage. The color faded from washing multiple times. All these years she kept something of his so close to her. Keigo didn't know what to feel about that or didn't know how to feel. He cleared his throat and took a step back from her.
"How do you feel this morning?"
"Terrific."
"Terrific?" He traced her cheek with a stroke of his thumb. She smiled.
She'd put her damp hair up in a lopsided ponytail, which had dripped a damp spot on her shoulder. He noted her total lack of makeup. Any other woman would have rushed to the pots to cover the bruising. For just a second he contemplated Ai's clear skin and candid brown eyes. There was not a shred of artifice about this woman.
Even though they practically grew up in the same world. That glamorous, sparkling socialist faux world. How had she remained so down to earth?
"How can you feel anything but god-awful? You're black and blue and must hurt like hell." Keigo went to pour caffeine into a purple mug with a red ladybug on it, and handed it to her. She gingerly sat down, easing her body into the cushioned chair.
"Oh, this is good." Ai almost inhaled her coffee. "Of course it hurts. But I still feel terrific. The hurt is just a blip on the screen. I had so much fun yesterday, it was worth it." She splashed more caffeine into her mug, before she got up to hang on the open refrigerator door like a kid after school. "Want to share cold pizza?"
Keigo glanced at his Rolex. "It's 7:15 a.m."
Ai grinned over her shoulder. "And that means...?"
"Usually people eat cereal in the mornings."
"I eat cereal at night." Ai took out a large rather greasy box, sliding it onto the table between them. There was the one slice left. She looked up at him, her eyes dancing. "How do you feel about leftover spaghetti?"
He shook his head, then in an abrupt change of subject, he uttered. "I remembered, that time you went skinny dipping."
She squeaked, then cleared her throat to ask, "what brought that on?"
"Ahn? You were mumbling about it last night."
"Oh... right." She said slowly, then looked weirdly at him for a second, and her expression cleared and grinned. "You remember everything?"
He thought back to that summer night, both families were spending a long weekend away from the hot and humid city up in one of the Atobe's mountain cabins. Restless, and unable to sleep, Keigo gave in to the idea of a late night swim in the lake. It was a full moon, so there was ample light as he walked down the dirt path down to the water.
Apparently, he hadn't been the only one with the idea. She had been walking out of the lake onto shore, when he recognized her and immediately called out to reprimand her for her recklessness. Too late, did he become aware that she wasn't wearing anything but skin. What happened next came at no surprise. She shrieked at him, grabbed her stuff and stormed off. Goes without saying the rest of their weekend was spent avoiding eye contact.
Keigo hadn't been able to stop comparing the woman Ai was now to that girl she had been at fourteen. If anything his Ai had only become more daring. He trailed his eyes up and down her body. She visibly trembled and Keigo smirked.
TBC...
