Three Hard Lessons (18 page)

“You,” he said, rising to his feet and towering over me, “have no idea how insane it makes me listening to that. I’m going to be hearing that scream in my head the rest of the day.”

I set a hand in the center of his chest, although I didn’t know why. I liked touching him. Then his lips collided with mine. Touching was nice and all, but I liked kissing him better.

It became a morning ritual. The alarm clock would sound, and strong but gentle arms pulled me to the shower. I was more than willing.

I was fucking addicted.

By the time the weekend hit, I was in big trouble. I’d been so worried about him getting attached that I was too blind to see what was really going on.
I’d
been the one to do it. Me.

We’d fallen into a comfortable schedule. He’d go to work and I’d go out and explore the city, armed with my English train map. First, I did temples, gazing at the tiered towers and taking tours to learn about the fascinating history. Then, it was lush gardens full of delicate trees and meticulously groomed landscaping. Dominic brought dinner home late after work some nights, and other times we’d go out.

There was a gym in the basement of the apartment building, and on Friday evening we worked out together. Well, it consisted of me running on a treadmill and him lifting weights, but I sure enjoyed the show. I didn’t need the treadmill to get my heartrate up. And once we were done downstairs, he gave me a thorough workout upstairs, too.

Couch sex, check.

Saturday morning I rolled out of bed and padded out into the living room, wearing my tank top and boxer shorts, my hair disheveled from the sexcapades the night before, but it wasn’t a big deal. I was hoping to Skype with Evie, and she’d certainly seen me in a greater state of undress.

I glared at Dominic’s laptop on the bookshelf.

He’d tripped over my power cord two days ago and bent the jack so my laptop wouldn’t charge. The replacement cord he’d bought was supposed to arrive on Tuesday, and he insisted I use his laptop in the meantime.

“Don’t judge me for the enormous amount of porn on there,” he’d said, his face coloring red. “That how I survived here.”

I wanted to remind him who he was talking to, but didn’t. God, he was so adorable when he was embarrassed.

I opened the silver MacBook and launched Skype, not paying any attention to it as I checked my email. So when it rang with an incoming call, I didn’t realize I’d clicked ‘Accept’ until I’d already done it.

The box expanded to fill the screen and a brunette, seated on a couch with a glass of wine in one hand, came into view. She was pretty but kind of wholesome looking, like she had that cute librarian thing going on. Probably ten years older than me.

I felt my eyes grow large as she peered at the screen, stunned to see me seated on the other side of the camera and not her younger brother Dominic.

“Hello,” she said, sounding curious. “Who are you?”

Shit! It was too late to slam the computer shut, she’d already seen me.

“Uh, hi. I’m . . . a friend of Dominic’s. Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

She leaned forward to her screen like she was taking a closer look at me. A faint smile curled on her lips. “You’re American? And pretty. Where the heck did he find you?”

“Naked in a blindfold club”
wasn’t going to work, so I skewed the truth. “I’m on a long vacation in Tokyo.” I had to find something to distract. “You’re Meredith?”

Oh, that was the wrong thing to say. Her faint smile got wider. Yes, I knew his sisters’ names. And the smile she gave me now was identical to the one I often got from the man in the room next door.

“How long have you two been together?”

Together? Like a couple? “We’re not dating.”

She blinked her skeptical eyes at me, probably staring at my bedhead and my braless tits beneath my tank top. “It’s, what, eight-thirty in the morning there?”

She had a point, but I didn’t care for her passive-aggressive statement. “And? Just because I fuck him doesn’t automatically make him my boyfriend.”

Shit.
Why couldn’t I keep my stupid mouth shut?

She gasped and frowned. “I can think of one thing it makes
you
.”

My annoyance with the bitch went from zero to sixty in much less than four seconds. “Yup, you’re right, that’s what I am.” I reached forward to slam the computer closed—

“Wait, wait! Crap, sorry.” Her scowl intensified, but I could tell it was at herself. “It’s none of my business. Please, I’m sorry.”

I drew back my hand and shot her a dark look.

“I’m glad he’s . . . made a friend,” Meredith said. This was free from judgment and my heart rate ticked down a notch. “You know my name. What’s yours?”

I wanted off this call as soon as possible. I didn’t want her to ask whatever her next question was going to be. “Payton.”

“Where are you from?”

Ugh.
“Chicago.”

Meredith’s pretty eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, wow, small world. Dom’s got a place in Chicago.”

I swallowed hard.
Dom.
The flashback to our first night together was unavoidable. “Yeah, I think he mentioned that. Hey, he’s still asleep, so I’m—”

“What do you do?” She took a sip of her wine and set it down on the desk. When I didn’t answer immediately, she blinked and tilted her head to the side. “Oh, no. Don’t tell me you’re like a model or something.”

“Or something.” At least I didn’t have to lie to her.

“Damn it. His ego is already huge, and now he’s going to brag about dating a model.”

The laugh I gave was involuntary. “Not a model, and again, we’re not dating.”

I’d swear I could feel that penetrating gaze of hers all the way from across the Pacific. She was protective of her younger brother. We sat in silence, evaluating each other, for a long moment.

“Where the fuck’s my morning blowjob?” Dominic teased from the doorway, one hand buried beneath his boxers. He couldn’t see the computer screen, but he heard the sharp gasp come from the speaker.

“
Oh my god
, Dominic!” Horror splashed on his sister’s face.

“Meredith?” He snatched up a blanket off the couch and banded it around his waist, then thundered over to the laptop to confirm. He gave me a ‘WTF?’ look.

“She was trying to call you,” I said. “I didn’t mean to answer it.”

That look faded and was replaced with amusement. The couch jostled as he dropped down beside me, throwing an arm casually over the back. Around me.

“Seriously, I’d smack Mike if he talked to me like that,” Meredith said. It looked like she hadn’t quite recovered from the comment.

He brushed it off. “I see you’ve met Payton. What’s up?”

“Not much. Mom’s been guilting us all in to calling you more often, and I saw you were online.”

I climbed off the couch, pretending to want to give them privacy, but all I really wanted was to get the fuck away. Because I liked Dominic. I was exclusive to him. Living with him. Now I’d met some of his family. If that wasn’t the definition of an acting girlfriend, I didn’t know what was.

My shower was almost over when he came into the bathroom and stepped into the tub beside me.

“That was informative.” There was a sharp edge to his words. I turned to face him and was greeted with a scowl. “Not dating, huh? What the fuck are we doing then?”

I wished I hadn’t answered that call for the millionth time, and put my hands on my hips. “I told you, from the
very
beginning, I don’t do relationships.”

“Just like you don’t do conversation.” The aqua eyes flared with accusation. “Like you don’t do kissing.” His voice rose steadily as he closed the distance between us. “Like you don’t sleep beside me.”

“That’s all you. You ignored my rules!”

“Yeah, I did. And get ready, because I’m gonna ignore this one, too.” His jaw tightened and his eyes were pure and determined. “Go and put up your walls, Payton. They don’t stop me.”

They didn’t even slow him down.

His kiss was wild and ferocious. An assault that I couldn’t defend against, even as the panicked voice in my head urged me to. His touch lit me on fire. Made me come alive.

“This is more than just fucking,” he said, his kiss traveling lower. “I know you feel it. C’mon, tell me I’m wrong.” His challenge was issued at the base of my throat, his hands cradling my head.

I was unraveling like a pulled string on a sweater. If Dominic kept tugging, I was going to come apart completely. His kiss carved a path toward my lips but he pulled back at the last second. His expression was intense and inescapable. “Is this just fucking?”

There was no point in lying. My voice was breathy. “No. It’s more.”

He squeezed me to him so tightly I could barely breathe, and dragged me back under the stream of water while his kiss obliterated all thought except for one. I’d told him that night at the club I didn’t do relationships, but I’d also told him I don’t do love.

Was he going to disregard that rule, too?

chapter

SIXTEEN

My flight home was Friday afternoon, which meant I had three days left with him. Neither one of us mentioned it. We didn’t talk about if this
relationship
was going to continue with ten thousand miles between us, or how it was going to work if it did. Maybe he was like me, pushing away the things he didn’t want to deal with until he was out of time.

The weekend had gone faster than the elevator that took us to the top of the Skytree tower on Saturday, which gave us unbelievable views of the city. It had gone faster than the bullet train that took us the two hours to the base of Mount Fuji on Sunday. We’d done a tour and a gondola ride to the summit of the gorgeous, snowcapped volcano that was the icon of Japan.

Last night, it had been Kabukicho – Tokyo’s famous red light district. Nothing in common with Amsterdam’s red light district except for the lewd signage in a mixture of languages.

Neon. Neon
everything
. So many signs you didn’t know where to look, and you felt like you were on some futuristic porn movie set. This was where the love hotels were and the hostess bars Dominic had talked about. We gawked and grinned together at the perversion, and shrugged away from the barkers who tried to get us to come inside their bars. Shit, it was fun.

But tonight, we both wanted a break from all the Japanese.

“An American dinner,” I’d told him as he got ready for work. “That’s what you’re getting tonight, because I don’t know how to make anything else.”

There was a smug look on his face. “Cooking dinner for me? Such a good little housewife.”

“I’m going to rip your balls off if you ever say that again.”

His smile continued when he leaned down and kissed me goodbye.

My first thought was spaghetti. No. No noodles. Something fried and greasy. After I ran three miles on the treadmill in the basement, I went to the market and got everything I’d need to make fried chicken.

At six o’clock I’d successfully decimated his clean, tiny kitchen. But the test batch I cooked was awesome, and, holy shit, I was excited to get to do this. A normal, low-key dinner with Dominic, whom I sort of belonged to now.

My phone rang. Dominic. Why didn’t he just text me? Calls were outrageously expensive.

“Payton.” His voice was weird. “I’m on the train heading home, but I’ve got to turn around. The ship’s coming back to port with some instrument malfunction.”

My gaze dropped down to the mess of dishes and the sack of flour on the counter.

“I have to stay with the inventory,” he continued, “until the ship pulls back out again or I make the call to receive the inventory back into production.”

I didn’t want him to hear the disappointment in my voice. “How long are you going to be?”

“Hours. I’m sorry.”

I sat down at the dining table, feeling like I weighed five hundred pounds. “It’s not your fault.”