Three Hard Lessons (21 page)

“You want to see them?” I gave a small laugh. “Of course, because you like checking inventory.”

“I like looking at your sexy-ass body, is what I like doing.”

It was silly to attempt a fashion show. I only modeled one before he pulled the strings loose and we sank to the living room floor. I’d become an expert at getting him out of his suit.

Saturday morning I Skyped with Evie while Dominic slept. She stared at me like I had two heads.

“Boyfriend,” she repeated.

“Yeah.”

She blinked and looked like she was evaluating me to see if I were an imposter. “Okay. So, what happens whenever you get back here? I mean, you’re coming back, right?”

Was she crazy? “Yeah, I’m coming back.” I couldn’t live in Japan. It was a nice place to visit and all, but Dominic was right. People all around and yet it was isolating. I didn’t think I’d ever feel like I belonged here. I’d mentioned that to Dominic yesterday and he shot me a strange look, maybe an
‘I told you so.
’ “I don’t know what happens. We don’t, like, talk about it.”

“You’re going to have to, eventually.”

“I know,” I said, annoyed.

“Hey.” Her body straightened in her chair. “I got a weird call yesterday from Joseph.”

Ugh.
I’d deleted the few voicemails he’d left me, without listening to them. He’d always call when I was asleep, probably unaware I was on the other side of the earth.

“What’d he want?”

“He asked if I knew where you were. He said he really needs to talk to you.”

Forget it. That part of my life was in the rearview. “What did you tell him?”

“That you were out of town. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’m sure he wants to see if I’ll come back to the club.”

She shot me a sly smile. “Don’t think the
boyfriend
would like that.”

I snorted. “No, he wouldn’t.”

If last weekend went fast, this weekend went at warp speed. I blinked and it was Monday. I blinked again, and it was Tuesday. Every morning was one day closer to leaving, and I started to panic. I was in bad shape as he got ready Wednesday morning to go to work. I sat in his bed and stared blankly at the generic art on the wall. What was I going home to on Friday? What was I leaving here?

“Are you okay?” he asked, cinching the tie at his neck. It probably freaked him out that I was sitting like a statue.

“I’m thinking about how it’s going to work.”

“What?”

We needed to have the conversation. It’d been put off long enough. “After I leave on Friday.”

His hands froze. He turned slowly, his expression unreadable. “How do you want it to work?”

Hearing his voice unstable gave me a sinking, sick feeling. “I don’t know. How do you want it to work?” It was immature to throw the ball right back in his court when I was the one who initiated it, but fuck it. I was suddenly terrified.

His chest expanded as he sucked in a large breath. “How do I want it? You stay through New Year’s. That’s how I want it.”

My eyes went so large, my eyeballs almost fell out of my head. “Are you crazy? That’s another two weeks.”

“Yeah.” He ran a hand through his hair and approached the bed, hesitant. “I looked at pushing your ticket back another week and the flights between Christmas and New Year’s are like double the price.”

I swallowed, even though my mouth was dry. Two more weeks. A total of five weeks with him. Holy shit.

“If you only want to stay another week, I’ll pay it. It’s worth it for another week with you. But, can I be honest?” He sank down on the bed to sit beside me, his face only inches away. “I already know I’ll ask for another week by the end of it.”

“Dominic, I can’t.”

“Why? Because you want to spend the holidays with your family that you don’t even like talking about?” He said it softly, not accusing. “Wouldn’t you rather spend it with me?”

Hell yeah, but . . . “My apartment. My car.”

“You can’t pay your rent online? Logan could put your car in my parking space, my place has two spots.”

Logan driving my Jag? I scowled. I’d let him fuck me, but wasn’t sure if I trusted him to drive my baby. How messed up was that? Dominic’s hands cupped my face, not allowing me to look anywhere but into those piercing eyes.

“I know I wasn’t supposed to,” he said on a low voice, “but I got attached. I think I was already, when you told me it wasn’t allowed.”

“Just another one of my rules you ignored.” I don’t know who I was annoyed at. I was just as attached as he was.

“When are you going to learn that lesson?” There was a hint of humor in his voice, maybe an attempt to mask the anxiety beneath.

“What lesson?”

“I don’t like boundaries. And definitely not ten thousand boundaries between us.”

There was a stab of pain in my chest. “I don’t want to leave,” I admitted, “but I can’t stay here.”

“I know. Just through the holidays. It’s my first Christmas away from home and I know it’s going to be rough.” His expression changed to one like he was in pain. “But it’ll be impossible without you.”

The hands on the sides of my face were firm when I tried to look away. His face was haunting. Agreeing to this was most definitely going to blow up, but I ignored the nagging voice. I wanted this.

“Fine. Two more weeks.” Even though I hadn’t moved, I was out of breath. It came out shaky when it was supposed to be stern. “Because I still haven’t seen the Imperial Palace.”

His laugh was deep and shook the bed. Then, his kiss leveled me.

Dominic took two steps into the apartment and paused.

“I got a Christmas tree,” I said.

“I can see that.”

His gaze was fixed on the cheap bonsai tree I’d bought at one of tourist shops nearby, and had decorated with white Christmas lights. It was sort of a joke, but sort of not. I could deal with Dominic needing to work on Christmas day since it wasn’t a holiday here, but I couldn’t pretend Christmas didn’t exist at all.

“I like it.” His lips curled back in a smile. “If I stick your presents under there, are you going to peek?”

“Presents? Plural?” I’d only gotten him one thing. “Maybe you should give me some ideas of what you want so you can have plural gifts, too.”

“Payton,” he laughed. “You already gave me what I wanted, you don’t need to get me anything.”

“Bullshit. Ideas, now.”

He smirked. “Another week?”

“No. What else?”

He pulled off his suit jacket and slipped it on the back of one of the dining chairs, leaning forward with his hands on it, as if deep in thought. “Sorry, I got nothing.” He snapped upright abruptly. “And I can prove it.” A hand disappeared into his interior pocket and pulled out an envelope, extending it to me.

“What’s this?” The letter inside was all in Japanese, except for the handwritten word in the bottom corner. “Negative.” There was a signature beneath it.

Warm color rose in Dominic’s cheeks. “I had a physical the other day. I know you can’t read that, so I had the doctor write my test results in English.”

“Clean bill of health?” I played dumb. “Good for you.”

“Don’t pretend like you have no idea where I’m going with this.”

I grinned. One night after he’d fucked my brains out, the condom had broken and I’d calmed him by telling him I got the birth control shot once every three months, so we were safe. And he knew I was clean because the club posted the date of our last monthly STD test on the bottom of our willing list.

I set the letter down and my hands worked the knot of his tie loose. “You want to be inside this pussy with nothing between us?”

He exhaled loudly. “God, yes. Are you cool with that?”

A shiver flashed down my spine. “Oh, yeah.”

Lips traced over my neck while one of his hands cupped my ass. “And the green light on that is when?”

I’d gotten my period a few days ago, and wasn’t into that kind of messy sex. It’d been blow jobs and above the waist stuff for us since. “We should be fine tomorrow. Christmas Eve.”

“That reminds me. You want to do presents before I go to work on Christmas day or are you okay to wait until after?”

“I think we’ll be rushed in the morning. Let’s just do it after.”

His hands held me to his hard, firm body, where I was beginning to feel like I fit perfectly.

“Works for me. Do you have a job that day?”

I’d gotten called up for another photo shoot. The second time it had been bras. The third was thigh-high stockings. I had been paid in cash each time, which was nice since I didn’t have a work visa, and I’d used the money to buy Dominic’s Christmas present.

The nicest, most elegant watch I could afford. I’d found his watch with a broken link soon after I arrived and offered to drop it off for repair, but he said it was too cheap to fix. So I’d spent every last bit of yen I’d made. If honest, I was excited about this. Every time he looked at this watch, hopefully he’d think of me and our time together.

We sat on the floor of his living room with the overhead light off, so only the twinkling bonsai tree lit the room. Our opened presents were spread around us, along with the ripped Japanese newspaper we’d both used to wrap each other’s gifts.

My first gift I opened had been
Airplane
on DVD. The second gift was a 1:16 replica toy car. My Jaguar F-Type.

“I know you’ve been missing it,” he said.

“I like that you’re cool with my unhealthy obsession with it.”

“I think
I
have an unhealthy obsession with it.”

The next gift came in a small box, and my trepidation grew when I realized there was definitely going to be jewelry inside. It was a thin silver chain necklace, the tiny pendant was a silver origami crane.

“Is that cheesy?” he asked.

“No,” I said. “It’s beautiful.”

Around Dominic was the necktie I’d bought him– a sapphire blue striped one to match his gorgeous eyes. Then, the school-girl uniform he’d been eying in that sex shop so many weeks ago. He was definitely excited about that. And he was already wearing the watch I’d given him. Which, holy shit, was sexy.

“I’ve got one more for you,” he said, pushing the box toward me.

I peeled back the paper and opened the shoebox. Only there weren’t shoes inside. It was that black blindfold I’d bought.

“That,” he said, his breathing rushed, “comes with more.”

I pulled the blindfold out and looked at him, still puzzled. “More?”

“Yeah. Like, the safe word kind of more.”

chapter

EIGHTEEN

Dominic led me to the bedroom and yanked the covers off the bed, then turned his attention firmly on me.

“You still want this?” he asked. “Because I’m planning to go into that new territory tonight.”

I got wet just at the idea of it. He’d
planned
this. I could hardly contain myself. “Oh, I fucking want this. What are we—”

He pulled me into a kiss, rough and uncompromising. His tongue possessed my mouth and seized command. And as quickly as he’d taken my mouth with his, he drew away.