Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Yuuma was determined to get an early start on the day’s work, but first he had to untangle himself from rumpled sheets and a clinging, deeply sleeping aristocrat.

His plans tended to go awry whenever Shuu slept over.

Yuuma yawned and stretched his arms towards the ceiling, taking in the morning light for a moment before he decided to husk off the blankets. He nudged Shuu back over to his own side of the bed while he ticked off the day’s to do list in his head. Thin out the gentians and the sweet peas, tie in the roses that were starting to ramble. Trim the lavender and take cuttings of the sage. Earth up potatoes. Asparagus should be ready to harvest. Thin out the spinach and lettuces. Weed the garlic. Stake out bamboo canes for the runner beans. Weeding, weeding, and more weeding. Hang moth traps in the apple trees. New fly traps in the greenhouse. Pitch straw around the strawberries. And don’t forget the netting. The birds would start getting his strawberries if he didn’t get them covered soon.

May was a slow month for the garden, but he managed to keep himself busy.

Shuu clung to him defiantly when he shifted his weight towards the edge of the bed.

“Mmmmm,” he mumbled into the blankets he’d collected around him during the night.

“It’s hard to get up with you laying on me like this.” Yuuma looked over at Shuu. The light was catching his hair. It looked soft like cornsilk.

“I know.”

“Let go.”

“Nope.”

Yuuma pried himself out from under Shuu’s leg and shoved off his arm. The bed creaked ominously under them when he threw his legs over the edge to sit up.

“Shit, must have bent the frame,” Yuuma mumbled, raking a hand through his hair.

“See, it isn’t safe. Stay put.”

Shuu and the sheets clung to him as he tried to get up.

“Some of us have things to do today. We don’t keep servants here that do everything for us.”

“Your room would stay neater if you did.”

“Are you calling me a slob? That’s rich,” Yuuma grumbled. It was true that his room was a bit of a wreck at the moment, but there were extenuating circumstances. They’d been a little hasty to get into bed the night before. Clothes lay in a trail from the door to the bed, Yuuma’s flannel and frayed denim mingling with Shuu’s cashmere sweater and tailored pants.

They’d somehow managed to flip the couch in his room onto its back. Shirts were closer to the bed, generally the last things that they peeled off when they got into it. The nightstand had been clipped as well, with the lamp and his jar of sugar cubes knocked down to the floor and foil condom wrappers scattered like leaves across the carpet.

Yuuma stepped around the sweaters pooled on the floor and decided he would deal with the mess later. He went to the window and snapped the drapes open, letting the light in. He smirked when Shuu predictably groaned his annoyance.

“You can let yourself out after you find your clothes. Unless you plan on staying over again.” Yuuma rolled his shoulders and stretched his head back and forth, popping his neck.

“Don’t I get breakfast?”

“I guess I have time to make coffee.” Yuuma looked back at Shuu, who had reclaimed all the blankets that were on the bed, plus another he didn’t remember, and rolled himself into a burrito of laziness.

“Ugh. No thank you. Your coffee is terrifying. Was that sock even clean?”

Yuuma instinctively prickled. He’d learned to make coffee around a vagrant’s campfire when he was young, stewing the grounds in a pot of simmering water and then straining it through a cloth. It had been a rare luxury in a lean year. “If you don’t like the way I make it, do it yourself! And yes, it was a clean sock!”

He’d never bothered to learn any other way to make it. That was probably the reason why Ruki never let him make the coffee after dinner unless one of the Sakamakis was over.

He glared back towards the bed, daring Shuu to say more, but he didn’t take the bait this time. His only response was another lazy yawn.

Yuuma sighed and strode back towards the bed. He lifted the mattress up by the edge to send Shuu sliding off in his cocoon of blankets.

“Augh! What was that for?”

Yuuma feigned innocence. “I’m just looking for my shirt. I thought it might be under here somewhere. You wouldn’t remember what you did with it, did you?”

“Couch.” Shuu grumped.

Yuuma made his way across to the couch and heaved it back to its proper upright position. He scanned the floor around it. Tossed the cushions aside. He only found Shuu’s silky boxers, which he flung back over his shoulder onto the bed.

“Nothing. You didn’t hide it did you?”

“Maybe you ate it in the throws of passion.”

Yuuma clenched his jaw and stalked over to his closet to hunt for something to wear. He pushed past his uniform shirts to get to his collection of work shirts, which made up the bulk of his wardrobe. Far, far in the dark back corners were the clothes that Kou had insisted on buying for him once before he’d given up on making him over. They never saw the light of day. His closet was overfull to the point of bursting, bristling with flannel and chambray and denim and canvas in various states of wear. Most had frayed elbows, ripped seams. But he could never bring himself to throw things out that he was used to. It seemed like a waste.

“You could come out with me,” he said over his shoulder. He stepped into a fresh pair of shorts and then into the first pair of jeans with intact knees he came across.

“Nah.”

Glancing backwards, he saw Shuu was in bed again, laying on his stomach. Watching him bend over to put on his pants.

Yuuma frowned. He had that look in his eyes again, when they went unfocused and dull and he slouched more than usual. Shit. He was staring at his scars again. Yuuma quickly grabbed a tee and pulled it over his head, and then he threw him a proper look over his shoulder.

“See something you like, neet?” He stretched his arms over his head in a way that he knew would make his back muscles flex.

“Stop trying to seduce me, you pervert.” He said it in a voice just a bit lower than usual, with that slow little smile of his, pretending to examine his fingernails.

Yuuma was back at the bed in a flash, sitting on the edge with his hand on Shuu’s throat, tracing his jawline with his thumb. “Stop what? This?”

Shuu didn’t look away. He smirked and lifted up his chin. His eyes were soft and glossy, and bluer than anything.

Yuuma felt his palms chill with sweat.

“Come back to bed. Stay a while. Just… stay here,” Shuu purred. He snaked his hand around Yuuma’s waist. His hand lingered.

“I never get anything done when you’re here?”

“Oh? Am I distracting you?” Shuu’s hand snaked its way between his legs.

“Little bit,” Yuuma muffled into his hair. It was as soft as it looked, with a faint smell of expensive shampoo. “Goddammnit, you are the devil.”

He pushed Shuu down and shoved him back far enough to slide up alongside him. He settled on his side with his head resting on his arm.

“That’s only what I’ve always been. But you are too now, so that worked out well.”

“You know, I don’t remember you being such a pain in the ass. I don’t remember a lot, but I know you used to want to do things. You used to follow me around like a little dog. You wanted to do whatever I was doing. You wanted me to teach you how to climb a tree. How to shoot a gun.”

“You know what?” Shuu sat up to nuzzle in close to Yuuma’s ear. “I didn’t give a fuck. I just wanted to be around you. I would have said anything.”

Yuuma felt a flush come to his cheeks and found himself rendered suddenly inarticulate. “That’s … kind of cute…”

“Come here,” Shuu said, licking his lips.

He didn’t resist as Shuu pulled him down and over and began undoing his efforts at dressing himself.

It wouldn’t be so bad to spend the morning in bed. He was getting an awfully late start anyway. It wouldn’t be so bad to share his garden with the birds for just today. It wouldn’t be so bad to let the weeds grow just a little longer.

It wasn’t so bad when Shuu got his way. That’s probably why he let it happen so often.

Chapter Text

“I love you.”

It was the strangest reaction to being punched in the face that Yui had ever witnessed.

It was also a strange moment to realize what a fetching smile Azusa had. She could have easily mistaken it for a pained grimace if time hadn’t slowed itself as she pitched forward, arm still wheeling past him. She felt a sense of weightlessness, despite the fact that she was clearly falling down the stairs. She had time to notice the way his eyes softened as his head tipped back from the impact of her knuckles against his jaw. She noticed how prominent his cheekbones were and how his scars seemed to whiten against the reddening of his cheek where she had accidentally struck him.

She even had time to convince herself that she must have misheard him.

“Azusa-kun!” That was all she had time to say.

Then she found herself splayed on the carpeted grand stairs of the Mukami entry hall, her knees skinned raw and red and her school uniform in rumpled disarray. Her bookbag was still thudding down to the foyer, where the rest of the brothers stood waiting on them.

She grabbed the railings to steady herself while she regained her sense of what direction was up. “Azusa-kun, I… I’m so sorry,” she mumbled.

She heard Yuma’s thunderous laugh and Kou’s sniggering from the foot of the stairs.

“Azusa-kun, do you need us to defend you from M-Neko-chan?” Kou called out through his laughter.

Yui furrowed her eyebrows and bit her lip. This was all Kou’s fault, really. He had escorted her back to her room after dinner and then made her pay for his chivalry with her blood. She had been so dizzy after that she couldn’t do anything but lie down until Azusa and Yuma came to get her to leave for school. She was still dizzy from it. She wouldn’t have stumbled at all if he hadn’t taken so much blood earlier, and now he was taunting her for it.

She held her tongue and said nothing. It never helped.

Yui smoothed down her skirt and began to raise herself up, but then felt hands grabbing her, under her armpits, from behind her to haul her up to her feet.

“Up you go, sow.”

She would have known it was Yuuma just from the strength in his arms, picking her up like she weighed nothing. He took a step back when he was certain she wasn’t going to topple against him or send herself rolling the rest of the way down.

“Oh… thank you,” she mumbled, but she was distracted. She looked back up at Azusa, who was still sitting on the stairs above her. He had a high color in his face still, a flushed appearance, but he was grinning. Beaming even. All while blood trickled down the corner of his mouth.

“Azusa-kun… you’re… you’re bleeding…”

“…Oh.” He tilted his head, as if he thought it a strange thing to remark on.

Yui only hesitated a brief moment, to shake off the fleeting thought that she might be punished for making them late for school, before she turned and went back to Azusa.

“Azusa-kun… are you… okay?” She hesitated to reach out to him, knowing that everyone was watching. She looked down at her hands while she talked, lacing and twisting her fingers together.

Azusa looked at her, holding his hand to his mouth. He was still smiling behind his hand.

He stood, meeting her height and then towering over her from his place higher on the steps, and then his arms circled her. She braced herself, expecting him to lean against her for support, but instead she felt herself pressed into his chest. He was hugging her.

“Azusa—kun?” Yui flushed, frozen in place. Everyone was watching them. They might even be able to see the sweat that was breaking out on her skin.

Warm wetness against her neck reminded her that Azusa was still bleeding from his mouth. It ran freely down his neck and stained his cheek and dyed the collar of her school shirt.

It was strange to smell blood that wasn’t hers.

“Azusa-kun! You’re bleeding!”

“That’s … right … .”

“Azusa!” Ruki called from the foyer.

Yui instinctively flinched at his voice. She imagined his eyes scowling behind her. He would likely punish her for causing a commotion, because well-behaved livestock didn’t make a fuss or punch anyone in the face.

“Ruki-kun, I…” Her mouth had a way of going dry when addressing him. She fought the instinct to bow. “Please leave and don’t allow me to make you late. Let me stay here and take care of Azusa today.”

The creaking of the mansion’s front door gave her his answer, as he exited wordlessly. Yui sighed in relief as Yuuma and Kou followed suite, hurrying to catch up with him.

“Awww, Azusa gets to play nurse with M-neko-chan! No fair!”

“Good luck with that, sow.”

Yui looked back to see Yuuma giving them an amiable wave over his shoulder as he left. She waved back as the front door closed behind him, and then she found herself alone with Azusa.

He caught her hand by the wrist as she let it drop.

Yui flinched and had to stop herself from shuffling back a step.

“What… what is it, Azusa?”

Azusa brought her hand up to his face and pressed it against his injured cheek.

“…This… is a good day… isn’t it… Eve?”

“…Azusa-kun.” Her voice shaky, soft. She tried to ignore the fluttery feeling in her stomach. “We should… ah… get to the bathroom.”

She had been at the mansion long enough to know that he’d give her trouble if she said she needed to stop the bleeding. Thankfully, he seemed willing enough to let her lead him by the hand back up the hall towards his room.

Yui knew knew that the best place in the mansion to find gauze was the bathroom off of Azusa’s bedroom. The closet was stuffed with it. He went through rolls and rolls daily when he obsessively, lovingly redressed his wounds. His brothers never tried to discourage him from his strange ritual. In fact, they saw to it that the closet stocked was always stocked with with as much as he wanted, or rather, needed.

In the linen closet she found neat stacks of gauze rolls and cloth tape, compresses, cotton balls, adhesive bandages, bottles of antiseptic and tubes of ointment. She scavenged scissors out of the first aid kit while Azusa leaned against the sink.

She always half expected to find his room and his bath looking like a murder scene, but the only indication of his habitual cutting was the garbage can. Bloodied gauze pushed the lid ajar and spilled out. Azusa could be quite fastidious.

She had tried to make herself understand and accept Azusa the way his brothers seemed to. But the way he treated his wounds like precious treasures and the way he lovingly polished his knives and cleaned them after had unnerved her deeply. At times she thought he might be the most impossible to understand out of all the vampires she had been introduced to.

She found a washcloth and ran it under water. Her hands were shaking slightly as she twisted it to wring out the water. Azusa was too near her. She could feel his breath on her neck, against the cold wetness at her shirt collar from his blood.

She saw him just over her shoulder in the mirror. Her neck and his face were both painted red.

The sight of blood had bothered her once. Not anymore.

“Can I… uh…?” She held up her damp cloth. Azusa looked back at her, said nothing.

She dabbed it at the stain on his cheeks and his jaw and his neck. Water thinned the blood and made it run. Yui bit her bottom lip and tried not to notice that Azusa was watching her face intently with his soft and blissful eyes.

Water dribbled down his neck.

“Could you tilt your chin up for me, Azusa? … That’s good.”

She brushed his hair back with her fingers and tucked it behind his ear. His neck was smooth, soft and white as she washed away the drying blood. This close, his skin had a soft, sweetly milky smell, like the the scent of a baby.

“Does it hurt?”

“It does. … I’m very… happy.” A fresh drop of red leaked from his mouth.

“Oh Azusa…I don’t see how this is something to be happy about.” Yui sighed. She reached for a bit of cotton wool, soft as doll stuffing and lamb’s wool. “Here, put this in your mouth please.”

Azusa looked at her with his head crooked, his cheek puffed out cutely.

“Eve gave me a present. And then… you smiled… didn’t you…” He spoke slowly enough that she had no trouble understanding him, even though his mouth full of cotton.

Yui felt her face grow even more heated. He was right. She had smiled. She had been smiling as she went past him with his blood on her knuckles.

“I think … it’s because of what you said…” She looked down and busied herself with uncapping a bottle of peroxide to use once the bleeding had stopped. She hoped she wasn’t blushing. Even her ears felt hot.

“… Oh. … If I say it again… will you hit me more?”

“What? No!” Her body jerked as her posture stiffened, and her arm sent her array of cotton and tape cascading off of the edge of the sink. The bandage scissors glanced off of her shoe and cotton balls scattered on the marble tile. Her mouth fell open.

“…Are you …angry?”

She shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut.

“Do … you hate me?”

“I don’t want to hit you, and you shouldn’t ask me to. That’s … that’s what I hate. And you shouldn’t say … things like that… lightly.”

Yui broke away from Azusa’s eyes and turned away from him. Her chest felt tight. Was this a game to him? Find the right phrase to give her a shock and receive the pain he was craving in exchange–just a bit of fun between masochists? Tit for tat, just like how Kou played with her?

Azusa moved close to her again. He laid his hand on her back, caressing her shirt.

“f I say it again… because… I want to…Is that…. Okay?”

Yui felt her heart pound in her ears. She coughed and pulled at the collar of her shirt. “Y-yeah.” She was suddenly very aware that his hands had moved to her shoulders, and he was pressing her damp washcloth against the blood he’d left on her neck. His touch was feather-light, like she might crumble into powder with too much pressure.

“It’s fine … if you say it because you want to… As long as that’s the case… I wouldn’t mind hearing it again…”

# The End

Chapter Text

“Now tell me what you’ve done.”

Yui started at Reiji’s words and pulled her hand away from her pawn.

Reiji insisted more and more often now that she play white. The opening move had been hers to decide. She had two pawns pushed out to the center of the board thus far, standing together at e4 and f4, with Reiji’s black pawn at e5 in position to capture or be captured.

“It’s the King’s Gambit.” Yui gently bit her lip, moved her hands to her lap and pressed her palms against her legs. She hoped that Reiji would be pleased that she knew how to answer him.

She had been studying openings after school in the library while she waited for him to finish his after school tutoring or business in the chemistry lab. He had never remarked on it, so she assumed he had either not noticed or not cared.

But he must have noticed if he was asking her to share what she knew. The thought gave Yui a light-hearted feeling.

She looked furtively across the marble board at Reiji.

The sensation in her chest turned to an unpleasant tightness at his blank expression. He looked at her coolly, sitting back in his chair with his hands laced together in front of him.

She recognized that look. It was his appraising expression. She braced herself, gritting her teeth.

“You attempt to weaken my kingside defense by offering up your f4 pawn to me, as well as threatening my control of the center. This is an unusually aggressive strategy for you….”

Yui held her breath.

“Of course, I can accept the gambit or decline. ” He narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chin with his gloved hand. “If I accept, I doubt you’ll know where to focus your attention.”

“My attention…?” She felt herself starting to go pallid.

Reiji let out an annoyed sigh. “It’s a pity, with a more talented player this could lead to something interesting.”

Yui gritted her teeth, staying silent. She knew he was correct and she wasn’t anywhere close to playing at his level, but the lack of his acknowledgment for the efforts she had made gnawed at her. He seemed to enjoy needling her until she was as thirsty for his praise as he was for her blood.

“It would make me very happy if you found our games interesting eventually, Reiji-san,” Yui said, because sometimes sincerity was her best and only defense.

Reiji leaned forward abruptly, a sneer on his lips. “You’re too timid to put proper pressure on me. That is your problem.”

A moment later he was standing at her side. Yui instinctively flinched, expecting to see his leather crop in his hand.

His gloved hand took her by the chin and forced her face upwards, and then she felt his lips against her mouth.

Yui was so surprised, and still so sure she would see that leather crop make its appearance, that she flinched back from his lips.

“This is precisely what I mean,” Reiji said, rising and straightening his back.

“But you just… it was too sudden…!”

“The King’s Gambit can lead to a very unpredictable game indeed.”

He bent towards her again, his hands on her shoulders, pushing her gently back into her chair.

“R-Reiji-san…

“Perhaps you aren’t completely hopeless, but … there is still the issue of proper pressure.”

Yui lowered her voice, afraid it would quaver. “Will… Reiji-san instruct me?”

Reiji paused on his way to meet her lips, and he took his hands from her.  Yui blinked in confusion as she watched him turn away and stride over to one of the plush leather club chairs at the center of the game room, facing the billiards table and the fireplace.

Reiji sat, placed his hands on the arms of the chair, and raised one hand to her in an imperial, beckoning gesture.

Did he want her to join him?

Yui’s heart thudded and she felt her skin flush. Her knees felt loose as she walked over to him. His lips had been cold, but they left her with the sensation of being flooded with warmth.

She stopped at his side and leaned down towards him, her hand gently stroking her own throat. She bowed herself towards his lips.

“No. We will not be starting with that.”

Reiji’s words froze her. Where exactly did he want her to kiss him?

He gestured again with an orchestral flourish. “Kneel. Here.”

Yui shivered, squared her shoulders, and she settled her weight on her shins with her spine straight as a rod. She sat near his knee, her face next to the crisp ironed crease that ran down the front of his pant leg.

Reiji wasn’t looking at her. His eyes were directed down to the arm of his chair.

He wants me to take off his glove.

Yui held her breath, gently biting her lip. He had never allowed her to touch his glove before. He always removed it himself before he touched her. She had come to see the baring of his hand as a prelude, or a warning, that came before he embraced her to take her blood. As she touched the fine lambskin and slid it off his hand, she quivered.

Had he trained her for that response?

She laid the white glove carefully on Reiji’s lap, smoothing it against his leg. That was the proper place for gloves to go when not in use, wasn’t it? Hadn’t he told that to her when he was teaching her proper etiquette for tea?

Yui flicked her eyes upward at him. His eyes met hers, narrowed in an expression of studied disinterest. Was he frustrated with her already?

She swallowed, because her throat suddenly felt thick, and looked down, not daring to meet his eyes any longer. She fought the urge to cover her face with her hands.

She looked at Reiji’s hand and tried to look at nothing else. It lay pale against the leather of the chair, which bore the dark shine from years of wear and careful polishing. He had long slender fingers and his skin was impeccable like a marble sculpture. Even though he was always doing housework, he had no calluses. There was no hint that he spent so many long nights in his study handling burners or acids or elixirs that stained. Yui twisted her own hands together nervously. She had calluses on her own hands from years of brooms and scrub brushes. She had suffered split nails, scratches, ragged cuticles, scars from old splinters and broken glassware.  Reiji seemed impervious to such imperfections.

“How long do you intend to keep me waiting?”

Yui took his hand in hers and brought it to her lips. She pressed her lips against his hand, behind the ridge of his knuckles. His skin was cool and smooth.

“Do you expect that to please me?”

Yui dipped down her chin and squirmed where she knelt at his side. She drew in a deep breath. “I… can try again.”

This time, she stroked his palm with her fingertips, the way Reiji often did when he held and kissed her hands before bringing her wrist to meet his fangs. She let her kiss linger, sucking lightly against the back of his hand, her lips fluttering against his skin.

“Still insufficient.”

She curled forward over his arm once again, and this time she let her teeth graze his knuckles while she massaged the webbing of his thumb and stroked his wrist, letting her fingertips intrude under the sleeve of his jacket. She breathed deeply against his skin, taking in a subtle touch of a prim lavender fougere at his wrist. It was the scent she had borrowed once to spray on her pillows, one that reminded her of Reiji even more than the scents of clean laundry and blood and leather.

It smelled slightly different somehow. Darker, smokier. She wanted to be enveloped by it.

Yui let out a whimpering sound against his hand without realizing it. She broke her lips away and let his hand drop as she drew away sharply.

“You stopped.”

Yui looked up at Reiji and saw him smirking at her.

“You’re wearing quite a vacant expression. What are you thinking? Are you dissatisfied with kissing my hand?”

She nearly said out loud that he smelled good, but she stopped herself just in time. That would have been a disaster. She had learned that much from her time with him.

She knew now that praise was a trap. It was its own type of violence, just as words of degradation were. Bestowing approval implied that she had the power to withdraw or withhold it, and that was something that Reiji would not tolerate from her or anyone else.

She drew in a breath, lowered her eyes and looked up at him demurely through her lashes.  “I was thinking…Reiji’s hand smells like fresh lavender. I wondered… if my hand would smell the same, if he held it….”

It was a gambit.

In this instance, he was inclined to accept it.

Reiji pulled her up into his lap and cupped her jaw in his hands, holding her just a slight breath away from his face. She thought he might bite her, or perhaps kiss her again, and squeezed her eyes shut, but he stopped just short of her lips.

Yui squirmed in his lap, unsure what he expected of her now. “Do you expect me to do everything for you?” he scolded.

Yui leaned in. She pressed her lips against his, sucking gently at his lower lip the way she had sucked at the back of his hand. Her heart pounded. She trembled and braced herself white-knuckled against the arm of the chair.

Reiji broke away from her lips and shook his head. “No. This won’t do.”

“Reiji-san?”

“It’s a good thing, a very good thing, that you fear me, but there is a time for timidness. This is not it. Is intimacy so difficult to tolerate? Turn towards me and try again.”

His stony expression and his stiff posture made her mouth go dry. Her body was feeling hotter now and she could feel her heart pounding in her ears. She didn’t know what else he wanted of her and it was driving her mad.

Reiji was the only man that Yui had ever kissed, at least when she was in charge of her own body. Cordelia taken the initiative to throw herself at Shuu when she and Reiji were fighting, although she was quickly frustrated by his passivity. Yui didn’t like to remember that. In any case, she had nothing to compare the experience to. Reiji’s kisses could be cool and mechanical, they could be hard and demanding, or surprisingly gentle.

She supposed it was only natural that he would find her skills wanting. He thought that way about everything.

No, that couldn’t be it. Yui thought carefully. If he wanted a woman who was a skilled and sophisticated lover, he could have had one. He had chosen her.

Reiji-san, why is it so hard for you to just tell me what you need? You know I’m only too happy to fear you or embrace you or whatever else you want.

Or, maybe he had told her after all.

Yui turned towards him.

She kissed Reiji again, and this time she kept her eyes open. She leaned against his chest and put her hand on the base of his neck. Her heart thudded when she felt a slight shift in his posture, bracing himself for her to put more of her weight on him.

She couldn’t begin to focus, at first, on what her mouth was doing. All she could see was his eyes, open very slightly but still making her feel raw and exposed. Her neck and ears were on fire.

She willed herself to lower her shoulders and lean in, trusting her weight to him. He brought his hands up onto her back and caged her closer.

She willed herself to relax against him. She willed herself to notice his throat moving under her hand, the press of his palm against the small of her back, cold even through her shirt. She brought her other hand up to cup the back of his neck against the immaculate collar of his shirt.

She watched him feeling her kiss.

She thrilled with pleasure when he relaxed his shoulders, and when he moaned softly against her mouth when she let her tongue dart past his lip and flick against his.

When she pulled away to catch her breath, she held her face close to his, letting her eyelashes graze his cheek.

“Was that … acceptable, Reiji-san?” she whispered.

A slow, wicked smile spread on his face.

“This will do for now.”

“It’s good of you to spend so much time instructing me.”

One of Reiji’s hands lingered at the small of her back, and with the other he straightened the neckline of her shirt and picked a loose hair off of her shoulder.

“Just one more thing, my pet” he said, his lips close to her ear. “Tonight, at precisely midnight, you will come to my room. You will undress. You will fold your clothes neatly and do not leave them laying out on the floor for me to find. Then you will wait for me, in my bed, wearing nothing but a drop of perfume behind your ears. You will wait for me there until I come for you.” His whisper hinted at barely suppressed carnal growl. “Don’t disappoint me.”