It clings wetly to every inch of her curves, showing off her perfect body—and the flimsy white lace of her bra that does nothing to hide the sharp points of her hard nipples.
Blood rushes to my cock at the tantalizing sight, and my laughter dies as I can’t seem to tear my eyes from her heaving breasts as she pants from the shock.
Sora’s shoulders tense, a look of utter mortification making her pale beneath the perfect makeup that’s starting to track down her face.
Long, dark smudges form rivers down her cheeks, and somehow, even now, when she stands completely wrecked before me, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
Her eyes meet mine, and the fury in them sends a jolt of electricity through my body, followed by the intense need to fix what I’ve done.
To protect her from the humiliation—even though I caused it.
A shiver ripples through her body, goosebumps breaking out across her skin, and my gut clenches as I think about how frigid the water must be this early in the spring.
Before I have time to consider what I’m doing, my feet are carrying me forward, and I reach out to help her from the fountain.
“Sora!”OyabunTanaka brushes past me, his suit jacket already off to wrap around his daughter’s shoulders as soon as she reaches the edge of the fountain.
Her delicate fingertips are tinged blue with cold as she accepts his hand, and guilt burns in my stomach as Sora’s father helps her over the fountain’s edge, keeping his arm firmly wrapped around her shoulders as he does.
“What is the meaning of this?” he demands, his cold gaze furious as he looks between me and my father, who reached us at the same time as Sora’s mother and brother.
“Leo, you will apologize at once?—”
“It was an accident.” The quavering voice is the last I expected to say that.
Silence settles over the gathering crowd as all eyes turn to Sora. I must have heard her wrong.
Then again, I doubt my ears that I heard her interrupt my father at all. But even as her lips tremble, her chin lifts in that unquestioning look of authority that knocks me off balance.
The Tanaka girl has far more fire in her than I ever would have expected, and it makes my hands itch to touch her once more.
“An accident?” Kenji asks incredulously.
“Yes, an accident,” Sora insists. “It’s my fault, really. Just being clumsy. I lost track of how close I was to the fountain and tripped.”
My father lifts his eyebrows and glances toward the Tanakas as if to gauge their response.
Kenji looks ready to argue, and Sora’s mother keeps her emotions hidden as she glances toward Tatsuo, who eyes me speculatively.
“Is that what happened?” he asks, his voice measured, but the glint in his eye gives me the feeling that even if it was my plan from the start, I somehow played right into his hand.
Glancing toward Sora, I assess where she stands, and the look she gives me catches me entirely off guard.
She’s given me an easy out, a way to get out of any resulting consequences.So, why does she look… afraid?
“Uh, yeah, that’s basically it.” Dragging my eyes back to theoyabun, I catch the hint of a smirk at the corner of his lips before he shakes his head.
“Well, then, I think it’s best if I get my daughter home and into something dry,” Tatsuo states, his stiff tone warning me that he believes the lie just as much as Kenji.
But he’s willing to go along with it—which means I played right into their trap.
My momentary concern for Sora left me vulnerable, and I responded to her fear without thinking, agreeing because I stopped thinking about the bigger picture.
Now she has no reason to call off the wedding—because no one is accusing me of bullying her.
Clenching my jaw, I keep my frustration in check as I force a smile.
“Of course,” I agree. But I’m not giving up. I will find a way to break her down before we’re married.
