Then it hits me.
This is payback.
I watched him, so now he’s watching me.Fair is fair.
Don’t start things you can’t finish.
Is he punishing me?Is he trying to humiliate me?Is that what he thinks I was doing this morning, embarrassing him?
Shit.I’ve no idea what’s going through his head.I haven’t a clue what to do, so I do the only thing I can think of, which is to carry on taking my shower and try to show him I’m not fazed.
So, I wash my hair, taking my time to lather up the shampoo and rake through the conditioner, trying to ignore the mix of nerves and desire that mingle like the soap and water.Then I wash my body, rubbing the sponge up and down my legs, over my breasts, and down my arms, all whilst feeling him watching, which sends an erotic charge running through me.
But I have to ignore it.Two can play at this game, and I won’t let him think he’s rattled me, because that’s all this is—purely a game.This can’t be anything other than him trying to get under my skin, payback for my Peeping Tom act this morning.
When I’m done, I turn off the water, brace myself, and open the cubicle door.
There’s a second where I’m standing naked, facing Fenrir, all of me on display, no shower screen to hide behind.Then he takes a step forwards, pulls the towel from the heater, and holds it out to me.
Slowly, I step into it and say, “I think that makes us even now.”
It feels clever, the right thing to say, and I want to believe I have the upper hand, have survived his little payback.
But then he leans in and whispers in my ear, “Not quite,” before wrapping the towel around me and leaving the room.
* * *
FENRIR
Exiting the en suite, I’ve no idea of the can of worms I’ve possibly just opened, but then I recall that I wasn’t the one who started this.
And I’ve had enough.There’s too much going on in this house for me to be playing mind games with Hayami.The stunt in the en suite wasn’t planned.When I realised she’d gone for a shower, I had a feeling it was now or never.
We could be stuck up here for days, even weeks, and with the strange shit going on, I don’t have the patience to try to resist her any longer.I know what her plan was: to lose her virginity and destroy her father’s business deal.But now, we’re hidden away here, with no chance of her executing this plan, and that only leaves one thing.One person who can help her out.
Me.
Does she want me to do the job of taking her virginity, ruining her father’s plan of selling her as a “pure” woman?I have no fucking idea.But she said that she’d happily let anyone take it from her, determined to piss off her father and whoever her future husband might be.
Although this isn’t the way I want her, I can’t help but think this might be the only way I can have her, and the thought of someone else doing it makes me want to crush something.I’ve no doubt she was serious about her plan, considering the calibre of bloke she had clamped onto her tits when I busted the door down in the toilets the night we got the code red.It still makes my blood boil just thinking about it.If she’d been willing to let some scumbag like him take her virginity, then she’d stoop as low as letting someone like me, someone who looks the way I do.Hell, all she’d have to do is close her eyes.
I’d do anything for her.Anything.
The stunt in the shower was me setting this in motion, placing the piece on the board and letting her make the next move.
I’m just not sure whether it’ll be checkmate or game over.
FORTY-FOUR
HAYAMI
PRESENT
Stormingout of the en suite, I follow him into the bedroom, where he turns and faces me.I can’t read him.I have no clue about his thoughts, but I’ll be damned if he’s going to get the last word.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”I say, folding my arms over the towel I’ve tucked around my body.
“You tell me,” he replies.It should sound condescending, but he doesn’t look smug, more inquisitive.
