I Only Have Eyes For You

by Khardine Gray

  Savannah had to stifle a giggle as she said, “Hiroshi took me to this fabulous restaurant overlooking the peaks. It was called Hakushu.”

  In truth she’d dined there with Yumi and Sakiko before coming home tonight. Hakushu was a steakhouse in the Shibuya district. It was opposite a trendy Manga Gallery. Great as it was it didn’t overlook any mountain peaks. “It was beautifully decorated with lilies and hibiscus.” She wanted so desperately to laugh.

  “Really?” Laura cooed dreamingly.

  “No. Of course not really,” Savannah snapped. “You guys are going to be the death of me with your constant questions about Hiroshi. A guy like that would barely even look in my direction. Can you just stop tormenting me?”

  “You little minx. I actually believed you,” Breana snapped. “And we’re not giving up that easily.”

  Of course they weren’t. Savannah rolled her eyes.

  “That was supposed to cheer me up for the morning. Evening for you,” Laura added.

  “Guys, I’m over the moon right now about the magazine.” She was. This could mean a lot for her. She’d have to call Brian tomorrow.

  “We’re happy, too, but honey,” Breana leaned into the camera and widened her eyes, “try harder with Hiroshi.” Every syllable was enunciated.

  “Over and out,” Laura said, and her screen went blank.

  “Konnichiwa,” Breana said, then her screen went blank, too.

  Savannah sighed and laughed to herself. Breana and Laura were so ridiculous sometimes, and they had high hopes. If they’d seen the women she’d seen with Hiroshi they would soon drop the subject. From the devil red head at the racetrack to the brunette the other week in the underwear short shorts. Who knew how many more there were since then and in between?

  She looked ahead to the smooth night sky that lay before her with its twinkling stars and said, “He wouldn’t notice me if I ran around the grounds naked playing a bag pipe.”

  She got the shock of her life when out of nowhere came the reply, “I…think I definitely would.”

  Savannah stilled, curling her toes deep into her shoes.

  No way. It couldn’t have been…

  She darted over to the edge of the balcony with such a force she nearly fell over the rail. As Hiroshi came into view a good twelve or so feet beneath her she nearly died.

  “Hiroshi.” Her voice quivered. Oh God, how much had he heard?

  The soft night light was just bright enough for her to see the dark grease marks on his t-shirt. On his face was that sexy half smile that twisted her stomach in knots.

  If the earth could swallow her up right now it would have been perfect. Or, better yet, if she could just be sucked into a black hole as she was standing on the balcony.

  Anytime now would be great. Damn it. There was no black hole to help her out, and the stupid earth was still intact. It was she who was crumbling just looking down at him while he grinned up at her.

  She needed to say something, but what?

  It served her right. She shouldn’t have been talking about him, and she shouldn’t have made up that stuff to her friends.

  Her and her bright ideas.

  “Hiroshi.” Her voice caught in her throat, and she had to cough to clear it. “What are you doing outside my balcony. Below… Down there.” She was trying to keep cool, and sound sensible.

  “I was on my way in after working on my car. Then I heard my name.”

  See, serve her right.

  “Is that all you heard?” she asked cautiously, trying to recall exactly what she’d said.

  “No.” A very amused smile lit up his handsome face.

  She gripped on to the rail. “Oh God,” she muttered, as if God could help her with her silliness.

  How embarrassing. He’d heard everything, hadn’t he?

  His smile brightened, becoming livelier. “Sorry to eavesdrop, California Girl. And by the way, I do notice you.” He gave her that I’m sexy and I can have you if I want look that held her in place. Her knees wobbled under his stare, and her chest tightened.

  She gazed down at him completely astounded by his words, giving into his overbearing charm that emptied her brain.

  He laughed and did his trade mark wink before sauntering off.

  Chapter 11

  It wasn’t that she was trying to avoid Hiroshi. She was just trying not to run into him.

  Savannah just didn’t know what she’d say when she next saw him.

  That was all she could think about.

  Should she pretend nothing happened and talk about the weather, or maybe she could…

  Well that was just it. What would she say? She couldn’t talk about the weather. That was stupid.

  And then there was what he said to her. He said he noticed her. She couldn’t get those words out of her mind and wondered if he meant it.

  She’d considered just going to find him and talking about it, but she didn’t have the guts to.

  The following Wednesday, fate took the choice out of her hands. It was just after ten when she’d returned from Sakiko’s fashion show. She was simply going to the kitchen to get some water when she found Hiroshi standing behind the counter chopping vegetables on the granite worktop. By the time she’d entered it was too late to turn back because he saw her instantly.

  A playful smile lifted his sensual mouth. “Savannah, fancy running into you here,” he beamed, raising his eyebrows.

  Her stomach was already in knots. “Hi, Hiroshi.”

  Perhaps she could pretend she forgot something and go back through the door.

  He grinned. “So, aren’t you going to try to avoid me today?”

  She grabbed the edge of her beige chiffon shirt, which dampened on impact from her sweaty palms.

  “I’m not avoiding you.” She tried to say that as casually as she could muster.

  “Oh really? That’s kind of what it looked like when you took the back entrance the other day when you spotted me coming up the drive.”

  He’d seen her do that?

  His smile widened. “Or, like when you didn’t come out to dinner with everyone else two nights ago?”

  She’d actually had terrible cramps, but she wasn’t going to tell him that.

  “I was sick,” she offered.

  “Of course you were, dear.” He eyed her curiously. “So do you plan to avoid me for the whole time that you’re here? It’s kind of hard if we’re in the same house. Also, I love Hakushu. There’s a chance you could run into me there, too.”

  Oh, this was so bad.

  She sighed slowly and cursed herself again. “I need water.”

  He turned around, grabbed a glass and filled it up from the filtered tap. He then set it down on the counter near him so she would have to go up to him to get it.

  “Step into my office,” he beckoned, waving his hand toward the chair closest to him. Which was literally right next to him.

  She walked towards him, her legs feeling like jelly and her palms now dripping with sweat. Sitting down cautiously, she took the glass of water, noticing that he never took his eyes off her.

  The whole situation was tormenting, and she was cracking under the pressure. People like her couldn’t stand any form of torture, however mild. So she cracked.

  She turned to face him head on, looking him directly in his gorgeous eyes and said, “Look, all that stuff you heard me say to my friends was just me teasing them. I made it all up.”

  “I got that part.” Mischief lurked within his eyes. “But you weren’t talking to anyone when you said I wouldn’t notice you if you ran around the grounds naked, playing bagpipes. How come you never told me you could play the bagpipes?”

  She groaned inwardly while he laughed at her.

  Poor her, why was she destined to be forever teased, and land herself in these sorts of embarrassing situations? She tried to be a good person. Maybe she needed to go to church more often.

  He continued to laugh.

  “It’s not funny,” she scolded, w
ondering what he was going to say next.

  “Yeah, it is.” He straightened up and set a plate down in front of her with what looked like a katsu batter, but it was pink. Next to it was a substantially large disgusting-looking fish. She tried to hide her distaste, but could feel her face twisting at the sight as the fish’s mouth was open, and it had grayish brown streaks going across it.

  Was it even cooked?

  “Try some of that,” he told her.

  She wrinkled her nose and gaped at him wondering if this was part of the torture. “I hate fish.”

  “You will like this one.”

  She’d had tuna and liked shrimp but never had the desire to try any other fish or seafood. She just couldn’t imagine eating one. Tuna usually came in a sandwich with melted cheese, and sometimes she didn’t even think of it as fish. Shrimp she loved battered. However, fish, fish was fish. It was the eyes and the thought of them swimming around in the sea with all those scales that put her off. And this one in particular looked absolutely gross.

  “It’s grilled rockfish with tempura sea vegetables.” He looked pleased with himself.

  She wrinkled her nose even more at the thought that the fish was supposedly grilled and still looked like that. “Can I pass on the fish?”

  “You got to have the fish. It’s to die for,” he insisted.

  “Hiroshi, it looks like it’s still alive.”

  “No look, see.” He poked it, and some juice ran out of its mouth.

  “Eww, yuck,” she squealed and shook her head with distaste. No way was she having that. She watched him cut into it and separate a piece, then squeezed some fresh lemon over it. He then speared it with a fork and held it out to her, hovering it before her mouth.

  “Come on, say ah.”

  She froze. Was he attempting to feed her the fish? Her heart stilled at the thought.

  Savannah gazed up at him, looking at his amazing eyes and spiky hair, and the solid muscle on his thick forearms he’d revealed by rolling up the long sleeves of his loose cotton shirt.

  “Come on, try it.” A sweet smile inched across his mouth and lifted the corners of his lips.

  Perhaps…the fish wouldn’t taste as bad as the thought of eating it.

  Savannah tucked her hair behind her ear, leaned forward and opened her mouth deciding she’d try. She cringed as he gently pushed the fish inside her mouth, but when the zesty taste hit her buds she was extremely surprised to find that it was…truly delicious, and absolutely nothing like she’d expected. The fish was soft and full of flavor. She tasted hints of lemon and ginger, and a kick of chili.

  “Good, right?”

  “It’s amazing,” she beamed.

  “Good, I’ll fix you some.” He got a separate plate. “So, how are you? Aside from our little run in I haven’t seen you in weeks.” She groaned inwardly at the comment while he grinned at her.

  She wasn’t sure what questions he had up his sleeves, but it was probably pretty clear to him by now, to her embarrassment, that she liked him.

  “I’m good. Having a great time. My web page is doing well.” She started to tell him about that, and all the subscribers, in the hope that she’d throw him off asking any further questions.

  She also talked about her plans for tomorrow to go to Kyoto and see the temples. Realistically she needed a few days to see Kyoto properly, but she thought she could see how far she got tomorrow by visiting the main temples then go again next week if she needed to. “My editor’s eager to see what the next issue will bring.”

  “It all sounds great,” he complimented.

  “I just hope I can maintain it. My goal is to impress the senior editors into giving me a staff position. I hope I can keep impressing them and not mess it all up.”

  Talking about writing was the one thing that never failed in calming her when she was nervous.

  “You won’t mess it up,” he said with confidence. She wondered how he could say it so easily, as if he knew.

  “I hope not. It was a massive step for me to leave my old job.”

  “And you don’t want to appear to be floating around in the world with no real ambition,” he filled in.

  Savannah thought back to when her mother had passed that comment. She’d wondered what Hiroshi had thought then.

  “Yeah, something like that. I guess my mom made her thoughts clear.” She offered a small smile and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Do you think I’m floating around the world with no ambition?” Somehow she really wanted to know what he thought of her.

  He did seem genuinely impressed that her writing was going well, but there was the other side of things. The fact that she was thirty years old and acting like she’d just left college and was starting out.

  He shook his head. “No.” His voice was soft. “It takes ambition to take risks and do things you aren’t certain of. If you weren’t ambitious, I think you’d still be at your old job.”

  She was really happy to hear him say that. “Thank you. Well, I guess if the CEO of Fujita Technologies thinks I have ambition, then I must really do.”

  “Yes.” He gave her an encouraging look.

  “What about you?” she said, suddenly realizing that all they’d done is talk about her. “How’s everything going with the training center?”

  By the uncertain look that suddenly crossed over his face, she could tell that maybe plans weren’t going so well. “Could be better.” He sipped on the last of his fruit juice. “Let’s just say, you aren’t the only one with parental issues.”

  It surprised her to hear that.

  “Really? What’s happened?” she asked. “If you don’t mind me asking,” she added quickly, not wanting to pry.

  He offered a small smile. “My dad’s not too keen.”

  “On the training center?”

  “Well, I think he thinks the training center itself is a good idea. It’s um…me he’s not too keen on.” He shifted his weight from one leg to the other and looked slightly uneasy.

  Savannah was surprised to hear that.

  “I’m sure that’s not true. Especially since you do such an amazing job as it is.” She was trying to do that confident thing he did with her, but it didn’t seem to be working.

  He laughed and poured himself some more juice from the jug that sat beside their nearly empty plates.

  “Thank you for thinking that. But it is true, and it’s my own fault.” He leaned forward onto the counter, resting on his elbows. “I have a…colorful past. Let’s just say I used to be a little wild, not so long ago. My father is a very professional person, he’s reserved and organized, and likes things a certain way. It’s probably hard to trust someone if you know they’ve been untrustworthy before. No matter how hard they try to live down the wildness.”

  She appreciated that he would share that with her, and thought back to all the things she’d read about him. She guessed it made sense now why there wasn’t anything recent on him other than company-related information.

  Seeing that he looked a little thrown off balance, she decided to make light of the mood. “I think things will be fine. Besides, when you say wild, I can’t imagine that you could have done anything that farfetched, like eating a live goose. Or a chicken.”

  At first, he looked at her with narrowed eyes like he was trying to figure her out, then he just burst out laughing. “No, I didn’t eat a live goose or chicken.”

  “Good, because that’s the worst thing in the world. Just imagine it.” She wrinkled her nose. “The beak, feet and feathers. Yuck.”

  He laughed even more. “So note to self. Never try to get you to eat a live goose, or chicken.”

  She shook her head. “No. Plus, I would most likely faint before you could get either of those things close to me.”

  He picked up a set of black and red chopsticks and held them out to her.

  “How about you try to finish the rest of your food with these.”

  “I’m terrible with those. But I’ll bet they’d look great
in my hair.” She brightened up.

  “I bet that, too. But come on. You can’t come to Japan and not learn to use chopsticks.” He tilted his head to the side. “I’ll teach you.” He handed them to her, and she took hold of them.

  “I’m warning you, this could end badly with the food everywhere.” She giggled.

  “Place one between your middle finger and your thumb. Then grip the other with your index finger and thumb.” He showed her with another pair he’d picked up, making it seem so easy. She, on the other hand, looked completely uncoordinated. He watched her try and fail miserably.

  “I’m awful,” she grumbled.

  He chuckled. “Just relax. Don’t try too hard.”

  She tried but she couldn’t. And now her hands were sweaty again.

  “Hold still.”

  Clearly, he thought he was being helpful by coming around and standing closely behind her to show her this way. But, she became void of thought the minute Hiroshi leaned over her shoulder.

  He was so close that her face was inches away from his.

  Her flesh prickled at his touch the minute he held her hand to adjust the chopsticks. He said something, but she couldn’t hear past the buzzing in her ears, and she was completely enthralled with the rich woodland scent of his cologne that seemed to hypnotize her.

  His muscular chest touched her back as he lengthened her arm, sending a ripple of shivers throughout her body.

  “See, it’s not that hard, right? Just do what I said.” That amazing smile of his lit up his face. She just wished she knew what he said.

  She blinked a few times to clear her mind. “Um, what… Which one?” She was hoping that answer would work, but it didn’t.

  “Savannah, were you listening?”

  “I was thinking very hard.” She offered, “And I missed that part.”

  “Which part?” he asked.

  “The, um…main part.”

  He smirked.

  She sighed, frustrated with her nerves. “You distract me when you…” She stopped herself from continuing.

  How stupid would she sound if she said something silly like, when he came so close to her? Or, that she could feel the very muscles she’d been fantasizing about with all the tattoos, and he was making her lightheaded just by looking at her.