Hiroshi looked exhausted, and his usual luster dull. The black T-shirt and dark jeans he wore only added to his monotony. He stared at her with his face expressionless, and she didn’t know what to think.
Or what to say. The note in her hand felt soggy against the sweat that filled her palms. He took his eyes off her for a moment and glanced at the note. Her body went completely rigid as he walked right up to her, took her hand into his and took the note.
He read it then looked back to her, his face still unresponsive.
She wished she knew what he was thinking. Did he want her to leave him alone? Because that’s what it felt like.
Standing so close to him made her breathing constrict within the walls of her chest. She opened her mouth to talk, but he silenced her by pressing his finger to her lips.
“Shhh.” He shook his head.
Her nerves tingled, and she stilled as he ran his finger lightly across her lips, then over to her ear where he magically pulled out an oriental lily, mesmerizing her.
When he held it before her, it dawned in full force that he’d been on his way to see her, too. She bit the inside of her lip to suppress the tears that stung the back of her lids. She took her flower and held it to her heart.
As he looked at her, his expression softened, and his eyes displayed the wealth of his feelings for her. Savannah attempted to speak again, to tell him how sorry she was that she left, but he shook his head and pulled her in for a passionate kiss that left her breathless.
“Be mine,” he whispered against her lips, his gaze as soft as a caress.
“Always,” she breathed feeling a tear run down her cheek.
He planted his lips to hers again and took hold of her waist, lifting the edge of the beige camisole top she wore. When his bare fingers made contact with her stomach, her pulse pounded and explosive currents raced through her as her body caught on fire.
Her body begged for him and responded, recalling his touch in perfect detail. She clutched on to his shirt as the kiss intensified and she welcomed the thrust of his tongue into her mouth, savoring the taste of him. He tasted like desire and of promises she wanted more than anything in the world.
It was scary to want him so badly, to need him so badly.
He lifted her up and took her into his room just managing to close the door behind them with his foot before he carried her over to his bed where they continued to devour each other, tearing at their clothes until they were both naked.
He kissed her all over, making his way from her head right down to her thighs. The way he touched her was different to the first time they’d made love. It was like he couldn’t get enough of her. It was the same for her. As if she couldn’t be without him, like if he stopped touching her she would just die. There was a tangible bond between them.
He stared deep into her eyes as she rested her head against the smooth satin pillows and he parted her legs, running his finger along the inside of her thigh. He held her gaze, looking at her with intense desire as he steadily made his way inside her. And that was it. The passion took over, and the world faded again. He started pumping slowly at first then thrust in once she’d adjusted, burying himself deep within her. Savannah grabbed onto him as an uncontrollable moan escaped her lips. He pumped harder, going in and out, faster and faster, spreading heat all over her body. Over her face, her breasts, her stomach, and down to the tips of her toes.
His grasp tightened around her waist as he drove in deeper, completely consuming her. Her body ached as the first wave of orgasm jolted through her. She could no longer focus on him as her skin started to burn from the electricity that sparked within her. He thrust into her one last time, driving the second orgasmic wave that threatened to make her pass out from the intoxicating pleasure. Then he slumped down next to her.
They were both breathing hard. Savannah was trying to catch her breath but couldn’t. Instinctively, she moved closer to him as he slipped his arm around her and pulled her to his heart, which thudded against her own. She rested her head against his chest, savoring him and enjoying the feel of his arms around her.
She never wanted him to let her go.
Chapter 18
Hiroshi watched Savannah until she fell asleep. Watching keenly, and fearing that she’d disappear if he took his eyes off her.
Now that she was sleeping he felt more reassured, but couldn’t quite bring himself to sleep. Last time she left while he slept. What if she did that again?
Exhaustion had numbed his body, but his brain was wide awake from the wild sexual charge she’d given him. It coursed through his veins, along with his blood that felt heated within his skin.
He got off the bed and pulled on a pair of boxers. He then made his way over to sit in the crevice between the balcony and the room, leaving the sliding doors open so he could watch her while he got some fresh air.
In the garden, the luminous array of cherry blossom and wisteria blended together above the subtle lights around the lake. It was just bright enough to enjoy the beautiful display of colors against the darkness of the night gone by.
He looked back to Savannah and stared at her still form wrapped up in his sheets. She really was beautiful.
This past week had been the worst ever. The absolute worst. From the look of her when he’d first seen her in the corridor it seemed like hers hadn’t been much better. Or, at least that’s what he’d assumed. The week before had been terrible, too, but the time grew more miserable with each passing day. He’d just about managed to make all the necessary arrangements needed in Washington by pushing his worries about her aside. It was what he had to do to function properly.
Everything was now all set up to run without him and Jake. Pete was in charge with Cory assisting. Bernie was still his PA, but would offer them her assistance in the interim even though they each had their own secretaries. Bernie was the direct link to him if there was any form of emergency, or if they needed access to him or Jake for anything. She was happy with the level of importance he’d given her.
Now his focus was solely on the training center. It was a relief, but his mind had been unsettled the whole time he was in Washington. The whole entire time, even as he smiled on handing over to the senior team, signed contracts, and conducted himself in his presentations and meetings with the heads of universities. His mind had been a ticking time bomb waiting to go off at any minute.
He’d accomplished a lot, but it felt like none of it mattered if he didn’t have Savannah.
Now as he sat here and watched her he realized she’d become an important part of his life in a very short space of time.
While his heart had been set on making amends for his past failures and getting the training center off the ground, if he lost Savannah none of those things would matter to him anymore.
It was crazy to think it, but it was true.
Things had changed for him in ways he hadn’t imagined from the day he’d met her. He’d never met anybody who could make him feel like this. Like a slave to his heart.
And…it really got to him that she might not trust him.
Always she’d said. Did she mean that?
Was she really his, always?
* * *
Savannah rolled over, and her face brushed against the pillow next to her. She opened one eye first then the other and looked around her surroundings.
Her eyes met the old picture of the Samurai on the wall in a large wooden frame, and her mind became a little clearer. Hiroshi. She was in his room, but where was he?
Savannah sat up quickly and slid off the bed. There was a pile of clothes on the floor over by the nightstand, so she pulled out one of his work shirts and shrugged into it. That woodland musk she liked on him so much filled her, it smelled of him.
It was only once she walked to the edge of the bed that she caught a glimpse of him near the balcony.
He was just in his boxers, and the rest was hers to admire. She made her way over, eager to join him.
Hiroshi lo
oked at her as she approached him and moved slightly away from the wall he’d rested against. She noted how exhausted he looked, and worried, even though he’d offered her that slow easy smile of his that always filled her stomach with butterflies.
“Hi,” she said to him, gazing deeply into his eyes.
“Hey.” His voice sounded groggy.
“Did you sleep?” She looked him over.
“No.” He pulled in a breath. “I guess I was standing guard in case you left.” He appeared to be joking, but it was the first time she could tell that he wasn’t. It was his eyes. They gave him away.
“I’d have a difficult time explaining to people why I was running around the house in your shirt at this time.” She was trying to make light of the tension that filled the space between them, but it probably wasn’t the best idea since she’d left him once before, and it had clearly affected him.
“Looks good on you,” he offered, his expression softened a little but just as soon returned to its pensive demeanor. He looked down at the wooden flooring beneath their feet, then gazed out to the beautiful cherry blossom ahead where he stared for a few seconds before looking back to her. “Savannah, I understand if you don’t trust me.”
Her chest tightened. That’s what he thought?
She sighed, of course. It made sense that he would think that. That’s exactly what her actions had said, especially with what happened with Jade.
“You probably read a lot about me,” he added. “So I guess there’s every reason to be cautious of me. I didn’t know Jade was going to be at the fundraiser, and yes, there’s a chance of me running into women I used to date, but I swear to you I’m not that guy anymore. I’m not the guy you read about. I haven’t been him for a very long time, and I don’t plan to be that way ever again.”
His anguish made her heart ache, and she felt sadder for the whole situation.
“I trust you,” she told him, the depth of her emotions was clear in her voice.
He looked at her, really looked at her, studying her face and searching her eyes. “Then why did you leave? Why did you leave me last time?” He looked puzzled now. It seemed that he’d convinced himself that she didn’t trust him.
They hadn’t been together long, but right now that didn’t matter. She got the strong feeling that she needed to tell him how she felt. He meant enough to her to tell him the truth. So here she was about to take another risk.
“I’m sorry I left you. I left because…” She looked at him and saw the eagerness in his expression, his anxious eyes begging her to continue. Pulling in a deep breath, she started again. “Well, when I thought about my feelings for you, it terrified me, and I panicked.” There she said it, and now that she had, her head felt light and her knees fragile, as if they couldn’t sustain her any longer.
It was clear from his reaction that he was not expecting to hear that. Hiroshi’s eyes narrowed, and he looked at her as if he was trying to understand what she was saying. A few seconds passed, and she could feel her chest begin to tighten as they entered the realm of the awkward silence. She hated being there.
And, he still hadn’t responded.
Not that she wanted to repeat her previous actions and leave, but this was perhaps the part where maybe she should. If only to save the last shred of dignity she had left.
“Okay, so I can see that I probably said something I shouldn’t have. So I’m gonna—” He caught her arm as she was backing away.
“No, wait.” His gaze still hadn’t left hers. And, now it intensified as if something had changed within him. “Me too,” he confessed.
“You…too.” She blinked several times to keep her focus.
He nodded. “My feelings for you scare me, too.” His gaze tangled with hers. “I tried very hard not to be, but I’m crazy about you Savannah.”
Her eyes widened at that declaration, and his words seeped into her, warming her heart.
“Really?” she breathed.
“Yes.” He nodded firmly, reaching out to touch her face.
She looked at him, looking at the warmness that came from his eyes, and there it was, she could feel it again. Her heart, beating deep within her chest. She leaned into his hand and closed her eyes, relishing the feel of his hands on her face. How she’d longed for this small gesture these last few miserable days. Weeks.
“Savannah, you should have told me.”
She opened her eyes and moved back slowly shaking her head. “No.” Logic and reasoning were setting in, bringing forward all the worry she had.
Hiroshi wasn’t just some guy. Sometimes she had to look past his lighthearted, carefree ways and remind herself who he was. “There’s too much to think about. You’re you, up to your neck in work, running your company, and the training center. You’re an important busy person. And, I’m me, just starting out with my career. I’m only here for another nine months and—”
He stopped her with a kiss that numbed her brain and evaporated the words from her mind.
“No,” he said against her lips.
“No, to what?” she breathed, weakened from the kiss.
“I can’t. You can’t ask me to sit by for the next nine months and just watch you because I have a company to run or a training center. Or because I’m busy. I won’t do it and always live in wonder about what we could have been.” He released her and rested back onto the wall again, looking flustered.
She observed him, completely stunned by his words. Completely stunned that he felt so strongly about her, and the importance he gave her in light of all that he had to think about.
“I won’t hold it against you. If you can,” he breathed. “I won’t hold it against you, I’ll understand. Your career is important to you, and I know what you gave up. I won’t stand in your way.”
“I can’t,” she replied quickly, shaking her head. Her goals were important to her, but he was, too. More. “I can’t either. What…should we do?”
“What do you want Savannah?”
That was the easiest question she’d ever been asked. “You,” she replied without any need for thought or hesitation.
“Well, since all I want is you, too, it’s simple.”
A tear ran down her cheek, and he caught it. “Is it?” She had to ask because from where she stood there was so much to think about.
His eyes now sparkled with hope and longing. “Yes,” he said firmly. “It has to be. All we need to do is take one step at a time and go from there. We can do that, right?”
She nodded, agreeing, feeling elated with the excitement of what lay ahead.
Savannah looked at the man of her dreams and smiled, adoring every ounce of him as she rested on his chest.
Chapter 19
Hiroshi spun Savannah around for a quick turn as the fiery Cuban Salsa music sped up at the bridge. He then slipped his arm around her waist to catch her, resuming the enchufle step. She giggled as they swapped positions and he turned her again.
If anyone had told her last year that in a year’s time she’d be dancing on Torii Beach in Okinawa with her boyfriend, she would have dropped down laughing in absolute disbelief. It just sounded like something one of those outlandish fortune tellers would say at a carnival or psych fair. Even as she danced with Hiroshi, she couldn’t believe it herself.
“I’m going to dance you silly until you take back that comment,” Hiroshi warned, knitting his thick brows together. As he moved, the cool night air rippled through the sheer cotton of his black T-shirt, and the flames from the bonfire flickered against his jeans making them look orange from the glow.
“Okay, so you disagree?” she challenged, laughing. If dancing was a punishment, she’d gladly accept. She loved dancing, loved dancing with him, and there was nothing more attractive than dancing with a man who could really dance.
And, Mr. Hiroshi Fujita could certainly dance, like it came second nature to him. Like walking.
In the time that they’d been together, he’d taught her the Cuban Salsa, the Waltz,
the Fox Trot, and a few other dances she would never imagine doing in this lifetime. It all began when he took her to a Salsa bar one night with his friend Ignacio. Savannah thought Hiroshi was joking about knowing how to dance, just like his singing. She got the shock of her life when he suddenly broke out into a smooth perfectly executed salsa step and spun her around like they do on one of those dancing shows. It made him even more perfect in her eyes.
“Of course I disagree. I don’t sound like a goat when I sing.”
“But you do.” She laughed again and missed his hand as she turned to swap places. The other day they were listening to crazy videos of goats singing I will always love you; she’d teased him ever since.
“You mean thing.” He pouted, pretending to be offended by placing his hands on his hips, the way she did when she got annoyed at him.
She continued to laugh at him. “Hiroshi, when most people don’t know the words to a song they say blah, blah, blah. You go baaa, baaa, baaa.”
“Okay, so technically I sound like a sheep, then?” he defended. “Not like some lowly billy goat. Surely a sheep is better than a goat. And you are still so very mean.”
There wasn’t a day that went by that he hadn’t made her laugh till she was in stitches and could hardly breathe. Like now. She was laughing so much she had to stop dancing and hold her hand at her stomach to keep control.
He shook his head at her. “Imagine there I am, a humble man, trying my very best to serenade my girl with what little talent I have, and I get compared to a goat.” He huffed and smirked at her.
She scowled at him with narrowed eyes. “You bought a Porsche last week. Humble my ass.” He took her hand and turned her, so her back was facing him.
“Yes, I like your ass, especially in those shorts.”
She turned to face him and grimaced—but really she loved when he said things like that to her. He gave her a pointed look and leaned his head to the side.
I Only Have Eyes For You Page 25
