Arima (Haruki Arima Duet, #2)

by Laine Watson

  “Did he agree with you calling off the wedding?”

  “I didn’t ask him. It doesn’t matter. If one person doesn’t want to get married anymore, the engagement is off.”

  “Are you still wearing the ring?” She looks down at it and stands up straight. “Do you not want to get married?”

  I gaze at her, resting my head against the upper cabinets. “It doesn’t matter.” I pout my lips with sadness in my eyes.

  “That’s a no.” She bends back down to look in the drawer, one hand holding the earring to her ear, the other rummaging around the drawer. “Did the talk we had not register at all? Did you even think about what I said?”

  “I thought about it.”

  “Found it.” She pulls out a pencil, turns it upside down, bites off the eraser, and drops the pencil back into the drawer.

  “Gross.”

  She removes the eraser from her mouth with her fingertips. “It’s never even been used.” She pushes the bitten off eraser securely onto the earring. “Makeshift earring back.”

  I giggle.

  “Have you talked to him or Max?”

  “Not, really. Haru still texts me every morning and randomly throughout the day. The hearing is tomorrow. That’s a big deal. Hopefully, he took my advice, and he’s going to the hearing.”

  “And you responded to him, ‘Yes, my loving fiancé, sorry for not letting you explain...’”

  “No, I haven’t responded to him.”

  “Are you considering it?”

  “I don’t know. Is it selfish to want to be in Max’s life but not be with Haru?”

  “Is that what you really want?”

  “Right now? Kind of.”

  “Liar! I don’t believe that.”

  I turn my backside on the counter. “Where are you going all dressed up?”

  “Hayden and I have a date. He should be here any—”

  The doorbell rings.

  “...minute. Okay, see you later.” She smiles, grabbing her clutch. “Don’t wait up.” She grins.

  I smile back. She looks so pretty.

  She opens the door, and Hayden and I make eye contact. I wave at him; he waves back.

  “See ya.” She closes the door.

  “Bye.” I sigh.

  The door closes. I put some music on my phone and continue cooking.

  After I finish making the meat and fixings for tacos, I cover them and put them in the microwave. I glance back, thinking I heard a knock on the door. It’s just my imagination. I tell myself as I get the tortillas ready, but I hear it again.

  This time, I turn the music off, just to make sure I don’t hear anything. However, a few moments after, I hear the knock.

  I head to the door, resting the tortillas on a plate on the counter.

  My chest tightens, and my knees jump as I open the door. “Haru?” I say, observing his beauty standing right outside the door. “What are you doing here?”

  “Hey, princess,” he says sheepishly. Instantly I’m upset with him, all the missing him and rational thoughts leave.

  “Don’t call me princess. How did you know I was here?”

  “Your best friend is dating my best friend—has its perks.” He smirks sadly. “Can I come in?”

  “Why?”

  “Because, I’ve been trying to talk to you, and you’ve been ignoring me. Darby said you were wearing that. How come you don’t wear stuff like that at the house?”

  I can’t stop my cheeks from warming or my instincts from wanting Haru to take me right here, right now.

  I don’t answer him. Instead, he pushes me back, and I voluntarily take two paces backward as he steps into the house and closes the door. I fold my arms because I don’t have any other defense against Haru. He runs the point of his index finger along my forearm.

  “Look at me, princess,” he tells me.

  I turn my face in a different direction, acidly masking my true feelings.

  “I miss you. Max misses you. Why haven’t you been answering the phone? You know the hearing is tomorrow.”

  “Where’s Max?” I ask, avoiding his questions.

  “With my parents.”

  “You didn’t bring him?” I finally look up at him disapprovingly.

  “They’re here. We got a bed-and-breakfast for the weekend.” He pauses. “Oh,” he says, opening the door and running to the car. When he returns, he closes the door and hands me a bag of envelopes. “Here’s your mail.”

  “You didn’t have to bring it.”

  “Why? Because you’re coming home?” he says. “Then, let’s go.” He snatches the bag back.

  “No, Haru.” I take the bag from him and put it on the coffee table. “That’s not my home.”

  “Bullshit. That’s the house you picked. It’s exactly what you wanted; I even got it double insulated because you were scared Max would hear us having sex.”

  “He has, even with the insulation.”

  “Not the point. Don’t change the subject. It’s your home. You decorated it, and all your stuff is there. You can’t live out of a suitcase forever.”

  “I’m figuring out what I’m going to do.”

  “You’re still wearing your ring.”

  I cover it up with my hands.

  He smirks and comes closer to me, his large hands caressing my arms and elbows. My body opens to him, warm and inviting. I try hard to stand strong and keep Haru at bay, but I fail miserably.

  Before I know anything, we’re in the guestroom, on the bed, kissing passionately. Haru on top of me, his shirt off. He backs away for a moment, rising to his feet; he stares at me, my hands reach for him. I loathe myself for wanting him so much. I want to be mad at him, stand my ground, but I crumble beneath him.

  “So, everything’s all good, princess. My guys are back in business.” He pauses, “I know you’re mad at me and don’t want to come home now, but...” He pauses. “Is it okay if I do things to you?” Haru asks with a smirk as he moves in, rubbing my leg.

  I deny him in my mind, but what comes out of my mouth is, “O—only if it’s stuff I'm okay with.” I almost can’t believe myself. He could do anything he wants to me right now and no one would know. That fact alone sends a sense of fear through my body, but the fear turns me on.

  Haru crawls onto the bed, hovering over me. His lips graze my neck.

  I fall deeper into his kisses. Immediately, twitching with excitement.

  “How could you leave me?” Haru grumbles in a low voice.

  His kisses sting.

  When the pain grows harder to bear, I feel his teeth against my skin as I arch my back. His sweet, warm lips, dull out the pain with every piercing bite and nibble. I don’t answer him, or I do, but it’s only with quiet moans. No doubt he’s leaving his mark on me.

  Haru dips his hand between my legs, rubbing up my thighs; my hips wiggle with anticipation. His fingertips tease my pearl, and I scoot forward, tilting my pelvis upward, so he can see all of me.

  Haru continues to tease me until finally, he rubs me with a smooth back-and-forth motion, my hips gyrating in a round motion to apply more pressure onto Haru’s fingers.

  What the hell is wrong with me? I’m mad at him because he doesn’t take me seriously. He thinks he can come down here and kiss me and then—but I want it. I want him. My thoughts fade as pleasure takes over my whole body.

  He moves to my lips, kissing me deeply as we both moan softly. Haru, without warning, slides inside of me with a groan that falls upon my ears, making my body melt into his. His slow thrusts are all-consuming, my body quivers with desire. I want to swallow him, take all of him inside of me. This isn’t the rough sex I’m used to with Haru; this is something different, something sweeter that I didn't expect.

  Just as I’m pressing my head against the pillow, about to burst, my mind races with visions of Haru tying me up and blindfolding me. Those soon fade away as I am brought back to reality by Haru dipping his head between my legs and kissing my inner thighs softly, closer an
d closer to my wet folds. His lips seal themselves around my middle and take in all my juices. I grasp at the sheets while he holds my thighs in his hands, widening my legs with every suckle. As he does, I grow hungry for him to be inside of me.

  My body shivers. Even as I try to wiggle away, he holds me with his strong hands. I cry out; he laps me up harder with longer and deeper tongue strides up and down, outside and inside my flower. I push his shoulder blades down, but he doesn’t budge. I bend my legs and put my feet on his shoulder blades and push him back. He finally unlatches. I breathe quickly and deeply, my hunger growing. I giggle in excitement as Haru leaps up and pulls me closer to his hips.

  “Do you feel that?” Haru asks as he rubs the tip of himself in even strokes up and down between my folds.

  I can’t take it. I want it. I need it. “P-please,” I mutter in a breathless tone. “Make love to me.”

  Our eyes meet; his are big with lustful desire. With my alluring statement, he penetrates me effortlessly. I let out a sigh of unfathomable pleasure. Haru moves in and out of me, his eyes meeting mine and glistening with exhilaration. I want him to give me the dirty, rough sex—the kind where I am crying—but that’s not at all what happens. The look I had assumed was lustful, couldn’t possibly have been. I don’t know what the look was.

  For hours, Haru makes sweet and sensual love to me without missing a single beat. This being the closest to heaven I’ve ever been. Both of us are soaked in sweat. Absent from my own body, I buck my hips with him. This action alone ignites the Haru, I know.

  He goes wild. He put one hand behind my neck and another on the bed, cradling me in his arms, and he pumps deep and hard inside of me. All the while, the pressure is building inside of my body as my legs get tired, as my muscles get weak. Haru breathes slowly.

  One final thrust, and his warmth fills me up. It’s enough to make me burst at the seams. I let out a loud moan as I tighten around Haru’s manhood, making him stream even more.

  Though we haven’t spoken in weeks, we’ve still managed to deepen our connections across the board.

  Chapter Twenty-Six: Haru, You’re an Asshole

  I wake up happy. It’s been a while. My eyes stay closed as I press my body into Haru and snuggle into his chest, lying on his arm. He leans forward and throws his other arm over me, his hair falling downward, almost covering my face. I move it behind me.

  “Princess,” he calls to me and slides his hand down my stomach. He leans toward my middle and lifts the covers. “Did you miss me, Kathy? I missed you. I hope I’ve made up for staying away so long.”

  I smile sleepily, finally opening my eyes. “I talked to her while you weren’t here.”

  “You did? What did you guys talk about?”

  “Bob.” I giggle. “She talked about getting licked and stuff.” It’s kind of embarrassing when you’re here though to say all the stuff we talked about.”

  “Don’t be embarrassed.” He glances at me, then back down at my private parts. “Did she touch you while I was away?”

  I gasp and smack Haru across the chest. “No, I didn’t!”

  “I was just wondering. It’s been a while... a woman has needs.”

  “Shut up, Haru!”

  He leans back with a tranquil smirk on his face. I snuggle into him once again.

  “We should probably get up,” he mumbles in my ear in a loving voice.

  “Why?” I mutter back.

  “The hearing. It’s at noon.”

  “Oh, right.”

  “You want to go see Max first?”

  I open my eyes, bite down on my teeth, and gulp as my body tenses. I sit up and scoot myself around the bed with my hands so I can see his face.

  “Haru.” I stare at him. “Are we going to talk to them and see if they’re really trying to take Max?”

  “Uh, no.” He sits up, his muscles flexing as he does. “My lawyer’s going to talk to them. I’m not saying shit.”

  I arch my neck. “You got a lawyer anyway, after I asked you not to?”

  “Yeah. I’m not fucking around. This is my kid; they’re trying to take him from his family. He’s the best family court lawyer. So, I have nothing to worry about. I will win.”

  “She is his family, Haru. I thought family was important to you. Isn’t that why we’re going all the way to Japan to get married? Why we moved closer to your parents?”

  “She wants sole custody. You think I’m just going to come and see Max on the weekend? Fuck that. If I don’t come prepared, they could take him. Now, let’s go. Take a shower and grab your shit. We’ll get some ice cream before we go home. It’s a long drive.”

  I narrow my eyes at him. There are at least four hundred words at the tip of my tongue, but I am having trouble getting out just one. I close my eyes to straighten out my thoughts; they are so jumbled and angry.

  I get right to the point. “I’m not going with you.”

  “You’re not coming home?”

  “Are you kidding me? I wanted to do this the best way possible, see what they were talking about, but here you go throwing your money around and getting some big shot lawyer, who probably doesn’t care about Max or his grandmother. She’s his grandmother, remember? She has a right to see him. Not take him away from you, but definitely to see him. If anything, she probably knew you would be unwilling to talk or compromise, so she went ‘worst case scenario.’”

  “No, your mind is innocent. You’re the one who jumped on the lap of a drunk twenty-eight-year-old man who hadn’t had sex in two years. It just so happened to work out. When you do shit like that and you’re not ready for it, bad things happen—you have to be ready.”

  “My mind is innocent?” I narrow my eyes at him. “What the hell does that mean? I’m dumb?”

  “That’s not what the fuck I said. You just—”

  “I went for what I wanted.”

  “No, you got in bed with a fucking raging machine and decided you didn’t want mechanical work anymore. Do you know the shit that could have happened to you if I wasn’t who I was, or if I didn’t love you?”

  My anger lessens. Yes, I’m still mad at him, but I can’t hold in my smile and girlishly happy eyes.

  “What?” he asks with annoyance and a slight bit of anger in his tone.

  “You loved me?”

  He’s speechless; he lowers his head and averts his eyes from me as his cheeks redden.

  Now that the atmosphere isn’t so angry, my mind isn’t so jumbled. Maybe Haru won’t be such an asshole.

  “And why do you think you can just come here and say, let’s go—and what’s the ice cream thing about? Am I a child? Is ice cream supposed to be my reward for coming home like a good girl?” I snap at him. “So, I go to the hearing and watch this bullshit lawyer rip an elderly woman’s grandson out of her hands, and you promise me ice cream afterward?”

  He stares at me astonished for a moment and offers only a simple “no” with a thousand secrets behind it. How confusing.

  “You said no, but it doesn’t sound like even you believe yourself. You’re an asshole, Haru.”

  “It’s not that. I just don’t understand how you could correlate the two. Do you feel like you’re a child? You say that a lot. Am I the one treating you like a child, or is that how you feel about yourself? Because you’ve been taking care of me and Max, like a woman. I fuck you like a woman. It’s hard to see your rationale. That’s all.”

  “Haru? Are you serious, you think I’m the one with the issue? After you said all that stuff about me not being Max’s mom and me not being able to understand how you feel because I’m not a parent. How do you think that made me feel?”

  “I’m sorry, princess. I’m not taking it back. I said it because I meant it. You don’t know how I feel. How can that make you sad? There’s shit I don’t understand about you. Like, I’ll never be able to understand the hurt and pain you must feel with your mother not being supportive. No matter how distant me and my parents are, they’ve always supported
me. Never talked to me the way your mother talks to you.” He stares down at the bed. “But I’ll always support you.”

  His words ring true as I understand more of what he means. Though there is still that nagging statement that ripped my heart out.

  “You said I wasn’t Max’s mother.”

  “Okay, technically, you’re not. But if we get married, like we planned, then you will be.”

  “Stop with all the technicalities.”

  “Okay, I am sorry for that. I said that out of anger. I’m sorry that it hurt you. In my head, it made sense at the time; now it doesn’t. I was wrong to assume that. I’m still getting used to us; please don’t hate me for messing up sometimes.”

  “I don’t hate you, Haru.” I say. I can feel my eyes watering.

  “Max likes you more than me,” he says, scratching his head, not allowing me to see his eyes as he stares at the floor, his cheeks red. “I was selfishly angry about that. He came right to your defense, and you’re all he talks about.”

  “You mean since I’ve been gone?”

  “Yeah. I told him I was mad at you that night because you had to go away for school, and I wanted you to stay.” He tosses his head back sexily, our eyes meeting. My heart beats melodically as sparkles fly through my body. “Max gave me a lecture. He also thinks it’s his fault you left.”

  “What? No!”

  “I want you to come back. Max wants you to come back.”

  My heart warms; he shouldn’t say another word. I’m five seconds away from caving.

  “Like what are you going to do anyway, stay here with Darby forever? Move back in with your mom?”

  Whatever heart palpitations and butterfly flutters I had before, turn into flames running through my veins.

  “Excuse me? Do you think I can’t do it by myself? Like I couldn’t get my own shit? I have one more semester. I’m in line for a training position at the high school, and you think I need someone to be able to survive?”

  Haru’s eyes get so wide, and he’s making sounds of a blubbering idiot. I rise from the bed.

  Try to stay calm.

  I bypass my own advice. “Get out. I’m not going to the hearing.”