His Revenge Baby: 50 Loving States, Washington (13 page)

The faint lines around his upside down crescent moon eyes deepened, and for a moment he just looked at her. The recent orgasms thrumming between them, his lips hovering over hers. The sexual tension as thick as a Victorian novel.

“Seriously…” Lilli murmured, stroking his hair. “I want to look good for you in Tokyo. Maybe we can dance again, like we did in Cairns last month…”

Last month, it had been spring in Japan, with the cherry blossoms popping up all over the city like floral fireworks. But Down Under, the sizzling summer nights had yet to give way to autumn.

No’s eyes flashed as if he were reliving that night. The sticky heat, and Lilli in full Ana mode. Dancing to the deep trance music floating up from the nightclub below.

They never, ever went out together during their trips. Most of the time, all No did was work, meet up with his team or other business contacts in conference rooms and hotel restaurants. They flew together on No’s personal jet but always made a point of arriving to the hotels separately, so no one but Miyuki knew what—or who—he was hiding up in his room.

But that night in Cairns had been different. The music, so sudden and unexpected, made it feel like they were at a club together. It had started out with Lilli dancing for him, but then No stood and pulled her into a sensual clench. The music pulsing between them as she made the surprising discovery that her businessman actually had rhythm.

“Seriously…” she murmured again, releasing memories of that night in Cairns to return to this morning in Osaka.

“We both have places we need to get to,” Lilli reminded him.

“
Hai
,” he agreed with an annoyed look. “And today I have to give the pitching boto’s

presentation at the Osaka Robotics Summit.”

But then No grew serious. “Afterwards, I would like you to come to me…”

“I can’t,” she answered with a grimace. “I have my waxing appointment, so we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to do this again.”

“Ana-san, you are not letting me finish,” he said with a small reprimanding smile. “I have a business dinner tonight at six, and I would like for you to join me.”

Lilli’s eyes widened, because… “You mean like
join you
, join you? Like, actually eat with you? In…public? With other people?!”

She remembered Miyuki’s warning about No never taking her anywhere a mistress wouldn’t be accepted. That night at the club with his previous Osaka Charm girl, the Australian, had been a one-off because he’d known the party would be stocked with escorts.

And up ‘til now, this had been the one thing about their relationship Miyuki hadn’t gotten wrong. Other than spa appointments, airport lounges, private jet rides, and hotel rooms, Lilli hadn’t seen much of the outside this love flat in months. So she was a little wary of No’s out of the blue invitation. In fact, she fretted at her lip, asking, “Is this some kind of weird “pass the escort around” thing? Because I don’t think I’d be at all down with that, and it would seriously not be a good idea after my waxing appointment…”

She trailed off when she noticed a hard light flare in No’s eyes, his earlier good humor vanishing without a trace.

“
Iie
!” he answered with a firm shake of his head, as if he and his previous mistresses had never even considered doing something similar. “This is dinner.
Only
dinner. With an associate and his wife.”

Lilli didn’t even bother to try to hide her relief. “Okay, well in that case, sure!” she agreed enthusiastically, right before she realized it hadn’t really been a request in the first place.

The truth was, nothing he ever asked of her was actually a request. Whatever he wanted, she was obligated to agree to. Thankfully, during their time together, No only seemed to desire her company and her pleasure. But if he wanted to pass her around and share her with his associates and colleagues, she’d be expected to go along with it.

And really, considering the amount of money Miyuki had been sending to Osaka Charm to rent her, no one but she would blink twice if No did decide to turn Lilli into a living party favor.

If he’d noticed she’d remembered their uneven power dynamic, it didn’t show in the easy smile, now spreading across his face. “It is a date-o, as they say in your country.

Miyuki will take you to your appointments, then bring you to me.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Lilli agreed, doing her best to keep her voice light. “But for the record, they don’t add the “o” at the end of “date.” Just so you know.”

“Okay, I will remember that. But for now…” His smile grew wicked. “Keep going.”

Chapter Eighteen

NO FEARED his American girl’s good nature was contagious. He’d found himself smiling much as of late. Not only at the beginning and ending of the work day, but in between, too, at just the thought of the woman he’d left in bed and would be coming home to.

He was also appreciating the little things in life more than he ever had before. Like how Riyu greeted him brightly when he walked into the office that morning and every morning, and the subsequent text from Miyuki saying she was on her way to retrieve Ana, and had scheduled a car to arrive at Ana’s apartment to drive her to dinner.

After Riyu left to set up for the presentation, No even got a kick out of viewing the surveillance feed at the apartment Ana referred to as the “love flat”—not a declaration of her feeling for him, but a reference to to the short-stay “love hotels” one could find all over Japan, used primarily for sexual encounters. The camera was supposed to be a surveillance tool, put there so that he and Miyuki could ensure his Osaka Charm mistresses weren’t breaking the rules he’d lay down for the flat.

But this morning instead of going over his summit notes, he watched Ana as she watched one of her favorite J-dramas, even though she didn’t speak enough Japanese to even partially understand what the characters were saying.

Weak
, his father would say of No’s decision to not spy on, but tenderly observe Ana instead of reviewing his notes.

In fact, No couldn’t help but wonder if his father somehow knew about his American Osaka Charm girl a few hours later. Because when he slid into the back of the limo he would share with his father and Hayato to the summit, Kazuo returned No’s bow with a sour look.

But as it turned out, No’s choice of mistress wasn’t what was on his father’s mind.

“Our enemy will be at the conference,” Kazuo pointed out as soon as the driver returned to his seat and began to move the car forward. “He is able to walk again and will present for his own company this afternoon. He dares to come to our country, and make us seem weak. If you had listened to me…”

And so it went. All the way to the summit. Only No’s deeply ingrained respect kept him from pointing out that RoTeku continued to thrive without GoBotics under its umbrella. Or from repeating his assertion that he believed Nakamura Worldwide

should concentrate on using robotics to make their cars more practical, rather than cuter as his father wished.

Even if he had said any of this, No knew his father wouldn’t listen. Maybe when they were younger, when he’d bragged about how his son, Norio, planned to take the company into the future. How he and Hayato were the company’s future, so smart, the board would most likely vote one of them into the director position after he died. Died, not retired. Everyone knew the Nakamuras weren’t so weak as to stop working until the day they died. Nearly every Nakamura, including Kazuo’s father, grandfather, and brother, had died while still under the company’s employ.

Listening to his father rant about how Go’s presence at the Osaka summit was affecting their family legacy, it was hard for No to believe Kazuo had actually started out as the family rebel. The younger of the Nakamura heirs, he’d married a Chinese girl he’d met while in the (back then) generally poorer country on business. The younger Nakamura brother had married for love instead of family duty. But then his older brother died unexpectedly, Kazuo had been required to step up.

His Chinese wife who’d only given him one
hafu
son had been replaced by a much younger Japanese girl from a prominent family who’d given him two, within three years of their wedding date. Overnight it seemed, Kazuo Nakamura had gone from being the shame of his family to the man who would carry on its legacy. And he’d been proud when Norio—his oldest, legitimate son—had been appointed to head of the RoTeku after returning from the U.S. with an advanced robotics degree. Even going so far as to quote a Tokyo newspaper article about how Norio would “carry the company into the future” when he formally announced his appointment at that year’s shareholder meeting.

But all that changed the day Norio and Hayato’s mother died. Ever since that time, Kazuo been nothing but cold and disrespectful to No and his brother, as if their mother’s death had not only hurt their family, but destroyed their bond.

He’d groomed No to be his successor. But Kazuo’s disenchantment with his oldest son seemed to grow by the year. And the situation with Go…it had become a particular bone of contention between them. With his father gnawing at it like a hungry wolf, even as the Robotics Division continued to grow and develop without the addition of GoBotics to their holdings.

Since his mother’s death, no matter what No did, no matter how hard he worked to put his initiatives in place, nothing seemed to please Kazuo.

How does that make you feel?
Ana would certainly have asked him now with concern filling her large anime eyes.

But
feeling
was
weak
. Being
sad
that he would never have the same relationship with Kazuo that Go had with his dad was
weak
.

And Nakamuras were not weak.

No took his father’s verbal beating with a strong jaw, his eyes carefully cast downward.

However, even he couldn’t mask his surprise when his father finished with, “And this is why I have decided you are no longer fit to lead at RoTeku.”

“Father, no!” the words leapt out of his mouth, harsh and angry, before he could stop this.

But Kazuo shook his head. “The board was overly excited about your visions for the company. As I suspected, they were wrong to appoint you to this position at such a young age. You need more seasoning. So I have decided you will present at this conference, but Hayato and I will not attend as planned. And then at the Tokyo board meeting, I will announce your resignation. At which time you will begin work under Hayato in the Marketing Division.”

No’s eyes narrowed. “Work under Hayato,” he repeated. The words “
my younger
brother
” implied, if not explicitly stated.

No looked over at Hayato. Had his father said anything to him about this? But Hayato answered No’s silent question with a discreet shake of his head. And No knew his brother. Hayato was on his very short list of people No truly felt he could trust.

“Father…” No began again.

But then the limo slowed to a stop beneath the Rihga Royal Hotel’s carport. They had arrived.

“We are done with this discussion,” Kazuo said, cutting off his older son’s attempt to reason with him. “This is not the time for emotions. Do not make our family look weak in front of the driver.”

Iie
, they couldn’t have that, could they? Kazuo could basically fire him from RoTeku during the car ride, but ancestors forbid No actually have the opportunity to defend himself.

However, Kazuo was right about one thing. This was not the time for emotion. No needed to get out of the car. Calculate his next move. And create a plan of action that would convince his father that he was mistaken.

No stepped out of the limo. Only to have things go from bad to worse.

Riyu was waiting for him at the doors of the hotel, wringing her hands despite the fact that his presentation time slot was still an hour away. Her anxious demeanor and the fact that she should already be in the conference space setting up made alarm bells go off in No’s head.

And then his stomach completely knotted when upon seeing him, Riyu rushed over, barely taking the time to bow before saying, “Nakamura-sama, I’m afraid we have a problem. You are being spied on.”

Chapter Nineteen

LILLI COULD no longer deny it. She was getting used to this lifestyle. Sometime during the last six months, her monthly spa visits had gone from being an inconvenient pain in the ass to something she looked forward to.

Or maybe she was just so well-fucked these days that nothing fazed her anymore.

These days she was more than happy to meet No’s aesthetic tastes, so much so that the spa visits felt like rainbows and unicorns rather than primping and waxing.

In any case, Lilli left her final luxurious soak at the spa feeling lucky, and walked into her nails and make-up appointment with a blissed out smile on her face.

She thought of the way No had looked at her this morning while she was on top of him, petting her with his eyes. Making her insides purr with his appreciation. It wasn’t just a Selena Gomez song anymore. She wanted to look good for him, she realized, even more so during their last days together.

And sure, Lilli was still a little sore and having serious trouble keeping her eyes open after all the “keep going” she had done last night and this morning.

But hey, how many women got to treat their body aches with massages and long soaks in therapeutic baths?

No, she really couldn’t complain, she thought to herself, her smile turning naughty as she settled into the quilted white hair and make-up chair in the private backroom.

Couldn’t complain at all.

Behind her she heard the door open and close and she turned to greet women who usually did her nails and makeup with a happy smile.

But it wasn’t a flock of ladies who’d entered the room.

Before her stood a man. A little on the tall side for someone of his country origin and age. Five-eight, maybe even five-ten. And thin. But not in the same lean, muscular way as No.

But he definitely possessed No’s stillness and had the same way of looking down his nose at a person…studying them, head slightly inclined like a bird of prey. Yet where No’s hair was thick and wavy, this man’s was grey silk. And his nose was long and sharp rather than thin and slightly flared like No’s. So technically, they looked nothing alike.