His Revenge Baby: 50 Loving States, Washington (4 page)

“But you don’t.”

“No, he’s cute. He is…well, just not as cute as you.” It then occurred to her to ask, since they were in Japan, a country with more sexual fetishes than most Americans would recognize or even comprehend, “Um, do you want me to think he’s cute? Is that part of the deal?”

He inclined his head, as if trying to discern if he was hearing her correctly. Then he said, voice as cold as ice, “My brother has nothing to do with this, Miss Granger.”

Oh God, she was blowing it. Blowing it
so
hard.

And now Doug would lose everything because of her—

“Knowing it would be me. Not my father. Not my brother. But me, would you still want this job?”

His question jerked her out of her panicked thought spiral. “Yes. I mean, of course.

Sure.”

“Why?”

“Excuse me?”

“Why do you wish to be my mistress for the next six months?”

The real question was Why. Was. She. So. Awkward??? With another thought toward the blond in the lobby who would most definitely be getting this job over her, Lilli decided to go with the truth. “Because the agency sent me here. And, well…have you seen yourself? You’re totally hot! And rich. Other than the whole naked interview thing, you’re basically a Japanese Prince Charming. Quite frankly, I’m pretty surprised…”

She stopped realizing she hadn’t just gone off the script the voice on the phone had given her, but entered into some crazy improvisation land. Seriously, Doug was so screwed.

But the man behind the desk said, “I would like for you to keep going.”

Keep going…

So rather than stand there awkwardly, she did as he asked. “Well, I’m just surprised someone as cute as you is…ah…paying for someone to have sex with him. I mean, most of the women in the lobby would have probably taken this job for free if you’d asked them to.”

“And you, Miss Granger. Would
you
have volunteered?”

“I…” Again the truth slipped out unbidden. “I’m not sure how to answer that without either insulting you or getting in trouble with Osaka Charm.”

Or telling the real truth
, she silently added. That she wasn’t an ESL teacher who’d decided to go into the more lucrative escort/call-girl business after her contract was up at a small elementary school. But a pediatric nurse who’d only come to Japan for Doug Tucker.

Her brother.

The only person she had left in the world. The person who’d handed her the phone a couple of weeks ago and said, “I’ve got somebody here who says they can help me. But they want you to do something for them, Sis…”

She’d taken the phone, more than a little weirded out by the obviously distorted voice on the other end of the line, but eager to help her brother. Although if Doug actually knew what the voice had requested of her, she doubted—

“What are you thinking about?” Another question from the enigmatic man seated across from her.

“Nothing. I’m just…a little sad.”

“Why?”

“Because I know I’m blowing this interview, and you’ve probably never been on this side of the desk, but it’s kind of excruciating to stand here completely naked while you’re screwing up. And cold.”

Real talk. Too real. And she didn’t even want to think about what her college therapist would have said about all of this. About how far she’d fallen back into her terrible family dynamic. How her compulsive need to be liked, her codependent ways, were making her repeat ugly patterns from her past.

But hey, at least she now knew how bad things were this time. She wasn’t rushing into this interview blindly, hoping to be paid in even a speck of love. No, this time around she knew how completely messed up the situation she’d agree to put herself in was. How little love she’d ever receive from a

guy who apparently got his jollies watching naked girls die on the vine during his

“interviews.”

As it was, the hawk behind the desk didn’t acknowledge her answer of his question.

Just sat there silently, dark eyes completely unreadable.

Which gave her thoughts plenty of time to go into free-fall. She shifted her gaze to the large windows and the darkening view of Osaka beyond.

“Sorry. I’m just really terrible at this. Can I…” she swallowed, hating how bad she still was at being rejected, even under these circumstances. “Can I please go now?”

This time he responded. An almost immediate, “
Hai
, you may go.”

Lilli didn’t wait to be told twice. She beat it out of there. Relieved to be done with this, even as her heart beat with fear for Doug.

Chapter Four

OKAY, she’d just been interviewed and summarily rejected by Norio Nakamura, not the Japanese billionaire she’d been expecting, but a Japanese billionaire nonetheless thanks to his holdings in Nakamura Worldwide. He was also the head of RoTeku, the Osaka-based robotics division of Nakamura Worldwide and, according to the internet, the man who would most likely to become the entire company’s next director if he played his cards right. She’d figured that much out by the time she returned to her new

“apartment.”

Yet another fabrication set up by the mysterious voice.

Lilliana Tucker shared a small townhouse with her brother and niece in Toyonaka.

Ana Granger, however, had recently moved into a shared flat near the Shigino Station in the Joto Ward. She lived with seven other foreign Osaka Charm girls—all of whom were blond. No surprise there.

After her experience in the reception area full of nude African-American blonds, Lilli was truly beginning to wonder if Osaka Charm only hired blond expats…and if the voice on the other end of Doug’s phone had any idea how unsuited for this job she was.

How could anyone believe the billionaire, who turned out not to be Kazuo Nakamura, but his insanely good-looking son, would want someone like her?

And based on what? A single, brief encounter in a nightclub she’d tried to quietly fish Doug out of? Speaking of which…

As soon as Lilli arrived back at her “apartment,” she called her brother. Doug must have been waiting for her call because he picked up after the first double beep.

“How did it go?” he demanded.

“Not great. I’m pretty sure I didn’t get the job.”

Doug cursed on the other side of the line.

“It was a long shot anyway,” she pointed out. “There were like a thousand candidates. Some who spoke way better Japanese than me.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Doug grumbled. “It’s just that there was so much riding on this.

And I don’t know what to tell Ruby. This was my last shot to stay here in Japan. Now we’ll definitely have to move back to the States. Away from her gym and coaches. And even if I manage to find a job, there’s no way I’ll be able to afford the same quality of coaches she has here.”

Lilli sighed. She knew how much was riding on this for Doug, and for her niece who’d seemingly come out the womb a fully-fledged gymnast with dreams of representing Japan in the 2020 Olympics. Like she agreed-to-a-naked-interview-with-a-Japanese-billionaire knew it. But… “It’s not like I was sent out to do something totally cool. Whoever that person is, they want me to spy on this guy. And we have no idea what they’re going to do with the information.”

Lilli chose her words carefully. She’d told Doug the interview was for an administrative position, but of course that was a lie.

If her brother knew she’d agreed to put her body on the line in order to help him secure this contract, he never would have let her go.

Are you sure about that?
she heard her former therapist ask inside her head…before reminding Lilli she had a long history of setting aside her own self-care in her quest to feel loved and accepted by people who maybe weren’t capable of either of those things.

“Who cares what they do with the information?” Doug said on the other end of the line. “I’m trying to take care of my kid here. Secure some kind of future for
all
of us.”

She knew her brother believed every word he was saying, but Lilli, who’d quit a secure and stable job to take part in this scheme, couldn’t help but cringe a little at Doug’s claim. “I understand both your baseball dreams and Ruby’s gymnastic dreams are riding on this, but I’d like to think we’re better than this, Dougie.”

A dark second passed, and then Doug said, “You know what? I’m not better than this, Lilli. Staying on this team is the only thing keeping me straight. You saw how bad I got before they traded me here. Meeting Ruby’s mom saved me. If I try to live in Seattle again without her
and
without baseball—it would be bad. I don’t think even Ruby would be enough to keep me on the path. I need the Hawks. Need this organization to keep me on the straight and narrow.”

“I know,” she said gently. “But this interview they sent me on...it was almost impossible for someone like me to get. I’m not even sure why they—”

“Maybe you could call them. Tell them you’ll take Japanese classes if they hire you?”

Tears of frustration pooled in Lilli’s eyes. Because Doug, who’d been a baseball player all his life, didn’t understand how the real world worked. Because she’d had to lie to him about the true nature of the assignment the voice had sent her on. Because he was pinning his entire well-being, as well as his daughter’s, on his younger sister.

But mostly because she knew she was a fool for agreeing to any of this.

For being willing to do anything for her brother. Including prostitute herself. Simply because no one else in her family had ever given two shits about her. Not her mother.

Not her father. Only Doug.

For that reason alone, she actually felt guilty as she replied, “Doug, I did my best.

But my best is, well, awkward. And weird. And not cool like you. I’m sorry, but you knew this about me before you asked me to do this for whoever made this bargain with you.”

There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. Then, “Yeah, I guess I did know.

I was just hoping you’d come through for me this time.”

“Doug, I tried—”

“Sure, whatever. You’re the one who got me into this mess in the first place. I

wouldn’t be in trouble if I hadn’t been trying to protect you.”

Lilli gripped the phone tighter, her stomach beginning to churn uncomfortably. “I didn’t ask you to punch that guy for me.”

“You didn’t have to. I did it because I love you.”

“And I love you, but come on, Doug! You shouldn’t have been at that party in the first place. Not with your history. That’s what got you kicked off the Seattle Fishers in the first place—”

“Okay, Lilliana. Yeah, it’s all my fault you showed up to that party looking like a slut, trying to control me, and I had to defend you. Way to deflect blame.”

“I’m not trying to—!”

He hung up before she could point out that she had only been at that party because of the frantic text she’d received from her niece who was in the care of the one night stand Doug left his daughter with before going to the party he’d promised Lilli he wouldn’t attend. It just so happened Lilli was out for a rare night on the town with her other
gaijin
work friends, kicking back in Namba instead of performing nanny service for Ruby.

But
noooo
, Doug couldn’t even let her have that. Couldn’t even behave for a few measly hours. And now he was blaming her for all of this.
Her
!

Eff that. With a head full of steam, Lilli called Doug back, fully intending to lay into him. Voicemail. No surprise there. He always gave her the cold shoulder for a day or two whenever they fought. She waited for the beep. Then…

“Look, Doug. I love you. You know that. But Ruby is
your
daughter. Not mine. She’s your responsibility. If you wanted a boy’s night out, you should have just told me instead of...”

Lilli trailed off. Not because she was finished with her lecture, but because she was interrupted by the ringing of an old fashioned phone. It was loud. So loud that she looked toward the small desk, wondering if she’d somehow missed a landline when she moved into the furnished room a week ago.

But no, the sound wasn’t coming from the desk, but from below. More specifically, it was coming from the purse she’d dropped on the tatami mat floor when she walked into the room. What the…?

Lilli was struck by the memory of Miyuki handing over her purse with lots of bows and thank yous after she’d finished getting dressed. She quickly grabbed her purse and inside, she found a brand new phone. Not a Samsung, like the one she’d brought to Japan a little over a year ago—but a
sumatofon
, a Japanese smartphone with the words NTTdocomo emblazoned across the bottom.

“I’ll call you back,” she mumbled, hanging up on Doug’s voicemail system.

Then she pushed the mysterious new phone’s green icon button and said, “
Moshi-moshi
…”

Chapter Five

SHE WAS BACK in his office. And this time, she was wearing a pair of heels No suspected Miyuki might have bought on her behalf in preparation for this second interview.

This time he stood when she entered the room and invited her to sit down. She seemed noticeably startled when she realized the cold steel chairs had been replaced with soft leather ones.

“Oh, wow! New chairs. Um…thanks.”

No simply nodded, not bothering to mention he’d also had the heat turned up in his office. He liked to keep his inner-sanctum cool, but found himself more concerned about the American girl’s comfort than his own.

He watched her carefully as she gingerly took a seat. A much more comfortable position in which to have a conversation, yet she seemed no less nervous now than she had been during their first interview.

The truth was, she was somewhat of an enigma to him. Unlike anyone he’d ever been attracted to before, and definitely unlike anyone he’d ever met via Osaka Charm.

Where had they even found someone like her?
he wondered. Someone who exuded such an air of innocence? Her demeanor was either a carefully cultivated affect, or…

“You are new to Osaka Charm,” he guessed. “Very new.”

“Is it that obvious?” she asked with a rather self-deprecating laugh.

And even though he was known in Osaka and beyond as a very serious man, a man who rarely, if ever laughed, he found himself chuckling along with her.