Park and Violet (5 page)

      She grinned. “I really like you having as a friend.” And she thought, Just as long as you don’t get any ideas we could be more.

      He grunted. “Yeah, you’re tolerable, too.” Just as long as you don’t think I’m going to fall for you.

Chapter Five

      Violet was about to knock hard on the door when it suddenly opened and she ended up staring at a (once again) bare-chested Park in surprise. Her eyes dipped low before she could stop herself from doing it.

      Oh, hello there. Again.

      When she looked up, Park was smirking.

      “See something you liked?”

      Two could play this game.

      She smiled up sweetly at him. “Oh, absolutely,” she trilled. “I guess I just didn’t expect you to wake up so early for little ole me.” She blew him a kiss. “That’s so sweet!”

      A grin tugged at his lips. Why had he even thought he could get the last word with this girl? She was just so unlike anyone he had ever met.

      Violet tapped his shoulder and he gave way immediately. As she walked past him, he caught a whiff of something like— “Is your perfume like violets?”

      “You noticed?” she asked, beaming at him over her shoulders.

      He froze midway when he saw Violet throwing herself onto his bed, bouncing a bit as she landed.

      Danger zone.

      “It’s not surprising, isn’t it? My name
is
Violet, after all.”

      He could barely understand her. All he could do was stare at her, his throat running dry as she tucked her silky long legs underneath her, making him imagine those same legs wrapped around his waist as fucked her long and hard.

      Shit.

      Park raked a hand through his hair. He really had to find a girl he could bang for one night, just to get Violet out of his system.

      “Park?”

      He realized belatedly she had asked him a question and it had totally gone over his head. “Sorry, what did you say again?”

      “I said not a lot of people notice what my scent is. So how come you did?” She looked at him quizzically. “Are you into flowers or something?”

      Park opened and closed his mouth.

      Violet’s eyes widened and she gasped. “Oh my God, you
are
into flowers.”

      “I’m not,” he snapped even as he flushed.

      She started to laugh. “You are, oh my God, you—a blond gorilla–into flowers!” Her laughter filled his room. “This is so rich!” Her eyes danced at him. “Are you, like, a botanist wannabe?”

      Park gave Violet a dirty look. “I just used to collect flowers when I was a boy,” he gritted out.

      Violet clutched her heart dramatically. “Oh, this is just too much. My friend is the sweetest guy in the world!”

      “Ha-ha.”

      She grinned at Park even as she told herself,
Control, control. Don’t ever let yourself drool even if you think he’s such a gorgeous hottie when he doesn’t have his shirt on.

      Park sat behind her on the bed, leaning against the headboard. He stretched out his legs and his toes almost touched Violet’s knee.

      Violet resisted the urge to scoot away.
Friends
, she told herself. What was wrong with her, anyway? She had gotten way closer to other guys than this. So why was she going crazy every time she was near Park?

      “Why are you here so early?” Park asked.

      Violet was studying Park’s feet. Damn! Even his feet looked good and his nails were clean and cut short. “I woke up early, had nothing to do, so I’m here,” she answered absently.

      His jaw dropped. “And I’m supposed to entertain Your Royal Highness?” he questioned sarcastically.

      She twisted halfway to give Park another one of her killer smiles, the one that got a famous actor back home so smitten he had declared himself in love at first sight. “It’s your duty as my friend.”

      He grunted.

      “So please, entertain me.”

      “In your—”

      Violet took a deep breath.

      His eyes widened. Surely she wouldn’t fucking do it again—

      “Please, please, please, please, please—”

      “Okay,” he roared. God, his ears must be suffering from some kind of internal bleeding right now. “You’re so fucking noisy,” he muttered.

      She ignored that. “So where are we going?” Violet asked cheerfully.

      He checked his watch. “We have to be at work by four.”

      “It’s only eight am.” Violet rolled her eyes. “We’ll get there on time.”

      “I don’t like being late,” Park warned her.

      “For God’s sake, work is like eight hours away, Park! Stop worrying and tour me around!” She pointed bossily to his bathroom. “Go take a shower.” When he didn’t move, she took a deep breath—

      Park hastily jumped off the bed. “Okay, okay, just don’t start screeching again.”

      Violet tried not to smile at his words, and when he walked past her, she also tried not to ogle his backside. Sheeesh. He might still be an Asian Yeti in her eyes, but she couldn’t pretend he didn’t have the yummiest-looking back. His defined, sexy back, with all the muscles—

      Park suddenly turned around. “Where do you—” His eyes widened.

      She quickly looked elsewhere but it was too late.

      “You were totally checking me out, weren’t you?”

      “Nope. Not. Wasn’t.” She still couldn’t make herself look at him, and especially after that totally lame comeback. Park didn’t say anything else, but she could sense him smirking all the way to the shower. Ass.

      Over an hour later—who knew there were guys who actually took longer than girls to shower—and they were inside a nearby sushi house, waiting for the salmon sashimi on the motorized tray to reach them. They grabbed the first plate at the same time, tugged at each end, and when Violet saw that he wouldn’t budge, she simply let it go, almost causing Park to drop the entire plate.

      Giggling as she heard him curse, Violet grabbed the second plate of raw salmon from the motorized tray. Making sure she had enough wasabi in her sauce, she drowned one slice of salmon in it before popping it into her mouth.

      Park watched Violet close her eyes in seeming bliss as she slowly chewed her salmon. Shit. He was pretty sure he wasn’t the only one watching her have some kind of public foodgasm, and by the way the men around them were gaping with glazed eyes, he definitely wasn’t the only one having a hard-on either.

      “Mmmm…” She tried not to smile, knowing even without seeing that all eyes were on her. All she cared about was that Park was staring at her, too.

      “Like what you see?” she murmured, eyes still closed.

      When she opened her eyes, Park was pretending to study the ala carte menu in front of him. All the other men were the same.

      She giggled, not fooled at all. With a happy little sigh, she leaned close and swiped a piece of crabstick from his plate, deliberately causing her breasts to temporarily graze his side.

      He stiffened.

      She took the crabstick into her mouth, chewing ever so slowly, taking it in bit by bit, knowing what every guy inside the sushi house would be imagining at seeing her. Violet had always loved attention, but she had never been this sexual about it, not even with…him.

      Violet hurriedly shook the thought away.

      Park finally recovered enough of his senses to snap at her. “What the hell are you doing?” He still couldn’t get over the fact that Violet had practically smashed her breasts against him. He read girls like a book, but for some reason he couldn’t figure Violet out at all, didn’t even know if Violet actually had an angle to start with.

      She wasn’t flirting with him–he could feel that. But…what the fuck was this about?

      Violet laughed at his words. She took another crabstick from his plate, pressing harder against his side just to make him more uncomfortable. After dipping it into her wasabi-laden sauce, she took it all in with one bite. Bliss.

      Everything right now was bliss.

      Maybe it was because she was in Japan and far, far away from home but Violet couldn’t remember feeling this carefree for ages. She felt like she had been reborn again, and most of it had to do with…Park.

      But only in a platonic way, she was quick to remind herself.

      She started when Park suddenly dumped a plate of crabstick in front of her.

      “So you can stop stealing mine,” he gritted out.

      Violet burst into laughter. “I love, love, love Japan,” she enthused as she munched on another crabstick, feeling like Bugs Bunny with a carrot stick as she did. “With this—” She made an expansive wave with her free hand to encompass her entire surroundings. “All those days I sweated blood and tears to get admitted to uni here are worth it.”

      He grunted.

      She looked at him expectantly. “What about you, Park?”

      He shrugged.

      “Tell me why you came here,” Violet wheedled. “I can just feel it,” she insisted. “You just didn’t come here because you love Japan, too, didn’t you?”

      “Violet…”

      “Yes?” She gave him an expectant smile.

      “None of your fucking business.”

      This time, she didn’t lose her temper. She was fast becoming used to his Nordic ogre ways. “I knooooow that,” she told him with a roll of her eyes. “But I still want to know.”

      “Has anyone told you that you meddle too much?” he asked mildly.

      “Yup. My sister Lilac–tells me that all the time. But you’re the first guy who’s ever told me that to my face.”

      Park snorted. “What did you do, duct-tape their mouths shut when they didn’t let you get your way?”

      She gave him a flirtatious look. “Oh, let’s just say that all of them loved me.”

      Park shook his head with a groan. “You are so full of yourself.”

      “I just know what I’m worth,” she countered. The words were…liberating. Once she had forgotten that, but not now, not ever again. This time, she would remember what she was worth.

* * * *

      After lunch, they went around the city again, this time Park taking her to a nearby temple. All the while, she had her arm around his. At first, he had tried wriggling and pushing her away but she had stubbornly stuck to him like glue.

      “I’m touchy-feely with my friends. Deal with it,” was all she said.

      Ha. Deal with it;  how the fuck could Park deal with that when her closeness made it difficult for him to walk, thanks to his raging erection?

      They went back to the dorm at around two in the afternoon, agreeing to freshen up and meet again so they could head out for work together.

      Inside his room, Park found himself standing underneath the shower in utter bemusement, unable to figure out why it had been so easy for Violet to worm her way into his life.

      Ever since his breakup, he had no problems despising girls, hating them for their weakness and their devious ability to use that weakness to guilt-trip others to doing what they wanted.

      So what made Violet different?

      Was it because she flirted and not flirted with him?

      She was such a fucking enigma, and it just made Park want to get to know her more. She wanted him. He was fucking sure of that. But was she like the rest, wanting to make him fall in love with her, too?

      Someone was banging on his door when he came out of the shower. Scowling, he stalked towards it and flung it open with a curse. “What the fuck, Violet? Didn’t I just teach you how to—” He shut up when he saw her face.

      She was completely red, her eyes swollen with tears.

      “Why do you look terrible?”

      She growled—she actually growled—at him before pushing past Park.

      What the—

      When Park whirled around, it was just in time to see the little whirlwind of trouble actually get on his bed and burrow under the covers like a mole hiding from the light.

      Park immediately roared, “What the hell are you doing?”

      Violet answered with an incoherent mumble, followed by a loud sniff.

      For a moment, he debated with himself about whether or not he should toss Violet out of his room. Cute or not, sexy or not, she was obviously hysterical for some reason, and he wasn’t ready to pretend to be her BFF and comfort her.

      “What the hell’s wrong with you?” he finally snapped, trying to pull the covers away.

      Violet tightened her hold and burrowed deeper into the covers. “I feel so bad all of a sudden.”