Wet: Undercurrent (3 page)

Lulu’s face was starting to ache but she kept her smile in place. “That’s great.”

“Isn’t it? We can meet for dinner tonight, and I can tell you about that painting.”

Mr. Mizuno asked, “Painting?”

“The one in the hall on the way to the hot springs.” Richard gestured over his shoulder in the general direction of the hot springs. “It’s a beautiful piece. Lulu was staring at it like she might fall in.”

She forced a small laugh. “I wasn’t really looking at the painting. I was just thinking about something, and the painting happened to be in front of me when I got lost in thought.”

“Well that was lucky for me, because it gave me a reason to strike up a conversation. So, dinner tonight?”

Stupid friggin’ vacation and nothing else better to do
, Lulu grumbled in her mind. “Sure.”

“Great. We can meet at seven again.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“See you in the lobby at seven.” He moved a step closer to her and dropped his voice. “Or I can pick you up at your room?”

“Lobby at seven,” she said with a nod.

Richard took the hint because he backed up to his previous position. “I’ll see you then.” He turned his attention back to Mr. Mizuno. “We were on the way to your office?”

“Yes, we were. It was nice meeting you, Ms. Swade.” Mr. Mizuno nodded to her and walked away with Richard.

Only when they were out of sight did Lulu breathe normally. Mr. Mizuno suspected something. He had to. He must have recognized the scent. Unlike Richard, Mr. Mizuno had to know the hotel soap didn’t smell like musk and incense. The hotel made everything out of green tea.

Or maybe Lulu’s guilt was making her paranoid. She needed to relax. The sign pointing the way to the hot springs caught her attention. She stared at it, debating if she wanted to chance running into the invisible man again. The scent hadn’t been a figment of her imagination. She doubted he had been, either.

But maybe it was because she had been alone last night. Right now, the hot spring would be full of other women. The invisible man might turn his attention to them and leave her alone. That sounded like solid logic in her mind.

She headed for the hot springs, determined to spend more than a few minutes soaking. It was a little crowded -- the most she’d seen since arriving at the hotel -- but she managed to find an empty locker and a robe. After twisting her shoulder-length black hair into a tight bun she hoped wouldn’t get wet, she stripped out of her clothes.

Several giggling women passed her, headed toward the door that led to the hot springs. At least someone was having fun. Lulu fell into step behind them. The group of women went left so Lulu went right. She wanted to be alone. The hot springs was large enough to accommodate her.

She found a little cubby tucked away in the far corner of the room and enjoyed her semi-solitude. Or she tried to. The giggling women were too loud to ignore. Whatever had them so happy was contagious, because it sounded like every woman in the place was enjoying the same joke.

Peeking around the edge of her hiding place, Lulu tried to determine the source of the amusement. All of the women lounged around the edge of the spring with their heads back. Most of them were giggling. One woman sucked in a sharp breath before letting out a purring moan.

Lulu’s eyes widened before she ducked back into her cubby. What the hell? Had she been right and the invisible man was entertaining the women? That would explain the crowd. That might also explain the popularity of the hotel. Come for the relaxation, stay for the orgasm.

She didn’t know how Onsen was doing it and knew Voda would never be able to repeat it. She also knew she had to be losing her mind to think an invisible man was pleasuring the women visiting the hot spring. Stuff like that didn’t happen in real life.

And she would keep thinking that until the hands circling her ankles went away. Strong fingers massaged their way over her calves and up the insides of her thighs, moving her legs apart. She stared at the water, not seeing anyone or anything.

But not seeing the man didn’t make his touch any less real. He kneaded her thighs, one leg at a time, like a professional masseur. For all she knew, he might be one. Each time he switched legs, his hands moved higher and he spread her legs more.

When he passed a single finger between her pussy lips, she found herself reacting the same way as the woman from earlier -- gasping and then letting out the breath in a satisfied moan. Hearing her voice made Lulu slap her hand over her mouth. She didn’t just do that.

Except she did, and she repeated her reaction when the finger returned and started circling her clit. This wasn’t happening. She needed to leave. She needed to call for help. She needed to stop sinking into the water to get closer to the invisible man’s touch.

He flicked her clit, making her jut her pussy forward. She dropped lower in the water. He repeated the motion a few times, and she found herself rocking her hips in silent invitation for more. She bit her lip and let her head fall back when he moved his finger from teasing her clit to slipping in and out of her slick hole.

He cupped his hand under one of her breasts, rolling her nipple around with his thumb while his lips trailed over her collarbone. He trailed kisses up to her neck and then stopped. She moved deeper into the water and the kissing resumed.

When her mouth entered the water, she felt his lips on hers. He placed gentle kisses on her lips as though testing her, or tasting her, before he took it further. It struck her as equal parts sweet and silly since he already had his finger buried in her pussy. And his finger felt so good as he twisted it side to side.

She didn’t remember ducking beneath the water, but she soon had to surface for air. Musk and incense filled her nose as she drew in a deep breath. She looked around in confusion, not quite understanding what she was seeing. The straw rope sporting zigzag white cloths surrounded her.

The hot spring had been replaced with the pool room. How? When? What the hell was happening?

The invisible man’s touch left her body. Lulu’s need to get out of there overrode her disappointment. She grabbed the edge of the pool but jerked back with a cry of pain. The same electric shock that had hit her last time got her again.

“I was right. It is you,” said a man with a heavy Japanese accent.

Lulu whirled to face him. She whimpered with fright at the sight of a man made of water floating in the pool with her. Only his upper body was visible… as visible as a man made of water could be.

“Those other women were fun, but it’s you I want.” He reached out a hand toward her.

She cringed back against the edge of the pool. “Don’t touch me.”

“I won’t hurt you. Never would I hurt you.” He cupped her cheek and smiled. “You are my salvation.”

“What?” She met his watery gaze and found his expression of reverence confusing. “What do you mean?”

“You awakened me.”

“I didn’t.”

“When you touched the barrier, you weakened it, allowing me to wake. You did it again just now, giving me the ability to take on this form.”

She glanced over her shoulder then looked back at him. “You mean getting shocked? I didn’t do that on purpose. It just happened.” And why wasn’t it happening now? She was touching the edge of the pool but it wasn’t shocking her.

The man trailed his fingers past her neck, over her shoulder, and down her arm until he cupped her hand in his. With gentle coaxing, he moved her to the middle of the pool and then to the edge across from where she had been. She didn’t understand what he was doing or why she wasn’t fighting him.

He guided her hand to touch the edge. Another shock elicited a cry of pain from her. She whirled on the man. “You said you wouldn’t hurt me.”

“It is the barrier hurting you, not I.”

“What barrier? What are you talking about? What are you?”

“I am not a what. I am a who. I am Hotsuma Mizuno, the eleventh head of the Mizuno family.” He looked down at himself and sighed, except the sound came out as a kind of gurgling noise. “When I was a man, I was the eleventh head. Now I am this.”

“And that is what?” Lulu needed to keep him talking while she figured out an escape route. She needed to get closer to the door so when she jumped out of the pool she could run for it. An explanation as to why she was running around naked would have to be a spur-of-the-moment thing if someone caught her.

She inched around the perimeter of the pool without touching the edge in case it shocked her again. The third time had hurt worse than the first two. She didn’t want to go through a fourth.

Hotsuma said, “I am a water spirit now. Trapped in this form by my family because I inherited the powers of an
ageman
.”

“An ah-gay-huh?”

“
Ageman
-- a woman who brings luck to those around her. My mother was an
ageman
, but she had no daughters. My family thought the power was lost until they realized it passed to her eldest son instead.”

“I take it you were the eldest?”

“Yes.”

She stopped moving when he faced her. She even managed what she hoped was an innocent smile. Nope. She wasn’t trying to escape. Just enjoying a nice lap around the pool.

He said, “My family forced me to marry early so I could beget heirs and pass on my powers to them.”

“Tough break.”

He raised his gaze to somewhere over her shoulder and his voice took on a far off quality. “I didn’t love my wife. She married me for the prestige it would bring her and her family to be joined to a powerful house. The three children she bore didn’t inherit my powers.”

“That’s too bad.” Lulu started moving toward the exit again. A little bit farther and she could jump out of the pool and run.

“My family procured concubines for me next. Four beautiful women from around Japan who came from spiritually powerful families.”

“Sounds rough.”

“Each bore me children, but none of those twelve had my powers.”

Lulu made a sympathetic sound but her attention was focused on her goal. All she had to do was climb out and she was free. The second she touched the edge, she regretted it.

The shock that coursed through her body ripped a scream of pain from her before it threw her back into Hotsuma’s arms. He cradled her against his chest as she panted and waited for the pain to subside.

“Are you okay, Lulu?”

She nodded but made no move to leave his arms. He was the only thing keeping her above water since she couldn’t feel her body. “How do you know my name?”

“I heard it when the man with my nephew introduced you.”

“Nephew?”

“Masato Mizuno. He is descended from my sister’s line. She became the twelfth head after our family turned on me and made me into this.”

“Descended?”

“Masato is the thirty-eighth head of the Mizuno family.” At her look of surprise, he smiled sadly at her. “Yes, I have been trapped for a very long time.” He smoothed his hand over her cheek. “Thanks to you, I am no longer a prisoner only able to hear but never to act.”

Lulu didn’t know why, but that simple caress brought her whole body humming awake with sexual awareness. The way Hotsuma had touched her earlier raced through her mind, and her body heated. She turned in his arms and held his face between her hands so she could kiss his lips.

He slipped his arms around her waist, bringing her closer as he deepened the kiss. Something that felt a lot like a hard dick brushed her inner thigh. She wanted to feel it inside her. No, she
ached
to feel it inside her. She wrapped her legs around Hotsuma’s waist. She might not be able to see his body below the water, but she could definitely feel it as she rubbed her pussy over the hard abs.

Hotsuma pulled away from the kiss. “You’re feeling the side effects of weakening the barrier spell.”

“Okay.”

“Your body needs sexual release to dispel the power building up within you.”

“Yes, it does.” She wiggled her lower body until she felt the tip of his dick against her opening.

“I want you to understand why --”

She covered his mouth with one hand. “For a guy who hasn’t gotten any in a few hundred years, you are talking way more than you should. I’ve already bought what you’re selling, so stop with the pitch.”

Hotsuma’s lips curved into a grin beneath her hand. She removed it and he kissed her again. The man may not have been laid in the last few centuries, but he hadn’t lost any of his technique, if the way his tongue teased and tasted hers was any indication.

He cupped her ass and held her as he shifted his hips upwards, slipping his dick into her pussy. She let her head fall back and exhaled loudly. “Oh, yes. Yes, please.”

After a few test strokes that allowed her to adjust to the way he filled her, Hotsuma moved with purpose. He used the hands gripping her ass to bounce her against him. Every few thrusts, he fitted her against him and circled his hips, stirring his tip against her deepest, most sensitive part.

She cried out, “Oh, there! Right there!”