DRAWN (6 page)

          “Oh, but I’d love to stay over,” Cheena gushes. “We have
so
many stuff to talk about.”

          Especially when it means having Cheena as my mom
pro tem
.

          Drew looks hurt. “But if you don’t want to…”

          “Don’t get me wrong. I love having you guys here, but I also know you still have to get to the hospital early. You’ll have more time to study and rest if you’re in your own home.”

          “Well,” Drew says, still uncertain.

           I squeeze his hand. “Trust me. I’m a big girl now. I can survive a night alone at home.”

          By the end of dinner, I’ve convinced Drew to go home, even though he makes sure to lock all windows and the back door before leaving. “Do
not
let anyone in, okay?” He throws me a worried frown.

          “Not even a ghost can come in after everything you’ve done.”

          “Stop kidding around.”

          “Then stop being so serious.” I quickly push him out of the door. “Sam’s gonna get a chill if you don’t take her home soon.”

          He smiles ruefully. “Fine. I know when I’m not wanted. I’ll call you tomorrow morning, okay? Just to check up on you.”

          “Okay. Good night, Drew. Take care.”

          “Night, Kat.” Drew takes Samantha from Cheena so he can start getting her comfy in her travel carrier.

          Cheena suddenly springs in front of me with a grin. “Kaaaat.”

          Honestly, I know she’s a hottie, but what else did my brother see in her?

          “
Good
night
, Cheena.” Please let her take the hint.

          She doesn’t. “Fess up,” she says in a low voice. “You’re kicking us out because
that
guy is coming over---”

          “Good night, Cheena.” I slam the door on her face, but it doesn’t have the impact I’m hoping for, not when I hear Cheena giggling as she walks away.

          It’s almost eleven by the time I put my sketchpad away and I’m done with my shower. I throw myself to bed and close my eyes.

          Thirty minutes later, and I’m still awake. I usually fall asleep the moment my head hits the pillows, but tonight I feel like every nerve in my body is tense, as if waiting---

          I give up and grab my phone from the bedside table. I bite my lip as I tap on the Videos icon on the screen. Yuki’s fantastic body fills the screen.

          Just one tiny look isn’t bad, is it?

“Take off your panties.”

         
And there
, I think, with not a little shock,
is my first command as Yuki Himura’s toy
.

Yuki had woken me up five-thirty this morning with his call, telling me he’s hoping he can have breakfast with his little toy before going to school together. The words had gotten my body responding even with my eyes still crusty from sleep.

An hour has passed since then, and between us we’re near to finishing a heap of jam-glazed pancakes dripping with butter while occupying one of the corner booths of J&J’s Diner.

Located just some minutes away from school, the diner serves mostly truck drivers and guests from nearby motels. Its cool factor is strictly nil, with dirty lime-green linoleum floors, squeaky, plastic-covered booth seats, and a jukebox that has Britney songs as its
latest
in pop music. And they were way before she went wild in Vegas and had her head shaved.

Even so, I love everything about this place. The early morning drizzle has left a film of fog clinging to the diner’s windows and the conversation inside is muted, making me feel like Yuki and I have a private slice of the world.

I just wish he doesn’t keep trying to turn our world into another
Girls Gone Wild
episode he’s directing.

The intensity of Yuki’s gaze uncomfortably reminds me of how intensely serious he also was, last night, in the video he’s sent me. I only watched it once – well, okay, several times.  I couldn’t help it.

He was just so incredibly…yeeargh.

There are simply no words enough to describe how sexy he is, especially when he throws his head back as he comes, his hand moving fast---

          “
Senpai
?”

          I look at him guiltily.

          Exasperation lines his voice as he asks, “You were fantasizing again?”

          “Sorry,” I answer shamefacedly. “Force of habit.”

          Yuki scowls, and though I know it’s going to make me sound crazy – the sight of it makes me happy. In the three months we’ve been classmates, I’ve never seen him do anything but smile.

          “I can’t believe nobody’s realized how sexy you are,” he mutters.

          At first I think he’s joking, but when Yuki keeps on scowling I end up gasping for laughter.

          His scowl worsens. “You don’t understand,
senpai
.” He pinches my cheeks – hard enough to make me yelp. “I told you I don’t want to share my toy. If people ever start seeing us together too often, they’re going to look at you more and more. And if you keep on with your fantasies, then they may catch you looking like you’re having an orgasm---”

          “Yuki!” It’s impossible not to turn red with all the images running through my mind now.

          “Don’t you know that a girl having an orgasm is the biggest turn on for guys?”

          “Umm, no?”

          I didn’t think his scowl can get any uglier, but it does. “Well, now you know,” he says grimly. “So promise me you’ll do your best to stop fantasizing in school,
senpai
.” A brooding look settles on his face. “What is it with you and your fantasies anyway?”

I’m not ready to tell him about my weird childhood encounter with porn nor am I willing to let Yuki know about my dreams of becoming a
mangaka.
He’s half Japanese, after all. Even if I’m drawing
manga
for girls, he’s still part of the target market. If he laughs at my drawing, it would annihilate me.

          “I promise I’ll do my best not to let my fantasies get the better of me,” I say instead, hoping it’s enough to distract him.

          It is. Yuki’s answering smile is breathtaking. “Good. And you don’t have to fantasize about other guys either. At least not when I’m around and I’m able to do this---” He bites my ear, hard enough that I almost gasp.

“---and this,” he murmurs as he kisses the side of my neck.

Weird, hot, wet sensations threaten to swamp my body, and I quickly move away, almost gluing myself to the window on my side so that he doesn’t get to kiss any other part of me.

“I’ll stop, I promise!” I say fervently.

Yuki laughs, but he moves back to his side of the seat.

“Give me your panties,” Yuki says again, the gleam in his eyes trying to hypnotize me once more into submission.

It takes every ounce of my self-control to resist him. “Be reasonable. We’re going to school---”

“Take it off,” he repeats, and the firmness of his tone actually makes my whole body throb.

Yeeargh!

Why do I find even something that simple so unbelievably sexy?

“I…” Frustration makes me glare at him, but he only smirks in return. 

I can’t imagine going to school without my underwear.

Weeeell, okay, I’m lying to myself.

I can easily imagine what would happen and it’s too exciting for words.

“
Senpai,
you promised you’d be my toy.” Now, he’s using his little-lost-boy tone and it’s extremely effective.

I peek at his face.

The soulful look from his baby blue eyes makes me quickly look away before it can do more damage to my common sense.

Yeeargh!

“That’s unfair! You can’t use your---your gorgeousness all the time.”

If anything, it only makes Yuki sound even more in pain. “Please,
senpai
.”

I know he’s faking it, but I still find it impossible to resist. “Are you this…sneaky and manipulative with every girl you date?”

He doesn’t have to answer, not when the innocence of his smile is in complete contrast with the utterly wicked gleam in his eyes.

I drop my head on the cradle of my arms. Why do I even bother resisting? “It’s effective,” I mumble.

Yuki’s low laugh just makes my body throb even more. “I know. So give me your panties now.”

I say the first thing that comes to my mind. “I’ll take it off if you take yours off as well.”

Yuki blinks.

“It’s just too embarrassing if it’s just me,” I stammer.

“I don’t know why this is,
senpai
,” he drawls, “but I have this feeling you watched something you shouldn’t have last night.”

He is a god.

A mind-reading god.

I busy myself with taking a slice of the half-eaten pancake on his plate. “I’ve never tried eating pancake with raspberry jam before,” I babble. “I’ve always gone for strawberry. Does it taste---”

“As sweet as me?” Yuki inserts silkily.

My fingers become senseless and my fork makes a clattering sound as it falls on my plate.

He smiles angelically. “Absolutely.”

“You’re so bloody smug,” I snarl while doing my best to keep my blushes down.

“And you’re too bloody cute for words,
senpai
.”

Even though his words make my body practically scream for some kind of sexual release, I also can’t help laughing at his fake but convincing British accent.

“Take it off,” he says again.

“Only if you do it, too.” Now that the idea has taken root, my skin starts tingling in excitement. I can just picture Yuki in a fit of frustration. Because he will be. If there’s anything that I’m sure of about Yuki right now, then it’s the fact that he’s as sexually mad about me as I am of him. I mean, geez! The kiss he gave me when we met up this morning was enough to get the windows of his car steaming. And we hadn’t even gotten to second base!

Yuki is smiling knowingly at me. “You’re turned on, aren’t you?”

“Of course not.”

Of course we both know I’m lying.

Yuki reaches out to touch my hair. He starts playing with the locks that have escaped my ponytail. “Tell me why you want me to take mine off first.” A tiny sexy smile appears on his face. “Is it because you want to imagine me naked,
senpai
? Do you think about me touching my---”

“Why for the bloody love of hell can you talk so easily about shagging?” I cry out.

“Because I’m Japanese?” Yuki’s tone is very matter-of-fact, and he doesn’t stop playing with my hair when he answers.

He has a point, blast it. Japan doesn’t have a booming AV industry without a reason.

“So, tell me,
senpai
,” he urges softly.

“You know why!”

“But I want to hear you say it.”

I take a deep breath. I open my mouth, but the words just won’t come out.

He pushes a lock of my hair away so he can look into my eyes, and I can look into his.

“Tell me.”

There it goes again
, I think glumly.

The baby blues are my undoing.

“I want you to take it off…because…I want to imagine…what you’d look like if you’re…frustrated.”

Yuki’s beautiful lips curve into a smile, and the cruel twist to it disappears. “Your wish is my command.”

The rest of the morning passes in a sex-hazed blur. I haven’t flunked any of my tests – yet – but I haven’t been able to concentrate on any of the new lessons either. I’m just too aware of the fact that I’m wearing nothing under my skirt and – somewhere in this building – Yuki isn’t wearing anything inside his pants either. Just the thought of it makes me want to moan. Out loud. Again.

The lunch bell rings, barely audible since this morning’s drizzle has escalated into a full-fledged storm.

Just as I reach out to grab my bag from the floor, a whiff of wind blows into the classroom, teasing the bare skin of…my behind.

My back snaps into a perfectly straight position in an instant.

“You okay, Chariot?” Timothy asks me just as he’s leaving, pushing up the glasses on his nose as he peers at me.

This is going to be bloody embarrassing.

One hand holding my skirt down, I smile at him weakly. “Could you…could you…” Blast it, this is hard.

He frowns. “What is it?”

“Could you please help me reach for my bag?”

His frown becomes more pronounced. “That bag?” he asks, gesturing to my oversized dark brown leather bag, just a few inches from my feet.

My fingers tighten around the edge of my skirt, and I imagine it is Yuki’s throat my fingers are wrapped around. “Yes,” I force out miserably. “Could you please---” I trail off when I see Timothy staring at my hand on my skirt.