Fire and Ice - Anne Stuart [16]
But she’d been utterly still, so still that for a while he’d wondered if he’d accidentally killed her, used a little too much pressure when he knocked her out.
Then Taka really would have killed him.
He’d been halfway across the small room on his knees, ready to touch her, just to make sure she was still alive, when she made a small sound, halfway between a sigh and a moan.
He froze, ready to jump her from the sheer sexuality of that sound, but instead he retreated back to his own futon, to sit and watch her as the morning light began to slip into the room. He was adept at self-control on the few occasions he chose to use it. This was one of those occasions. He wasn’t going to touch her.
They were safe for the moment—he’d taken enough obscure detours to throw off a native, and the Russian mercenaries would be helpless in the complex road system that snaked through Tokyo. Once they were beyond the sprawling city he could relax, at least a little bit, while he figured out what the hell to do with her.
Maybe Ojiisan would get word to Taka and his troubles would be over. No way was Taka going to leave his wife’s sister in Reno’s uncharitable hands—they’d made sure Jilly and Reno had been kept a half a world away from each other since they’d met. He didn’t think that was about to change. Not since Su-chan had laid down the law soon after she’d married Taka.
“I need you to do me a favor,” she’d said.
He’d looked at her. Summer Hawthorne was fearless, devoted to her husband, and Taka would beat the shit out of him if he showed her any disrespect. At least, any more than he dished out to everyone with the exception of his austere grandfather.
“All right,” he’d said, bowing slightly out of habit.
Summer didn’t look convinced. “You probably won’t like it.”
“I try very hard not to do anything I don’t want to do, but you saved my life, so I must owe you.”
“I want you to keep out of California.”
He said nothing for a moment, then, “My grandfather has a number of important businesses all along the West Coast of your country, including real estate investments in and around L.A. I go where he sends me, and since I’m bilingual I’m the best choice, particularly with Taka out of the picture.”
“He could send someone else. And it’s just the L.A. area I want you to keep away from.”
“Why?”
“My sister.”
“I don’t remember your sister,” he said, a lie. But Su-chan was too anxious to notice.
“You saw her at Peter and Genevieve’s house. She’s tall, kind of awkward, blond hair when she isn’t dyeing it. Her name’s Jilly.”
“I remember,” he conceded, not showing how well he remembered. “What about her?”
“She wants to come visit, and I don’t want her here.”
“And what does that have to do with me?”
“You’re the reason I don’t want her here.” He didn’t say anything, and she stumbled on. “She’s got some silly adolescent crush on you. You’ve got to understand my sister has lived a very sheltered life. She’s freakishly smart—she graduated from high school when she was fifteen, college when she was eighteen. She’d always been surrounded by people who were much older than she was, and she’s never had the chance to develop normal relationships.”
“And what does that have to do with me?”
Su-chan bit her lip. “She has a crush on you. I don’t know what you said to her or what happened in England—I was a little preoccupied….”
“You and Taka were all over each other—your sister and I could have been fucking in the garden and you wouldn’t have noticed.”
Summer turned pale. “Did you?”
“Fuck in the garden? Fuck at all? No. As a matter of fact, I don’t think we even talked before I got hustled out of there.”
Su-chan sighed. “You didn’t need to. She took one look at you and lost all common sense. You shouldn’t be surprised—you know you’re catnip where women are concerned. They can’t leave you alone.”
“Su-chan, if your sister