Crossed by the Stars: A Second-chance, Slow-burn Romance

by LJ Evans

  “Who is it?”

  “Akari Matsuda,” he said, frowning as if he should know the name.

  Goosebumps littered my skin just as they had when I’d run into her and her mother the day before. I couldn’t imagine she was here of her own accord. I felt a great amount of sympathy for her, for the life she led that I would have drowned in.

  “Tell Nyra I said to let her in.”

  Ashton nodded, taking me in. “You look like shit. Have you slept at all?”

  I snorted. “It’s a good thing Violet loves you, because otherwise, I’d put you out on the street with a box of your belongings.”

  He chuckled. “You talk big, but you know you wouldn’t survive without me.”

  It was probably true. He and Joel were the two team members we’d be hard-pressed to replace if we lost them. They’d been with us since the beginning. They’d not only seen us grow but helped us every inch of the way. Their paychecks and the stock we gave them definitely reflected how much we appreciated them.

  He left and, about a minute later, reappeared with Akari Matsuda and Nyra both trailing him. I rose to greet Ken’Ichi’s sister, returning the half-bow she gave.

  “Matsuda-san,” I said, waving her to a chair. “I’m surprised to see you.”

  She took a seat and looked back at my two employees in the doorway.

  “I was hoping we could talk in private, Mori-san,” she said.

  “Thanks, Ashton and Nyra. That will be all for now.”

  Nyra shook her head in the negative, and Akari noticed.

  “Your security is worried about me?” She seemed surprised. “Would they like me to leave my purse outside? Scan me for weapons?”

  It was said with sarcasm, but before I could reply, Nyra responded, “Yes.”

  Akari pulled an envelope from her purse and then handed the bag over to Nyra without question. She let Nyra scan her with a security wand like was used at the airports. My cheeks burned. It seemed over the top but also exactly the kind of safety net I felt in need of at the moment. Ashton was frowning. I knew I’d have to tell him something soon, but I had to tell Violet first.

  When the door finally shut behind my employees, I turned to Akari, taking her in better than I had the day before. She was beautiful with long, black, shiny hair and dark-brown eyes rounder and fuller than mine. Her chin was squarer than my pointy one, and her skin was so pale you could almost see the veins in them. But she had a quiet grace you only saw in professional dancers. I tried to recall if she’d been a ballerina in her youth, but I had no real memories of Akari. Our circles had rarely crossed, and when they had, she’d always been outshone by her brother and her mother. She was more like her father in many ways. He ruled the Pacific operations for Otōsan with a strong but silent hand.

  Akari sank into one of the brocade chairs, crossing her ankles and keeping her shoulders back. She sat perfectly straight in a blue suit that was expertly tailored but simple. No extra frills. No fancy buttons. Plain, as if she was trying to be invisible. Blending in instead of standing out.

  She handed me the envelope, and I took it, sitting in the chair opposite her instead of the one behind my desk.

  “It’s an invitation to the chakai,” she said, even though I’d already guessed.

  “I’m sorry you felt obligated to provide one because of your mother,” I told her.

  She assessed me from head to toe as if she’d never seen me before. I waited, unsure what she wanted or why she was there when she could have had the invitation sent by mail or courier.

  “Haha insisted, even when I told her you wouldn’t come,” she said quietly. It was as clear as it had been yesterday on the street that she didn’t want me there. I couldn’t blame her. She was only there to do her duty as a daughter.

  “Thank you for bringing me an invitation.”

  She still didn’t rise to leave, and I couldn’t understand what was making her stay. The silence became some sort of power struggle, one I didn’t care to play, so I broke it with a question. “Can I be honest?”

  “It is always better, is it not?”

  “I don’t understand why she would want me to come. Not after…” I trailed away, looking down. I couldn’t say it. I’d hated her brother with a violence that had sent my entire body shaking every time we’d been in the same room. He’d terrorized me, made me feel powerless, useless. Being forced to acknowledge him as my fiancé had almost tipped me over the edge, had almost cost me my life and my friends theirs.

  She looked down, long lashes concealing her emotions, but I read the tightening of her fingers on the arms of the chair. “Haha is correct with one thing. It is up to the women to restore balance.”

  Her voice was emotionless and her face expressionless. Her brother had been an expert at the same thing, presenting a calm that may or may not be felt.

  I reached over and placed the invitation on the desk without opening it.

  “I’ll consider it,” I told her, knowing I wouldn’t go. There was no way I was going to subject myself to my father’s world any more than I had to—especially not with death threats on my doorstep. I had no desire to bring balance to any of them.

  When I said nothing else, she rose and started for the door. With her hand on the doorknob, she looked back. “I wonder…do you know about our parents? Does Ane-san?”

  I frowned at the deferential reference to my mother. “What do you mean? Your father has worked for mine for decades.”

  She shook her head ever so slightly. “I mean Haha and Oyabun.”

  My pulse quickened. She couldn’t mean that her mother and my father were having an affair, could she? It was a ridiculous thought. While I was almost certain my father hadn’t been faithful to my mother, I couldn’t imagine him entangling himself with his shateigashira’s wife. It would breed discontent and disloyalty.

  Akari inclined her head. “I can see from your reaction that you did not know. I suppose I am the only one who does because I am around Haha so much.”

  She left silently, the door barely making a clicking noise behind her.

  My brain whirled with my father’s words of an uprising in the ranks and with the consequences of what Akari had implied. I went to the window, and I saw her exit the building. There was a dark sedan waiting for her at the curb, one that looked very much like the one my father had been in two nights before. From the driver’s seat, Kaida emerged with her short, bleached hair shimmering in the sunlight that was just peeking through the clouds. She opened the back door for Akari, who disappeared inside.

  I couldn’t catch up with the shock.

  What game were they all playing?

  What must my mother think of her dear friend, Ichika, sleeping with my father? Did she even know? My mother, like my grandmother, much preferred to live in a bubble where everything dark about Otōsan’s world couldn’t penetrate. They liked to pretend he was an honest and respected businessman instead of the evil ruler of one of the largest crime syndicates on the planet.

  My cell phone rang, and I was so dazed by the revelation that I picked it up without even looking at the name. “Hello.”

  “Musume, you must accept the invitation.” Speaking in Japanese, Otōsan’s voice was deep but emotionless, and yet it still sent waves of feelings through me. Pain. Anger. Hope. I hated that, even after everything he’d done, I could still long for my father’s acceptance.

  “I’m confused, Otōsan. Wouldn’t this bring me into your world when you’ve made it clear I’m not welcome?” I responded in Japanese.

  “If there is even a small piece of you that wishes to repair the damage you’ve done to this family, you will accept Akari’s invitation,” he said.

  I had no desire to fix anything I’d done except the threats to Dawson. My father seemed to know this without me having said it, and his next words reiterated it. “If you wish to remove this threat against you and to keep your friends safe, you will go.”

 
“Akari invited me because she felt she must do what her mother said, but I have no idea why Ichika would want me there. I’m the reason their son and brother are dead. It would dishonor them all for me to go.”

  “Akari does not understand the things her mother does.”

  It was like he expected me to be able to read some hidden code that I’d not been given the key for. I was baffled. How could immersing myself deeper into his world ever help? My mind and body recoiled at the thought.

  “Why was Kaida driving Akari?” I asked, changing the subject rather than giving him the answer he wanted.

  He sighed, impatient, as always, with both my questions and my lack of acquiescence.

  “I believe she was visiting Isamu,” my father answered, which surprised me even more. How did Akari know my cousin? What could they possibly have to talk about?

  “Just accept the invitation, Musume,” he said before hanging up.

  I stared down at my phone for much too long and then crossed back over to my desk. The invitation laid there, a reminder of everything I didn’t want in my life. And yet, a teeny-tiny voice deep inside begged me to do what my father asked. I hated it.

  I’d just put my finger under the seal when the door opened again. This time, Dax emerged with Ashton on his heels. My heart and pulse leaped in a different way. He had a suave, knowing smile on his face and was dressed in another suit jacket, but this time, he’d paired it with jeans. If he’d wanted to, Dax could have modeled for his father’s company and increased their sales just by appearing on magazine covers. The dynamic energy wafting off of him was like a cologne. Strong and heady. Joel had a long way to go before he’d bottle the essence of Dax Armaud. Joel’s Romeo scent still needed a lot of work.

  “I brought lunch,” Dax said, lifting the box filled with bags in his hands.

  Ashton winked behind Dax’s shoulder and mouthed “Lunch” with air quotes. Every time Dax showed up at Force de la Violette, which usually only occurred when Dawson was there, Ashton made a new bet about how long it would be before Dax and I were tangled in the sheets together. He didn’t understand how long I’d gone without ending up in Dax’s bed. The one time had been enough. The one time that had ended in a rejection I’d been saved from facing because Kaida had burst into the room, looking for me.

  “What made you think my answer to lunch would be any different than the one I gave you yesterday?” I asked.

  “Hence me not asking,” he said, eyebrow lifting in that deadly way of his that was accompanied by an equally deadly smile.

  “How’d you make it past Nyra?” I groused.

  Dax looked offended. “I’m on the approved list.”

  “Who put you there?” I asked, eyes squinting.

  Dax set the box of food down on the table between the brocade chairs Akari had just barely vacated.

  “Even Rana knows better than to try and keep me out.”

  He started to unpack the Chinese food containers, and when I hadn’t moved from my spot behind my desk, he paused and took me in.

  The lazy look turned up the pace of my heart another notch. Desire fluttered through my veins just like it did every time his gaze landed on me. My eyes slipped to his lips, and even though it had been years since he’d kissed me, I could still feel his mouth strong and sure on mine. Confident and languorous. Easy to lose myself in. I hated that I couldn’t forget it just as much as I hated the tiny piece of me that still longed for my father’s approval.

  “If I didn’t know better, Armaud, I’d think you were trying to seduce me,” I threw out, hoping to send him running like talk of us and anything hinting at sex usually did. To my surprise, it only made his firm lips grow into an even wider smile.

  “If I was seducing you, there wouldn’t be any question about it.”

  I snorted, but my body filled with flames at the idea as well as the heated look he sent my way.

  “Come eat,” he said. “I won’t have you wilting away on my watch.”

  I wanted to tell Dax to take his food, his sexy body, and his tantalizing smile and get the hell out, but my stomach growled at the scent of the orange chicken. Dax winked upon hearing it, and my heart flipped over.

  While I hadn’t given in to Akari or my father, Dax knew how to pull at all the shattered corners of my soul. It meant my willpower was practically nonexistent when it came to him, and the real problem was, he knew it.

  Dax

  YOUR LOVE

  “For a love that's pure and true

  So I can forget about you.”

  Performed by Yuna

  Written by Robinson / Zara'ai / Warfield

  Jada finally rose from her desk chair and came around the table. I took her in as she walked. She was wearing a lemon-colored dress today with a sweetheart neckline and a cut that was sculpted to every curve. Her spiked heels were nude, blending in with her pale legs and making them look extra-long, making her seem much taller than she was.

  Her black hair was pulled up in a complicated chignon that only tempted me to pull the pins from it so that her long hair would swing about her shoulders and breasts. I wanted to unzip the dress and lay my tongue on every piece of her.

  I ignored the throbbing in my heart and my groin and focused on fixing her a plate. I’d brought some of her favorites, food that would tempt her to eat, because if I knew Jada at all, she was losing her appetite to the guilt and worry filling her.

  I’d spent yesterday at the boat show, trying to forget her, the threats, and the way she had all but dismissed me when I’d texted. Today, with nothing critical to keep me busy, my brain had been lost in thoughts of my father, Éclair, and Jada. The desire to see her had grown until it had been undeniable, until I’d risked everything just to show up at her office door without allowing her to tell me no this time.

  When I’d seen Ito-san disappearing into the sedan parked out front, I’d known I was doing the right thing. Jada needed someone at her side who would force her to talk instead of keeping everything bottled up. With Dawson and Violet halfway around the world, it landed at my feet because I knew she’d never open up to her employees.

  I waited until we’d almost finished eating before casually throwing out the question. “Was that Ito-san I saw leaving?”

  She gave a careless nod, wiping her mouth and putting the chopsticks down.

  “Your father came to see you again?” I asked, unable to hide my worry.

  “No,” she said, picking up a fortune cookie in its package and flipping it over. “It was Akari Matsuda.”

  I stilled.

  “Ken’Ichi’s sister?” My heart thumped loudly in my chest. “She’s here? In the city?”

  Jada’s thoughts had clearly gone where mine had, because she was already shaking her head. “I seriously doubt she’s the one who sent the threat. Can you even imagine Akari saying or writing something so unpleasant? I don’t think she was taught any hateful vocabulary.”

  But as soon as she said it, there was a flash of something else that crossed her face. Worry. Confusion.

  “What?” I asked.

  She dropped the fortune cookie, rose, and went behind her desk.

  “Thanks for lunch, but I have a lot to do today. We have a big meeting with Whole Foods at the end of the month to renegotiate our numbers.”

  I got up and followed her, pulling her hand from the back of the chair to my chest. She didn’t fight me, but she didn’t look up into my eyes either.

  “Don’t shut down now, mon amour. Tell me what’s going on in that beautiful brain of yours. What did Matsuda-san want?”

  Opposed to the sweet mon petit bijou I’d used the other night, this term of endearment had always made Jada bristle. It was a ploy to get her to talk that I wasn’t above using.

  “She invited me to a tea ceremony and dropped the bomb that she thinks our parents are having an affair.”

  “Your mom is sleeping with her dad?”

  “God no. Th
at would mean my mother actually had a thought that my father hadn’t given her. No, supposedly her mother is having an affair with my father.”

  I frowned. “I can’t imagine that.”

  She laughed sarcastically. “I’m not sure I want to imagine it.”

  “I didn’t mean the sex part,” I said, rubbing a finger along the soft skin at her wrist that always called to me. “I meant, I can’t imagine having lost your son because of someone and then turning around and sleeping with them.”

  Aunt Élodie crossed my thoughts, a brutal reminder of why my father hated the Moris. My chest tightened. Sleeping with the enemy. Papa would clearly see it that way. You didn’t cross those lines.

  “She didn’t lose Ken’Ichi because of my father,” Jada replied. “She lost him because of me.”

  Even though I didn’t agree, I knew fighting her on this was useless. Instead, I turned to what I really cared about. “Do you think the threats are coming from the Matsudas?”

  She shrugged. “Not if they’re inviting me to social gatherings.”

  Jada watched my finger move along her skin as the tension grew between us. Longing that couldn’t be yielded to.

  “If they are, and you go, they’d have you exactly where they want you.”

  She was done with me, my demands, and the hold I had on her. She pulled away and moved so the desk chair was between us.

  “I’m not stupid, Armaud. I don’t purposefully put myself in danger,” she said.

  Her words tossed me back in time, to a moment when she had put herself in danger, and I’d been the one to rescue her, which only caused my body to remember what had happened afterward and how we hadn’t discussed it until years later. Until we were on the balcony of her grandmother’s 5th Avenue apartment with Dawson and Violet in the billiard room behind us, fighting their own attraction.

  “Do you think they are going to finally give in?” I asked.

  She glanced back in the windows to where Dawson had Violet in his arms, showing her how to use the pool cue.