I didn’t stop at the door. I grabbed a chair from a table and carried it over to the table they sat at. I tucked it in the tight space so that my back was now facing the window and blocking their view. Topaz had a shocked look of confusion on her face and this guy, this fire guy, was now looking more like my enemy than before. Blue eyes, why did he have to have blue eyes?
“What are you doing here?” Topaz voice held an audible confused near shriek.
“Checking out the new guy. I’m making sure he’s good enough for you. I’m sure he’s not.” I pointed my words at this new guy. He wasn’t backing down. He wasn’t afraid of what I had to say. In fact, he looked as if he were ready to go to war with me just to prove in some caveman way that he was good enough. Thankfully, my father had trained me in the martial arts so if this guy wanted to go to war caveman style I could do it and win.
“Arashi,” she sighed. “I’m on a date. Go away.”
I leaned back in my chair and picked the menu that was in front of her up from the table. “So how many women have you slept with?” I looked at him to let him know I was talking to him. I hadn’t asked his name because I didn’t care.
“Arashi!” Her voice was low, but that didn’t stop the emphasis she placed on my name. That didn’t stop me from my questioning either.
“Are you a man whore? Because this woman deserves better than that.”
“Oh my God,” she mumbled and shook her head.
“It’s really none of your business.”
“I’m making it my business. If you’ll stick your dick in anything with two legs and a vagina you don’t deserve her.”
“Arashi!” She stood up and tossed the cloth napkin that was in her lap onto the table. “Outside,” she glared at me. “Now.”
I didn’t move. “So, how many women have you sunk your dick into?”
“Oh my God. I am so sorry.” She looked at this fire guy. “I am so, so sorry. I’ll be right back.” She took hold of my hand and tugged until I lifted my butt out the chair and then she dragged me, with much effort, outside.
“Go home.”
“I’m just looking out for you, Topaz.”
“Go home!” She stormed away from me and I watched her go. I was going to go back in there, but something made me carry my feet back to my car. Perhaps it was the knowledge that I had thrown a wrench in their afternoon date. Yes, I could see the tension rolling off both of them and I didn’t care. I didn’t want her with him. I wanted her with me.
I got home around the same time my parents arrived back at my place. I wasn’t even there for a full hour when the doorbell started firing off in rapid succession. Hina was the one to get the door and when I saw Topaz angrily stomp into the sitting area I knew all hell was about to break loose.
I stood up. I was ready to defend myself, my actions; but what could I say? Realistically speaking I had been the world’s biggest jerk. And I wasn’t ashamed of it; I wasn’t sorry for it; I wouldn’t apologize for it.
We argued, or more like she did. I remember her last words; “You had no right! Don’t you ever! Ever do that to me again!” And she had turned, left me standing there nearly mentally knocked out from the force of her anger. I was angry, angry at myself, angry for losing her, maybe more angry that my actions had no doubt just drove her into that man’s arms.
I heard her car leave.
“Go after her,” Hina had said. I couldn’t. She hated me and I was sure of that. I pounded my fist on the wall and struggled with my own pain. I had screwed things up. I grabbed my keys getting ready to hit the road and my father stopped me.
I needed to go hit the road and get out my frustration. Before I could even open the door my father had his hand on it holding it closed. I would never hit my father and he knew that. But even if I had lost my mind and tried it I knew he could kick my butt and kill me before I could even swallow spit. My father is that much of an expert martial artists and I will never be as great as he is.
“Live to fight for her,” he had told me. Yeah, maybe I needed to hear that because I probably would have gone out there and drove my car into something, lost control, killed myself or severely injured myself with my reckless mood.
My father wouldn’t remove his hand from the door until I gave him my keys. He handed the keys to my mother and then he told me to get changed. “We’re going to channel your anger. We’re going to train.”
Training was my father’s medicine for everything. No matter what was going wrong dedication and training could clear one’s head and make things seem clearer. I didn’t think anything would work for me, but I was so angry, so scared and so hurt that I trained with him. It was the only thing I could do to stop feeling my heart aching inside my chest. I had screwed up. I had lost her and that was entirely my fault. I didn’t know how to fix it.
That night I tried calling her and she wouldn’t answer. I tried the next day, several times, and she wouldn’t return my call. I tried to reach her for weeks and there was nothing. Hina had told me they were having lunch and she wouldn’t tell me where because she didn’t want me to show up. There was so much I wanted to say to Topaz and she wouldn’t talk to me. She wouldn’t even come by the house. My parents seemed to refuse to leave. Apparently my mood was so cantankerous that my father didn’t think it would be wise to leave me alone. I’m a grown man and yet my father still felt the need to police my actions. The sad part was that I needed him to do it.
When it became too much for me, when I needed to see her as much as I needed the air I breathe, I devised a plan—if it didn’t work then I didn’t know what would.
Chapter Six
I looked at Topaz as she moved around my office and I wished I had taken her into the sound room, but what excuse would I have for trying to get her alone in there. No, I called and told her I had messed up the coding on my site and didn’t know what to do. I was surprised she decided to answer the phone. I was leaving a message for her when I heard her sweet voice say hello. I told her my problem and she tried to walk me through it on the phone. I couldn’t let her do that because that would completely kill my plan.
I told her I just didn’t get it so she then told me she would be right over. Right over in relation to our estate which was actually outside of San Francisco city limits meant she would have about thirty minutes without traffic so for the time of day she might make it in just under an hour.
I knew exactly what I had done because I paid attention to the code I intentionally took out. If she couldn’t make it I could always just put what she told me was the tag to close the code back and be done with it. But since she was on her way I sat back and looked at the slight mess I created by letting an entire paragraph show up as a header. I laughed at it too. I had learned a lot from her—enough to keep my site running without issue. Whenever I had major issues she said she would always be there to help me—but she wouldn’t take my money and something about that had me angry. She deserved to be paid for her time and trouble. I wondered if she was still doing this as a thank you for me helping her after Jace, but then I decided that couldn’t be the case. She was over him and I was sure of that.
But now, watching her in that yellow and white polka dot sundress saunter around my office had my mind racing with other thoughts—thoughts that told me to claim her now and not wait forever to do it. The flare of the dress hit her at knee level showing off her stocking clad legs. She was the only woman I knew who wore stockings, but as she had said they’re stockings not pantyhose. I had a short education on the difference, but a picture was worth a thousand words because she graced me with another one of her sexy photos where she was wearing the stockings, a pair of high heels and nothing more than an oversized man’s shirt. I wondered whose shirt she was wearing. Was it a shirt Jace had given to her? But I didn’t ask. Now I wished I had.
When Topaz walked over to the side wall table I knew then I had to have her. I was in love with her. After my screw up with showing up at her date with some fire guy last mont
h I wasn’t even sure she would speak to me again.
I had never seen her angry before that day and God knows I never wanted to see her that angry again. Not having her return my calls hurt a lot. That first night I slept in the bed, wallowing on my sheets and inhaling her soft scent from where she had slept. I had closed my eyes and envisioned she was right beside me, in that bed with me. I had hoped her scent would never leave my bed, but it had. As much as I wanted to feel connected to her eventually I couldn’t smell the soft hues of lemon and honey on my sheets and eventually I had to wash them too. Washing them was almost the equivalent of washing her out of my life and I hated that thought. I hated everything about it.
Then Hina had come into my office one day and told me Topaz had called things off with the fire guy and all I wanted was to let her know that I’m here. I might not deserve her, but I…I love her.
“So I’m not sure how you did that,” Topaz said with her back to me as she finished fixing her things and was ready to leave. “But next time you feel the need to change something do it in design mode and leave the codes alone; okay?” She chuckled.
That laugh ignited a fire in me. I got up, stalked toward her. When she turned I could see her eyes widen. She tried to step back but she was already up against the slab of granite that hung to the wall.
“Arashi?”
I couldn’t speak. All I could do was feel. So like my music, I gave myself over to the feeling and slipped one hand around her waist, and then the other, lifted her to sit on the granite and then my mouth came down on hers. I slipped my hand in her hair and held on tight trying to keep her mouth there for me. I thought she wouldn’t respond, but she did. She responded with soft kisses that fueled my fire more.
She tried to hold on to the back of my head, but I wouldn’t have it. I grabbed both of her hands, taking her wrists in one of my big hands without breaking the kiss and then I pinned them to the wall above her head. I kissed her hungrily as my hand roamed down the side of her body. To my surprise the action ignited her own fire because she kissed me just as hard, just as passionately as if she were dying of need, of thirst. All the while the pulsating music that I had written, played on piano while one of the cellist whose album I was producing played on cello. All the while I was thinking of this passion because when I wrote the song she was the woman who inspired me—thinking of making love to her, being with her, being hers while she would be mine.
When I pulled back I looked at her. Her eyes fluttered open. “Topaz, I shouldn’t have.” I was getting nervous.
“Yes you should have. I liked it. But your family…your mother doesn’t want you with me.”
“Yes I do.” I heard my mother’s voice and then a giggle from my sister and an affirmative “come into our family” from my father.
We both turned our heads to see mother, sister and father peeping around the corner.
“Yeah, marry her already,” my mother said and my sister nodded fervently.
“I would love to marry you,” I turned my attention back to her. “I just don’t know if you would love to marry me.” I saw a slight smile on her face. She was waiting—I think—for me to ask. “Will you marry me, Topaz? Will you be my wife, my family?”
“Yes,” she said swiftly and merrily. “Yes.”
I kissed her again, forgetting about the merriment going on in the hall and the fact that eyes would be watching this kiss. I just wanted to kiss her. Then I realized I was still holding her hands above her head, that her legs were still spread, and I was still between them. I let go and brushed my fingers down her cheek as my parents and my sister rushed in to congratulate us with hugs. This was a long time coming for me—falling in love again—falling in love completely. No matter what I thought I had with Angela, I never felt this. It was never like this.
Chapter Seven
That was our story, how we met, what brought us closer together and how we stopped fighting our love for each other. It’s amazing to me how one event can change an entire future. And as I stood there cutting the cake with my husband, our parents and siblings watching us declare our love for each other right there at his estate, I knew this was where I belonged, where I was meant to be.
We had a small wedding with just immediate family there with us. We didn’t need anything big and we didn’t want to wait forever to marry. So within weeks we had our marriage license, and a caterer to make the cake and provide a nice luncheon for the post ceremony festivities. We used the natural ambiance of their home and Arashi had played a song for me on the piano—it was a song he had started writing about me, for me, that night our hearts had started to connect with each other, that night he had held me in his arms while I cried. He had felt then how much he could love me, but it had taken him, and me, a while to openly admit it.
So now I’m Mrs. Topaz Sakamoto, married to the love of my life, Arashi Sakamoto. I was really starting to think all roads eventually lead us home. This, with him, with his family, with my family, this was home.
“I love you,” I looked into his eyes and kissed his lips.
“I love you too, more than words will ever be able to convey.”
I rose on tiptoe and looped my arms around his neck, kissing his lips softly and promising him not just my love, not just my body, but my heart. Tonight he would be my first, my only, and now he would be mine. I would be his only for the rest of our lives. Wow, I was such a blessed woman. Love of my life, a family that loved me without hesitation and two mothers, my own and now his, who seemed determined to be my friend, help me gain knowledge and wisdom on married life—the what to do and what not to do parts, while they friended each other. I always wanted that kind of family bond when I did settle down. I always knew I wanted a family that would be a family. And now with the Sakamoto and the Kissinger family coming together I had that. We had that. Love—the best thing that ever happened to me.
About the Author
Capri Montgomery is an author of multicultural and interracial suspense, science fiction and contemporary romance. Her passion for writing started at a young age and for over twenty years she has been turning the movies playing in her head into written works. She is passionately exploring worlds one book at a time.
When she’s not writing, Capri enjoys nature—unless the insects are biting her, traveling, old movies, art, photography, playing cello, and exploring emotions and worlds through music.
Find more information on books by Capri Montgomery at:
Blog: http://caprimontgomery.wordpress.com/
(Print books) www.lulu.com/haremnights
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/caprimontgomery
Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/caprimontgomerybooks
Love in Music Page 6