by KB Winters
Ethan choked on whatever he’d planned to say next and sat down in a seat at the butcher block kitchen table. “Dad he eats meat but only if it gets daily massages and eats the finest birdseed.” I grabbed three beers from the fridge and set them on the table. “Don’t worry about him, he’s quite the ladies’ man so I suppose lettuce and carrots are sufficient.”
“Or he’s leaving a trail of unsatisfied women and that would be a damn shame.” He held his bottle up and waited for us to toast with him. “If you’re such a ladies’ man why are you and my Misha just friends?” he asked, emphasizing the last two words like they were poison.
Poor Ethan was so confused, he had no idea what to say without offending someone. It was funny to see a guy like him so out of sorts but my dad meant nothing by it. “Misha is beautiful Wallace, gorgeous even. Hot,” his dark gaze landed on my cleavage before turning back to my dad. “But we’re just—”
“Just what? Too different? You think because you’re rich that you’re too good for my Misha?” He tried for a frown but I could see the twinkling amusement in eyes, similar to my own.
“Not at all. She’s smart and sexy, well not sexy I mean. Aww hell Wallace, she’s my fixer, okay?”
He finally relaxed and nodded knowingly. “Yeah well Misha doesn’t date her clients,” he offered up apologetically. “But maybe after this is all over you two could go out. I’m definitely sensing some sparks between you two.”
Ethan and my dad watched each other for a long time, each man studying the other carefully, looking for weaknesses. Then recognition dawned and he pointed at my dad. “The sex dude! You wrote that book on sex for teenage boys.” A smile split his face and he smacked a palm against the table. “My friends and I devoured that book at least thirty times, learning everything there was to know and comparing notes.”
Oh, did I fail to mention that my dad was the premier expert on human sexuality in the country? And in the western hemisphere. Yep he got paid to write about and teach sex and sexuality, writing books and papers, doing talks and even doing the rounds of talk shows.
Ethan looked back and forth between us, an uncertain smile on his face. “Are you guys for real or are you messing with me?”
“This is us, Ethan. In all of our totally weird glory.”
“Seriously?” I nodded, smacking our beer bottles for the second time. “I can’t believe that’s your dad.”
“Ethan, tell me about yourself.” Dad listened intently as Ethan told him about his brothers and his uncle and he looked happier than I’d ever seen him. More gorgeous too. Damn him.
“My family is crazy and loud but we’re close.”
“That’s good to hear. I want Misha to have a young man close to his family.”
“Dad, stop.” He smirked and sent me a wink that said he wasn’t sorry at all.
“Fine. So, Samantha Stevens, huh?”
I held my breath and Ethan let out a tense sigh beside me, both of us waited for him to finish. “Yeah.” He tipped his bottle into his mouth and drank half the bottle. It surprised me that he even drank the beer, but now it seemed like he needed it.
“I don’t blame ya one bit, Ethan. Sometimes you just have to tell people to mind their own fucking business. Some things are private.” He took a pull of his own beer. “Do you know how many people asked me about my wife’s death hours, days after her death? I didn’t want to talk about it then, and I still don’t. That moment belongs to me and Misha, no one else. Not even little miss fancy pants, Samantha Stevens.”
Ethan exhaled in relief and a grateful smile played on that imminently kissable mouth. “Thank you for saying that, Wallace. I appreciate it.”
Dad waved a hand at him. “I’m just telling you what I think son. Now,” he leaned forward on his elbows, “does that maca powder really increase libido?”
His lips twitched but he fought hard for the serious expression. “Under the right circumstances, yes.”
“Not that I need it, mind you, I’m still good and virile. Like a man your age.”
“Dad, stop oversharing.”
He stood and went to the stove to heat up the chili. “Honey you can’t overshare with someone who tells people how to get their bowels in working order. Right Ethan?” He winked and turned back to the stove. “That’s right I knew who you were the moment I saw those pretty boy good looks. What do you think Ethan, should I add maca to my noon smoothie? Is that enough time for the effects to kick in, if they work, for a little afternoon delight?”
“Dad!” He gave me that faux innocent look that I realized I must’ve learned from him. “Heat that chili up while I show Ethan where he’ll be sleeping the next couple days.”
“He won’t be sleeping with you?”
“Ignore him,” I told Ethan and pushed him down the hall and down the short staircase to the guest room. “Shower is across the hall, towels are in this closet here along with fresh linens and my room is at the end of the hall if you need anything.” He stepped in close. Too close for my peace of mind.
“Thanks Misha. Your dad is great, even if he is a little outrageous. I like it.”
“Good. I think he likes you too.” Truth was Dad seemed to more than like Ethan which I was happy about. I didn’t love the way he was trying to throw us together when I already had to fight my own attraction to this man. This client, I had to remind myself because it was important. Sure, we had some pretty rockin’ chemistry but he was off-limits. Completely and totally off-limits.
And the chemistry wasn’t all that explosive. Dad was just more astute than the average person, that’s all.
Instead, I thought of Tokyo.
And chili.
And it didn’t help one bit.
Eight
Ethan
Wallace Trent was just as strange as his lovely, beautiful, crazy daughter. And as cool too. This trip to the middle of the country was surreal in so many ways, but also the most relaxed and carefree I felt in forever. “Is it always this quiet out here?”
He nodded and sipped his homemade Kentucky bourbon as we sat in the middle of the yard around a stone fire pit staring up at the stars. “Yeah. It’s one of the perks of living in the middle of nowhere.”
Nowhere was home of one of the most prestigious universities in the country. “I see the appeal.”
Wallace laughed. “I doubt that. The women around here aren’t like my Misha. She’s always stood out and not just because of her wild sense of style. That brain of hers is more amazing than anyone I’ve ever met, but it came at a price and I’m glad to see the effects haven’t been long lasting.”
“She seems more well-adjusted than most people I know.” Other than her disdain for wearing bras and her love of hippie clothes, she seemed to be the most normal person I knew. “She eats too much crap but that’s it.”
“Oh, she ate healthy once and it was the longest damn summer of my life. Sure, she shed her baby fat and turned into a knockout, but she was hungry and grumpy all summer.” Wallace flashed a mischievous grin. “That grumpy attitude came in handy when the boys started ringing the bell.”
I could only imagine being a teenage boy panting after Misha and her being all grumpy from a lack of food. “I guess it was a blessing and a curse.”
“You can say that again. Made me wish I was a gun owner, I’m telling you Ethan.”
I could listen to Wallace tell stories forever. He just had a way of sucking you right in and I understood how people could hear this man talk about sexuality. “Wallace, how did you get into human sexuality?”
He flashed a knowing grin. “Seems like it was obvious, right? Men and sex. But I really wanted to be a doctor—M.D. not Ph.D.— I realized no specialty appealed to me. Then I realized that I had no discomfort or shame talking about sex, so I switched my major to psychology and biology, plowing through graduate degrees before getting my Ph.D. in human sexuality. It kind of snowballed from there.”
“I’ll say. Must have been hard for Misha, at first.” He
gave me a weird look I couldn’t explain so I turned back to the stars.
“It was. But she got used to it, learned to appreciate it.” Wallace gazed up at the stars with longing in his eyes and I felt like I understood that more than ever. “You have a hard road ahead of you Ethan,” he began out of nowhere, snagging my attention. “You like Misha, I can tell, and she likes you too. But you should know that she’d never compromise her work. Even if she fell in love with you, she’d see it as her responsibility to give you what you really want. Whatever brought you to her.” His gaze tore into me and I tried to make sense of what he was saying but I couldn’t.
“We’re just friends Wallace. Client and fixer. Sometimes I don’t know if we’re even that.”
“For now. But there’s something magical about my daughter. She’s a natural with people because she cares about them, all of them. Whatever you want, she wants it for you just as bad and she will do what she can to make sure you get it. It’s just who she is.” Green eyes so like his daughter’s, took on a faraway quality. “You won’t be able to help falling for her, but with the sparks between you, I think it will be mutual.”
I swallowed and set the glass of bourbon on the table between us. “Do all of her clients fall for her?” Now that I knew her better I felt like an asshole for even thinking she slept with her clients. Acid churned in my gut.
“Some. Most only think they have and with a little distance they realize they’d mistaken gratitude for something more. The important thing Ethan is that she hasn’t fallen for any of them. Not one.”
I don’t even know why I cared about any of this, only that I did. “That you know of.”
“Finish that and have a beer with me,” he said, pushing the beer into my hand before I could answer. “Misha and I are close, we share everything except client details. It’s been the two of us for so long, she’s my best friend.”
As the night wore on Wallace and I talked and drank. We drank and we talked until the stars grew fuzzy and our laughter grew loud and boisterous. By the time we stumbled back inside the house I had a fuzzy brain that wouldn’t stop focusing on a blonde hippie with emeralds in her eyes.
***
“Your dad is nothing like I imagined when I thought of the man who raised you,” I told Misha the next morning as we boarded the jet headed towards Tokyo. “And damn Wallace can drink!”
Misha’s sweet laughter bounced around the cabin as we got settled for takeoff. “Tell me about it. I swear it’s a superpower or maybe a very enthusiastic hobby for all in academia.”
“Thank you for taking me too meet your dad.”
“Who also happens to be your childhood idol?” She smirked and gave me a knowing look.
“Yeah that too,” I told her around a yawn, knowing I would need the lengthy flight to sleep and hydrate after Wallace’s midwestern cooking and late night drinking.
“Don’t worry Ethan, I won’t make you talk. You should get some sleep, those pretty boy looks of yours are looking haggard,” she said, repeating the words Wallace said to me earlier.
I nodded and covered up another yawn, remembering why I didn’t drink to excess. Once we were up in the air and cruising I stood. “I’m going to the bedroom in the back for a few hours. The bed is big enough if you feel the urge for some shut eye.”
Her teeth sank into that plump bottom lip and I stifled a groan before turning on my heels and going into the bedroom. The bed was large by jet standards but a simple queen would be tight if Misha decided to join me. I didn’t think she would. We both seemed to be fighting a pretty intense attraction we couldn’t, or wouldn’t, be acting on.
But sometime later I was pulled from a dream starring a lush blonde wearing nothing but a tiny scrap of lace that I’d been moments away from peeling down tan shapely legs, by the sound of a door opening and hesitant footsteps. My eyes opened and darted towards the door, realizing I wasn’t in my bed at the beach house. “Misha.”
“Hey. I uhm…”
I grinned and patted the bed beside me. “It’s fine, I told you there’s room for both of us.” Though looking at her in wide legged black pants and an off the shoulder shirt that showed off the smattering of freckles there, I wondered if there was room for both of us.
She grinned again. “I’m fine, just catching up on some reading. I came here because I know my dad and you need this.” One hand opened to reveal two round tablets and the other held a bottle of water.
My body sagged in relief. “You really are a goddess.” I swallowed the pills and drained the bottle. “You sure you don’t want to lie down?”
She took a step back, a smile playing at her lips. “I’m sure. Sleep well Ethan.”
I slept like the dead for nearly the entire flight, waking just in time to shower and eat before the plane touched down in Tokyo. “Good…something,” I told her and motioned to the flight attendant for a coffee.
“Good afternoon,” she replied and stretched, pushing lush creamy cleavage out at me.
“You showered?”
She nodded. “You were pretty out of it,” she said with a smile that caused my gut to tighten with the knowledge that the bathroom was much too small for any adult to dress inside.
“And I missed it?”
A blush stole up her cheeks and she nodded. “What’s the plan for today?”
I took the seat across from her, legs kicked out in front of me, crossed at the ankles. Close enough to brush up against hers. Maybe I was feeling reckless or adventurous today. “Since you were kind enough to avoid any talk of, well talking, for the past couple days I figured we could do that. And do the tourist thing.”
Those green cat eyes widened and her plump mouth widened to a seductive ‘o’ as excitement swamped her. “Really?” I nodded and she sank into the plush leather. “That’s great Ethan. Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
***
It turned out that was absolutely my pleasure as we walked the crowded streets of Tokyo talking—mostly painlessly—and eating. And shopping. But unlike the women in my life, Misha didn’t stop into designer shops for dresses and shoes and handbags. Other than one longing look at a ring on display behind the large Mikimoto window, she took in the little kiosks and picked up a shot glass, a kimono and a set of katana chopsticks that made her smile. “We might have to take a bigger jet back to Tokyo.”
She rolled her eyes and bumped her hip against mine, nearly tipping over as a group of teenage boys knocked into her. “Thanks,” she said with a smile and straightened her small top held closed by nothing but strings. “I got you something.”
I looked at the bag covered in chubby cartoon geishas hesitantly and peeked inside. Women didn’t give me gifts that weren’t small scraps of silk and lace, the occasional pair of handcuffs and my personal favorite, an extra bedmate. But the weight of the bag was too light to be another woman and too heavy to be anything else so I lifted it and grinned. “A ceremonial Matcha tea set?”
“What else do you get the man who has everything?” She shrugged and turned away before I could thank her for the thoughtful gift. She stopped in front of a noodle house.
“Hungry?”
She had no idea. “Starved.” It shocked the hell out of me when she grabbed my hand and laced our fingers together, pulling me through the crowd and into a much quieter restaurant. I watched Misha take in every detail of the carved wood and elaborate paintings of villages and ancient ceremonies. Geishas and laughing businessmen. The smile that touched her lips left me breathless and aching to taste it. I couldn’t. I knew that. Still, when she turned that emerald gaze on me, smiling and beautiful, I wanted to. Bad.
We were seated and given a menu to share. “I’m easy. I want a few bites of really weird sushi and some spicy noodles.”
“I’ll have the same, but no spice on my noodles.” We checked a few items off the menu and waited.
“This is so exciting, isn’t it?” I gave a short nod that must have disappointed her. “Well this is
my first time in Tokyo and there’s so much to it! The lights and the people, the food and the culture. I’m already overwhelmed!”
I laughed, wishing I could muster up that kind of enthusiasm for…anything. “It is pretty great.”
“You don’t have to say that, I get it. You’re a very wealthy man and things like this don’t excite you.”
She excited me. A lot. More than I wanted to admit even to myself since I couldn’t have her. “It’s not that, Misha. I just don’t go crazy over things.”
“That’s too bad.” She took a sip of her soda. “Everyone should get a little excited about something in their lives.” She clapped giddily when the food arrived, thanking the server and quickly scooping up a thin slice of tuna. “God, so good,” she moaned erotically and I shifted in my seat. “Have some,” she held out her chopsticks to me, a small strip of tuna hanging between them.
I did what any man would when a beautiful woman is trying to feed him. I opened my mouth and accepted her offer. “Damn that is really good.” It was soft and moist, seasoned just so. “More.”
She picked up another fish, white and flaky. Some type of river fish that worked well with the dipping sauce provided. “Wow.” She dug into the noodles with gusto and I just watched her, the way her mouth and tongue worked turned me on more than it should.
“How can you even taste anything?” The noodles and the broth were so damn red with spice, I didn’t think she could taste anything but fire.
“Easy, my mouth is that of a grown woman. Not a little girl.” That grin, so filled with mischief and that little arch of her eyebrow, was a taunt.
I knew it and I fell for it all the same. “Give me a bite.”
“No. I couldn’t live with myself if you didn’t make it.” Hand to her chest, she really looked worried.
“Come on Misha. Noodle me.”
Her satisfied smile worried me but I opened up anyway. And regretted it before I even finished chewing. “Shit, that’s hot!”
She laughed and pressed the cold glass into my hands. “It’s not that hot. You just need to get used to it, so tell me about the last time you were here.”