That question certainly must have been on Grabby Grayson’s mind when she got home and made his dinner. She knew that when he came back into the kitchen to retrieve his dessert before she even had a chance to unwrap the little cake she’d picked up in the market.
“It’s quite noble of you to carry on as though nothing happened, but you’ve been through such an ordeal.” He took her hand in his. “Please sit and rest awhile.”
Hannah wrenched her hand free and wiped it on her apron. His hands were soft and weak. “I’m fine, really. I’ll bring your cake out in a tick. Would you like tea or coffee with it? I made both, just in case.”
Grayson chuckled and perched on the edge of the large plank table in the center of the kitchen. “Hannah, dear, you are a treasure. How foolish of Georgie to let you go so easily. I’ll have coffee, by the way.”
“Yeah, well, I s’ppose Mr. Burroughs wasn’t too happy with my cheek.” She placed the cake and coffee service on a tray and brought it to the table. Grayson sat and watched as she placed the things from the tray onto the tabletop.
“I don’t mean nothing by it, you understand,” she said as she poured the coffee. “It’s just that my mother always said the best policy was to speak your mind straight out so there ain’t no misunderstandings to get in the way.”
“Your mother is a wise woman. Is she still in England? Perhaps we should send for her. I may be able to build a much larger home before too long, if certain business ventures go as planned.” He placed his hand atop Hannah’s when she set down his dessert plate.
Hannah pulled away and took the serving tray, holding it in front of herself like a shield. “My mother is dead, but thanks for the thought.”
“My condolences, then.”
Hannah hated the way the man looked at her, the same way those blokes in the Yoshiwara had, only there was no fear of “foreign devils” lingering in the pale blue depths of his close-set eyes. “I can take this into the dining room for you, sir.”
“That’s quite all right. I like it in here. It’s rather cozy.” He licked a bit of cake frosting from the tip of his fork. “Please join me.”
“No thanks. If it’s all the same to you, I’ll go clear off the table in the other room and get to washing things up.”
“Indeed,” Grayson said. “You can pretend I’m not even here.”
Yeah, well, that was a lot easier said than done. Hannah felt the man’s gaze take stock of her every action, and she tensed, just waiting for him to make his smarmy little move and live up to the nickname his last housekeeper had given him before she’d up and eloped with some American sailor.
And yet, nothing happened, or rather if he’d planned to try anything with her, he was interrupted by the knock of one of his friends on the front door, a ship’s captain by the name of Tipton. Hannah had heard from that other housekeeper that the man had made a fortune by taking on a shipload of wood from Malaya some poor bloke down there couldn’t even give away. But here the sappan wood was snatched up quicker than you could say “There’s yer uncle” at more than twenty times what Tipton had paid for it.
And from what Hannah had heard that blighter’s luck with falling into deals wasn’t a fluke at all. She had to give it to old Grabby Grayson. At least he had a knack for picking useful friends.
When Grayson left with the captain, Hannah finished her cleaning up, then took a slice of cake and a cup of tea for herself. She changed into the nightdress she’d picked up in a secondhand shop while out, then looked at the note the Dutch interpreter had slipped her earlier.
Hannah’s stomach jumped a bit when she saw the firm English letters upon the page. Sanada-san had written it, she was sure of it.
May you have good fortune with your employer and may you carry out the duties required of you easily.
We trust you bear our people no ill will for recent misunderstandings and know that the loyal retainers of Prince Narimatsu who come to Yokohama and Kanagawa on business will aid you with any difficulties if we are able should you find us in the marketplace at your time of need.
Hannah read the note again as she ate her snack.
If she was reading between the lines right, Sanada-san was telling her she’d better not muck things up and that whatever information she gathered for him she could tell to him in the marketplace here or over in nearby Kanagawa where the foreigners were allowed to travel.
Hannah held the note up and addressed it as if doing so would send her words to the man himself.
“You know, luv, it would have been nice to tell me who I’m s’pposed to cozy up to and just what exactly you want me looking for.”
Chapter Eight
Katsu read the cryptic note just arrived from his Dutch friend in Yokohama. It was as he thought; Grayson was the one backing the opium due to arrive on the ship owned by the man with the cold wolf’s stare. Rolling the slip of paper into a long thin tube, Katsu opened the door of the garden lantern and pressed the end of the paper to the flame of the candle within.
“Keeping secrets?”
“As much as you’d keep secrets from me,” Katsu said to his friend before turning. “Grayson is meeting with Tipton this evening.”
Masato nodded. “As you predicted.”
As he gazed at Masato in the pale glow of the lantern, Katsu noted how much Masato had changed since their days back at the samurai school in Minowa. As a boy, Masato had always been a follower, never quite timid, but certainly not the type to go out of his way to take control in any given situation.
Katsu had been the opposite, his innate self-confidence and fearlessness often propelling him to take charge whenever their teachers set them to group tasks and to helping train the younger boys in the art of the sword. Despite his usual quiet demeanor, Masato showed no hint of shyness in the dojo. He’d mastered the complicated sword style in no time at all and had even left the domain for a time to become licensed in a second style at a noted dojo in Edo.
“You’re thinking of her, aren’t you?” Masato asked with a frown.
“Not at all. I was just thinking back to when we were growing up.”
Masato grinned. “Feeling old and nostalgic, then?”
Katsu laughed and folded his arms within the wide sleeves of his jacket. “If you’ve forgotten, you’re older by two months.”
Masato stepped closer. “And age does come with certain privileges, doesn’t it?”
He leaned in, a familiar hunger lighting his dark eyes in the pale lantern light. Katsu had always welcomed that look, that desire that heated his friend’s skin and helped ease the cold loneliness settled deep within Katsu’s soul, but tonight…
Katsu stepped back.
Masato seized the front of his haori and jerked him forward. “Do not do this. Don’t waste a moment of your time thinking about that barbarian whore. You’ve been too long without a woman, and her soft hands and warm body have muddled your senses. Don’t dare turn me away for that.”
Knocking Masato’s hand free, Katsu backed away again. “Don’t you tell me what to think or do.” He was more than a little surprised that Masato didn’t protest or follow him to the inn’s main room.
But after a time of quiet contemplation and a bottle of good sake, Katsu began to the see the wisdom of his old friend’s words and the foolishness of his own lonely heart. He could have nothing with Hannah-chan beyond what they’d already experienced, and there would be no more of that.
* * * * *
When he returned to his room, Katsu found a note from Masato.
If I must pay for my pleasure tonight, then so be it.
With a shake of his head, Katsu shed everything but his kimono and loincloth then stretched out upon the futon one of the inn’s maids had prepared. Although tired from the day’s journey and relaxed from the sake, he could not sleep, so he simply stared up at the play of candlelight across the room’s ceiling and thought of the time spent with Hannah-chan today.
His cock responded to the memory of her soft l
ips closing around it, the heat of her mouth as he drove into it, the jolt of pleasure that shot through his entire body from the gentle suction of that sweet mouth drinking in his seed. He rubbed his hardening shaft, recalling the soft, moist heat of her inner folds when he touched her, the way her inner flesh pulsed and clung to his fingers when she hit her own peak. To be buried fully inside her again, to feel the soft strength of her lush body nestled in his arms, to be able to drift to sleep with the echo of her heart beating in time with his own was what he craved.
Katsu pulled his cock free and clamped his eyes shut, picturing Hannah-chan as he pumped himself with swift, firm strokes. He came hard and fast, his heart pounding as though he were actually with her, yet his satisfaction was incomplete. Something was missing.
She was missing.
After wiping himself clean with the edge of his kimono, Katsu donned a fresh one along with his hakama and haori. He fastened his swords at his waist, then slipped out and headed back to Yokohama.
* * * * *
Unable to sleep, Hannah paced her small room, and when that failed to cure her restlessness, she rearranged the furniture. Before tackling the tall, narrow wardrobe, she opened the window and unlaced the neck of her nightdress to let the breeze cool her. The leaves rustled in the tree just past the window. A storm was probably blowing in across the bay.
That would be a right pisser, wouldn’t it? If it stormed, she couldn’t go trudging around the marketplace trying to get up on gossip from the shop clerks and try to find out whatever the hell Sanada-san wanted her to find out. And if her little mission had to do with Grabby Grayson, then the rain was apt to keep Grayson home and in the way of her finding out anything while “cleaning.”
Blast it, the back leg of the wardrobe was caught up on a swollen floorboard. Hannah pushed back on the heavy cabinet then leaned a bit to the right, hoping to hop it over the rise in the board. “Go on, be a stubborn git like a certain Japanese man I know,” she muttered before rocking the wardrobe back once more until its front legs were off the floor. This time when it rocked forward she tried to give it a tug too. The right front leg gave an ominous crack as the edge touched the floor.
She put up her arms to hold it back, crying out when her right wrist bent backward and the weight became too much to bear.
Out of nowhere something blocked her fall. Strong arms appeared on either side of her, catching the piece of furniture, tipping it back against the wall.
“You saved me,” Hannah whispered as Sanada stepped around her and braced the legless side of the cabinet with a wooden trinket box before setting it back in place.
The samurai moved back to face her. “Fierce as a tigress inside, but weak as a kitten outside.”
“Bastard,” she said with a grin that mirrored his. She pressed closer, loving the way his strong arms wrapped round her. Before she could even think to ask how he’d gotten in the house, his lips claimed hers, his tongue exploring, possessing her mouth in ways that made her blood roar through her veins, and her desire for him roused a craving like none she’d ever known.
When they parted, he gazed down at her, his rough fingers caressing her cheek with unbelievable tenderness. “Beautiful,” he said softly, adding something in Japanese she couldn’t quite make out.
He pulled her nightdress off, then embraced her again, his lips capturing hers once more in that possessive way of his. His hands caressed her back, gliding down to her bum, cupping her, lifting her with a fluid motion and carrying her to the bed where he put her down. Hannah parted her legs and brushed her hand across her cunny, wanting to scratch the delicious itch deep inside that only the man undressing before her could.
God, but he was magnificent.
The heat of his gaze slid over her as he stood there at the foot of the bed, leisurely stroking his hand over his hardening cock. Hannah held out her hand. “Don’t keep me waitin’. You know I want you,” she said before parting her thighs so he could see how wet she already was.
It surprised her when he gave a little shake of his head and kept staring as if he wasn’t even sure he wanted to. Well, that wasn’t quite right, ‘cause he was hard as a rock now, so his body wanted her for sure. Hannah rose up on her elbows. “What’s wrong?”
Again he gave that little shake of his head, and she had the feeling that he was almost trying to clear it as if he’d been drinking too much.
“What’s the matter?” she asked a bit sharper.
His gaze never broke, and he spoke as he lowered himself to kneel at the foot of the bed.
“Sanada-san ‑‑” Hannah broke off when the samurai gripped her legs, tugged her down toward him, and began kissing his way oh, so slowly from her right ankle up to the top of her thigh. She squirmed when he teased the nest of feminine curls with his tongue, licking the very edges of her outer lips, but not moving deeper where she wanted him most.
He pulled her to the bottom edge of the bed, his rough fingers dancing delicately over the hot flesh of her thighs, parting them more, letting the cooler air of the room hit her burning cunny and sending a shiver through her.
“You’re torturin’ me.”
He chuckled then slid his hands under her bum and lifted her like he was a starving man about to feast. Well, maybe not starving, not the way he was taking his own sweet time with that tongue of his, licking her here and there, teasing and teasing, making her so hot and wet she could hardly stand it.
She cried out when he finally dipped his tongue inside her then licked up with increasing pressure to work his magic on her throbbing clit. She was ready to explode when he stooped and pulled away to sit back on his heels.
Hannah sat up, too confused and wanting to speak, but she didn’t have to because Sanada reached for her and pulled her onto his lap, her dripping cunny sliding right onto his long hard cock, her hard nipples rubbing against the firm, hard muscles of his bare chest. The lovely friction of skin on skin made her moan softly, but the sound was cut off by his kiss. It was deep and slow, his tongue slick and salty with her juice as he took possession of her mouth like no one ever had.
She twined her arms around his neck, pulling back to give him a bit of room when he reached between them to toy with her breasts. Hannah rocked back and forth on his cock, letting the sweet pressure build up with each movement.
Sanada broke the kiss and let his hand drift down to his lap. That stare of his was magical, so fierce, yet so oddly tender in some way she couldn’t explain. Hannah was at a loss to decipher it once he began to rub his thumb over her in slow circles, pushing her to the edge until she clutched his bare shoulders as her climax shook her through and through.
She’d barely caught her breath when he pulled her close and stood, taking her with him. He laid her on the bed, then moved over her, burying himself in her willing body once more. He began to take his pleasure with a calculating slowness that roused her desire once more.
He was oddly quiet, but Hannah had no doubt that thoughts were swirling in his head behind his piercing, dark eyes. She closed her own eyes and gave herself over to the desire, hugging him closely, kissing him deeply. Nothing mattered but this moment. Whatever might happen an hour from now or in the days that followed, she didn’t care.
For now he was here and he was hers. All hers.
Chapter Nine
Katsu listened to the gentle sighs of Hannah’s breath, felt the steady, pulsing beat of her heart as she pressed closer against him, her soft, warm body fitting so well against his own. He was…content, at peace in ways he hadn’t felt in years. He wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and let sleep claim him, but he couldn’t.
He had to leave her. He should never have come. He wouldn’t have come inside at all if that furniture hadn’t almost crushed her.
Her. His barbarian woman with the heart of the tiger. His Hannah-chan.
Silencing his nagging inner voice, Katsu held her a little closer and rubbed his palm along her bare arm until he reached her shoulder. He smiled a
s he reached up to touch his own shoulder. His little tiger woman had bitten him when she hit her peak the final time.
He kissed the top of her head and forced himself to pull slowly away. She stirred but did not wake, and as he dressed he let his gaze roam freely over her body. She was so different than his countrywomen, not only in the curves of her body that were never fully hidden by her Western garments, but also in her spirit to which she gave free rein.
He pitied the man who would take her as a wife. His Hannah would not be the docile companion, keeping an orderly house and bearing studious, disciplined sons. No, this little tiger woman would expect an equal say in household and family matters; she would demand that she alone share his bed, that she have a place in his heart.
The words of his longtime teacher echoed in Katsu’s ears as he slid his swords and tessen into the band at his waist: “A wife will always be her father’s daughter, her brother’s sister. Her heart, her loyalty will always belong to them. Trust no one, but those among you here. Love no one as you would love the man beside you. It is he who will walk with you into battle, he who will shed blood to keep yours from spilling.”
“Yes, sensei,” Katsu whispered as he pulled the blanket up to cover Hannah’s nakedness. He made certain her door was latched, then crossed the room. He slipped out the window, doing his best to ignore the part of himself that wanted to believe that Hannah was different. She had not been raised to think as a Japanese woman, not been raised in the rigid structure of a Japanese family. Everything about her was as unfettered as the wind. Her loyalty would remain where she placed it.
Katsu took a deep breath of the cool night air to clear his head of the foolish longings being with her stirred. He had been wrong to come here tonight. There was no future with this woman, this foreign woman whom his people would never accept as anything more than his whore. Even then they’d question his judgment in taking a barbarian to his bed. Her kind had brought nothing but strife and disease to Japan since they’d forced their way in. Even now they were trying to poison the people and conquer the land as they had in China with their opium.
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