Blossoms of The Heart

by Khardine Gray

  Tai, however, was always the exception to every rule.

  Maybe it would have been wiser for me to get settled in first.

  I landed at Narita International a few hours ago. Mitsuke picked me up and took me to Akito’s place. She insisted on going shopping, but I was too eager to get here and see the journal.

  Sure, I’d thought about Tai but I just figured we’d have more of a ‘hey there and goodbye,’ meet.

  I didn’t think Akito would pair him up with me.

  I never told anyone about our last encounter, and thinking about that now just felt so childish. It wasn’t as if I slept with him… much as I wanted to.

  With everything that had happened to me over the last few years that time seemed like it happened in another life.

  At eighteen, I may have been a levelheaded young woman who could handle herself, but I was like every other helpless female who fell prey to his charms and dreamy looks.

  I’d never seen anyone that looked like him.

  Tai was biracial half Japanese and half white. A deadly combo of beauty and rugged handsomeness that made you want to stare.

  His face was all angles and planes. The kind that would make most women a drooling mess.

  He had the slightly down-slanted eyes, thick eyebrows and angular face from his mother. From his father he got the GQ looks, the height and muscles. I remembered his father being tall and built like a tank.

  Tai basically looked too good for his own good and knew how to make you do whatever he wanted. It was all the more easy for him when what he wanted you to do was what you wanted.

  We had that weird awkward silence as we both stepped out of the meeting room and started walking down the corridor.

  “So, Dr. Phoebe, it’s been awhile.” He cast a sideways glance at me.

  “Long time.” I raised my shoulder slightly and tucked my hair behind my ear.

  “How’ve you been?”

  I wasn’t really sure how to answer that question. The truth was I felt like shit, but telling him that would open the door for questions on why I felt like that. And I doubted he would care to hear it.

  So I guess I could go with the standard answer, as I was excited to be back in Japan.

  “Great. It’s good to be here. You, how are you doing? When’d you get back from the Marines?”

  “A little over two years. Spent most of the time being a free spirit.”

  “Weren’t you always a free spirit?” I smirked.

  Maybe that was a little too blunt for a first meeting in years. It just seemed weird he would say that. I’d already counted five more tattoos that I hadn’t seen before. He mostly went for Japanese characters which looked cool but there was what I thought looked like a dragon’s wing creeping up the side of his neck, and the tail looked like it snaked around his arm.

  He turned so that he was walking backwards while he faced me.

  “Was that a statement or a question?”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling. “It’s… whatever you want it to be.”

  “Statement. The way I remember it, you seemed to like me as a free spirit, and looks like you still like what you see.”

  God damn, my stupid body betrayed me and took in the purely sexual look he gave me as he looked me up and down. Heat flushed my cheeks.

  We stopped and he just stared at me. I wasn’t sure what he expected me to say, but he was looking at me like he wanted some kind of response. He’d always thrown me with his openness.

  At least with Tai there were never any hidden surprises. He was open and forward, said whatever was on his mind and didn’t care about the end result.

  “I can see you haven’t changed one bit.” Better to say that.

  “No not a damn bit, maybe just got better at it.” He shifted his weight from one leg to the other, drawing my attention to the strong athletic definition in his legs. “Newsflash, I like what I see too. Dr. Phoebe.”

  A slow, easy smile inched across his face as he observed me. It was that sexy smile I remembered very well, except his boyish looks had become manlier and sharper.

  That smile on him now did things to my body that I’d rather not acknowledge.

  “Phoebe, no one calls me Dr. and please don’t start calling me Dr. Phoebe. Sounds like Dr. Phil or something.” I glossed over the compliment, or rather his obvious flirting, opting for safer grounds.

  He chuckled. “If I had a title like that everyone would have to call me Dr.”

  I rocked back on my heels. “Does everyone call you lieutenant? Lieutenant Tai?”

  A satisfied glint came into his eyes making them gleam as he gazed at me.

  It was Dad who gave me more context to how well Tai did as a Marine, and that he became a lieutenant. He didn’t say much more than that but it was enough.

  I was proud to hear he’d accomplished so much.

  “They don’t. Lieutenant doesn’t have the same ring to it as Dr.”

  “Lieutenant sounds better”

  “Doesn’t sound better.”

  “You don’t think so Lieutenant Tai?”

  “Came natural to me. Like adventure.” His face brightened.

  “Adventure. We used to use that word to explain everything.” Because Dad and Akito threw it around like it could explain everything indeed. Everything that meant something.

  If one of them had gotten some accomplishment during the course of their work it was all down to adventure. If one of them had done something outlandish like seeing how many time they could climb Mt. Fuji while we were here, it was because adventure made them do it.

  “That word got us in trouble.”

  “You more than me.” I pointed out laughing. When the laughter escaped my lips it felt so effortless.

  “Yes, because of you.”

  I grimaced even though I knew that was true. “No …you didn’t.”

  His smile widened. “Great, she doesn’t remember how much my ass got in trouble for her craziness, and ability to break bones with ease.”

  I opened my mouth to protest but couldn’t. He was right again, but I didn’t want to admit it.

  He gave me that penetrative look again. It weakened my insides this time and got me thinking of the last time I saw him.

  It wasn’t a good memory at all, but there were parts to it that I would always cherish.

  Did he think about that too? Was he now?

  Here we were talking like we’d just seen each other last year, but that was so far from the case. So many years had passed by. Too many.

  “Were we heading this way?” I asked, swallowing against the lump that formed in my throat.

  “Sure was.”

  I offered a little smile and started walking, but he stayed behind.

  I looked back to him and watched him run his gaze down the full length of my body, lingering for far too long on my ass. I stopped again surprised at his obvious checking me out.

  To add to my surprise he took his time to trace the outline of my figure, moving back up to take note of the curve of my waist, and then my breasts.

  My cheeks heated from the salacious look he gave me when he returned his focus to my eyes, and I had to swallow hard to calm myself.

  The smile came back and he continued walking. I followed and tried to keep my focus.

  The office was our first stop. It was a communal office that the team shared.

  The room looked more like a grand library with a host of shelves in rows carrying books and academic journals of all sorts of description. I chose a desk at the far end of the room on the raised platform where the journals started. He allowed me a few minutes to browse.

  Next stop was the research room. This was the part I was excited about.

  The skeleton remains of the samurai was the first thing I saw. Still suited in the traditional helmet and armor and in a glass case. I’d seen a lot of mummies and skeletons but had to agree that this guy was by far the coolest. Next to him was another case with the sword. I rushed up to
get a better look at the samurai.

  “I don’t know how you can do that. It’s a skeleton of a man, but you just ran up to it like he was a new pair of shoes.” Tai smirked, coming closer but stopping a good distance away. He seemed wary of the skeleton.

  “It’s a samurai.” I beamed, smiling at him.

  “Yes, and his evil yōkai ass is here somewhere in the building.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. He used to scare the absolute shit out of me when I was younger with his stupid ghost stories.

  “There’s no yōkai, Tai, just a samurai.”

  “Yes, we’ll see if you still think that tonight when he visits you after you’ve fallen asleep,” he teased. Yup he really was the same old Tai.

  I started laughing. “It doesn’t work anymore. I’m not ten years old.”

  “Whatever. Just remember what I said.” He motioned to the other side of the room where a pillar stood with a small glass case on top of it. “That’s yours.”

  My eyes turned to saucers. The journal was inside of it. My purpose for being here. To read a book no one else could read, except me.

  Not even my feeling like shit earlier could ruin this moment for me.

  Tai walked over to the encasement, opened it , took the journal out and carried it over to me.

  It was made from some sort of parchment and felt durable and sturdy.

  I opened it and smiled.

  “You’re smiling.” He noted. “This is what makes you happy?”

  “I guess.” It gave me purpose, and I felt like I was me when I was doing stuff like this. “This is old Chinese, the Jou District five BC.”

  “Jesus Christ. You actually understand it?”

  I nodded and started reading.

  “The sun was warm today. It signaled a change in the season. No longer were we burdened with the cold of winter, but the hope of the oncoming spring. I saw the raven. It returned, and then a nightingale.”

  “Damn.” His mouth dropped then a cocky smile danced across his sensual lips. “Beautiful and smart. I didn’t realize the effect of that combo until just now. It’s sexy.”

  He scanned me again, taking me in, making me feel completely conscious of myself.

  At that moment a pretty blonde woman appeared at the door. Slim built and elegantly dressed in a green summer dress that showed off her figure.

  “Hi, I hope I’m not interrupting.” She beamed, revealing perfect white teeth.

  Tai looked over to her in silence and then offered a polite smile. “No, I’m all yours.”

  He didn’t introduce her or me. He moved over to her then glanced back to me.

  “Let’s catch up later.”

  “Sure.” I nodded.

  He winked at me and left.

  I would guess that woman must have been his girlfriend from the way that he placed an arm around her but I couldn’t be certain.

  I released a breath I didn’t realize I was hanging on to and that eased the tension in my stomach.

  Tension I hadn’t felt in a while. I’d say before Jason and I got married.

  Or, maybe it was before that. Like… when I was eighteen and I last saw Tai.

  I couldn’t get the way he looked at me out of my head. That look of desire.

  I hadn’t felt desire in a long time and not for a man who looked as drop-dead gorgeous as Tai.

  What was I thinking?

  I was here on business. Business.

  It was nice though. Nice to feel desired. Nice to be called sexy.

  But there was one overarching thing I would always have to worry about from my disastrous marriage to Jason.

  It was bad enough that he cheated and ruined my trust in him. It was awful that he continued to make his mark.

  All those things boiled into one, but I would always blame him for the accident that left me unable to have children.

  Chapter 4

  Tai

  Beautiful women….

  A blessing or a curse?

  It really was debatable, for me at least.

  I had one sitting before me sipping on a cup of hot chocolate, constantly licking her lips and giving me obvious, very obvious, sexually suggestive looks that should have at the very least turned me on. Candace had been doing that for the last hour as we’d sat in the coffee house.

  Unfortunately for me, I had another beautiful woman—Phoebe—in my head who actually was turning me on, even though she wasn’t here.

  Those tits and that ass, both firm and round. The kind that I was sure would get me in trouble. Like it was now.

  “You are miles away, mister.” Candace smirked, smacking my hand playfully. It was that sudden touch that snapped me out of my Phoebe reverie.

  Wasn’t my style to be with one woman and think about another. Not my style at all. It was disrespectful.

  “Sorry, it’s just this… project.”

  “It’s massive. And good for you. You’ve always wanted to work on something like this.” Her sea green eyes twinkled. She looked genuinely happy for me and that made me feel like an asshole.

  My problem was I didn’t like to feel trapped or forced into anything.

  It wasn’t exactly fair for Candace for me to feel that way. No more than me thinking about Phoebe’s ass and tits.

  Shit, how did she get hotter?

  I had to straighten up and shuffle around to keep my dick under control.

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  “So what happens now? Are you going to the cave again?” She beamed.

  “Yeah. We’re gonna go sometime next week to check things out.” I was a part of the team that went to retrieve the samurai. That had been a day I wouldn’t forget. It wasn’t every day I got to do something like that.

  “Was that another assistant I saw in the exhibit room?” Curiosity sparked in her eyes.

  Oh yeah, the curiosity. How could I have forgotten how suspicious she always was when she found me speaking to other women?

  She knew I was loyal, but still she never quite trusted me.

  “No, that was Phoebe Walker. She’s a doctor in linguistics and archeology. She reads dead languages.” I hadn’t meant to sound so proud.

  Secretly I kind of was. I didn’t know many people who had that sort of backing, and there were all sorts of scholars at the center and museum.

  “God, that’s some power. I’ve never heard of anyone who could do that. I’m surprised because she didn’t look like… she could do all that.”

  “You know that sounds like you’re saying she doesn’t look like she’s that clever?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “Oh no.” She shook her head. “That’s not what I meant at all. I just expected someone older to have such credentials. She was very stylish.”

  “Always has been.”

  “How long have you known her? You’ve never mentioned her before?” She blinked and parted her lips.

  “All my life. I’ve known her that long. Just haven’t seen her in the last eleven years and we never kept in touch.”

  “Oh, wow. How comes you never kept in touch?”

  Questions, questions. She was trying to assess my interest in Phoebe.

  “Life got in the way.” It was the truth. I was sure that either of us could have stayed in touch if we wanted.

  I could have, even though her mother told me to stay away from her precious daughter. The ball was probably in my court, but I did what I felt was best at the time.

  “Life.” She gave me a small smile.

  “Life. It’ll be good to get reacquainted in this project. It will be interesting to see how well our skills combine.”

  I wished it was just our skills I was thinking of combining. Everything was beginning to make me think of sex.

  “Definitely. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens too. I wish that I was covering that instead.” There was a sadness in her eyes that got me. She’d left her job at National Geographic and taken on freelance work with Traveler Magazine.

  She never said why she le
ft her job, only that she left. Maybe because that was what took her away from me.

  “Why don’t you just write an article about it? You have me to give you all the juice.”

  “Yeah, I guess I could.” She nodded and took another sip of her drink. “It feels different now. Different to when I was here last. Back then I was aiming for something and I was looking for the next hot story that would land me the golden job.”

  “I get that, but when you love something you do it for you first. Everyone else comes second.”

  I imagined Phoebe to be like that. Way back when I used to know her, nothing would stop her from exploring and doing what she wanted to do.

  Back then her mother used to be the biggest obstacle. That woman was a pain in the ass. I couldn’t stand her back then and I doubted she was any different now.

  “It’s… like I just lost my zing and zest. I’m just doing what I’m doing.” She shrugged.

  I wondered if it was that why she decided to ask me for a second chance. Did it just simply fit in with what she wanted for the moment? Like being bored and deciding to do whatever came up to pass the time.

  I took a sip of my coffee and looked at her.

  We hadn’t really talked properly. She’d just turned up out of the blue at my house and landed me with the news that she was back and hoped we could have a second chance.

  It threw me. Really threw me because I didn’t expect to see her this side of the world again, or in my life. It was hard to get over her. Hard to accept that the plans I hoped for us weren’t in her vision too.

  When we got together I didn’t think she would have left me for the first opportunity to climb the ladder of success.

  But… I got over the blow, and I got over her.

  “So what are you doing with yourself exactly?”

  “Writing with the travel mag, and hoping to get my guy back.”

  I sighed. I didn’t have an answer for her. I had time to think and hadn’t come up with anything.

  Also, if I was serious about her then I couldn’t be thinking about Phoebe the way I was.

  “I’ve been thinking, Candace, and I still don’t have an answer yet.”