He pulled her into his mystic stream, curious to see how the yukata’s color matched her eyes. Tess gasped and, somewhat expectedly, fell off balance and onto her butt.
“Hey!” she said. “You did that on purpose!”
“I promise I didn’t,” he said, chuckling as he joined her on the floor. “Say, what do you have on underneath that?”
“You can’t just ask a proper lady a question like that!”
“I would never dream of it,” said Lee. “But I don’t see one around.”
“Leeeeee!”
He laughed and kissed her, sliding one of his hands into the fabric of her robe. “No bra, at least. Let’s open it a little wider…”
Tess squealed, and he interrupted the noise with a kiss, pulling her body into his.
“We’re at Toma’s house,” she whispered. “He could be back at any second.”
“We can be quick.” Lee was surprised by how badly he suddenly wanted her, and he pressed his rapidly hardening erection into her stomach, grinning like an idiot. Tess’s playful expression faltered, and she looked suddenly serious.
“It doesn’t bother you?” she asked.
“What doesn’t?”
The smile flickered to life on her lips again, even wider than before. “Never mind.”
He kept to his word about making it quick. Tess’s robe pulled open, revealing to Lee that she was indeed completely naked underneath… Her small breasts, each a perfect handful and no more. The gentle curve that ran from her trim waist, to her hips, to her thighs.
Her hair was still up in a bun with the styling sticks, drawing Lee’s attention to her elegant neck. Tess had already undone the zipper of his jeans, and he proceeded to kick them off as he threatened hickeys on her pale, flawless skin.
“You said you’d be quick,” whispered Tess.
Lee ran a hand up her thigh and then along her soft pink slit. “I will be. I don’t want to be, but I will be.”
“The thing about quickies,” she said, voice breathy, “is that you can find time for more of them.”
“Tess, you naughty girl!”
“If I’m naughty, then you’re positively evil, Lee Amaranth.”
“I like it when you say my name in that voice.”
He pushed forward, plunging himself into her with a movement that felt long overdue. Tess’s warmth, softness, and tightness would always be a treat to him. He kissed her, delighting in her tiny reactions to the initial movements of his cock. Each time she took him almost seemed like the first time ever, a virgin discovering she wasn’t so innocent after all.
He wanted to take her slowly, but the situation called for speed, and his body was happy to oblige. The sense of urgency affected them both, Tess lifting her hips, rocking herself to meet each thrust.
“Maybe you’re a good girl after all,” said Lee.
“Only for you.”
He thrust faster, delighting in the tiny but wild movements of Tess’s small breasts. He kissed her, his tongue dancing across hers. She slid her mouth to the side and began kissing his neck, sucking on his earlobe, taking revenge for the hickey he’d undoubtedly left on her before.
Her moans grew more labored, and Lee felt his breathing speeding up to match. He put his full effort into chasing the pleasure of the moment, of being there with her. Zoe had teased him once about how he’d made the pact with Tess purely because he’d let his dick lead him into it. There was so much his sister didn’t understand, but if she’d seen them now, she would undoubtedly have jumped to that conclusion once again.
“Lee!” cried Tess, almost as though she was singing his name.
His hips were on autopilot. He cradled an arm around Tess’s head, feeling her body tense as she beat him to the proverbial punch. He kissed her again as he rocked over that same edge. Tess cupped his cheek, turning his face so he was staring into her eyes.
She was smiling but had tears in her eyes. She quickly wiped them away when she saw his reaction, kissing him again as though trying to deny they’d ever been there.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she said. “One of the floorboards had an… edge that was chafing against my shoulder.”
He knew she was lying but didn’t have the heart to call her on it.
They got dressed, Lee doing his best to ignore the awkward, post-coital silence he couldn’t remember experiencing with Tess since almost the first time they’d been intimate. Toma still wasn’t back, and he figured he’d head down into the yard to wait for him.
He didn’t make it down the stairs. Lee almost swung at his friend in surprise as he opened the door to the hallway and found him standing with his back pressed against the wall.
“Jesus, Toma!”
“You have no idea what an epiphany this is for me,” he said.
Lee frowned at him. “What?”
“All this time, at night in our dorm room,” said Toma. “I thought you were just jerking off really loudly. But no, you were actually getting laid!”
“Toma, please… Don’t say another word.”
“What’s she like in bed, Lee?” asked Toma. “Is she like all sexy and sensual, or is she super sweet and shy and—”
Lee had been about to forcibly shut his friend’s mouth by slamming a hand on the bottom of his jaw, but Tess had moved first, ruthlessly tickling Toma with ghost hands until he was doubled over and shielding himself.
CHAPTER 19
The festival began early in the evening and practically transformed the town from what Lee had witnessed on his earlier walkthrough. Stalls had been set up on either side of the main street, some selling small trinkets or food, others offering various games of skill and chance.
There were far more people out than Lee would even have guessed lived in the area, with kids darting around the legs of adults and weaving their own paths through the crowd. He walked with Toma’s family, pushing Tess and the wheelchair at an even pace along the street.
“Will you win me a prize, Lee?” asked Tess.
“Was that your secret reason for seducing me before?” he whispered.
Tess scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I’d say it’s more accurate that you took advantage of me and my unguarded state.”
“I’ll give it a shot after,” he said, squeezing her shoulder. “For now, we need to find Xepher.”
Lee’s own contribution to the task ended up being limited to following alongside Toma and thanking him for his help. Everyone seemed to know Toma, which was no surprise given the size and remoteness of the community. They moved from stall to stall, asking not just the vendors and game operators, but the people gathered for entertainment.
The questions about Xepher were often preempted by Toma catching up with the various people he interacted with. A girl around their age was surprisingly flirtatious, pulling Toma into a hug and winking at him as they parted. An older man grinned and tried to cajole his shy young daughter out from behind one of his legs to say her hello.
“Nobody’s heard anything,” said Toma. “Kind of weird, to be honest.”
“How so?” asked Lee.
“In this town, it’s news if someone’s dog accidentally gets out of the yard for the day. School test results are news. You are news, Lee. If Xepher was here and moving around openly, it would be common knowledge within a few hours.”
Lee chewed his lip, trying to keep his discouragement at a manageable level. As much as he enjoyed visiting Toma and his family, it was frustrating to think his trip to Japan might have been for nothing.
“Oh,” said Toma. “Those are some friends of mine from middle school. Do you want me to introduce you?”
“No, you go ahead,” said Lee. “Tess wants me to win her a prize.”
“Yay!” said Tess.
The stall she picked out was a dinosaur-themed ring toss with massive, prehistoric plushies stacked along the back wall. Lee’s first throw was abysmal enough to warrant Tess climbing out of the wheelchair and repositioning
herself amidst the target pegs. Each following throw seemed to miraculously shift direction through the air at just the right moment, to land exactly around its intended target—much to the consternation of the game operator.
“Which one do you want?” asked Lee, once they’d won.
“You pick one out.”
He opted for a medium-sized stegosaurus with a small loop on the tail, which he hung from the wheelchair’s handle. Tess grinned and pulled it to her face, lavishing it with cuddles.
“How about we get some food next?” suggested Lee. “I saw some interesting-looking cake thingies in the stall across the way.”
Tess’s attention had shifted elsewhere, and she frowned and gave a small shake of her head.
“What is it?” he asked.
“We’re being followed.”
“What? Where?”
She gestured behind them with a flick of her head. “It’s Willow, and… Harper.”
Hearing Harper’s name made the breath catch in Lee’s throat. It took a force of will to keep from instantly craning his neck around to search for her in the crowd. Harper was there, watching him, at that very moment. He wanted to see her again. But he was terrified of seeing her again.
“How far back are they?” he asked. His voice felt small, each syllable scratchy against his suddenly dry throat.
“Maybe a hundred feet or so,” said Tess. “Willow is wearing a yukata, too! She looks pretty good in it, but it makes her stand out like a sore thumb.”
“I don’t know what they want, but this isn’t good,” said Lee. “We need to find somewhere away from the crowd. It’s too dangerous to risk a confrontation with all these people around.”
He searched the nearby area for any sufficiently dark and discreet alleyways. His eyes settled on a small temple with open doors and few people nearby. He pushed Tess and the wheelchair through the crowd, breathing a sigh of relief as he saw that the sloping path leading up to it had no stairs.
The temple’s interior was spacious and well lit, lacking any statues or obvious points of worship. More importantly, it was empty aside from them. Lee pushed the wheelchair over toward the side wall and left both it and Tess there.
“I don’t want you in the line of fire if it comes to it,” he said.
“Be careful, Lee,” she whispered.
He thought about hiding to either side of the door, but it wasn’t as though he was setting a trap. He’d come to Japan openly, with good intentions. Whatever it was that Harper and Willow wanted, he’d face them head-on.
Lee leaned against the temple’s wall and waited. It wasn’t long before he heard footsteps coming up the path and saw two feminine silhouettes materialize in the darkness outside the doorway.
He had a small, tired smile on his face as Willow and Harper stepped into the light. Willow wore a yukata and still had her scar covered up with makeup.
Harper wore a long gray cardigan over a white top and dark blue jeans. Her blonde hair was in its usual long braid, the same one Lee had run his fingers over so many times before during their intimate encounters.
Her cold blue eyes settled on his, and there was a moment of horrible tension, as though all of the vulnerabilities Lee still harbored concerning his former master were suddenly on display. She was beautiful, her face one of elegant, sharp lines, her body out of the pages of a men’s magazine. To Lee, it felt like the beauty of a weapon, a gleaming sword, sharp as a razor and filled with the potential to cut him down.
“Harper,” he said, finally breaking the silence.
“Eldon,” she replied.
The moment stretched as they stared at each other. It almost felt like she was trying to draw something out of him. An apology, perhaps? Did she want him to fall to his knees and say it was all his fault? Did she want him to beg her for a second chance?
“What do you want?” he asked.
Harper sniffed the air with no small amount of disdain. “The situation has changed. Genevieve wants a report.”
“I don’t have anything to report,” said Lee.
“Liar. Willow told me about your attempt at recruiting Claire.”
Lee shot a quick scowl at Willow, who winced.
“I didn’t mean to tell her,” muttered Willow. “It just sort of… slipped out.”
“Secrets have a way of doing that with you, it seems,” he said. “Anyway, I wasn’t recruiting Claire. I was just giving her information, ensuring she was making an informed decision.”
Harper shook her head. “That’s not how I see it. I know you, Eldon. I know how you think.”
Lee had to look away, the intensity of her expression becoming too much for him. The worst part was that she was right. She knew him, and he knew her. He already knew how the conversation would end.
“How did you find me here?” he asked.
“We have an agent keeping tabs on Takero Fujino,” said Harper.
“Makes sense,” said Lee. “Well, I feel bad you had to come all the way out here just to leave empty-handed. I have no new discoveries to report.”
He held his hands out, as though offering them an easy way out, a chance to back down. Harper’s face was a frozen mask, and one of the variety that a person might wear into battle.
“Genevieve wants you to report in person,” said Harper. “You’re coming with us.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. I came to this town in search of a man who might be able to help Eliza.”
“You can explain that to her. Perhaps she’ll be lenient on you.”
Lee cracked his knuckles. “I have no intention of going with you, Instructor Harper.”
It had been months since he’d last called her that outside of class, and even though he’d long since left Primhaven, it felt right, if perhaps a little petty. She wasn’t his lover anymore, nor his master. She was his former teacher, and he’d learned the lessons she had to teach long ago.
“We’ll take you with us by force, if need be.” Harper’s voice was quieter now, smaller, almost reluctant.
“You’re welcome to try.” Lee smiled and bucked his eyebrows. “You can’t win against me, but feel free to give it your best.”
He felt childish, goading a woman he once loved into attacking him. Maybe it was because he’d once loved her that he felt the need to do it, the need to know he could still kindle emotions within her, even if they were now negative ones.
Harper nodded to Willow and both women fell into casting stances. Lee glanced over at the wheelchair, ensuring Tess was still safe on the sidelines.
Willow attacked first, casting a wind elemental spell in an attempt to pin Lee to the temple’s back wall. He used dispel on an exhalation before the blast hit him, creating a buffer around himself not unlike the eye of a storm. Wind surged around the rest of the chamber, tearing loose wall scrolls and swirling up dirt.
Harper gestured for Willow to stop. The moment she did, Harper sent a blast of fire hurtling toward Lee’s chest. He wrapped his hand in anti-magic and simply slapped it away. The flames did singe a few of the hairs on his knuckles in the brief instant before his ability countered the spell, but the damage was minimal.
“This isn’t Primhaven,” said Lee. “I don’t have to hide my advantages. You can’t win with spells.”
“Willow,” said Harper. “Conjuration bindings. You get his legs.”
Both women fell into matching casting stances and hurled their hands forward. Indigo bindings snapped into existence around Lee’s ankles and wrists. It was a good attempt, one that he couldn’t immediately dispel, given how they’d joined and focused their wills.
Harper charged forward, taking full advantage of the moment. Lee exhaled and used dispel to weaken the bindings as much as he could, wriggling his hands free just in time to get his guard up and block a jab.
His ankles still bound, he couldn’t stop himself from falling off balance as Harper pushed him. He landed hard, his head banging against the bamboo floor. He managed to get his feet free just
as Harper collapsed on top of him, straddling his waist and attempting to pin his arms.
It had been a long time since he’d felt her body against his, and even in the context of a fight, part of him relished it. He slipped his arm loose from Harper’s grasp and pushed her hard in the chest, feeling a familiar, distracting softness as he made contact.
Harper elbowed him across the mouth as he tried to sit up, drawing blood from his lip. Lee grasped for something to give him purchase, his hand eventually finding her braid. He pulled down with a fair bit less strength than his maximum, tilting Harper’s head to expose her neck, but not providing much advantage.
She knocked his hand loose and fell forward onto him, pressing her forearm against his windpipe. If she’d wanted to, Lee had no doubt that she could leverage her weight to end the fight right there, pressing into his neck to limit his breathing.
She didn’t, though from the way she was glaring at him, at least part of her wanted to. Lee wiggled his arm underneath hers, and their hands briefly clasped. The position was one they’d been in so many times before, except without clothes, and without hate.
“Give up!” growled Harper.
“No,” he said.
He flung his leg flat and twisted the rest of his body to the side, flipping her underneath him. Again, they began wrestling and vying for control, but Lee had the clear weight advantage and was now on top. He pinned Harper’s arms, feeling a number of contrasting, primal emotions as she bucked her hips against him. He brought his face close to hers, close enough to smell her scent. Close enough to do more than just that.
“Your turn,” he said through gritted teeth. “Give up.”
“Make me.”
She bucked her hips again, and Lee wanted to take her up on her offer. He wanted to make her give up, give in, and give herself over to him. He was sure that he could, in the moment, even as he acknowledged the truth of Harper’s stubbornness, her inability to ever give up. He pressed himself down on her, their bodies wriggling and grinding together, the context of their wrestling shifting into new—though just as heated—territory.
Pain suddenly burst through Lee’s skull as he felt a blow crash against the side of his head. Willow had finally joined the physical fray, clubbing him in the temple with both hands balled together. He fell sideways, landing on the floor next to Harper, who stared at him in surprise rather than seizing the advantage.
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