32–Alex
Having Jory sitting beside me on the ride to the cafe, I had to control myself. I wanted to lean across the seat and kiss her. I wanted Sora to pull the car over, so I could kick his big ass out, while I fucked Joey on the back seat.
Even after three weeks, you would have thought she was out of my system.
And as much as I hated to admit it, Oliver was right.
Joey had me whipped.
I couldn’t understand what was happening. There was nothing about Joey I hadn’t seen in other women.
Her beauty.
Her carefree attitude.
Her vulnerability…
I’d seen it in a dozen women, but this one… my little brother’s best friend, seemed to be the one who had my attention
Even if she was in a room with one hundred other women, I would pick her every time.
Sota pulled the car up outside a small bistro–style cafe and turned back to us.
“Don’t forget your curfew, young man…
“Yes, dad” 1 quipped, flipping him off, my face heating with the sound of Joey’s giggle beside me,
“I meant it, Mr. Kazumi. Mr Takada has a meeting at ten. You’re his security
“I get it,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I will call you when we’re ready to leave. We will drop Miss Brewster at her…”
Iturned and looked at her.
“Dorm.” She offered and I smiled, nodding, turning back to Sota.
“We will drop Jolene back at her dorm after we’ve had our coffee.”
Seemingly satisfied, Sota nodded and turned back to the front of the car.
“I looked at Joey and nodded, “Quick, let’s get out of here before he takes us both home.”
She giggled and climbed out of the car, and I followed, closing the door and waving at Sota. My driver pulled away from the curb and drove no more than a few hundred feet up the road and parked the car. I rolled my eyes. Why couldn’t he have just parked there to begin with? We could have walked.
I turned back to Joey, who was waiting for me, and I smiled, stepping up to the cafe door and opening it for her.
After finding a seat toward the back of the cafe, a waitress came and took our orders, and we waited for our coffees. I’d promised Joey no sugar bombs and had kept to my word.
I glanced back to the door of the cafe, almost expecting to see Sota’s big face pressed against the glass…. “Why?”
I blinked and turned my attention back to the woman opposite me. “Huh?”
Joey pursed her lips and looked at the table before she lifted her gaze to me again. “Why did you leave me alone again?”
I knew it would come up in conversation. I just hoped it hadn’t been so hard of a question to hear and honestly, I really didn’t want to talk about it. Leaving her in that hotel room was one of the hardest things I’d had to do in a long time. “I had to come back for work.”
“I understand that.” She replied, “But you could have woken me up, so I could have said goodbye.”
The tone of her voice said everything.
She missed me.
As much as I missed her.
I raised an eyebrow and smirked. I wanted to see how far I could push the woman in front of me. “You sound like you. missed me, Rosey.”
Jory rolled her eyes, as the waitress put our coffees down and she waited until the woman had left before the leaned closer and squinted at me. “I think you might be the one who missed me… Xan… I wasn’t the one to chase the other out of the
club.”
She had me there and she smirked as she raised her coffee to her lips and supped at her coffee, staring at me from over the
Joey put her cup back down and leaned back in her chair. “So, what kind of work are you here for Sota mentioned you are security?”
Did I really want to tell Jory about what I did? Who Yuka was?
No. Not really, so in the end, I told her a half–truth
“Mr Takada is a very important businessman. I am his head of security.” I packed up my coffee and sipped at it, while Jory
stared at me.
Her gaze moved to the tattoos which were clearly visible tonight, to my Rolex, to the window of the cafe and back. Her eyebrows scrunched together, and I knew she was trying to put it together
Would she be able to?
“Is…” She paused and looked again to the windows before she looked back to me. “Is Mr. Takala.”
Joey leaned in and whispered; her eyes wide.
“Yakuza?”
I raised an eyebrow and picked up my coffee. “What makes you think that?”
Joey blinked and leaned forward again, her elbows going to the table, and she started to tick things off on her fingers
“Firstly, your tattoos. I know Japanese men are usually against tattoos, because of what they symbolize. Then there is your watch, which is easily a ten–thousand–dollar Rolex. Then there’s the at least three–carat diamond stud in your left ear and then the fucking huge, big, bull neck bastard who is your “driver“. Oh, and you are Mr. Takada’s head of security.”
I pursed my lips together trying not to laugh at her, because she had knocked it right on the damned head…
Joey blinked and looked at me.
“Are you Yakuza?”
I put my coffee down and leaned back in my chair, my arm casually hanging over the back of it. “Do you want me to be?”
“This isn’t a freaking dress–up game, Alexander. I want to know if She balked and sat back
“Want to know what? That you might have gotten your freak on with a Yakuza soldier?” She blinked and nodded quickly. causing me to chuckle. “And if I was?”
“Oh. My. God.“I could see the cogs working inside Joey’s head and she just stared at me. “You are
I wasn’t going to lie to her, not when she had figured it out on her own. I wasn’t going to insult her intelligence.
I pulled back the collar of my business shirt and showed her the small symbol just under my collarbone. There were a series
of small Japanese characters, surrounded by a dragon. “This is the symbol of the Takada clan. The man I work for, Yuka, is the head. So, to answer your question. Yes.”
“Holy…” Joey picked up her coffee, then put it back down again. “Does your family know?
I shook my head, picking up my coffee. “Only Pa. He figured it out but didn’t mention it. Mom has no idea. I’d like to keep it that way and Jake? Do you really think it’s a good idea for him to know?”
“Yeah. Nah” she said, finishing her coffee and pushing the cup away
“Exactly.” Jake would have kittens. He was horrified by the idea, that if we had of stayed in Kyoto and not moved to Miami before her was born, we might have been recruited as teens. The fewer people who know in my tamdy, the better
“Is that why you left Miami?”
Ishook my head again. “No, that’s a completely different story.”
My phone buzzed in my pants pocket, and I fished it out, knowing exactly who it would be.
There was a two–word message from Sota
TICK TOCK
I rolled my eyes and shoved my phone back into my pocket before I finished my coffee and stood. Joey stared up at me Tve got to go. So, let us drop you back to your dorm.”
“Uh, sure.” Joey stood, and I could see she was still having trouble with the idea of my profession.
I didn’t blame her. There were usually two types of women when it came to finding out what I did for a living.
The one who became an obsessed groupie and one who ran for the hills.
I had a feeling that Joey was going to be the second one..
Opening the door and ushering her through it out into the cold night, we turned and walked toward the car. Sota was standing outside of it, smoking, waiting and 1 slowed down, to let him finish his cigarette.
Joey was still silent beside me and opened my mouth and was dumbfounded at what poured from it.
“Why don’t you come back to New York with me, for a holiday? Joey stopped and I did the same, a few steps past her, before I turned and looked back at her. “Jolene!”
“Are Did you…”
“Yes, I did just ask you to come back to New York.”
“But.. why?” she asked innocently, and I saw that shy, insecure woman from the wedding, poke her head out.
Nope. Not while I was around.
“Come on, doll.” I stepped back toward her. “Surely by now, you have noticed I’m a little crazy about you. Like you said, I chased you out of the club. I kept pestering you at the wedding.
But..
her
“Joey.” I stopped in front of her and lifted my hand, caressing the side of her face and I watched as she leaned into my touch,
eyes closing. She wanted this, I wanted this. “Come back to New York with me
Her eyes opened and she looked up at me. “When are you leaving to go
“Tomorrow night.”
“Can I think about it? And let you know tomorrow?”
go back?”
I smiled and nodded, taking her hand and we walked back toward Sota.
“Of course you can
