His Revenge Baby: 50 Loving States, Washington (6 page)

But this was her bottom where doing for Doug was concerned. She was prostituting herself to save his job.

No, he didn’t know what she was doing. Would never have let her go through with this if he knew the full story. She believed that,
had
to believe it in order to look him in

the eye at the end of this six month assignment.

But why the hell did she keep falling into this cycle with him? She couldn’t answer that question when she first moved to Japan, against her better judgement and knowing what a train wreck her brother could be.

And she couldn’t answer that question now. Instead of ruminating, she sighed and said, “It’s okay, Doug. Seriously. The job…it’s not as bad as I thought it would be.”

Lilli thought of the kiss, hot and scorching. The squeeze of the younger Mr.

Nakamura’s hands on her naked bottom. Pulling her in, making her want more than she’d ever thought she could from this type of encounter.

“So the job’s not too bad?” Doug repeated, his voice boyish and hopeful.

“No, it’s okay,” she answered, giving him a partial truth because she couldn’t tell him everything. How she hadn’t needed to use one bit of acting to pretend with Norio Nakamura. How that single kiss had aroused her more than anything else she’d ever done with any other man.

“Good. That’s good,” Doug was saying. “But I’m going to make it up to you as soon as the six months is over. You, me, and Ruby…we’ll go somewhere nice. To Bali, okay?”

“Okay,” Lilli said with a small smile. “I’ve heard nice things about Indonesia.”

“It’s beautiful. Ruby’s mom used to love going on vacation there,” he assured her. “I can’t wait to take you. But until then…”

Her heart sank with the realization. This was goodbye. She wouldn’t talk to Doug or Ruby for another six months.

“No contact. I get it. I’ll see you in six months.”

“Stay strong, and I’ll see you in six months.”

A moment later he was gone, leaving Lilli at the top of the stairs with her old phone in her hand. One that was not nearly as nice as the new one she’d found in her purse.

She’d need to hide her personal phone, she decided. At least until her six months were up. But if Norio Nakamura really had her new apartment under surveillance, she couldn’t risk hiding it there. But she also didn’t want to get rid of the phone. It was her lifeline to her real life and her family. And she’d need it again after her six months with Mr. Nakamura were done.

Lilli looked around until she spotted the fake ficus tree on the second floor landing below. The perfect hiding place! Since it was fake, no one would bother with it. And it was just far enough under the landing to stay dry in the rain.

A few minutes later, she’d buried the phone beneath the polyester soil at the bottom of the tree’s basket, and she made her way back up the stairs and into her apartment with only the new phone in her purse.

“Hulloo, Ana!” one of her roommates, Helen, called out as Lilli entered the apartment. Her blond hair, rosy cheeks, and posh British accent always put Lilli in mind of Mary Poppins. So much so that she half expected the young woman to burst into song while offering her a cup of tea.

“Hey!” Lilli called back as she removed her heels in the narrow alcove between the door and the living room.

“Very nice,” Katya, a Russian Osaka Charm girl, said as she looked admiringly at Lilli’s new shoes. She moved in for a closer look, coming to stand in the alcove’s inner doorway. “Are they from same client who gift us new TV?”

“What TV?” Lilli started to ask.

But then Katya stepped aside and Lilli’s eyes widened. In front of the beige couch, an 85-inch 4K Naka LED TV now stood where the ancient Daewoo flat screen used to be.

“So who’s this new client,” Helen demanded as Lilli gaped at the TV. “Tell! Tell!”

“I’m not allowed to say,” Lilli answered truthfully, recalling the several tablet screens of translated NDA paperwork Miyuki had made her sign before she left the office after the first interview.

“Oooh, a big deal then, is he?” Helen answered with a mischievous smile. “I bet it’s an executive at Nakamura Worldwide, right?”

“Seriously not allowed to say,” Lilli answered, her eyes sliding over to the new TV.

She was deeply aware that this whole conversation could most likely not only be heard, but also seen thanks to that Trojan Horse of a gift.

“Ooh, you don’t have to say anything, dearie! I just know I’m right!” Helen insisted.

“And you know they got one for your room, too. Only a 50-inch, but still heaps better than that old Daewoo, you lucky tart. I am so jelly!”

And that was how she ended up spending the rest of the day watching reruns of
Cops
with her flat mates. Feeling seriously creeped out, even as she fended off their eager questions and guesses about her “mysterious client.”

This whole situation was hardcore. So much so that Lilli had serious trouble sleeping in the same room as her “new gift TV.”

Which was why she was more than happy to leave the apartment when Miyuki showed up at her front door.

“
Ohayogozaimasu
, Ana-san!!!” the young woman said with a bow. “Would you like to come shopping with me?”

Chapter Seven

AS IT TURNED OUT, “shopping” actually meant “get every beauty treatment ever known to human kind.”

One Nakamura town car ride later, Miyuki escorted Lilli into a high-rise spa in the Shinsaibashi district. Her only instruction: “It is okay. You can go with her please now, okay?” as she waved Lilli toward a barefoot woman dressed in a crisp black uniform that looked like a cross between hospital scrubs and a martial arts
gi
.

The spa was as lux as anything Lilli had ever seen. Marble everywhere, but with enough balsa wood to make it seem warm and inviting, and high-rise views of Osaka from each room.

She spent the entire morning and afternoon admiring the view while demur, smiling women in black uniforms pampered the fuck out of her…right before they exfoliated, plucked, massaged, moisturized, soaked, and steamed her within an inch of her life. By the time they were done, the only hair left on Lilli’s body were her eyelashes, the two arched strips above her eyes, and the hair on her head.

And talk about well-scrubbed! In spite of the dirty nature of Lilli’s new job, she had never felt so clean in her life. At one point, she’d even felt them digging around inside her ears. She doubted there was so much as a speck of wax or dirt left on her entire body. She felt like a plucked chicken.

In fact, as they guided her toward “the last thing, okay?” Lilli was half afraid they had a plan to serve her up for Thanksgiving dinner. It was November after all.

Luckily the Japanese didn’t celebrate that particularly American holiday. And the

“last thing” turned out to be a small crew of more smiling women in black uniforms circling an empty hair-and-make-up chair.

Hours after entering the spa, Lilli Tucker was completely shellacked over and Ana Granger, a woman who looked like she could definitely be an Osaka Charm girl, emerged. She walked to where Miyuki was waiting for her in the lobby, her toes and fingernails freshly painted, her face covered in make-up that somehow gave the impression she wasn’t wearing any at all and looked this naturally lovely all the time.

The only thing that the black uniform crew had left untouched was her hair, which had curled back up sometime during the day. Probably in the steam room.

But other than that…

“You look very good. Much better!” Miyuki proclaimed upon spotting Lilli. “I bought many things for you today. Many things.”

“So to be clear, when you asked me to go shopping with you, what you meant was you would pick out all my clothes for me?”

“Excuse me,” Miyuki answered with several bows and a slightly confused and apologetic expression on her face. “I wanted to make this easy for you, and I know what Mr. Nakamura likes most for his girls. Please do not be angry.”

“I’m not angry,” Lilli assured the distressed young woman. “More like overwhelmed. I’m not used to this. Having a spa day. Having someone shop for me. It’s all very new. Nice…but new.”

“Hmm,” Miyuki answered with a sympathetic smile. “Maybe it will be easier for you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” Lilli repeated. “What’s happening tomorrow?”

Chapter Eight

JUST WHEN LILLI didn’t think her relationship with Miyuki could get any more intimate, Norio Nakamura’s assistant showed up the next morning to escort her to yet another high-end store in the Shinsaibashi district. This time it was a lingerie shop. One so discreet, she didn’t actually realize the type of store she was in until two women in matching suits with fine lace corsets peeking out from beneath their tailored jackets, escorted them into what looked like a small Parisian apartment.

The room was adorned with gorgeous tufted chairs and sofas, several floor-to-ceiling baroque-style mirrors with antiqued gold trim, and enough crown molding to make Lilli wonder if they hadn’t somehow teleported from Osaka, a fashionable city known for its food, to an even more fashionable city known for its food. In fact, the only things that set this room apart from a high-end European flat were the stick-thin mannequins in beautifully designed lingerie lining one wall like a scantily clad army.

“This is your personal shopping suite,” the older of the two saleswomen informed Lilli. Then she waved a hand toward a garment rack filled with black, red, pink, and white lace numbers. “We have pulled several pieces for you.”

“If it is okay, you maybe can put on and let us see,” Miyuki added. But as with all of Miyuki’s super polite requests, Lilli didn’t really think she had any choice in the matter.

Wow, really? More naked time in front of people she didn’t know? But she supposed it beat getting basted and plucked like a turkey.

Okay, whatever, she could do this, she told herself as one of the sales women took five of the finely detailed pieces off the garment rack and set her up in a small room off the main suite. This room seemed to be purely for the purpose of getting dressed and undressed, because unlike the rest of the swanky suite, it only had a single wooden bench and three plain walls, one of which was covered with a simple mirror. No crown molding or brocade here.

“Do you need help?” the sales lady asked, already stepping forward.

“No, I’m fine,” Lilli answered, hastily crossing both her arms in the Japanese sign for no. As much as she loved having multiple strangers view her in the nude, she figured she should take advantage of this opportunity to dress and undress herself for old time’s sake.

The two women bowed and went away in a flurry of Japanese and clicking heels.

Leaving Lilli to choose the first piece of lingerie she would try on. She picked something that looked a lot like a fancy black onesie. Not because she was particularly drawn to it

—though she had to admit it was one of the most beautiful pieces of lingerie she’d ever set eyes on—but because it was the most discreet of the offerings. It consisted of a sort of bikini overlaid with a flower motif bodysuit made of delicate lace. So tasteful, it not only covered up all her naughty bits, but made her feel like she was wearing an exceedingly pretty swimsuit instead of something naughty designed to be taken off by a lover.

A knock sounded on the door just as she was tying the string halter around the back of her neck.

“I’m okay in here,” she answered. “I just need another minute...”

…to get up the nerve to show off my body yet again to a bunch of strangers
, she thought to herself.

But the door clicked open anyway.

“Seriously, just give me another minute, please…”

Her words tapered off when she looked over her shoulder and saw who was at the door. It wasn’t a sales assistant. Or Miyuki.

It was Mr. Nakamura, his cold hawk eyes studying her as if he’d finally found his prey.

Chapter Nine

NO UNDERSTOOD why Ana was surprised to see him. She’d had no advanced warning of his arrival. And aside from a single knock at the dressing room door, he hadn’t bothered to announce himself before he let himself in. But what she didn’t know…

couldn’t know…was how equally surprised he was by his actions. In fact, it was safe to say No had been surprising the hell out of himself since he’d received Miyuki’s report that everything had come back clean on Ana Granger.

Just as the file Osaka Charm sent over stated, Ana had attended a small state college in Ohio, earning a degree in Communications before coming to Japan to teach English with the JET program. She’d finished her year with the program two months ago, but not without incurring massive credit card debt to go along with her student loans. She’d been introduced to the agency by another English teacher—one whose face he recognized as he read over Miyuki’s report. The same cheerful blond who’d been invited in to see him first during the original round of interviews.

Riyu had even included a clip of surveillance footage to go along with the report. No clicked open the file and watched the CCTV feed as the first blond candidate checked in with Miyuki in the outer lobby and made a beeline to sit beside Ana, where they’d talked until Riyu called the blond in for her interview.

Hai
, Ana Granger was exactly as stated. A girl in need of money, willing to use her body to get it. But she was obviously very new to this kind of job, which explained her air of innocence and hesitation.

And it was the innocence and hesitation that made her even more intoxicating. No had tried but failed to stop thinking about her since she’d left him fully erect in his office a little under forty-eight hours ago.

He had work to do. A business trip to Singapore to prepare for. He hadn’t even planned on contacting her until he returned.

But less than an hour after reading the report, No was on the phone with Miyuki.

Asking where they were. Telling her to send the location’s address to his driver. As it turned out, the high-end lingerie boutique wasn’t far from Nakamura Worldwide’s R&D

offices, where RoTeku was housed.

Less than fifteen minutes after hanging up with Miyuki, No was standing in the doorway of Ana’s dressing room, his heart and the flesh between his legs pulsing as he