Second Chance (29 page)

She embraced him
and kissed him back. She kissed him with all the love she had for him.
We
won’t hide from each other or be afraid of the what-ifs…let us love each other
.

Soon the sweet,
passionate kiss turned into a fierce kiss of longing. Hands began to fumble and
tore at clothing, all the while lips never parting. Their bodies told each
other what their lips could not conjure.

Joining at last
after so many years of separation, Sue’s body welcomed him with pleasure. She
gave herself wholeheartedly to him. He felt so good, felt so right and she
surrendered her body to him.

Sometime later,
sprawled on her living room floor with limbs entangled in limbs, Sue’s head
laid on Jae’s shoulder; her finger tickled him as she drew little circles on
his chest. He laughed softly from the ticklish assault and covered her hand
with his own to stop the tender torture.

“Why do you always
wear this ring?” Sue asked, taking his hand into hers.

“It belongs to
you.”

Perplexed, she
said, “I don’t recall giving you a ring.”

“It’s yours. The
one I promised to buy for you on our wedding night,” he said, taking off the
ring. He held the ring up and read, “Jae loves Sue.” He showed her the
inscription inside the ring. The inscription was in Korean. “I…didn’t know what
to put in it.”

“Jae...” She
kissed him. “When did you buy it?”

“The day after we
married…before we were to meet at the ward office.”

“Oh.” Her
reaction hardly described the turmoil she felt but she couldn’t come up with
anything more sufficient to say.

“Will you wear
it?” he asked, shyly.

“Jae…”

“Will you wear it
for this week?” Sensing her hesitation, he took her left hand into his hands,
kissing her palm, he pleaded, “Please. If only for this time we are together,
will you wear it?”

Sue nodded.

Grinning from ear
to ear, he slipped the ring on her ring finger. It fit her perfectly.

“How did you know
my ring size?” she asked.

“I guessed.”

“And it just
happens to fit your pinky?”

“Yeh,” she said,
still grinning.

“Jae?”

“Yeh?”

“That night with
Michael…nothing happened. I didn’t…”

He kissed her
forehead and tightened his arm around her. “It doesn’t matter, Love.”

“It matters to
me, Jae.”

“I know.”

“And how would
you know?”

“No satisfied
woman would have cried the way you did,” he said, just a little too smugly.
Cutting her off before she retorted, Jae gently said, “I believe you, Suzy.”

No satisfied
woman? Sue wondered how many
satisfied
women had shared moments like
this with him. Not wanting to dwell on things she could not change, she
murmured, “Arrogant butthead.”

Laughing softly,
he replied, “That’s a new one.”

“Sorry, I
couldn’t help myself.”

He placed a kiss
on her forehead. “Don’t change, my Shorty.”

She smiled and
kissed his chin.

Not satisfied by
the kiss, Jae took possession of her inviting mouth and rolled on top of her.
He kissed a trail to the sensitive crevice between her neck and collar bone.
“Should we try for the bed?” he whispered against her neck.

Sue’s body shook
with laughter. “And miss the rug burn?”

He braced himself
on his elbow to look at her. “Yeh. I’m not too particular about…rug burns.”

They made love
again and this time they made it to bed. This time their love making felt
different; it was not as urgent, not as desperate. This time, they took their
time to rediscover each other’s bodies.

Afterwards, he
held her and whispered, “I love you.”

She tried to
respond in kind, because it was what she felt too. But she couldn’t form the
words beyond her heart so instead, she kissed him.

CHAPTER
37

“Good evening,
handsome,” Sue said and kissed Jae on his cheek.

He grinned
sleepily. He was lying on his stomach, his bare back exposed, showcasing his
ancient dragon tattoo. His arm was still around her nude waist and he pulled
her closer to him as his eyes fluttered open. She kissed his shoulder, tracing
the dragon with her finger. Her finger touched a sensitive part of him and his
arm reflexively tightened, chuckling. She kissed his cheek again before she
proceeded to get out of bed. Jae pulled her to him and in one swift motion, she
was beneath him. He gave her a sleepy grin as he leaned down to kiss her lips.

“Now, that’s a
kiss, Shorty,” he drawled seductively, kissing her jaw.

“Why, thank you
for the demonstration,” she said in between laughter.

Her arms were
wrapped around his neck and when she laughed, she pressed her lips to his.
Grinning, he tickled her. She giggled, pressing her body against his and he
groaned at the seductive way her legs were pressing against his body, cradling
him in the most opportune position. Bracing his weight with one arm, he brought
his free hand to her face, caressing her cheek.

“Good evening,
beautiful,” he whispered, tucking a wisp of her hair behind her ear. “I had
thought this was a dream,” he said. “That you were a dream.” He laced his
fingers into her soft hair and held her gaze. Her cheeks were flushed from her
laughter, making her appear even lovelier and he couldn’t help but kiss her
again. He continued to kiss her as he made love to her.

After their
loving making, Sue needed a shower and she told Jae so. He agreed with her that
they needed showers and pulled her toward the shower.

“What’s there to
eat?” Jae asked, drying his hair with a towel.

“Not much I’m
afraid,” Sue replied, closing the fridge. She opened a cabinet and turned to
him. “Noodles?”

“What kind of
noodles?”

Sue held up two
packets of instant noodles and Jae grinned.

“It has been a
long time since I’ve eaten instant noodles,” he told her. He picked his noodles
before he opened his suitcase to extract some clothes. He dressed in navy blue
sweatpants and a plain white T-shirt then watched her make their noodles.

Jae was not
surprised to see Sue wearing a pink camisole and owl-printed pajama bottoms.
Her damp hair was pulled back into a loose braid. She was humming a song as she
opened the noodles and placed them into bowls. She adjusted her glasses and
stepped onto a stool to reach for two plates from the cupboard. He laughed.

“What’s so
funny?” Sue asked, looking around in the kitchen.

“Nothing,” Jae
replied coolly. He was remembering when she told him her talent. She does hum
quite well, he thought. “Need some help?” he asked, taking the plates from her
hands.

“No.” She was at
eye level with him and he was grinning. “It’s the stool isn’t it? Well, some of
us are not blessed with vertical advantages so we must improvise,” she said
stepping down and taking the plates back from him. The kettle whistled, indicating
the water for their noodles was ready.

Sue stepped
around him to place the plates on the counter before turning off the stove.
Using a pot holder, she removed the kettle from the stove and poured the
boiling water into the two bowls before covering them with the plates. She set
a timer and placed it on the counter.  Smiling at him, she walked over to the
fridge. He watched her leisurely, enjoying the moment, the nostalgia.

“There’s water
and ice tea. What would you like to drink?” she asked.

“Water’s fine.”

She took out a
pitcher of water and asked Jae to obtain a couple of glasses from the cupboard
where she had retrieved the plates. Jae placed the glasses on the counter just
as the timer went off, startling him. He almost tipped over one of the glasses.
He bellowed an obscenity in Korean and Sue laughed, filling the glasses with
water.

Her laughter was
contagious and Jae couldn’t help but laugh with her. “That was not humorous!”
he said seriously, contradicting the big smile on his face.

“
Au contraire,
sweetheart,” she said, matching his tone of voice. “That was
quite…humorous,” she said mimicking his pronunciation of the word “humorous” as
she took the plates off the noodles. She took out a couple set of forks and
spoons and handed one set to Jae.

They ate their
noodles on her dinette. The memory of them eating noodles in his apartment in
Seoul flashed before her. Why did her heart ache so? She pushed the pain aside.

“Jae, why did you
announce our marriage when we are not married?”

“Because we are,”
he said. He said it with such simplicity that Sue couldn’t tell if he meant to
be bored or serious. “Have you forgotten?”

“No, I haven’t
forgotten. But you seem to have forgotten that it wasn’t legal.”

“Does that
matter?”

“Yes, it does.
What are you going to do when the press finds out we are not legally married?”

“But we are.”

She groaned with
frustration. “You are impossible!”

Jae paused and
burrowed his brows in thought. “Actually, I’m quite possible,” he replied. “You
could marry me.”

“So much for a
romantic proposal,” Sue muttered.

Jae sighed,
putting his fork and spoon down and stood up. She thought he was evading her
question again but he came to stand in front of her, took her hands in his and
kneeled. “Will you marry me?” he asked.

“No!”

Even though he
had expected her answer, he was still taken aback by yet another refusal. “Why
not?”

“We hardly know
each other,” she answered lamely.

He grinned
seductively as his eyes fell on her lips, moving his gaze lower to her bosom
then back to her pretty face. “
Au contraire
, sweetheart, I know every
inch of you.”

“You know that’s
not what I meant!”

“All right then,
what would you like to know?”

“You’ll answer my
questions this time? No more accusations that I’m being nosy or waiting a
decade to give me answers?”

“Yeh.”

“Finish your
noodles and I’ll think about it.”

“Woman, you are
daft,” he said, getting up and returning to his chair.

“I know, Your
Grace. But we commoners are quite curious about you aristocrats.”

Jae laughed.

“Love can make
any sane person daft,” Sue mumbled under her breath.

He glanced at
her. She still loved him, he was sure of it. She may not be willing to admit it
now but she loved him once. In time, perhaps he could get her to admit she
loved him, too. Until then, knowing that she still loves him was enough.

After dinner, Sue
searched Khyba on her laptop in her living room. They were sitting on the floor
with the computer on the coffee table. Sue typed in “Khyba” on the search page
and pressed enter. Several websites appeared along with images and video
results. She clicked on the first link from the search list and several
articles came up about Khyba’s recent activities.

Before she
proceeded, he gave her a disclaimer, warning her that most of the things she
was about to read might not be true. An image of Jae with a stunning woman
appeared accompanied by an article titled, “In HEAT and Popping Cherry.” Jae
was looking into the camera; the woman was looking at him with her curvy body
facing the camera. Jae’s hands were on her waist and the woman’s arms were
wrapped around his neck.

“Her name is
Cherry Sanada. That photograph was part of an ad campaign I did for HEAT. It’s
taken out of context,” Jae explained, seeing how Sue was looking at the
picture. “Don’t take it for more than it is.”

“Jae…if that was
me with another man, looking hungrily at him as this woman is at you, how would
you feel?”

“Looking
hungrily? Really? I didn’t notice,” he said innocently before taking a drink of
his water. Those HEAT campaign photographs were meant to entice the imagination
so he knew exactly how he would feel if it was Sue in the photograph with
Michael.

Sue smirked then
returned to the screen. She quickly scanned the article. “The author of this
article likes to use puns. Popping cherry, in heat…by the way, did you pop her
cherry?”

Jae choked on his
water. Sue whacked him on the back forcefully several times. “No, I didn’t,” he
said in between coughs.

Sue didn’t think
she would be this upset but the thought of him being with another woman, well,
that was a little painful. Actually, it was very painful and that question came
out more acidly than she meant it. The woman in the photograph was gorgeous;
even she couldn’t stop looking at her. How could Sue compete with someone like
that? Was this what prevented her from looking for him? A confirmation that she
was replaceable? Forgettable?

“You didn’t have
to answer that. I didn’t mean to pry,” she said.

“You’re not
prying,” he answered, wiping his mouth with the napkin she handed him.
“Jealous?” he teased.

He was giving her
one of his flirtatious smile, the kind of lopsided smile that didn’t quite form
a full smile but a smile nonetheless. Her heart fluttered as if she was
nineteen again; young and naïve, loving that stupid smile of his.

Sue didn’t answer
him right away. She couldn’t. She regarded his profile, watching him watch her.
“Yes,” she finally answered. “I would love to tell you that this picture and
any picture of you with another woman doesn’t bother me one bit. But the truth
is, it bothers me deeply. It’s hard to look at these pictures and not think of
what happens behind closed doors.”

“Suzy, there are
going to be more articles like that one you just read,” Jae said. “Don’t
believe everything you read. In case you are thinking what I know you are
thinking, the answer is no. I never slept with her, in any shape or form.”

Sue pretended to
ignore him and continued on to the next website. Hearing his answer didn’t
reassure her. He didn’t sleep with Cherry but there were others. She didn’t
expect him to stay celibate. He was right. She needed to take all of this with
a grain of salt. He was here with her, no hiding, no secrets. Still, just the
thought of him with another woman…gosh, she didn’t think she could be this
possessive, this…jealous.