The steam from the bath was a warm, forgiving fog, blurring the hard edges of the world. I let my head fall back against the smooth curve of the tub, the water lapping gently around my shoulders.
He did it.
The thought wasn't a surprise, but a deep, resonant chord of rightness that settled in my bones. Jun had walked into the emotional minefield I'd created with Aoi and, with his usual blend of infuriating charm and profound sincerity, he had brought her back. The three of us, laughing under the camphor tree, the sound bright and whole… it was a miracle I had almost given up on. Today, the world felt perfect.
When I finally stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped in a fluffy white towel, that perfect world was waiting for me. Jun was sitting on the edge of my bed, but he wasn't looking at the door. He was leaning back on his elbows, a manga propped open in his hands, the very picture of domestic bliss. The sight was so normal, so devastatingly mundane, that it made my heart ache with a fierce, possessive joy.
I padded silently across the floor and, without a word, settled myself in the space between his legs, my back resting against the solid wall of his chest.
"Ngh—!"
A sharp, strangled sound escaped him, his entire body going rigid behind me. He sprang up from his elbows, suddenly ramrod straight.
Ah. So the idiot isn't as calm as he looks.
A slow, wicked smile spread across my face. I could feel the tell-tale heat radiating from him, the sudden, frantic tension in his muscles. I knew precisely what part of him my backside had just made contact with.
"What's wrong?" I asked, my voice a picture of pure innocence as I leaned back further, deliberately pressing against him.
I felt his arms come around me, but they were stiff, hesitant. I reached up, taking one of his hands and pulling it down, wrapping it around my own stomach.
"Y-Yui…" he stammered, his voice tight.
"What is it?" I tilted my head back, looking up at his flushed face. "Aren't you going to dry my hair?"
I settled my full weight against him. The move caught him off balance, and with a soft groan, he fell backward onto the bed, pulling me down with him. I landed squarely on top of his chest, the impact soft and perfect.
And then I felt it. The undeniable, rigid proof of his state, pressing insistently against the small of my back through the thin layer of my towel.
"Yui… this is bad," he breathed, his voice a low, desperate rumble beneath my ear.
"What is?" I asked, a feigned confusion lacing my tone.
He let out a frustrated sigh. "Just… let me prepare."
"Prepare for what? You're talking in riddles today, Jun." I know exactly what you mean, you baka. And I'm not letting you off the hook.
He took a shaky breath. "Tomorrow… I'll go get them."
"Get what?"
"The… condoms," he finally forced out, the word a hot, embarrassed whisper against my skin.
Hearing it said aloud sent a jolt of heat straight through me, but I couldn't waste this golden opportunity. This was my chance. I twisted slightly, looking at him over my shoulder. "Oh? Are you planning to use them on me?"
"No!" he yelped, a little too quickly.
"Then with who?" I pressed, my voice dropping to a dangerous purr.
"With you, of course!" he shot back on pure instinct, before his brain caught up. "I mean—No! That's not what I—"
"So you are planning to use them, then?" I cut him off, a triumphant smile playing on my lips.
"No! I won't use it!"
"Then why buy it?"
"I will use it!"
"Huh?"
He groaned, burying his face in my hair. "I'll have to use it… eventually," he confessed, his voice muffled but honest. "Last night… I barely had any control. If this keeps up, Yui… I'm going to end up inside you for real."
His raw, vulnerable honesty was the final trigger. My playful teasing dissolved, replaced by a wave of intoxicating power. The seductress I didn't know existed took over.
I shifted, turning in his arms to face him. My hands came up to cup his cheeks, my thumbs stroking the sharp line of his jaw.
"So…" I whispered, turning fully to straddle his hips. "I can't reward you? After everything you did today?"
"Please, Yui," he pleaded, his eyes squeezing shut. "Just wait until tomorrow."
"So I have to sleep alone tonight?" I pouted, closing the last inch between us, until my lips were almost touching his.
"I can't trust myself right now," he gasped, his eyes squeezed shut.
"But you were so good today," I murmured, taking his hand and guiding it from my waist, lowering it slowly. "I'd be a terrible girlfriend if I didn't give you a proper reward." I'm the terrible one, pushing you like this when you're trying so hard. But seeing you this flustered is a reward all its own.
"Then… can you reward me instead?" I whispered.
Before he could protest, I shifted. I turned around, still straddling his hips, and settled back against him. My back was now flush against the solid wall of his chest, and his arms instinctively wrapped around my waist to hold me steady. The new position was a complete surrender, leaving the sensitive nape of my neck utterly exposed to him.
"Yui…" His breath was coming in ragged pants now, his voice a low rumble against my spine.
"Bite my ear," I commanded, my voice dropping to a husky murmur. "Like you did to Aoi… but don't stop until I say so." A little more teasing will teach you a lesson, Jun.
A low growl rumbled in his chest. He rose up, his mouth finding my ear. It wasn't the playful nip he'd given Aoi. This was a hot, wet, all-consuming claim. He laved the shell of my ear with his tongue before sucking the lobe into his mouth, his teeth grazing the sensitive skin with excruciating slowness.
A soft, helpless moan escaped my lips. I kept my grip on his hand, guiding it lower, down my stomach, toward the heart of the heat between my legs.
He pulled his mouth from my ear, his breath hot against my cheek. "This is bad, Yui. Really bad."
"Did I tell you to stop?"
He didn't need another invitation. His mouth crashed back onto my ear, more passionate this time, as if he meant to devour me whole.
"Just do what I tell you to do," I managed, my voice trembling. I pressed his hand firmly against the damp towel covering me. A small sound escaped my lips. "Move." This is bad. I'm getting too carried away…
"Huh?"
"Rub it, baka," I breathed, mustering the last of my courage.
His fingers began a slow, deliberate circle through the terry cloth. The friction was a sweet, maddening torture.
"Keep going."
I shifted, my hand covering his, and slipped his fingers under the edge of the towel. The sudden, shocking contact of his bare skin against mine stole the air from my lungs. It was the first time. His palm pressing against my most secret, wet heat, tore a loud moan from my throat.
His other hand shot up, clamping over my mouth. "Yui… your parents," he hissed, his eyes wide.
My muffled cries slipped through his fingers as my hips began to move on their own, chasing his touch.
"Harder, Jun." I pleaded against his palm.
He obeyed, his fingers moving faster, more skillfully than I could have imagined, stroking and circling until my world narrowed to a single point of blinding pleasure. His fingers found the entrance to my core, teasing, threatening to slip inside.
"No!" I gasped, my thighs clamping down on his hand. "Just rub it… I want my first time to be with… with you." All of you.
He seemed to understand. He pulled back from my ear and crashed his lips onto mine, swallowing my moans as his fingers resumed their relentless assault. The world tilted, dissolved, then exploded. My thighs clamped down on his hand, trapping him as my body arched, shaking uncontrollably in the throes of a release so powerful it left me utterly boneless.
When the last tremor subsided, he pulled back, his chest heaving, his face flushed. "You," he panted, looking down at me with a mixture of awe and exasperation. "You are really mean."
My mind was a blissful, empty slate. My body was still humming with aftershocks, and I couldn't form a reply. We lay there for long minutes, tangled in the sheets, his unrelenting hardness a constant, hot pressure against my hip.
Then, with a groan, he rolled over, pinning me beneath him. The towel was barely clinging to my hips. He lowered himself, his bare chest pressing against my back, the demanding length of him pressing into the curve of my backside. I tensed, his ragged breath a hot promise against my neck.
He was a man I had pushed to his absolute limit.
And then, I relaxed. I buried my face in the pillow, my hands gripping the blanket, and arched my back, lifting my hips in a silent, shameless invitation.
The hard ridge of him pressed against me. He stayed there for a long, torturous moment. I felt the tension in his body, the fierce battle he was waging with himself.
Then, with a deep, shuddering breath, he pulled away.
"I'll go take a shower," he said, his voice rough. He rolled off the bed, grabbed a fresh towel, and headed for the door. He paused in the doorway, his back still to me.
"Let's have a date tomorrow."
The door clicked shut behind him. I let out a long, slow breath, a sound that was equal parts relief and… something else. Something that felt an awful lot like disappointment.