“Why?”
“My sister.”
“I don’t remember your sister,” he said, a lie. But Su-chan was too anxious to notice.
“You saw her at Peter and Genevieve’s house. She’s tall, kind of awkward, blond hair when she isn?
?t dyeing it. Her name’s Jilly.”
“I remember,” he conceded, not showing how well he remembered. “What about her?”
“She wants to come visit, and I don’t want her here.”
“And what does that have to do with me?”
“You’re the reason I don’t want her here.” He didn’t say anything, and she stumbled on. “She’s got some silly adolescent crush on you. You’ve got to understand my sister has lived a very sheltered life. She’s freakishly smart—she graduated from high school when she was fifteen, college when she was eighteen. She’d always been surrounded by people who were much older than she was, and she’s never had the chance to develop normal relationships.”
“And what does that have to do with me?”
Su-chan bit her lip. “She has a crush on you. I don’t know what you said to her or what happened in England—I was a little preoccupied….”
“You and Taka were all over each other—your sister and I could have been fucking in the garden and you wouldn’t have noticed.”
Summer turned pale. “Did you?”
“Fuck in the garden? Fuck at all? No. As a matter of fact, I don’t think we even talked before I got hustled out of there.”
Su-chan sighed. “You didn’t need to. She took one look at you and lost all common sense. You shouldn’t be surprised—you know you’re catnip where women are concerned. They can’t leave you alone.”
“Su-chan, if your sister has fallen in love with me, then it’s not my fault.”
“She hasn’t ‘fallen in love,’” she said crossly. “She’s got a crush, that’s all.”
“How do you even know that?”
“When she calls, she asks about you. She somehow managed to find a couple of pictures of you and has them as her computer wallpaper. Hell, she probably practices writing her name as Mrs. Jilly Reno.”
“You’re not talking about a twelve-year-old,” he pointed out.
“Taka thinks I’m overreacting, too,” Summer said. “I know what you’re like, and I wouldn’t think of trying to change you. I just need you to keep away from my sister until she grows out of this.”
“No problem. I don’t like American women and I don’t like California.” That wasn’t strictly true—he’d always liked Los Angeles the few times he’d visited. “How long do you think it’ll take her to get over me?”
“Don’t sound so self-satisfied. Teenage crushes are usually short-lived.”
“But your sister isn’t a normal teenager, is she?” He still couldn’t believe how young she’d been. He’d always had a preference for women at least a couple of years older than he was—more experience, less emotion. She was the oddest combination of young body, old soul. And he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her.
“She’s twenty. And as long as you keep your distance, then everything will be all right. She’s probably outgrown you by now, but I don’t want to risk anything.”
“I’m not going to hurt your sister, Su-chan.”
“Reno, you hurt anyone who cares about you, and my sister is vulnerable. I don’t want you breaking her heart.”
“I promise I won’t go anywhere near her. I don’t want to have a lovesick child hanging all over me any more than you do.”
She hadn’t looked convinced, probably because Su-chan was a very smart woman, and she knew people. “You promise?”
He’d let out a sigh of resignation. “I promise. The last thing I want is someone thinking she’s in love with me. I like my sex casual.”