Using his favorite weapon of silence, Victor simply listens without interruption.
“You’ve fixed a lot of the things in your Cons box—especially when you gave me Yinz Entertainment,” she continues in that confessional tone. “I like this version of you. It’s like we’re back in Japan. Operation Good as New 3.0. Yay!”
He smiles at that. Yes, she should think of this as he does. A return to a time when things were good with a fifteen-year gap neither of them needs to dwell on too hard.
“But I don’t know if you’ve truly changed,” she says, her expression racked with worry. “If you have, then maybe we can build a new relationship based on mutual respect. But can I trust you? If I’m being honest, I don’t even know if I can trust myself to trust you. I put up with all of your abuses for so long. I’m terrified of placing myself in a position where you become a monster again.”
Now. Now was the time to talk again, he senses. “Dawn, I do not want to put you in that position again either. I know it is hard to believe. But I regret what I did. And I’ll endeavor not to hurt you again in that manner. You have my word.”
She looks up at him. There’s still so much mistrust in her eyes but also a spark of hope. “So all that controlling bullshit from before? That's done?”
Of course, she’ll need to still follow his commands to the letter, especially with Kuang in play. But that’s not what she wants to hear right now. So he tells her a version of the truth, “If you come back to me, I will treat you like gold. I will show you how precious you truly are to me.”
Her expression softens a bit. His words are obviously hitting their mark. But she maintains a stubborn stance, insisting, “If we were to do this again, it would have to be a relationship between equals. Not whatever those last ten years were.”
Again, he answers with his version of the truth. “I want you to be happy with me this time. I want that for both of us.”
She looks up at him, her gaze wide and sincere. “You think we could be happy again? Like we were in Japan? You honestly believe that we could pull that off?”
“Dawn…”
She’s emotional. And that makes him emotional too. More emotional than perhaps he should be during this crucial negotiation. But he has to remind her, “Your happy. My happy. Exactly the same. Still.”
“Oh, wow, Victor…” she says, her voice breathless.
She never finishes that sentence, just continues to gaze up at him. Her eyes are full of all the emotions he remembers from Japan.
He can tell she wants to come back to him. To come back to what they used to be. She wants that just as much as he does.
And though Victor’s managed to keep a hold of himself for their first two dates, even going so far as to get them separate rooms at the Keio Tama Plaza Hotel. He can’t hold himself back any longer.
She’s right here. So close. The leash comes off his monster, and he attacks her with a kiss.
13
VICTOR
This is a test.
Victor understood that from the moment she showed up at his front gate. And he did what it took to pass it.
He shared a meal with her alone without giving in to the urge to sweep the table and put her underneath him. Nor did he bend her over the desk in his office as he'd imagined so often during their time apart. And he showed her every upstairs suite but his without throwing her down on any of the beds.
It was torture to hold himself back. Worse even than when they were teenagers. But he did it.
However, when she looks up at him, meeting his obsessive stare with her soft brown gaze, something snaps inside of him.
One moment he’s standing in front of her, trying to convince her that he is no longer the monster who imprisoned her for ten years.
And the next, he is crashing into her with a very unplanned kiss.
She whimpers against his lips and kisses him back. At the same time, she brings her hands up to his sides, reaching under his T-shirt, finding skin.
Maybe if she didn’t kiss him back… touch him like that…maybe he could re-leash the monster.
He was trying to be a gentleman. He was trying so hard. But some things can’t be controlled. Like what happens when she touches him.
They fall onto Han’s left-behind mattress in a frenzy.
And it isn’t just him. Dawn seems almost as desperate to strip him down as Victor wants to undress her. Clothes fly off, but he can’t say how. Only that there’s a tearing sound at one point, and the pretty pink blouse doesn’t make it.