Red Thorns (Thorns Duet 1)

While they’re somewhat close, Sebastian and Reina aren’t so close that they’d sit around and tell each other their perverted fantasies.

My perverted fantasies.

“This is your idea of a date?” I stare at our surroundings.

It’s the forest, again.

Sebastian drove us to a hidden big rock at a nook at the base of a hill. It’s near the place where he chased me over the weekend.

The late afternoon sun casts rosy and orange hues all around us and in the distance.

I should be apprehensive, maybe even terrified, but being back here is once again filling me with that sense of relief I felt when he walked into the locker room earlier.

We grabbed some McDonald’s on the way and we have the boxes between us on the rock as we eat.

Sebastian nearly finishes his double burger in a few bites while I take my time.

He lifts a shoulder. “I assume that if I took you to a restaurant, you wouldn’t be comfortable.”

“Your restaurant of choice is The Grill where everyone kisses your ass. Of course, I wouldn’t be comfortable there.”

He smiles. “If it were any other girl, they’d be fussing about how I don’t want to be seen in public with them.”

“I’m not other girls and I don’t care about the public.”

“You prefer being alone.”

He didn’t voice it as a question, as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking about. This part of him is scary, and I want to escape as far as I can from it, and yet, my feet won’t take me anywhere.

I’m glued in place, muttering, “Sort of.”

“To read manga?”

“I…don’t do that.”

“Do you hoard them?” The amusement in his tone pisses me off.

“Yeah, and masturbate with them. Happy now?”

“No. Now that you put the image in my head, I need the details. Or a demonstration. Both are acceptable.”

“In your dreams. Besides, it’s all digital now. No one buys physical manga anymore.”

“The geeks do.”

“I’m…not a geek.”

“Oh, sorry. An otaku.”

“Screw you.”

“Believe me, there’s nothing else I’d rather do. But we have to balance things out for that twenty percent non-sex part. Or maybe I should reduce it to ten percent. What do you think?”

“I think you have sex problems.”

“I’m a healthy twenty-one-year-old male in his prime and that comes with a strong sex drive. And it’s my mission to make you feel that it’s all normal. Natural. Chemical.”

“What if I don’t want normal?”