Chapter 23: The Last Night of the Season

On the twenty-seventh of February the last guest of the season checked out at noon, and by nine at night the inn was empty.

The staff had gone to the village for a farewell supper.

Genji had gone with them, and had taken the head maid's arm, and had said in a loud clear voice that nobody should come back before dawn.

Sakura and Yuzu were alone in Hoshinoyu for the first time since October.

They did not go to the attendant room.

They went to the okami's suite, and slid the door shut, and lit one lamp.

The futon was already laid out on the tatami, new and white, with two pillows.

Yuzu stood in the middle of the floor and looked at it.

"Somebody has been in here," she said.

"The head maid."

"Of course she has."

Sakura laughed, and then stopped, because Yuzu had taken her hand.

"We have all night," Yuzu said. "Tomorrow at midnight the season ends and the clause is done. Tonight I want to do it slow. I want to do everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything we've ever done. And one thing we haven't."

Sakura's pulse leapt.

"What?"

"I'll tell you when we get there."

She began with a kiss.

It was the gentlest kiss in the world, light and unhurried, with no hurry anywhere in it.

Their mouths opened and closed and opened again, and Sakura felt the shape of Yuzu's smile against her lips.

Yuzu undid her obi with both hands, and let the long band slide to the floor.

She opened the kimono, and the under-kimono, and pushed both off Sakura's shoulders.

She knelt and kissed the soft skin beneath each hip bone, and below the navel, and the curve of each thigh.

"I love your body," she said into her skin. "I love that it's so soft. I love that it's mine."

Sakura stroked her hair.

"Take off your jacket."

Yuzu stood and unbuttoned the white jacket, and dropped it.

Under it she wore nothing, and the lamp lit her small breasts and her scarred arms and the dark rosy tips.

Sakura went down on her knees in front of her and kissed each one of the burns on her forearms, from the wrist to the elbow.

"Each one is a night you stayed late," she said. "Each one is a dish."

"They hurt a lot."

"They're beautiful."

They lay down together on the new futon, and for a long time they did nothing but touch.

Sakura traced Yuzu's ribs with her fingertips.

Yuzu learned again how Sakura's skin pebbled when she blew on it, low on the belly, where the soft flesh was most sensitive.

Their legs tangled.

Their breath slowed, and deepened, and became one sound.

Yuzu slid down, and spread Sakura's thighs, and made love to her with her mouth.

It was not like the other times.

There was no order, no performance, no teasing.

She licked slowly and steadily, and watched Sakura's face the whole time.

Sakura's hands lay open on the sheet.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Grandmother Left Half the Onsen Inn to the Chef from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.