The Bride Who Read the Contract novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The East Wing Door

He didn't say anything.

He put her spectacles back on her face, very carefully, hooking them over each ear.

Then he took her hand and walked her back into the ballroom.

Her mouth felt swollen. Her hair was coming down at the back.

Every woman in the Crystal Hall knew exactly where they had been.

Kinue saw Fumika's hair and her lip curled.

Genzo looked at Fumika's wrist, at the red cord, and then at Ibuki's face, and for some reason he looked pleased.

They left before the cake.

Ibuki drove up the mountain faster than he ever had, both hands on the wheel, not looking at her once.

"You're very quiet," she said.

"If I look at you, I'll drive us into a cedar."

"That would be a waste."

"It would be a terrible waste," he said, and the car went faster.

At the house Fumika walked down the long veranda to the east wing alone.

He had gone to his own rooms.

She had asked him to give her a moment, and he had bowed, actually bowed.

She stood at her own door with her key in her hand.

For nine weeks she had locked it every night.

She unlocked it.

She went in and left it open a hand's width.

She knelt in the dark by the window with her heart going like a shrine drum.

She heard nothing.

She never heard him.

Then the moonlight on the tatami went dark.

He was in the doorway, ducking his horns, in his black haori, with his hair loose down his back.

"You're sure," he said.

It wasn't a question. He was telling her he would go if she wasn't.

"I'm sure," she said. "Come in and shut it."

He came in.

He slid the door shut behind him, and the brass lock clicked, and she laughed because she was nervous.

"I've never done this," she said. "Any of it. I don't want you to think I'm brave."

"You told seven clans what you wanted in front of your father." He knelt in front of her. "I've never met anyone braver."

"That was different."

"Yes," he said. "This time you only have to tell me."

He reached for her hand and turned it over.

The red cord lay across her wrist in the moonlight.

He kissed the inside of her wrist, just above it.

"There's something I should say first," he said against her skin. "I might not be here in ten years. You know that."

"I know."

"I don't want to make you a widow at thirty."

"Then don't make me one," she said. "Live."

He looked up at her.

"I'm asking," she said. "Ibuki. I'm asking you for the rest."

He kissed the inside of her wrist again, just above the cord.

Then he pulled back and shrugged off his haori.

Fumika watched it fall.

The white kimono underneath was thin, and she could see the shape of him through it.

"You're staring," he said.

"I'm allowed."

He smiled, and it was the smile from the ballroom, the one that undid her.

"You're allowed," he said.

She reached for the knots of his hakama.

Her fingers were shaking.

She undid them one by one, slowly, because she wanted to, because she could.

The hakama slid down his legs and he stepped out of it.

She put her hands on his chest through the white kimono.

He was warm.

So warm.

She pushed the kimono off his shoulders.

It fell.

His body was pale in the moonlight, lean and hard, and she wanted to touch every inch of it.

She put her hands on his chest again, bare this time.

His skin was smooth and hot.

He made a sound low in his throat.

"Fumika."

She looked up at him.

"I want to touch your horns," she said.

He went very still.

"Please," she said.

He knelt, so she could reach.

She reached up and touched the base of one black horn with her fingertips.

It was smooth, like polished stone, but warm.

He shuddered.

A full-body shudder, as if she had struck him.

"Again," he said, his voice rough.

She traced the curve of the horn, from base to tip.

He groaned.

His head fell back and his eyes closed.

"Gods," he said. "You have no idea."

"Tell me."

"It's like touching the inside of my chest." His voice was ragged. "Every nerve in me lives there."

She touched the other horn.

He grabbed her wrist.

"Enough," he said. "Or I won't be able to wait."

"Then don't wait."

His eyes opened.

Gold, burning.

"I want you to," Fumika said.

"I want all of it. Your mouth on me. Your hands. I want you inside me. I want you to fuck me."

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