Grandmother Left Half the Onsen Inn to the Chef novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Joya

At 11:40 on New Year's Eve the last guest left the private bath, and Sakura bolted the door behind him.

The cypress tub steamed under the window.

Outside, the maple garden lay white, and the snow came down slowly through the lantern light.

Yuzu stood in the changing room with a towel around her hips, grinning.

"We have until the bell," she said.

"What bell?"

"The temple. One hundred and eight strokes. It starts at midnight." She dropped her towel. "Get in."

Sakura undid her obi and hung her kimono on the peg.

She was shaking a little, though the room was warm.

They had cooked the trout together that evening, for the staff, at the long table in the kitchen, and it had tasted right at last.

Yuzu had wept into her bowl, and nobody had said a word.

Now Sakura washed at the low stool and rinsed, and slid into the tub with a sigh.

Yuzu followed.

The water came to her breastbone, and she sat on Sakura's lap facing her with her knees on either side of the cypress bench.

Her wet hair was dark, and drops ran down her round cheeks.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi."

"Happy new year, almost."

"Almost."

Yuzu cupped Sakura's breasts in both hands, and bent to kiss the top of each one, the left and then the right.

"I have wanted to do this since the first night," she said. "Take my time. Not be quiet. Not have anyone's wall in the way."

"There's a bell."

"There's a bell, and the bell is loud."

Yuzu's mouth closed over a nipple, wet and hot, and sucked.

Sakura's head fell back against the rim.

Somewhere far off, across the snow, a deep bronze note rolled out over the valley.

One.

Yuzu licked her way across to the other breast.

Two.

She nipped at it gently, and Sakura arched, and the water slapped against the wood.

Three.

"You can make noise now," Yuzu murmured. "Let me hear you."

"Yuzu."

"Louder."

"Yuzu."

The bell tolled again and again.

Four, and five, and Sakura's hands found her hair and pulled.

Yuzu kissed her way up her throat, and took her mouth in a slow deep kiss, the water rocking around them.

Under the surface one hand slid between Sakura's thighs.

She stroked the slick heat there, and Sakura moaned out loud for the first time in that house, a long low sound that rang off the cypress.

"Yes," Yuzu said against her lips. "That's it. There she is."

Eleven.

Two fingers circled the clit, slow, in time with the bell.

Twelve.

Sakura rocked into her palm.

Thirteen, fourteen, and Yuzu slid a finger in, and then another, and pressed the heel of her hand against the clit.

"Look at me," she said.

Sakura looked.

Yuzu's brown eyes were black and glittering.

"Keep looking. Don't close them."

Twenty.

The fingers curled and drew back and curled, deep and slow, and pleasure spread through Sakura's hips in warm rolling waves.

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