Grandmother Left Half the Onsen Inn to the Chef novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Private Bath

At twelve thirty-two Sakura slid the bath door shut behind her.

Yuzu was already sitting on the washing stool in the steam, waiting.

The hotel man's card was still in Sakura's mind, white and thick and printed in gold.

She said nothing about it.

She stood just inside the door in her navy kimono, with nothing on under it, as she had been told.

"Take it off," Yuzu said.

Sakura untied her obi.

She hung it on the hook, and let the kimono slide off her shoulders, and the cool air touched every inch of her.

Yuzu was naked already.

She sat with her knees apart and a wooden bucket between her feet.

Her wet hair stuck to her round face.

She looked at Sakura's body.

"You're quiet," she said.

"I'm tired."

"No. There's something in your face." Yuzu tilted her head. "Whatever it is, it stays outside that door. In here, I give the orders. Out there, you do."

Sakura's throat went tight.

"Why?"

"Because you've never had one place where you didn't have to decide." Yuzu patted the floor in front of her. "Sit."

Sakura sat on the tiles with her back to Yuzu's knees.

Warm water poured over her head.

It ran down her spine and her breasts and her thighs, and she closed her eyes.

"Pins," Yuzu said.

Sakura reached up and took out the pins, one by one.

Her hair fell down her back, heavy and wet.

Yuzu's hands went into it.

She worked in the soap with her fingertips, slow and firm, along the whole length of Sakura's scalp.

Sakura let out a long, shuddering breath.

"There," Yuzu said. "There it is."

"Nobody has done this since I was a child."

"Who did it then?"

"My grandmother."

Yuzu's hands paused for one second and then kept going.

"Then I'll do it better," she said.

She rinsed Sakura's hair.

She wrung it out in both hands, and then she bent and kissed the back of Sakura's neck, right under the hairline.

Sakura's skin broke out in gooseflesh from head to foot.

"Get in the tub," Yuzu said. "Sit on the cypress ledge, the one under the window. Put your feet in the water."

Sakura rose and climbed in.

The water closed around her calves, hot and silky.

She sat on the wide cypress rim with her back against the wall and her bare feet under the surface.

Over her head, a window looked out on the maple garden.

Above that, in the guest room upstairs, a light was still on.

"There's a family in the Maple Room," she whispered.

"I know."

"They'll hear."

"Then you'd better be very, very quiet." Yuzu stepped into the tub in front of her.

The water rose to her small breasts.

She stood between Sakura's knees, took each of her ankles in turn, and set them on her own shoulders.

Sakura's whole body flushed.

She was open now, with her legs over Yuzu's shoulders and Yuzu's face level with her hips.

"Hands behind you," Yuzu said. "Flat on the ledge."

Sakura planted her hands on the warm wood.

"Good."

Yuzu leaned in and kissed the inside of her left knee.

Then the inside of her thigh, an inch higher.

Then another inch.

Sakura shut her teeth.

The water moved around them in small slow waves.

"I'm not going to use my mouth tonight," Yuzu murmured, brushing her lips along the crease of Sakura's thigh. "I used it on the table. Tonight you're getting my hands."

"Yuzu."

"Hush."

Her fingers slid up the inside of Sakura's other thigh and stopped.

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