Playing with Fire (Book One of The Kazuya Series) (✔️)

二十四 (Twenty-Four)

(Arielle's POV)

"How long will they be?"

"Not sure. Depends on what they're planning, if they're planning, and how difficult things are now."

I nodded in understanding as I spun my coffee cup around in my hand on the table.

"You two are so cute." She chuckled.

"What do you mean?"

"Eagerly wanting to get back to his side and I would guess that he is the same way."

I felt my cheeks starting to get red and shook my head.

Koan had taken me to meet friends of his, Ryu and Aria from Japan. Aria was extremely nice and talkative. Ryu was...well he reminded me a bit of Koan.

I was a bit stunned when I first saw him. Not as stunned as I was when I first saw Koan, but close.

Koan was innocently beautiful.

Ryu was dangerously beautiful.

He was almost like an alternate universe version of Koan.

He rambled something off to Aria in Japanese and then she asked if I'd go get coffee with her.

That was ten minutes ago.

Since then, we've been sitting in the little coffee shop attached to their hotel sipping on our coffee and talking.

"I like your sweater." She smiled as I fiddled with the sleeves.

"Thanks."

Faster than I could stop her, she leaned over and pulled down the collar of my sweater. My hand flew up and smacked her hand out of the way.

"Thought I saw something peaking from the collar. Don't know whether to be jealous of you or proud of him for finally getting some." She winked.

"Jealous of me?"

She laughed. "He's my hall-pass."

I didn't know how to respond and I know my face showed it because she laughed harder.

"Don't worry. It wouldn't ever actually happen, but a girl can dream. Even more so now that I have a look at what he's like between the sheets." She grinned.

Between the sheets, on my couch, in the shower, against the wall, on the counter, but I wasn't about to divulge that information.

Aria suddenly stood up and lifted her shirt up so that most of her torso was visible. She had bruises on her waist and a few hickeys.

"Ryu manhandles me too." She said, sitting back down. "Has even given me marks like yours before."

"Really?"

She nodded. "Yep. Unlike you though, I'm not that afraid of wearing mine around for all to see. Not that afraid anyway."

The thought of someone seeing the marks on my neck...and other parts of me made me feel uneasy. I couldn't even imagine someone seeing them and knowing exactly how I got them.

I know there are quite a few people who don't agree with kinks like choking because of how it borderlines abuse and I do not want to be the subject of their ridicule.

"I can practically hear the gears turning in your head." Aria said, pulling me from my thoughts. "What's going on up there?"

So I told her what I was thinking.

She let out a sigh and thought for a minute before speaking.

"I don't consider it abuse because the person consents to having it done to them, and has the power to withdraw consent at any time. Restricting breathing can make pleasure that much more intense. Now, obviously choking is extremely dangerous so there would have to be an assessment of all the risks of it and meticulous work to iron out all of the details so that serious injury can be avoided. Abuse is treating someone cruelly with intent to hurt them, not safely engaging in consensual kink with the intent to pleasure them. That's a world of difference in my opinion."