Second to None

30. kiss*

Note: Slightly mature content ahead

No longer able to stand his advances, Mayu threw down her napkin, glowered at Ryoma once and excused herself.

Inside the ladies room, she patted her cheeks with cold water to calm down. She gazed at her smudged reflection in the mirror for a moment, reciting over and over again that there was nothing to fear, that she'd done nothing wrong, that Echizen Ryoma was the one crossing a line. 

After repeating these words several times, she retouched her makeup, fixed her hair and smiled into the mirror.

Ryoma intercepted Mayu the second she stepped out of the ladies' room. He took her wrist and hauled her into the unoccupied private room nearby. Once inside, he closed the door and sat her down with a solemn look. "I have to talk to you."

"Then talk, and do it at the table." Mayu shot up. "There's nothing you can't say in public."

"Yes, there is."

"Then I don't want to hear it," she said and headed for the door.

Ryoma blocked her path. "Why have you been avoiding me?"

"I told you, you've been spending too much time with me. It's a bad idea."

"Why is it bad? I enjoy spending time with you, and vice versa."

"I do not enjoy spending time with you."

"You're lying. You should've seen your face when we ate together at that French restaurant in Azabu."

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "This is totally inappropriate. You have a girlfriend, I'm engaged, and that's that. We're co-workers and it'll stay that way."

He looked at her and dragged out a smile. "Now I also know you're afraid."

She met his eyes. "It has nothing to do with fear. What you're suggesting is wrong—"

Her words were unceremoniously cut off by his kiss. Holding her face with both hands, he pried apart her lips and kissed her on the open mouth.

Mayu's head began to spin, but her hands somehow found the will to shove him away. "Do you realize what you're doing?!" she hissed.

"I've wanted to do that since we first met" was his non-answer.

"That's nice. But in this life, we don't always get to do what we please—"

"Do you truly believe that?" interjected Ryoma.

Mayu stared at him, seeing in his eyes nothing but a strange flame. Met with silence, he closed their distance and touched her face, his eyes never leaving hers. "From what I know about you, you want to run free and be rid of rules. You hate being in this hierarchical society filled with formalities and courtesy. You hate how men overlook you even though you do more. You hate how you've gotten caged up."

She wanted to deny it all, but her body was possessed with a nameless yearning that shook her from the inside out. His words cut deeply and fished out all the thoughts she'd locked away. 

Commanding herself to hold it together, Mayu removed his hand. "You don't know anything."

"But I do," he said, "because I'm just like you. And that's why I can't stay away."

And then they were kissing again. He kissed her slowly with a deep passion that burned through her. When his hands caressed her back, Mayu thought all the fuses in her head were going to blow. When he bit her lower lip, she thought she was going to simultaneously incinerate and melt. There was a shameful rush of heat between her legs and she nearly cried. It was awful but it was paradise.