Claiming Them

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Sunday November 24, 2019

A little red beetle pulled into the driveway of a massive Tudor mansion in Beverly Hills, and into the smaller of two garages. It wiggled as the nearly six-foot-tall man inside unfolded himself from the tiny coup. "Kitten," Jay grunted as he stretched his back. "We have got to get you a bigger car if we're ever going to do that again. Three hours in a beetle is murder."

"Why didn't you just push the seat back?" KiRin asked with a giggle.

"I did," he grumbled. KiRin grimaced at the glare he shot her way and helped him to pull the suitcases out of the trunk before following him inside. The moment they stepped foot in the door they were descended on by dogs. Hera was so excited to see them that she nearly knocked Jay to the ground. They spent the next five minutes calming the chaos, the two of them wandered upstairs, where they found Han idly shooting pool. He looked up when he heard footsteps on the stairs and smiled at them.

"Hey, you two. How was San Diego?"

"It was great," KiRin said. "The resort we stayed at was so peaceful. It was almost like we were the only people there."

"You'll have to give me the name. Sounds like my kind of place." They chatted idly for a few minutes until Han remembered that he had an email for some freelance work that he needed to answer, and headed downstairs while the two of them made their way to Jay's room. They had just finished putting away their things when Jay's phone rang. He picked it up and groaned out loud when he saw the name on the screen.

"Good afternoon, Bailey," he said to Mr. Kim's assistant, in the most cordial voice he could muster. "What has you bothering me this fine day?"

"Sorry, Mr. Kang," said the obnoxiously high-pitched voice on the other side of the phone. "Mr. Kim asked me to let you know that a new investor in the company wanted to meet with Round Table, and since the Yangs are out of the state he asked me to call you."

"I just got home," he said through a sigh. "Let me clean up and throw on something that isn't jeans and a t-shirt. Tell Mr. Kim about half an hour depending on traffic." They hung up and Jay turned to KiRin with a grimace. "Sorry Kitten."

"It's fine," KiRin rolled her eyes and gestured to the shower. Jay gave her an apologetic smile and hurried into the room while KiRin flopped onto the couch and began scrolling through her phone, looking for recipes. About five minutes later, Jay came out in a pair of slacks and a button-down shirt, gave her a quick kiss, and headed out the door with a quick yell of goodbye to Han, who grunted down the hallway in response. As he pulled out of one gate, Ky's car pulled into the other and they waved to each other as they passed. Yumi was about to get out of the car when Ky stopped her with a hand on her thigh.

"Carrot Cake, I think we need to discuss something before we go in."

"What's that?"

"I don't know if we should let everyone know we're engaged just yet." Yumi's eyes flashed, and Ky flinched. She didn't need to say anything for him to know what she was thinking. "Not because I don't want to be engaged to you, baby. I want to. Obviously, I want to, or I wouldn't have asked. It's not like you were holding out on having sex for marriage. Fuck you were practically begging me for a month and a half. But, baby, you know as well as I do that if we tell them we're engaged this soon that your sister is going to skin me, and Jude is going to help her."

Yumi pursed her lips and glared at him for a few seconds, then sighed and nodded. "You're right. They'll say it's too soon and we'll never hear the end of it." She bit her lip and looked down at the pretty pink stone on her left hand, then glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "Do you want the ring back?"