Tokyo Seduction (Book 1 Of The Gaijin Series)

Chapter 46

        It was ten in the morning when Mimi walked back into the apartment from her daily work out. She was reading a text as she walked down the hallway into the living room completely oblivious of anything other than the message she was reading.

Giggling to herself, "Hatori you are such a pervert."

A man's voice said, "Now there is something you don't hear every day to describe my cousin. Stuffy, uptight, pompous, now these words definitely, but pervert. Nope I just can't picture it."

Startled she let out a yelp as she jumped and dropped her mobile phone sending it skidding across the floor.

Shigure walked over and picked it up, looked at the message then handed it back to her with a grin. "I stand corrected," Shigure chuckled then said, "sorry about that. I didn't mean to scare you. I'm Shigure, Hatori's cousin and you must be, Mimi." He held out a hand. "I've heard so much about you it feels like I've already met you."

She was still startled and starred at his outstretched hand a minute before her brain kicked in and took his hand. "Really; Hatori's told you about me? He actually hasn't told me much about you. Other than you're a writer, you live in Hokkaido and you are engaged."

He shook his head and the corners of his lips turned up as he said in a playful tone, "That figures. But I don't blame him as far as families go ours can be a bit. . . full on." He looked Mimi up and down then said, "I hope I'm not keeping you."

As their eyes met she was captivated by the rich caramel colour, that had speckles of hazel, her mind stopped functioning. It took her a moment for his words to register and process what Shigure was talking about. Then she realised she was dressed in workout clothes. Waving her hands in the air she said, "No, I'm just coming back from the gym. I get up so early these days and I have so much free time in the mornings. So I hit the gym. I've got nothing planned for the rest of the day actually."

He flashed her a huge grin and winked."If that's the case, then why don't you join me? I'm only going to visit a friend but it should be fun. It's such a nice day and I hate sitting inside when the weather is so nice. Besides I want to get to know the lovely lady who's captured my cousin's heart."

She figured she'd just end up being a third wheel and really wasn't in the mood for that. "I don't want to intrude. I'm sure you'll have a lot to catch up on."

"You won't, I promise. Besides he loves fans so I'm sure you two will get on well."

Confused she scrunched her face up. "Huh?"

"Hari said you were a big fan of anime and manga just like his brother Shinji. My friend writes Samurai Maidens."

Mimi perked up. "Oh, I love that manga. It's getting made into anime soon as well."

"Good, now you two will really hit it off"

"I'll just go and get cleaned up it should only take me twenty minutes," Mimi said and walked off to the bedroom trying not to prance in excitement. She was thrilled she was going to meet the mangaka of her favourite manga and she didn't care if she was going to be a third wheel.

Mimi quickly stepped out of the shower and dried off then hung her towel up and walked straight into the enormous walk in closet. As she walked passed Hatori's expensive suits she reached out her hand and slid her fingers across the luxurious fabrics. She stopped in front of her side and her eyes locked onto her favourite pair of khaki three quarter length skinny fit trousers. Then yanked them off the hanger and grabbed a pink t-shirt with the face of a panda on it, grey socks with a red and blue band going round the top and threw them on. She walked over to her shoe rack and chose a pair of converse and black and white checked suspenders to finish her outfit off.

Mimi walked out of the closet and looked at her watched and her lips turned down. She had managed to spend thirty minutes getting ready and as she looked into the mirror at her hair she decided not to straighten it because she didn't want to make Shigure wait. Running back into the closet she dug a canvas army-green handbag and put all of her things into it. She had one last look in the mirror checking her makeup and made sure her outfit looked good before joining Shigure in the living room.

"Sorry I took so long, shall we go."

Shigure walked over to her his head tilted to the side. "I thought you had straight hair."

She instinctively touched her hair and blushed under his intense gaze. "Yeah, I usually straighten it but it takes too much time because my hair is so long. So, I decided to leave it. Hatori has actually been trying to get me to get it straighten permanently as it goes. He says it would save him having to wait forever when I straighten it. I know he has a point but I'm still debating whether or not to do it."

"Why? When it's so cute this way." He pulled one of her soft ringlets and watched it spring back up.

As Shigure did this she took the time to look at him and could really see the family resemblance between Hatori and Shigure. They were both drop dead gorgeous and had the same silky hair although Shigure's hair was longer at the back, his hair came down to his shoulders. Shigure was a little bit taller and his face was a bit more angular than Hatori's, but they had the same chin and cheek bones. Even though they were the same age Shigure's laid back look made him seem younger than Hatori.

As they walked into the elevator Shigure said, "I hope you don't mind taking the train to Harajuku. I don't drive when I'm in Tokyo, it is always so busy and everyone drives like a mad man down here."

She giggled because he had a point. "I know what you mean. Hatori has been trying to get me to get a Japanese drivers license lately. I've been avoiding it because of the crazy drivers. I'll eventually do it to shut him up but I'm in no rush." The same way Hatori liked to wind Mimi up, she liked to do the same to him and she was having too much fun by putting it off.

When they got to the apartment in Harajuku the door had a note on it that read: Unless the building is burning down or someone is dying DO NOT DISTURB, UNDER PAIN OF DEATH! Aburaki Yoshihiro.

Shigure chuckled. "That's Yoshi for you. He's probably let his work pile up. I should've called first, but he's always in so I usually just pop round unannounced. I'm not brave enough to knock. I guess we'll just have to do something else."

Even though Mimi was disappointed she was also relived. Her belly started rumbling. "I am a bit hungry and there is a really nice bistro near here. How about we go there? My treat."

Shortly after Mimi moved in with Hatori, he gave her a debit card and told her she was to use it to buy whatever she wanted. It was another one of the things they had argued about but in the end he demanded she keep it. He also insisted she use it whenever she needed to buy anything. Her stubborn side held out for a few months before she started using it. When she eventually did use it she saw how happy it made Hatori and chocked down her pride and acquiesced. Nowadays Mimi enjoyed buying what she wanted but she was always cautious not to go too crazy.