BindingCherryBlossoms Read Online Free Page B

She
used the American form of address, but he didn’t correct her so she assumed she
hadn’t done anything to insult him.
    “Homey?” His brow practically disappeared beneath the fall
of bangs above his eyes. “Are you going to woo me with a freshly cooked meal,
Miss Nakao?”
    She laughed. “Oh no, I don’t cook. But I do know a good
burger place just up the street. Papa tells me you haven’t been back to the
States in several years, and I bet you dream of ketchup and fries.”
    “We have fast food in Japan,” he pointed out.
    “But they don’t taste the same. You going to argue that, or
shall I order you raw fish and rice?”
    His mouth tried to turn down at the corners making Sakura
wonder if she’d finally overstepped her bounds, but his voice was pleasant when
he answered. “A burger it is…with Nakao-san’s permission, of course.” He gave
her father a respectful bow of his head.
    Her father had been plotting for weeks to find some way to
get her to share Ian’s company, and she was giving him a ripe opportunity now.
She had no intention of telling him she needed to get the man alone and make
certain he knew she had no interest in marriage— at all —even if he was
young and rich and amazingly handsome, she acknowledged, pursing her lips
together thoughtfully.
    Marriage might be out but other adventures sprang to mind.
    Then she remembered her Bakushi and the way he’d
seduced her at the Red Mask Club and decided it wouldn’t be wise to take on
another lover. She really wasn’t a woman who slept around, and just thinking
about the logistics terrified her. Last night had been her first sexual
encounter in more months than she could count and it had been so beyond her
expectation she couldn’t imagine being with any other man, especially since she
was seeing her mysterious new teacher again tomorrow.
    She blushed to the roots of her plum-streaked hair as she
remembered the way he’d made her feel. His hands on her breasts. His fingers in
her—
    “Hello?” Ian was studying her much too intently. “Are you
still here?”
    Sakura’s cheeks grew even hotter. “Sorry.” She shook her
head to clear the want away and turned to her father. “I will have Jiro’s
deliver you lunch if you don’t mind that I sweep Mr. Shoji off his feet.”
    “You wish this, Shoji-san?”
    Ian smiled. “If you don’t think I mean any disrespect,
Nakao-san. Your daughter seems to know exactly what I need.”
    Sakura shivered when he took her hand, his fingers trailing
over her palm in what was a decidedly sexual gesture, hoping her father had not
picked up on the innuendo. Ian might be a bigger challenge than she’d
anticipated.
    All the more reason to have a private chat.
    Still, her father hesitated before waving them out the door
with a frown. Even though he wanted them to be thrown together, she knew Papa
would have sent a chaperone with them if he thought he could get by with it,
although she was well over twenty-one and more than capable of taking care of
herself.
    Twenty minutes later she and Ian were sitting in a booth,
biting into the best burgers Charleston had to offer. “Told you so.” She
smirked as her companion closed his eyes in bliss.
    Throughout their meal Sakura had tried not to notice how
elegantly he’d held his burger or the supple length of his fingers as he worked
his way through an entire platter of fries. She blinked and finally looked away
as he wiped his fingers in his napkin before folding the paper into a perfect
square and placing it over his empty plate.
    “I have missed American food,” he admitted. “And iced tea,”
he added, draining the last of his glass. “But I do appreciate Japanese
cuisine.”
    “I appreciate Japanese food, too,” Sakura agreed, “but I
swear I cannot eat it at every meal. How did you survive the change in diet
when you moved there as a teenager?”
    He gave her an odd look from across the table. “You seem to
know quite a bit about me. Should I