Chapter 5

We finished out the night with a quick shower before going to bed.

My sleeping arrangements had already been taken care of by my two lovely ladies. Their solution involved a number of pillows. I had a body pillow placed behind me to act as a barrier to keep me from rolling over on my back. I had a body pillow in front of me to prop me up. I had a pillow for my head, and another pillow that was supposed to fit between my knees, though I ended up kicking it off of the bed, and all of these pillows were covered in silk. I knew I was going to feel bad if I ended up drooling all over them.

Anna slept in front of me, and took possession of my arm to wrap around her. Risa slept behind me, her knee resting on the body pillow. While it didn’t match up to the fantasy of a woman on each shoulder, it was still surprisingly intimate. I fell asleep quickly.

I awoke late in the morning from a nightmare. I hadn’t had nightmares in a while. I would have written it off as combat stress, but there was something about the dream that still clung to me as I tried to climb my way out of a sea of silk and fluffiness.

The older house servant entered as I slipped on a pair of boxer briefs. She carried new dressings for my back, and a gel for my shoulder. I turned to look at her, and her eyes fell to the floor, a blush creeping up her face as her hair tried to hide a smirk.

“Go ahead,” I offered. There could be no secrets in a house with servants, “Let it out,”

A short giggle escaped before she covered her mouth with her hand. She looked up at me, her eyes filled with mirth. She pointed to the massage chair. I turned and straddled the seat.

“Those two seemed to have stolen your chi,” she stated, as she placed the gel over my shoulder. The cold was welcome to my bruised muscle. I flashed through what I knew of chi and their culture. My mental index stopped on an article I read about how there was a belief that sexual chi could be exchanged with orgasms. I thought about that. Anna had at least two. Risa had at least one. I only had one. That would have put me ahead.

“I think we were mutually satisfied,” I offered. She simply nodded, and cleaned the holes in my back before bandaging them again, and taping it in place.

“They were very energetic this morning,” she offered. I smiled warmly.

“Good,” I replied, “They deserve it,”

She helped me get my arm into the sling and then left. Alone, I slipped on a pair of long shorts. I thought about going topless, but decided against it choosing a short sleeved button up. It would be simple enough to get on and off should the need arise.

I slipped out of the bedroom, and made my way into the kitchen. I rarely slept in this late. And I had never slept in this late since my time in the Army. I was hungry, and I knew I could use a cup of coffee. If they even had coffee here. I sighed softly at the sad possibility that they wouldn’t have coffee.

The kitchen was empty, but I found a half filled coffee pot. I gave silent thanks to God for that. I took my first sip when someone else entered the kitchen.

“You hungry?” she asked. I nodded.

“Eggs, toast?” she offered. I nodded again. She made a shooing motion to get me out of the kitchen.

“Arigato,” I offered. I am sure I butchered the pronunciation. I can’t read Japanese. If I can’t read it, I can’t pronounce it. She smiled at me anyway still shooing me out of the kitchen.

I walked to the living room. The TV was on though no one was watching it. CNN was running, the news ticker scrolling by. I didn’t see anything interesting in the minute that I watched it.

I turned to look out at the patio. There was a fire pit set in the center, and several pillows on the carpet that covered the patio. Dividers appeared to be placed to create small private areas, with a couple of benches set behind the dividers. Just beyond the patio someone had built a rock garden, and filled it in with sand. The sand had been raked in a series of circular patterns. There was a desolate kind of beauty to it, the patterns in the sand drawing you to the monolithic rocks sat in the sand sea.

My mind drifted to last night. My confessions left me feeling vulnerable. I knew I could blame it on the codeine if I needed to though. I also thought about how talented Anna was at deep throating for a lesbian. I didn’t allow my thoughts to travel too far down that path. I didn’t know enough, and I would, at best, be guessing at why.

“Eric?”

I must have zoned out. I turned to see Risa.

“Hey!” I offered, “Shouldn’t you be at school?” I asked concerned.

“My next class isn’t for a while, and I wanted to check on you,” she offered.

“Oh, I’m fine,” I began, then I thought about it a moment and conceded, “Maybe a bit bored. Today was supposed to be my leg day at the gym. I’m up to eighty flights on the stair stepper,” I thought aloud.

“There is a gym in one of the other bedrooms,” she offered.

“Would you show me?” I asked.

The cook said something in Japanese to Risa, and Risa nodded before turning to me, “Not until you’ve eaten your breakfast,” Risa admonished.

“Of course not,” I smiled, “It isn’t every day that I get to be spoiled like this,” I smiled.

The eggs were good. The toast a bit dry though. I didn’t complain. I knew better. I drained two glasses of water after my coffee, and Risa showed me the gym that was upstairs. There was a universal machine that seemed to be decently set up, a tread mill, and an exercise bike. The bike was a recumbent model interestingly enough though.

I walk around the smaller room, nodding to myself as Risa watched me from the door way.

“No one is going to complain if I use it?” I asked.

“They better not,” Risa answered. I smiled at the fierceness in her voice. For the first time in a long time I didn’t feel alone.

“I think I am good then,” I smiled. Risa returned my smile.

“Good,” she stated, “I hate this, but I do have to return. We should be back by four, OK?”

“Sure,” I agreed. Then she stepped into the room, and stood up on her toes and kissed me deeply.

“And this one is from Anna,” she said, and then kissed me again just as deeply. My heart was doing funny things in my chest, and my throat felt like it might be sharing what my heart was doing. I looked into her eyes, and then bent down and kissed her deeply.

“And this one is for Anna,” I offered after catching my breath, and kissed her just as deeply again.

“Damn it,” she growled.

“What?” I asked concerned.

“I have to go!” she answered pouting, her eyes lightly glazed with lust. I smiled warmly.

“I’ll be here when you get back,”

“True. There is no way for you to leave,” she teased. I laughed softly, nodding, and then watched as she skipped away.

I spent an hour on the exercise bike after I found a thick cushion that I could use to keep my back off of the seat. Then I set the weight on the universal and did my leg routine. I couldn’t find a way to do leg presses that didn’t have my shoulder pressing into the seat, so I skipped them, but all in all I wasn’t going to lose my progress.

I wobbled my way back down stairs and into the master bedroom to take a shower when I remembered that I didn’t have anyone to remove the bandages on my back. I sighed and returned to the living room.

“Hello!” I called out.

The older woman who applied the dressings came back in.

“Yes?” she asked politely.

“I really need to shower off, but I don’t want to get my bandages soaked. Could you remove them, and then reapply new ones when I get out? I shouldn’t be but a couple of minutes. And could I get a new cold pack?”

She just smiled, and nodded.

Bandages removed, I took a quick shower, and stepped back into the master bedroom, a towel wrapped around my waist to find the woman waiting for me.

“Thank you, or arigato,” I offered, taking my seat on the massage chair again. I started the lap top up as she bandaged my back wanting to check out my emails. When she was finished, I turned to look at her.

“May I have your name? I feel silly trying to talk to you without knowing,” I explained.

“Call me Kimi,” she answered.

“Thank you Kimi,” I smiled. She smiled and bowed out of the room.

I returned to my emails, and found several from my instructors.

I spent the next couple of hours reading my text books and taking notes when I heard Anna’s and Risa’s voices.

“In here,” I called out. The joined me a few minutes later.

“Hey, I’ve gotten several calls that concern you,” Anna began after she kissed me. Risa followed her example and I realized that I hadn’t heard Anna.

“Huh?” I looked at them. Anna giggled.

“I’ve gotten several calls that you should know about,” she restated.

“Oh! What about?”

She bit her lip a second, “The first was from a member of the Yakuza,”

“Uh ... What!” I exclaimed.

“Hold on!” she held her hand up, “They heard the news, and wanted to assure me and my father that they had nothing to do with any attempt to kidnap you,” she explained.

“I didn’t think that made any sense,” Risa added.

“Then who tried to take me?” I asked.

“The Father I spoke to suggested a Korean gang,” she offered.

“Korean?” I though, surprised.

“It makes more sense than the Yakuza, Eric,” Anna stated.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, but I just don’t understand,” I said.

“I can’t go into any details, but the company my father works for has made some breakthroughs, and the Koreans would love to get a hold of the information,” Anna explained.

I nodded thoughtfully.

“Let me guess, a local gang of kids?” I asked, trying to draw the narrative further out.

“That is what my father thinks,” Anna agreed.

“OK. I can go with that,” I nodded.

I sat quietly thinking. Then I turned to the two girls.

“And of course, being an American, I can’t tell the difference between someone from Japan, and someone from Korea?”

Anna giggled, and Risa tried to give me a stern look but failed, her face giving me a small smile.

“Does that make me racist?” I asked.

“Maybe a little bit,” Risa stated smiling at me.

“My apologies,” I offered.

“It’s alright, it took me a while to figure out how to tell the differences between Americans,” she soothed. I just laughed softly.

“So ... we are all racist?” I asked after a moment.

“Probably a little bit,” Anna offered a soft grin on her lips. Risa nodded a twinkle in her eyes.

“Wait, why didn’t Suki say anything?” I asked. If anyone that was there would have known, it would have been Suki.

“She said that she didn’t see the fight, only you running from out from between the buildings, and then the taser hitting you. She was waiting opposite the stairwell for you. When she heard your yell, she knew something was wrong and she was out of position to assist you,” Anna answered.

Fuck, I thought to myself, she didn’t just watch.

“Huh ... I think I owe her an apology,” I said thoughtfully.

“Maybe, but she was supposed to follow you on your run, not just sit back. You were her detail that morning, and she failed. No, she didn’t just watch. But she should have been there to watch your back. In that way, her failure is worse because she didn’t even try to perform her duty,” Anna explained.

I got that. Having been in the Army, dereliction of duty could get people killed. But she hadn’t acted out of malice. There is a big difference between being stupid and being cruel, though the results were often the same. Suki was still in deep dog do-do, but now I knew that she wasn’t just watching to see if I got killed. I guess that was something. It at least offered me a little bit of relief.

“I understand,” I said.

Anna nodded, “There have been a number of people trying to gain access to your dorm room,” I added, “Campus security has made sure no one got in. The ones that were caught were from different news agencies,”

I shook my head. Only in America would breaking and entering be considered part of the public’s ‘need to know’.

“And finally, Mike called,” I felt a chill down my spine when she said his name, “He wants you to come in for a debrief,” she finished.

“No,” I stated quietly, “We’ll have to meet some place neutral,” I offered.

Both of them stared at me. Maybe I insisted a bit too forcefuly.

“Alright, why?” Anna quired.

“Gut feeling, plus bad dream,” I said. I took a breath and focused my thoughts, “What if they decide that it is my patriotic duty to spy on you and your father?” I offered.

Anna’s lips pressed, nodding for me to continue.

“So, I go to their office. They try to wave the flag at me. I tell them politely to go fuck themselves. They explain I don’t get to leave until I see reason,” I continued.

Neither Anna nor Risa looked happy with that idea. I also noted that they didn’t look exactly surprised either.

“I of course try to call their bluff, and leave. Next thing I know, maybe the FBI shows up and ‘escorts’ me to their offices. Where I spend a night or two waiting for someone to explain why they are violating my civil rights. Maybe I show up before a Federal Judge, a list of BS charges laid out, and now I am in Federal prison. My lawyer explains that I can make this all go away if I agree to certain terms and conditions,” I ended.