“From outside.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
She curses and I want to curl up into a small ball in the corner. There’s a knock at the back door of the truck and I know it’s Yujun. I’m not answering it.
“Hara, Yujun is coming—” Jules’s warning dies in her throat as the door is pulled open and a very confused Yujun, dressed in dark slacks and a crisp white shirt, appears in the frame. The tail of his green tie is tucked inside his shirt and his sleeves are rolled up to expose his fine veiny forearms. His head is covered with a black baseball cap to block out the sun. He looks scrumptious. I look like a raggedy dishcloth—one with holes and stains.
“When you weren’t home this morning, I assumed you went to work early, and I see you are working but not where I expected you to be.”
“I’m going to the store to get a lemonade. Want one? No? Okay, bye.” Jules slips away while Yujun and I engage in a staring contest.
“It’s a long story,” I repeat.
“I’m all ears.”
Someone says something in Korean. “I have customers.” I start to close the door on him. He slaps his hand against the steel.
“I’m coming home early.”
“That feels like a warning.”
“Consider it prior notice. Don’t run off. I’ll find you.” He reaches out and tugs on my red silk cord, which had escaped from inside my T-shirt. “I’ll find you,” he repeats. He steps back and lets the door swing shut.
My cheeks are hot when I serve him and his coworkers, and not from the heat of the deep fryer. Jules returns and allows me to retreat to the back of the truck.
“What did he say?” she hisses between customers.
“That he’s coming home early and not to run off.”
“Or what? He’ll spank you?” She waggles her eyebrows. “Didn’t know Yujun was that type of guy. Although . . . he does seem like he enjoys being in charge.”
I’m 100 percent certain that there’s no redder color on this earth than my face at this moment.
“You didn’t answer me,” Jules teases. At least, I think she’s teasing.
“I can’t hear you over the noise of this deep fryer.” I make a loud buzzing noise.
She says something else so I increase the volume of my own sound. I vaguely hear laughter and then chicken sounds.
“You’re happy. You get back together with Bomi?”
Jules’s giggles cut off. “How did you know?” She sounds annoyed. “Did Bomi tell you?”
“No, but a giddy Jules either means you’re high, which is illegal here, or in love.”
“Which is also illegal here.”
“But you don’t care.”
“No. Not really. Bomi says that we’ll not officially come out, but there’s no reason I can’t be around her. It’s normal to see girls and even women holding hands. We won’t share a registry, and medical issues will suck, but that’s a long way off and a lot can change. Even if it doesn’t, we can still be together.” She grins. “We’ll be like those fossilized remains that are wrapped together and the historians interpret as good friends.”
“I’m really happy for you.” Jules and Bomi are not afraid of the goblins. Be a dragon, Hara.
CHAPTER TWENTY
YUJUN: I’m working late. There’s no one here. I’m scared. please come and hold my hand.
Yujun sent that to me a half hour ago. Despite his earlier threat, he did not get off early, but I didn’t run away either. I want to see him. I haven’t done anything wrong other than not come to work at IF Group. I explained in an earlier text that Yang Ilhwa had been sick and I helped her out. He was confused about how I knew the food truck owner well enough to fill in for her, but accepted it in the end.
I clean up in record time, throw on the first blouse and pants I can find, and nearly get hit running down the street to hail a taxi. “IF Group,” I say. “Yongsan-gu, gamshamnida.”
The driver takes off and I slump in the seat, texting Yujun a reply.
ME: am in cab. on my way.
YUJUN: Excellent
The lobby of IF Group is empty but for two security guards sitting behind the reception desk. I wave my badge in their general direction and then swipe it over the security sensor. When the elevator doors slide open on the fourteenth floor, he’s waiting, looking deliciously rumpled with his shirt collar open and the tie nowhere to be seen.
“I thought you were scared,” I tease, slightly breathless at the sight of him. When was the last time we made love? The other night, we sloppily kissed each other and then passed out. It was in his apartment, a week ago. Maybe longer. Time’s a construct, and right now it feels like it has been an eternity since I’ve felt his weight pressing me into the sheets.
“I am. That’s why I’m waiting under all these lights.” He points upward to the LED panels in the ceiling.
I don’t look. I’m too busy staring at his body and the way his toned figure is still obvious beneath the white work shirt and the slim-fit pants. He has the perfect shape for a man, all wide shoulders and slim hips. His arm falls to his side.
“Hara?” he husks out.
My eyes jerk upward to see his dark brown eyes turn black. Heat skates up my spine. I don’t know if I fall into him or he pulls me close, but before my heart beats once more, I am flush against him. His erection presses into my stomach; his mouth slams against mine.
“Bathroom. Closet. Desk,” I gasp against his lips.
He laughs and it fills me with so much joy. He backs me down the hall, pausing only to swipe his badge against the security panel. We fall into the bathroom and tear at each other’s clothes. I hear a button ping against the tile, but I don’t know if it comes from his shirt or my pants and neither do I care. My hands are on his chest, sliding over his shoulders. His palms cup my ass and boost me onto the sink. The cold steel should have sent a shiver up my spine, but I only feel his hands stroking my back and his lips kissing their way down my neck. There’s only the heat of his mouth, the way his fingers tug on my blouse, the scrape of evening stubble against my sensitive skin.
I run my hands up his bare chest, skimming over the hard slabs of muscle, reaching his neck and pulling him back to my lips for a deeper, longer, sexier kiss. While our tongues are busy, our hands are busier. Shirts come off, pants are unzipped, underwear is pushed away, or—in my case—torn at the side. I hated this pair anyway.