Stronger (18+)

4. Paris

© VeGirl 2014

"On July the fifth, My birthday came up. It was fifty four days since Arnoud Fabret gave me that necklace that now lay around your neck."

Zoe had begged Maya for the rest of the story the next day, but now she looked startled. "He was your..."

"He was my master and the love of my life."

Zoe's eyes were wide open and Maya knew she couldn't continue the story if the girl was watching her like that. She got up from the breakfast table and walked up to stand in front of the window. With her back towards Zoe she continued her story.

"My older sister arrived with her husband and their daughter to celebrate my birthday. I loved little Sumi, but would soon move far away to a life where people wouldn't expect me to start a family."

As a last attempt of being a good daughter, she helped her mother preparing food and setting table out in the shade of their back yard. The cherry tree was standing there loaded with fruit and Maya picked a few and put straight in her mouth as the others looked away. Thoughts flickered to the cherry festival in April where she had danced for Arnaud. It had been arousing in a crazy way to know that his eyes were on her body the entire time. Her skin tingled at the mere thought of it.

"Take her."

She flinched as her sister put her daughter in Maya's arms while hurrying inside.

"Bonjour Sumi." Maya decided it was never too early to learn a foreign language and continued to speak French with the five month old baby.

"That is a good look for you Mayako." Maya's brother in law hinted with a teasing smile.

"Much better for my sister..." She smiled at him instead of sticking her tongue out. "I have business to attend and no time for children just yet."

"Business..." Maya's grandmother snorted. "Career is for men, women have to stay home and take care of the children. What would the world become if women took the jobs away from the men?" Her grandmother still hinted that it was Maya's turn to find a man and she suggested a couple of their closest friend's sons as suitable men.

"Omedetõ gozaimasu..." A dark voice congratulated in crappy Japanese and there Arnaud stood with his head inclined in respect.

"My heart almost stopped when I realized he had come to celebrate my birthday, and I couldn't bow enough to him. I was suddenly a bundle of nervendings that all just shivered with no connection of control at all." Maya snickered at the memory. She had been a nervous wreck and at the same time, she had been extatic to see him.

"My father stepped forward to welcome Arnaud to our simple home. My father bowed to the tall man that towered over him. "It is a fabulous opportunity you have given our daughter." Maya did her best imitation of her father's voice, adding a powerful Japanese accent.

"I wasn't sure what my father was talking about, and my family gathered curiously around to find out what was going on. That was when it dawned on me that Arnaud had contacted my father and said that I would be working with him." Maya took a calming breath, thinking of how she had been forced to translate between her father and Arnaud. That night, she had wondered if the man had bought her.

Suddenly, Maya turned back to find Zoe still watching her curiously. "My father said something like if I disappointed the man he had to send me back to Japan, but Arnaud replied that he had ways of discipline, and he sure did." Maya snickered and started to untidy the table.