Mine to Keep

Chapter 14

Ryujin's

The next few weeks come as close to domestic bliss as I have ever experienced. Other than one day trip to Mexico for a negotiation with the Jeon, I spend all my time on the estate with Yeji.

With her classes having started, Yeji's days are filled with textbooks, papers, and tests. She's so busy that she often studies late into the evening, a practice that I dislike, but don't put a stop to. 

She seems determined to prove that she can hold her own with the students who got into the Stanford program on their own merit, and I don't want to discourage her.

I know she's doing this partly for her parents who continue to worry about her future with me and partly because she's enjoying the challenge. 

Despite the added stress, my pet seems to be thriving these days, her eyes bright with excitement and her movements filled with purposeful energy.

I like that development. I like seeing her happy and confident, content with her life with me.

Though the monster inside me still gets off on her pain and fear, her growing strength and resilience appeal to me. I never wanted to break her, only to make her mine and it pleases me to see her becoming my match in more ways than one.

Although schoolwork consumes much of her time, Yeji continues her tutelage with Monsieur Jimin, saying that she finds it relaxing to draw and paint.

She also insists that I continue giving her self-defense and shooting lessons twice a week a request that I'm more than happy to fulfill, as it gives us more time together. 

As the training progresses, I see that she's better with guns than with knives, though she's surprisingly decent with both.

She's also becoming quite good at certain fighting moves, her small body slowly but surely becoming a lethal weapon. 

She even manages to bloody my nose one time, her sharp elbow connecting with my face before I have a chance to block her lightning-fast strike.

It's an achievement she should be proud of, but, of course, being the good girl that she is, Yeji is immediately horrified and remorseful.

"Oh my Gosh, I'm so sorry!" She rushes to me, grabbing a towel to stop the bleeding.

She appears so distraught that I burst out laughing, though my nose throbs like a son of a bitch. This is what I get for being distracted during training. 

She'd managed to catch me off-guard at a moment when I was looking at her breasts and fantasizing about pulling up her sports bra.

"Ryujin! Why are you laughing?" Yeji's voice rises in pitch as she presses the towel to my face. "You should see a doctor! It could be broken—"

"It's fine, baby," I reassure her between bouts of laughter, taking the towel from her shaking hands.

"I can promise you I've had worse. If it were broken, I'd know it." My voice sounds nasal due to the towel pressed against my nose, but I can feel the cartilage with my fingers, and it's straight, undamaged. 

I'll have a black eye, but that's about it. If I hadn't deflected to the right at the last second, though, her move could've crushed my nose completely, forcing fragments of bone into my brain and killing me on the spot.

"It's not fine!" Yeji steps away, still looking extremely upset. "I could've seriously hurt you!"

"Wouldn't I have deserved it?" I say, only half-teasing. I know there is a part of her that still resents me for the way I took her that will always resent me for that.