My Seoul Man

Chapter 17

As soon as AJ slithered down beside me, Hae-Won eased up and out of the hot tub with a slick little, "Aaaaaand I'm off!" Trotting away on those long legs looking almost as mischievous as AJ.

And leaving me to deal with a smoldering gaze that heated things up so much that I honestly thought she'd accidentally bumped the temperature controls on her way out.

I sputtered, "Weren't you...didn't you have...business to take care of?"

But he hit me with a sultry, "I left early." And a smile that said I was definitely the reason for that early departure.

"But why didn't we hear—"

"Chopper landed up top of the cove. Snuck up on you with the boat."

I remembered Hae-won's little smile then. "So you two planned this?"

"Well, she was kinda pissed at me for having to be away so long today. Cynical as she seems, she's kind of got a thing about you and me."

I only took in a little bit of that. Because he was all idol perfect, still. Staring at me in all his blemishless splendor—they turn them into human anime characters somehow. Impossibly smooth skin, doe eyes, shapely lips, perfectly straight noses...

Almost just to reassure myself he was real, I touched his cheek and said, "I'll have to get used to this...other you. The one all your Angels need you to be."

His gaze changed from sultry to a wee bit wary. "Who do you need me to be? If...you need me at all..."

Caught me so off guard, the sudden vulnerability, that all I could say was, "Uh, oh—where'd he go? That idol guy?"

And he laughed and said, "Well, I have trouble with that word 'need,' I think."

After waiting for him to finish that thought, I finally raised my chin and said, "Because?" Trying to tease the wariness away.

And he winked and said, "Okay, challenge accepted."

"Preach, then."

He liked that. It probably reminded him of home. So he one-arm hugged me and said, "It's just...well, I never liked that 'You complete me' thing. Because if you need someone else to complete you...well, you're really looking for a life raft you can grab onto. But what's in it for the life raft?"

I said, "Oooo, I like that," almost before I realized I'd said it. Because it expressed something I'd finally learned—the hard way--while navigating the choppy waters of romance.

I came from a family of tough sistas who knew how to surf those waves. And my kinda man would be surfin' right there next to me, eyes on the horizon. Not sayin' we couldn't grab onto each other from time to time, but we'd both have to be strong enough on our own to hold the other one up when those times came.

The guy I was surfing next to that day smiled over all sweet and warm and said, "Of course, you've been kind of like a life raft for me, though, so..."

The honest longing in those eyes was so strong that I had to kiss him. And we both looked so drunk and dazed when we were done trying to out kiss each other that it made us laugh and kill the vibe a little bit.

But then we pressed foreheads together. And he said, "Hae-Won's got big plans for us this evening."

"And you're not going to give me any hints, right?"

He paused to gently smooth back some strands of hair that had stuck to my face. And then said, "I'm just happy she's so happy. It's been a while."