1.1 | The Yakuza Bride

Chapter 24

A/N: Welcome to Chapter 24! 

Yes, I have an Instagram! Yes, it contains spoilers for the sequel! Should you follow? Only if you don't mind spoilers :)

~

She had a wooden spoon gripped in her fingers as she stirred the pancake batter. Soft music played from her phone and she hummed along with the tune, shamelessly swaying her hips to the rhythm. Hana wasn't much of a dancer. She only knew the knife dance she had learnt as a child and some clubbing moves her friends had taught her, but she did enjoy a quiet moment of feeling the music with her body from time to time.

She hadn't heard him come in, or she would have stopped.

'Morning,' came a sleepy rumble from behind her.

Her alarm piqued, she hurriedly shut off the music, then put her phone aside, pretending that she hadn't just been dancing by herself.

'Sleepy head,' she teased. 'I'm making pancakes but I'm not done yet.'

He grunted. His eyes were half-shut and he had his arms wrapped around himself to ward off the cold.

'It's so cold,' he complained.

Without another word, he shuffled to the fancy coffee machine and started it up. The aroma of coffee soon filled the kitchen. It was the most ostentatious thing they owned, next to the stand mixer. He took out their mugs, filled it with coffee, then added two cubes of sugar and milk in one, and just milk in the other.

He waved her mug before her nose in an effort to distract her but it earned him a glare and nothing much else in response.

'Your coffee,' he said with an impish grin. 'It smells really good.'

He sipped from his own mug, then let out a satisfied sigh.

'I think I could be a barista,' he remarked.

'Yeah?' she muttered. She didn't want to point out that the machine had done most of the work for him.

Then in one fluid motion, so quickly that she didn't know what he was doing, he stood behind her with his hands on her hips. His warm breath tickled her neck and she squirmed.

'You,' he whispered, pressing a kiss onto her neck, 'are so adorable.'

It was quick, but it had sent her senses into overdrive.

'Oh?' she murmured.

Her breath caught in her throat and she was too stunned to move. Her heart was pounding so quickly she thought he could hear it too through the sheer closeness of their bodies. Her hands trembled when she felt his fingers stray onto her waist, splayed across her stomach, as if testing the boundaries between them.

She didn't know how to respond. She had been in love, but this was different. Leon was someone whom she'd met only a few months ago, not someone whom she had grown up with or told her secrets to. In fact, she didn't even know much about him.

'Your dance moves are adorable.'

She pursed her lips.

'I have to get these on the pan,' she muttered. She needed to distract him. She needed a distraction. 'Or you won't get any breakfast today.'

'I'll eat it raw,' he said easily, standing aside so she could access the stove.

'You won't like it raw,' she muttered, casting him a glance.

~

With food in her belly and coffee in her veins, she had grown more alert. She had gathered her wits about her. She had become more bold.