Daji is every fantasy a nerd like me could have in my bed. She lies open to me, cupping her breasts as a welcome gesture.
"I'm waiting for you to claim me," she purrs. "This mating isn't complete without that."
I normally hate fine print and loopholes, but this is different. This is plain old nature. And my body stirs like never before.
"I'm yours to command," she says, sultry-eyed.
A goddess? An immortal being, mine to command in the bedroom?
"My sweet little vixen. Are you sure?"
I know who has the power here. It's most definitely Daji. A nine-tailed fox spirit, centuries old, capable of creating traps that Harry Houdini couldn't escape. The smartest puzzle geek or the toughest off-the-grid survivalist would be toast.
And yet she's offering me what every guy dreams of.
"I want a worthy mate," she purrs. "Someone as strong as I am. Prove it to me. Take me."
Her velvety, soft skin beckons me. Her full breasts, long legs, and tight little body demand to be touched and kissed and claimed. I lower my mouth to her stomach.
She gasps as I nibble and lick and taste her. My hands run over her thighs, feeling the way her flesh yields to me. She's so soft. The tail has disappeared, but her fox ears stay. So alluring. So hot. I stroke her thighs the way I used to caress Annabel's.
Forget her. Daji is mine now. I'm hers. Annabel couldn't possibly cope with my new life. Maybe she did me a favor. Maybe we did each other a favor.
I kiss the inside of Daji's thighs, not tasting between her legs, as much as I crave the delights there. I want to take my time with her. I know the next three months will be crazy, even if I become a pro at delegating. This is my time to claim Daji completely, to not let the business of running the inn sweep me away.
Part of me wonders if my grandparents left the inn to me in part because they wanted me to be together with Daji. Now, that sounds completely egotistical, and maybe the idea never even entered their heads. But a memory surfaces.
* * * * *
SIX MONTHS AGO
Gram's sigh would earn her an Academy Award.
I grip the phone, tearing my eyes away from the computer screen. "I'm sorry I can't come visit. Demo Day is in forty-eight hours. We have to—"
"There'll be another Demo Day, darling," Gram tells me. "There'll always be one."
"Not the work-life balance speech again, Gram."
"Well, first, you have no balance in your life, and second, you're certainly not going to hear it from your father, so you might as well get it from me." Gram's sweet voice would make the most macho wrestler fall to his knees. "You have to come visit. There's a bit of family history we need to share with you."
"Gram, I have a girlfriend."
Gram scoffs. "If it was that serious, you'd bring her to meet us."
"She's met my parents, and they liked her very much."
Gram sniffs. "That's because she fits into the neat little box that they've put your life in. But darling, life isn't about fitting in a box. Most of us will be in a box after we're gone. I have a girl for you. And when you meet her, you'll forget all about Demo Days."
"Does Gramps approve?"
Gramps pipes up. "Oh, I never go against your grandmother."
"And that's why we're still married a hundred years later," Gram laughs.
I don't take that literally. In fact, it's sweet that she feels they've been married forever. It gives me hope that sappy romance still exists.
No, on second thought, it's not sappy. They went through jobs, disasters, heartbreak, my parents being weird and not talking to them. They lived before cell phones and dating apps and our constant screen addiction that supposedly connects us all but, in my view, makes us lonelier. This is coming from a tech guy.
"Who is this girl?"
I hear a fox barking.
"Are you guys outside? Do they have foxes in the city?"
"We're at our country house, darling," Gram replies.
Gramps mutters something in Mandarin Chinese I can't catch.
It sounds like he's saying, "It's not time yet."
Since when does Gramps speak Mandarin? And who is he speaking to, exactly?
Is that a monkey I hear?
"Are you guys at the zoo?" I ask.
The monkey laughs and the fox growls. If I didn't know better, I'd swear the fox sounds offended. Now, suddenly, I have that song from years ago stuck in my head. "What Does the Fox Say?"
"We'll have to call you back, dear," Gram says. "But this conversation isn't over."
CLICK.
* * * * *
OW.
I feel Daji's perfect nails scratching me. "Where did you go?"
I re-focus. "Did my grandparents want us to be together?"
Her eyes widen. "What a question to ask right now!"
"Answer me, or I'm going to drive you out of your mind with pleasure, take you right to the edge, and then leave you hanging."
She laughs, amused. "Promises, promises."
Unbelievable! She's not even intimidated. Then again, maybe her edge is farther out than most people's.
I lick her thigh and nip the tender flesh. A shudder shows she likes that. I keep teasing and tormenting her there, leaving love bites all over. I grab her hands and push them above her head. "Keep them there until I say so."
Her eyes look dreamy and hazy. "Whatever you wish, lover."
She's so beautiful, spread out for me like this on the pure while sheets, her lips red and swollen with my kisses. Her long black hair fans out, and she looks like a literal goddess. A work of art. I wonder if any of the Italian Renaissance painters ever painted a Chinese goddess like this. I'll have to do some research.
I kiss up and down her legs, enjoying how responsive she is.
"Are you going to tell me?"
"Does it matter? We're mated."
"It matters very much, because the last time my grandparents and I discussed my love life, my grandfather was speaking Mandarin to someone, and you and your uncle were in the background. A fox barking and a monkey laughing."
In one smooth thrust, I take her completely, and she just smiles at me, as if I've given her everything she ever wanted.
I move on her. God, she's perfect. She's everything I ever wanted. Gram was right—again. The question is, did she set us up? Or plan to set us up? Maybe it doesn't matter, but I really want to know. Maybe to put Daji in one of those boxes Gram talked about.
Daji blows up every box I can invent. She'd put me in a box full of snakes. Or a box full of everything I ever wanted. Or a box of my nightmares. There's no predicting her. She might be my secretary and know every fact in this place, but she's also a sensual, warm woman who, right now, has me at her mercy even while she encourages me to be the big man, the Alpha to her omega or whatever.
She's warm and hot and wet and it feels like I've come home. With every motion, I'm coming home. I am home. This place, this inn, is home.
"Answer me," I order, pausing on top of her. "This is important. Are you the one Gram wanted me to be with? And did I miss my chance to know about all of this six months ago, while they were still alive, and I could ask questions?"
I pause, waiting for an answer.
Our eyes lock, and I see that she knows I'm not running away this time. No matter what she says, I'm not going to run.
"You remind me of the Chinese general Su Wu. He wrote about being parted from his wife after they died. They would go on thinking of each other, in his mind. He wanted her to enjoy the spring flowers but think of this love for her. Yes, you had a choice. Absolutely. Your grandparents wanted us to meet, that's it. And we have … and I botched it . Or nearly."
"Yeah, but you saying it was my choice and meaning it backs up what my grandparents thought. That's how they were."
She does something to me, an erotic move, that makes my eyes roll back in my head.
"I'm yours tonight. Yours forever. I want you to make me scream, so loud that Thor drops his hammer."
I know a dare when I hear it. This little fox goddess is going to have the time of her life. And scream in pleasure, like no deity's ever screamed before.