5. Chapter Five
Chapter Five
Yukiko was waiting for me when I got to the bedroom.
In the short time I’d been alone downstairs, she’d managed to discard her clothes and shimmy into one of the silk kimonos her mother had bought all of my wives as a housewarming present.
Kiki’s was black with little pink cherry blossoms woven through it, tied loosely in the front so that the fabric didn’t interfere with her bulging belly.
The twins were riding even lower than usual tonight; so much so that I saw her strain when she’d been cross-legged at the foot of the bed earlier.
She smiled as I closed the bedroom door behind me. “Good evening, husband,” she said, her hand resting on the swell of her stomach. “Feels like forever since we’ve had this big bed all to ourselves, doesn’t it?”
Her tone of voice might have fooled a less-perceptive man.
I could be remarkably thick where some things were concerned, but never my princess’s needs.
Yukiko was not a shy woman. She practically ran the Avery Company.
She was not the sort of person to tiptoe around an issue with a long preamble—which meant something was definitely up.
“Okay,” I said carefully, sliding off my shoes. “I’m listening.”
Kiki made a face. “Hmm?”
I let out a little laugh. “Princess, I love you more than life itself,” I told her, unbuttoning my dress shirt as I made my way to the bed.
“But that voice does not become you at all. You sounded like you were about to start an impromptu therapy session, not welcome me into our marital bed.” I climbed onto the mattress.
“That voice is for our clients, not me.”
Her smile froze. “I’m that obvious?”
Another chuckle. “Not with anybody else,” I said, pulling the blanket over me.
I watched her gaze travel towards the dress shirt I’d tucked away, as if weighing whether it were worth it to trade her kimono for it.
Kiki did love nothing more than curling up in one of my shirts after a long day.
She once confessed the smell made her feel safe.
“But I’m not so easily fooled, princess. ”
With an effort, Yukiko rolled onto one hip. It pulled the hem of the kimono up enough for me to notice she wasn’t wearing anything underneath of it. “It’s funny you should bring up therapy…”
Hmm? “Is this about Samantha?”
Her expression told me I’d guessed wrong. “No. It’s… it’s about Yui. About Mom.”
My heart jumped into my throat. “Is she alright? If something’s wrong—”
“Nothing like that,” Kiki hastened to explain. “She’s fine. Better than fine, honestly. She fits in so much better here than I expected. I’m really, really glad we’ve got her under our roof. Especially with everything that’s been going on.”
I nodded. “I’m happy she’s here, too.”
Kiki gave me a long look, like she was probing my words for hidden motives.
“You really don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
She took a second. “This morning. In the kitchen.” She stared at me the way she stared at a spreadsheet when she was trying to find the error in it. “When we were talking with my mom. You didn’t feel it?”
“Feel...?”
My mouth closed.
And a whole number of things that had been happening over the last few days suddenly made a great deal more sense than they had before.
A mad little giggle spilled from my princess’s lips.
“God, I love it when you get that look on your face,” she said, reaching out and running a finger along the stubble on my jaw.
“It’s like when we were on the plane to our honeymoon and you realized that the Avery Company’s org chart and a picture of our harem was really the same picture—"
“Kiki.”
Yukiko’s mouth closed. “I’m not making fun,” she said, meaning it. “I just… I kind of expected you to figure it out before now.”
“I had a whole day, princess. Caroline in cuffs, Sam on the kitchen floor. I wasn’t exactly at my sharpest when your mother and I exchanged words.
” I paused. “And you made your feelings on the matter perfectly clear. When you did that, I more or less stopped thinking of Yui outside of a therapeutic context.”
Yukiko nodded, slowly. “I think she wants you to think of her as a mother-in-law before a therapist,” she said, trying for a bit of humor.
“There have been signs. It’s just that neither of us has been so blatant about it.
Not until this morning.” She let out a sigh.
“It’s been sitting on my chest like a stone all day, even with everything that’s happening with Sam and Caroline. ”
“Which is why you asked the other wives to give you the bed tonight.”
She didn’t deny it. “We need to talk about it,” she said with a shrug. “I need to say it out loud, and then… then we need to have a conversation. Potentially, a pretty uncomfortable one.” She paused. "Is that okay? I know today has been a fucking trial…”
I scooted closer. A moment later, Kiki was in my arms.
She rolled into me with a whimper, relaxing into my touch.
One hand went to her lower back, even as I made note of how much I had to adjust for both of us to be comfortable.
It won’t be long before we might have to start looking into alternate sleeping arrangements, a logical little part of my brain thought.
Then I stopped thinking about anything other than my head wife.
“If it were anyone else, princess, I’d say no,” I told her, running the fingers of my free hand through her hair. “But I have never had too busy of a day for you.” My other hand squeezed. "And you know what the best part is?”
She glanced up from my throat, where she’d been sniffing my cologne. “What’s that?”
“We can tell each other anything,” I said, meaning it. “I’m more comfortable talking to you than I am to my actual therapist, princess. And my therapist happens to be your mother…”
Kiki laughed at that. “Same. Okay, stop touching me for a second—I won’t be able to concentrate otherwise. I’ve got to get this off my chest.”
I rolled away a few degrees. “Go for it.”
Kiki took a moment to compose herself. “I’m not blind,” she said, the corner of her mouth curling in a smirk.
“And, despite the pregnancy hormones, I am far from stupid. I know how my mother feels about you. She’s felt this way about you for a while, I can tell—but the divorce turbo-charged it.
It revved her up like your freaking McLaren. ”
“She does love that car,” I said dryly.
“I’m serious,” Yukiko said. “This is a known thing. We’ve talked about it.”
“I can only imagine how those conversations have gone.”
“They’ve been… awkward,” Yukiko admitted, glancing to the side.
“I mean, can you imagine? Obviously we would have to stay completely in our own spheres, always. Whatever happened between you and her I would only ever hear about second-hand. And the rest of the group… I mean, they look up to her. They’d all have opinions, and you and I both know they won’t feel the slightest bit of hesitation to express them at every opportunity—”
“Woah,” I said, holding up a hand. “Slow down, princess. You’re putting the cart way ahead of the horse right now.”
Kiki’s mouth snapped shut. “Sorry, you’re right,” she said. “I’m just a planner. You know I’m always trying to think ten steps down the road.”
She was. And on the surface, at least, Yukiko was talking about this in a calm, reasonable manner. Almost like she was considering a business proposal, rather than whether or not to let her own mother share my bed.
But I’d shared a bed with Yukiko for over a year now, and I knew what it looked like when her composure was a lid she was desperately trying to keep closed over top of something trying to boil over.
Her shoulders rose and fell rapidly. There was a faint sheen of sweat on her forehead.
Spots of color rose to her cheeks that had nothing to do with how forcefully she was making her point.
It reminded me of the other night when she’d been our designated driver. Squirming in her seat, so turned on she could hardly think straight, sneaking glances at Marcie, Lakshmi and Tasha in the rearview mirror as I pounded each of them into the backseat of Maria’s SUV.
Kiki was nowhere near as pragmatic as she pretended to be.
“Do you need to take a break, princess?” I asked mildly.
Yukiko knew she’d been caught. She closed her eyes for a moment, calming down with a visible effort.
“My mother wants you,” she said, the words coming out about as businesslike as she could make them.
“She’s too disciplined to ever act on it without both mine and your permission, but acting and wanting are two very different things.
” She blew a lock of hair away from her face.
“And this morning—in our freaking kitchen, with Samantha falling apart six feet away—neither of us could stop ourselves from taking a second to feel you out about it.” She put a hand over her eyes. “We’re a mess, Jack.”
I could tell. I wondered how long this fact had been sitting between the two of them like the proverbial elephant in the room. I was far too tactful to actually ask, though. Besides, I had more important questions.
“I take it you want to know if this is something I would even be interested in?” I asked mildly. “You and Yui?"
Kiki took a long moment before she replied. “Yes,” she said, going very still and quiet against me. “I guess that’s the bedrock question. Do you…?”
She glanced to the side, momentarily too embarrassed to speak.
“Jesus,” she muttered. “I cannot believe I’m contemplating saying this out loud!”
“I’ll say it,” I told her.
Kiki waited.
“You want to know if I find your mother attractive.”
My princess bit her lip. “Uh huh.”
There’s a part of you that wants me to go further, I realized. That wants me to tell you that Yui makes my dick hard. That I want to bend her over the therapy couch and fuck her so hard that the whole house hears her screaming your husband’s name…
Fucking hell. Was whatever Yukiko had contagious?
Kiki’s hand trembled in mine. “Well?”
I hesitated on the brink.