Free Her Tokyo Valentine Conquest: An Erotic Short Story by Samantha Egret Page B

Wow. She’d never been to a nice restaurant in Tokyo.
And if it was the place she was thinking of, it was one of the
best. She looked down at her outfit, grateful she’d worn something
sleek and professional. She wondered if he planned to treat all the
women to dinner there. It would get pretty expensive.
    It turned out the company had hired a
car to chauffer Ned between the hotel and the office. Akie simply
joined him that evening when he climbed in.
    He made small talk during the drive,
twirling the giri-choco between his fingers. “So I understand
you’re from my neck of the woods?”
    Akie nodded. “Yep, I grew up off
Sawtelle on the Westside of L.A.. My whole family’s
there.”
    “ How long have you been in
Tokyo?”
    “ A little over four years
now. I like it. It’s a culture shock, but still it’s kinda nice to
get back to my roots, so to speak. I’d never been to Japan before
this. We just never had enough money saved to make the trip.” She
glanced out the window. Sure enough, they were headed toward the
Park Hyatt. Turning back to Ned, she said, “I don’t remember seeing
you before this.”
    “ Suzette always made the
trip.” Ned was referring to the Los Angeles Director of
International Accounts, who had just quit two months
before.
    “ Oh, yeah—I met her. She
was…very driven.”
    He smiled. “She was one of the best.
But, unfortunately—things didn’t work out with her staff. You could
say it was a…fit issue.”
    Akie winked. She’d heard rumors about
how Suzette would hook up with her young male employees, disposing
of them when they’d run their course. She gave a knowing glance to
Ned. “Ah—gotcha. Is he still working for Unchained?” she asked,
referring to this latest of Suzette’s conquests.
    “ Of course! I recently
promoted him. He’s one of the best, too.”
    Akie knew that it was just
a hazard of any business: being a woman that is trumped by a man.
She thought about that Suzette chick. She was scary. And a man had
even gotten the best of her .
    It was the reason Akie hadn’t gotten
involved with anyone at the Tokyo office, the reason there would be
no romantic honmei-choco this or any year. She’d not been prepared
to play all-stakes like that. It was just too messy. The good thing
about Ned was that he was only here for the week: no possible way
that it could get complicated.
    The restaurant was on the
52 nd floor and had an amazing view. Ned had somehow scored a
window seat, and Akie sat there, entranced, as he poured her glass
after glass of wine and she absentmindedly drank. She could barely
remember what she ate. She had always been a light drinker and
could feel herself getting flushed.
    Ned raised an eyebrow at her. “You
know, you look pretty stunning with your pink lips and flushed
cheeks. I’ll bet you get taken out to dinner like this all the
time.”
    “ No way,” said Akie. “I
think I’m too American for the men here.”
    “ Your height?”
    “ No, not that, although
it’s just a physical manifestation of what makes me different from
the ideal. You know, I’m here to win. I’m here to be a success at
my job, not to support the men. I want power as much as they do.
And my height isn’t the only reason I don’t look up at them. I’m
big and boisterous and cunning—and it intimidates the shit out of
them. Of course, they wouldn’t admit it, not for a second. But the
end result is that I don’t have much of a dating life,
either.”
    “ Their loss,” countered
Ned, grinning, “My gain.”
    The night moved in fast-forward after
that, and before she knew it he was asking her if she wanted to see
the view from his room. She guessed, in her drunken state, that it
couldn’t hurt.
    He ushered her into his darkened
suite. She reached for the switch, but he said, “No, let’s keep it
off. You can see the view better that way.”
    Akie looked back and nodded. Still
flushed, she fanned herself with her hand. “Hot in
here.”
    Ned reached