Chapter 5: Secretive Angel
“HOW do I look, Shindo?” Satsuki’s voice came out slightly more abashed than usual. She glanced over her shoulder to meet Shindo with a bashful expression coloring her features.
“Breathtaking,” Shindo answered. He unfurled the silk shawl in hand as he drew closer to Satsuki and hid the porcelain skin left exposed by the plunging neckline with the flimsy yet dependable piece of thin cloth. “I’m sure the guests will be stunned speechless.”
Satsuki always wore dresses that covered her neck. Even in the summer, her skirts went down to her calves.
Ever since she was a small child, Shindo strictly admonished her, “It would be unseemly for a lady of your stature to unduly expose yourself, Miss.” And thus, Satsuki grew up adhering to a stricter than usual dress code depending on the event she was attending.
But last night, the very man who taught her it was “unseemly” to expose her flesh spent an evening with Satsuki flaunting their nakedness before each other. And thus, the two made love in the greenhouse under the wisteria until dawn.
“It’s a little embarrassing,” Satsuki said as she lightly pulled the shawl that concealed her mostly bare shoulders toward her cleavage.
Shindo slipped behind Satsuki and carefully guided her long hair from under the shawl as he said, “But you truly do look stunning. After all, you are my Miss. It’s only natural for you to be beautiful.”
Satsuki’s eighteenth birthday was today. The party would start in the evening. Although there was still plenty of time before the guests would arrive, Satsuki returned to her room after finishing lunch to try on the dress she was supposed to wear.
Shindo chose this dress from a portfolio of party dresses put together by Satsuki’s personal designer. Once she turned twenty, it would become the norm for her to wear evening gowns at parties.
“Maybe I should have gone with a different dress after all,” Shindo remarked as he gently combed Satsuki’s hair over the shawl with his fingers, making her heart skip a beat.
“Oh... So I don’t look good?”
In contrast to the pale dresses she always wore, this was a wine-red dress. While not as revealing as an evening dress, the scoop neckline was more than enough to make Satsuki look like a whole different person. She had never worn a dress that plummeted lower than her collarbone before this.
“No, as I said before, you look wonderful in it. You truly are beautiful,” Shindo said, placing his hands on her shoulders and resting his cheek on top of her head. “But...the idea I have to let all those guests see you looking so lovely kills me.”
“...Shindo.”
“No matter what, please don’t remove this shawl. The thought of another man ogling your ivory skin...is more than I can bear,” he continued, the sound of his impassioned voice reverberating through her head.
“Were you always this possessive...Shindo?” Satsuki teased lightheartedly. She leaned her head back, resting against Shindo.
“I have been ever since last night,” he answered.
She could still summon forth the memory of how Shindo’s body felt and the path his hands tread “last night.”
“The wisteria...taught me,” he continued. His hands slipped from Satsuki’s shoulders and slid under her arms. When he folded his hands over her abdomen, Satsuki rested her own hands above his and twisted to look up at him over her shoulder.
“I don’t want anyone other than you, either...”
Shindo brought his head down toward her, and the two kissed. In a shower of kisses, Shindo eased in front of Satsuki and wrapped his arms around her anew. He fully relished the sensation of her lips as they moved their heads, shifting the angles of their lips. They kissed so fervently, it almost seemed to indicate that the countless kisses throughout the previous night were nowhere near enough.
“Please wear your hair down...” Shindo whispered.
“Why?” Satsuki asked softly as if in a dream.
“...I’m afraid there is evidence of my devilry.” The whisper that slipped from lips only inches away from Satsuki sounded as if it was admonishing those very lips as he confessed in a breathless voice.
Shindo traced his fingers around the edges of Satsuki’s left ear, stroking the back of the earlobe time and again as he whispered, “I didn’t think I got that rough with you... I’m sorry.”
Behind her ear was a slightly red mark reminiscent of a wisteria petal from when Shindo sucked a little too hard. Her skin was so soft and fair, it didn’t take much from him to leave a vivid hickey. Aware of the traumatic events Satsuki suffered at school recently, Shindo strived to be as gentle with her as possible, but he couldn’t consciously keep himself in check the whole time. Once he was lost in the throes of passion, it was only natural for him to be overtaken by the desire to touch her. He was releasing years’ worth of pent up emotions, after all.
“It’s fine,” Satsuki dismissed with an embarrassed smile and placed her hand over Shindo’s fingers to put an end to their toying with her left ear. “I enjoyed it.”
With that, they kissed again. They had to enjoy these moments while they still could.
✦ ✦ ✦
SATSUKI’S birthday party was held in the banquet hall on the first floor of Tsujikawa mansion. Frequently used for parties and assemblies, it could hold up to 500 guests. Originally about half this size, an expansion was added to double the floorspace before Satsuki was born. Tsubaki said she wanted to hold gatherings for their daughter at the mansion, so Tsukasa humored her.
After presenting her welcoming speech before all the guests, Satsuki was crowded by a throng of business associates and school acquaintances wanting to wish her a happy birthday. The string quartet began playing while her hands were full entertaining the guests.
Meeting her suitors was certainly important, but Satsuki was already run ragged entertaining her guests this evening. Seeing as some of her classmates were also present, she wanted to enjoy some girl’s talk with others her own age. Out of fatherly love and care for his birthday girl, Tsukasa set the boundary with her four suitors to “Limit your interactions to only formal introductions today.” Not that it stopped Takemi. With everyone distracted by the musicians, Satsuki was brought before her suitors.
All the suitors sought to shake her hand, offer empty compliments with fake smiles, and gloss over their own shortcomings.
It was important to make a good first impression. With roughly ten years between them in age, these men were accustomed to manipulating others. They put on their best smiles and strived to curry her favor.
“Happy birthday, Miss Satsuki.”
For a second, Satsuki didn’t recognize this man.
“I never dreamed I would have the honor to be invited to your birthday party,” he said in an overall polite, sophisticated manner. “Let alone as one of your suitors.”
The man bent at the waist as he knelt before Satsuki. With his left hand on his knee and his right hand over his heart, he slightly lowered his head. He managed to get under her skin by intentionally copying Shindo with a pose that represented subservience.
“It is a great honor,” the man went on, narrowing his eyes as his handsome face beamed with a smile. Actually, he was eighteen, just like Satsuki. Still young enough to be referred to as a “young man,” the aura emanating from Takemi Kaido was far too mature for anyone to think of him as “young.”
Takemi had dropped to one knee despite wearing a fine tuxedo. He made it seem as if that was the natural, proper way to greet her.
Takemi’s time spent in America wasn’t for nothing. Most Japanese men would make that greeting look painfully awkward if they attempted such a feat. But it didn’t seem forced with him. Much like Shindo, it came to him like second nature. He looked like a true gentleman, not giving so much as a hint he was the same person who said and did all those crass things just the other day. He pulled it off with such perfection, it outright unnerved the other three suitors.
To top it off, Takemi broke Tsukasa’s instructions to “Limit your interactions to only formal introductions today,” and had the nerve to personally invite Satsuki to the terrace. Of course, he first had a brief exchange with Shindo, who was waiting on Satsuki only a short distance off.
“Give us as much space as you possibly can. I’d be too afraid to chat with Miss Satsuki with her wannabe-bodyguard breathing down my neck,” he jeered. Needless to say, he was hardly the type of man to let Shindo’s presence bother him.