1.1 | The Yakuza Bride

Chapter 35

A/N: I have decided to update twice a week instead, probably on Tuesdays and Fridays, as I've gotten busier with work and school.

~

Hana stared at her reflection in the mirror, her gaze focused on her lips. The swelling had gone down a little but it was apparent to the eye that she had sustained some form of injury on it.

'Hana...'

'Mm?' She heard the rustle of sheets, and in the mirror she could see him crawling, very naked, with the quilt around his shoulders to sit on the edge of the bed.

'What are you doing?' He wrapped the sheets around himself.

'Osuke and my brother are coming over later. I don't know what to do with this.' To emphasise her point, she waved a hand at her face. Then she turned her head this side and that side, frowning at how red and swollen her mouth was, as if she had gone for lip fillers but only on her lower lip and only at a particular spot.

His keen eyes stared back at hers in the mirror, trying to get her attention, but she ignored him as she studied the assortment of products she had lined up on her dresser. Maybe she should just leave it be. But knowing her older brother, he would have many questions for her, and her encounter with Ryan was not something she wanted to reveal to him.

Her fingers faltered over a tube of concealer as a frown creased her brow.

'Hey, what do you get when you put a radio in the fridge?' Leon asked.

'I don't know,' she mumbled distractedly. She couldn't appear like that in front of her brother, could she? He would want to know the cause of it, and she knew 'I got an injection' would not pass muster. But to dab concealer on her wound?

'Come on!' he urged. 'You know this.'

Leon rose to his feet, dragging their quilt with him, like a bedraggled Emperor on his way to inquire after his wife's lack of attention on him. He picked up a compact and began fiddling with it. After snapping it open and close countless times with a miffed expression across his features, he tossed it down.

'Are you done?' he whined.

'Go start the coffee machine or something,' she grumbled, finally deciding to apply a thin layer of balm on her lips. 'I'll be done soon.'

He stumbled back to bed, roughly tugging the quilt from his shoulders to let it fall into a heap at the end of the bed.

'And put on some clothes!' she snapped.

He sniffed, turning only his head to afford her a glance.

'Last night you liked me without it,' he muttered.

'Leon!'

'Fine,' he grumbled as he rolled out of bed again. 'I'll go start the coffee and make some scrambled eggs. You want toast?'

'Yes, please,' she chirped.

After fumbling around their closet for his things, he poked his head out again and shot her a grin.

'You might want to straighten the sheets. Wouldn't want your brother to see what we were up to, hmm?'

This time, she raised her head to his with all the attention he wanted channelled into her narrowed eyes.

'Leonidas Federov!' she screamed.

~

The first thing that Kai did when she opened the door was to do a double-take. A hesitant finger flew to his own mouth as he stared back at her.