-Chapter 16: Dangerous Temptation
"Poppy, I'll be coming to the CR soon so please arrange for the Riders there to get ready to do some simulations. I need more data," Dan says casually as I pick up my coffee. I need all of this coffee because having him know I stole his stuff and him being that mystery rider has officially killed my chances of sleeping well last night.
"Okay, I will get them ready!"
"Kara, please hurry up and drink your hot beverage because I'm going to be using that table," Dan tells me, his voice sounding super stern.
I have a feeling that he doesn't really like me right now. That's okay, I don't really like him either. No matter how hot he is, I see him as a huge jerk who hates my guts and is super rich and very arrogant.
I turn away from the screen, taking a sip of my coffee. "Whatever, douchebag."
"I'll be there shortly." He ends the video chat and I stand up, taking another sip of my delicious French Vanilla coffee. No one is going to keep me here at all. I don't want to stay here once he shows up. Especially after what he did to me.
"Huh? Where are you going?" Poppy asks me, rushing to my side. "You can't just leave before he gets here! You should help me out and get this place organized."
I look at her harshly. "I am pretty sure it is organized in here. Look around."
She looks around. "But I don't want to be alone with Hiiro!"
"What is wrong with being alone with Hiiro?" I ask her, crossing my arms. Sure, he can be insensitive and rude but he's a good guy deep down inside his cold, dark heart.
"He's mean!"
"Poppy, chill." I take another sip of my coffee and move forward, stopping at the door as it opens. Hiiro steps in, walking beside Emu. When did he become buddy-buddy with Emu?
"Kara, what is going on down here? Why does Poppy look like her life is going to be over?" Emu asks me, staring straight at Poppy.
"Kuroto Dan is coming here to do some simulations. He suggested that I should go back to work and do my rounds," I say, lying to him.
"Poppy, did he really say that to her?" Hiiro asks sternly.
Poppy, don't do this. "He didn't say that at all! I don't even know why she wants to leave in the first place," Poppy tells Hiiro, answering his question honestly.
Hiiro looks at me. "Since you want to get away so bad, you have to stay. You are off today and you can deal with it," Hiiro states, moving pass me and going over to the table.
"He's rude! He told me to hurry up with drinking my coffee!"
"Kara, you don't need to have any coffee."
"I didn't sleep well last night and I need my energy. You know how it is when I barely get sleep." He should remember it. It was a nightmare.
"I don't care." Rude.
"Fine, whatever. I'll stay but it will be until he gets here. I really don't want to be in the same room as him," I mutter out and I move close to the way and lean against it, taking another sip of my coffee. A nice, long sip.
"What did you say?" Hiiro asks.
"Nothing." Absolutely nothing.
I pull out my cell phone and unlock the screen. I scroll through my contacts, looking for Miyuki's name. There it is! I press on her name and click the green phone, starting my call.
"Hello, what is it?" Miyuki asks me, sounding like she's about to giggle.
"Are you laughing?"
"Sorry, I just ran into Taiga and he called me a tick. I thought it was cute," she answers, giggling a bit. Someone is speaking in the background. I'm assuming that she is with Taiga still. "Anyways, what do you need?"
"Is there a way you can do me a favor? It has to do with your father." I look over at Emu as he sits down, watching everyone else in the CR.
"What do you need?"
"Miyuki, I want you to delay him from coming here," I answer. "I don't want him to show up at all. If he does, he's going to torture me."
"I don't think that I can do that."
"Why not? I need this!"
She laughs. "Because I can't mess around with that. Then he'll know something is up and that will be bad for both me and you, silly! Kara, you're just going to have to deal with him. I doubt he has done something so horrible to you so far. He's a good man."
"Yeah, sure..." I look down, staring at my shoes. "I'm going to let you go now. I don't want to be on the phone for a long time because I have other bills that I rather pay."
"You don't have to pay to call me."
"Bye!" I hang up and sigh heavily. I don't want to be near the man who is hurting everyone here and leading them on. This is the worst thing I can keep from the man I love and the people I care about.
I look at Hiiro as he looks at me, our eyes connecting. How come he is always staring me straight in the eyes? Maybe he is trying to scare me into revealing something. Like maybe how much I still love him despite not wanting to exactly?
"What are you doing?"
"I was talking to Miyuki about something personal. Don't worry about it," I answer, shoving my cell phone into my pocket. I lift my coffee back to my lips and take a long sip of it. It is going to be a horribly long day once Dan gets here.
The door opens and Mr. Kagami steps in, holding a box. Did he just enter with something that Hiiro can eat? I bet it is some sort of cake!
"Hey, what is going on everyone? What are you doing down here?" Mr. Kagami asks us curiously, looking at me. "Hey, Kara! I see you're having some coffee. You could have asked me to put some on. I make really good coffee. You can ask anyone here."
"We're down here because Kuroto is coming to see everyone," I answer. "He is going to do some simulations. Isn't it wonderful that he is going to do that?" I am using sarcasm right now.
"Yeah, that is great."
"Dad, she's using sarcasm," Hiiro says, pointing out my tone of voice. "She doesn't like him."
"Why don't you like him? He's a good person and is very helpful to us here at the CR!" Mr. Kagami looks at me in confusion. How can anyone like him at all? He's a total douchebag!
I look away, taking my bottom lip in between my teeth. How do I even explain this? I can't come out and say that he's the black rider that is horrible to everyone and keeps them from doing things to the Bugsters. Not just that, he's using them for his own personal gain.
"Uh...it isn't anything important. I just don't like people like him," I tell him, giving him an answer. "I just don't like people who have a certain aura about them. You know, the rich kind? I bet he throws money in the air and bathes in money."
"Well, let us get ready for him to arrive. I'll put this cake away. Uh...Kara? You should keep those money thoughts to yourself."
Hiiro stands up. "No, we should have some. I need some energy anyways."
~.~
Dan steps into the CR, wearing one of his many usual suits. How does he own so many? He needs to learn how to dress up in something different and much more flattering.
"I see that you are still drinking your hot beverage," he says, staring me down. "Can I have a sip of it or does that bother you way too much?" He's teasing me isn't he? Is it because of how I acted after he forcefully kissed me?
"No, I don't share." I stick out my tongue and move away from him, going beside Hiiro. He's going to keep me safe.
Hiiro looks at me, same old expression as usual. "Why are you moving so close to me? Is something wrong with being around him?"
"I don't like being around rich jerks," I state, answering his question. "Besides, I can smell the arrogance in the air around him. It was suffocating me."
Hiiro rolls his eyes slightly and looks away from me. "Whatever you say, Kara." Sometimes he doesn't act cold towards me. Like when he's jealous of other guys.
"So, you want me to be near him? Because I can totally do that," I tell him, smirking.
He glares at me. "No, you can stay here." He's trying to keep an eye on me isn't he?
"Okay."
Dan moves over to us and looks me in the eyes. "Kara, I'm going to need you to assist me during this. I will have you help me arrange the system so I can put them in the simulation. I'm going to be doing a multiplayer simulation for them. Hiiro will be working with Emu in this. Yes, I will be recording this."
"You're actually going to record it this time?" Hiiro asks him coldly and Dan nods his head. "Why couldn't you record me facing the other rider? And why wasn't it put on hard? You placed it on easy." Because he's the other Rider and he probably doesn't want you knowing how powerful he is.
"I did it for your own good." That's true. He did. Wait...when did this simulation even happen?
I look at Dan, glaring at him. "Are you going to record it for some special reason? Like knowing how they fight or something?"
"It'll help me with making future gashats they can use to fight the Bugsters. Kara, I thought you would understand how useful this would be but I guess I was wrong." He looks at me with a disappointed look on his face. BS! He probably has no feelings with how he treats the others and how he lies to them so easily.
"Oh, I do understand." In more ways than the others know.
"I'm glad you do. Now please, come with me so we can get this ready." He holds up a briefcase.
"Do I have to help you?"
"Do you work here?"
I nod. "Yeah, you know I do."
"That is your answer then." He turns away, heading towards the room where the patients go.
I look at Hiiro and point at Dan. "I'm going to follow him now."
"Alright."
I follow Dan into the patient's room and he places the briefcase down on the bed. He opens it up and pulls out a few things, which I assume are the things needed for the simulation. How does he even come up with this stuff? He must be really, really smart because I wouldn't have thought of such a thing if I was in his shoes. Not that I want to be in his shoes.
I move over to his side, keeping some distance between us. I don't want to be too close to him after the other day. I lift my coffee up to my lips and take another sip of the warm, delicious liquid. I just love drinking coffee! It is so perfect. Wait...back to what we're supposed to be doing!
"How come you're staying so silent?" he asks me.
"How come you're pretending that you're so stupid all of the sudden?" I retort, not looking at him. I refuse to look at him while we're alone.
"What do you mean, Kara? I'm not pretending that I'm stupid. I really don't know what is going on between us," he answers, his voice all calm and collect sounding. He's a good actor but then again, he's one of those people who can blend in with regular people like me.
"I hate you so much right now..." I move over to the side and place my cup down on the ground. I am going to have to be apart from my previous coffee for a few. My poor love!
"What are you going on about right now?" He plugs in the stuff in his hands into the system that would normally hook up to the patient. Well, something like that at least. I don't understand how this stuff works.
"Nothing, don't worry about what I'm talking about. Just keep doing whatever you're doing," I tell him, moving over to the other side of the bed. I place my shoulders on it and bend over it, staring at the system he just hooked up. "So, how does this work?"
"I'll insert the gashat into this and I'll start the simulation once they have their glasses on for it. It'll put them in a virtual world to have them fight the Bugsters. It is a good way to teach them how to fight them. Bugsters can be really powerful."
"How about you? Are you powerful?"
"I'm a powerful man, you know that personally." He is right. I do know that firsthand with my near game over.
"Dan, did you pretend to care for my problems?" Why did I just ask that? Am I seriously that stupid? I don't want to sound like I care for what he cares about!
"I wasn't pretending. I'm interested in how you were able to be with him." What is that supposed to mean? "I don't even know why you would waste time on him when you can be with someone who is a lot better for you. You need to be with someone who actually pays attention to you because in the relationship you had with him, it was purely all you."
"Why are you judging something you don't really know about? Were you with us in the United States? Do you know everything that happened?"
"No, I don't care to know about that. Like I care that much for your life with him."
"You acted like you were interested."
"Because I'm interested in how you are able to tolerate someone treating you so badly all the time. You're like those clueless girls in dramas. You remind me of one of the main characters in one with how you just take it and keep going after the person no matter what. Even when you give up on doing it, you still do it. You just do openly do it."
"I don't act like that."
"Then how do you act?"
"I..."
"Thought so."
I look at him, giving up on not looking at him. "Why are you treating me like I'm crap? Are you trying to prove my point or something? Are you trying to find out if I enjoy being treated a certain way? I don't just so you know, okay? I want to be treated like a Princess."
"Like how I paid for some clothes for you? Is that what you want?"
"You only do things to seem like an angel to people."
"I do things because I have to do them. Much like you do. You have your reasons for hanging around the Bugsters, right?" His voice is so silent and so harsh. Like a razor blade.
"Don't you dare claim that, Okay?"
"But it is true, right?"
I glare at him. "Kuroto, I am telling to stop saying those kinds of things. I do what I want and you have no reason to bother me about what I do. I'm not sitting there and making people get infected only to accomplish what I want to accomplish."
"But you have used them to get what you wanted, right? Remember?"
"Oh, I remember."
"Now, stop talking about things openly. Someone could easily walk in and overhear our conversation."
"Whatever..." He started it anyways.
He moves over to my side of the bed and I remove myself from bending over the bed. "You should have kept that position. I was enjoying it actually. I was picturing all the things I could do to you in order to punish you for taking what is mine." What does he mean?
I tilt my head a bit, looking up at him in confusion. "Huh?"
"You don't get what I'm implying," he states, not asking me if I do. What can he possibly mean? Is he talking about torturing me? "You really are clueless. No wonder why you didn't end up getting married. You don't get anything that is said to you."
"What are you trying to imply?" I really have no idea what he is trying to say to me. Is it something that is secretive or what?
"Kara, you are extremely clueless." He leans in towards me a bit, bringing his face close to mine. "I'll have to tell you every detail it seems."
"I'm still not getting it."
"That is fine." He smiles, looking smug.
I lift a hand to his face and push it away, trying to keep his face away from mine. I'm not going to allow Mr. Holier-than-thou get too close to me. I don't want him or his soft lips anywhere near me.
"Is something wrong, Kara?" He is acting like everything is all good right now when he is so close to me! How can someone do that at all?
"This isn't right..." I look away, my face getting hot.
He grabs my wrist, pulling my hand to the side and getting even closer. "You're turning extremely red right now," he states, pointing out what I already know. I mean, I can feel it.
"I....I...I don't feel good," I mutter out, stepping a bit backwards. My back bumps against the bed and he closes the space between us, our bodies pretty much touching.
"What did you say?"
"I don't feel so good."
He lets my wrist go and places his hands on the sides of me, against the bed. He is keeping me stuck in this position. How come he wants to do that? Unless...
"I'm sure I can make you feel better, AOE," he says, using my Kamen Rider name. He needs to keep his mouth shut or someone is going to hear what he is talking about. Also, why does he sound like a typical straight white guy texting right now?
"Uh...are you going to add a winky face to the end of your sentence?" I ask him, trying not to laugh. Gosh, that sounds hilarious out-loud.
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, nothing." I need to look up that website later so I can have a few laughs.
He smiles. "Good." He moves closer to my face and stops before he can reach my lips, leaving a tiny bit of space between us.
I look at his soft, nice lips. Gosh, I am so lucky to have kissed him at least once. Despite it being against my own will. Or was it? Did I enjoy getting kissed by him? I mean, it wasn't bad. He's experienced compared to Hiiro and Parad.
"What are you thinking about right now? You look so entranced by something," he states, snapping me out of my own thoughts.
My eyes leave his lips and go to his dark, enchanting eyes. "Huh?"
"I know what you're thinking about right now. You're thinking about how that kiss was compared to the others you have kissed. How many guys have you kissed, Kara?"
"Why do you assume that I have kissed only guys?"
"Because I know what you like and it isn't girls."
"Oh...right..." How would he know that for sure?
"So, am I better than the others?"
"You kissed me forcefully so I can't compare how it was."
"Oh, you can." His breath is hitting my face right now and he smells so good. He probably shoved a ton of mints into his mouth just to have this moment with me. I probably smell like coffee.
"It was against my will."
"Tell that to the look on your face when you're with me. You're completely and utterly into me and you just won't admit to it. Is it because you want someone else right now?"
Do I want someone else right now? Besides Hiiro, I think I want Parad. Parad is wonderful and everything I want in a man. Minus the fact he's a Bugster but that doesn't really mean anything. I like Parad because he is who he is.
"No..."
"You're lying once again."
"Okay, I am but still."
"Who is this guy? Is he a Bugster?"
"Why would you assume that?"
"You obviously hang out with them. I just took a random guess."
I swallow hard. "No...it isn't a Bugster."
"Still lying to me."
"How would you know?"
"I can read you so well."
I take a deep breath, inhaling his scent. What is his scent? Oh, I think I know what it is. Misery and despair and complete, utter arrogance.
"Are you okay?" he asks, his voice cold much like his heart. If he can lie to the others and the Ministry of Health, what can he do to me?
"I'm fine." No, I'm going completely insane right now. My heart is beating way out of control, my face is hot, and I feel like I'm going to pass out or throw up.
"No."
"No?"
"You're stressing out right now." How can he know these things? Does he have mind reading powers? Is he magical? Or...he's a Bugster?
I lick my lips, trying to think of something intelligent to say. I got nothing right now. He's obviously just going to keep guessing what is going on with me. I keep showing it on my face despite the fact I'm such a good actress. What is wrong with me when I'm with him?
"Do you know what I meant earlier now? Do you know what I was talking about?" he asks.
"N-No."
"I can tell that you don't. How about I show you a bit right now?"
I shake my head a bit, trying not to accidentally bump into his head. "No thanks."
"I know you were staring straight at my lips. Do you want them again?"
"I don't want you at all. Why can't you understand that? No means no."
"Okay, tell me what you want from me then."
"To go away." If I could, I would force a kiss on him and make him feel horrible about it. Well, he may not feel horrible about anything at all. He has been trying to kill the others for some time it seems.
"Hmm...sure."
I move closer to him and place my lips against his, kissing him gently. What in the world am I doing? Is he right about me wanting him? Do I want him subconsciously despite not liking him? Curse him and his good looks! Why should I be kissing someone so horrible?
He kisses me back, adding his tongue into the mix. He moves a hand to my side and squeezes it gently, causing me to jump up a bit. I hate it when people do that to my side.
I pull away from him. I just gave into temptation. The sweet seduction of a dangerous man has gotten me to kiss someone I shouldn't even be kissing.
"What's wrong?" Dan asks me as I place my hands on his chest. I shove him back and move away from him. I need to go.
I grab my coffee cup off the ground and rush towards the door as it opens. Hiiro enters and I move pass him, going to the exit of the CR. I need to go.
"Where in the world are you going, Kara?" Hiiro asks me, his voice completely raised.
I need to seriously get out of here.