Pater Familias

By the time I dusted the brownies with confectioner’s sugar they were almost cool enough to eat. I resisted cutting them, knowing I’d turn them into less-than-perfect squares of goo if I did. Instead I mixed up a dark chocolate syrup and drizzled it overtop the sugar. If this didn’t soothe the savage, menstrual beast, nothing would.

“You’re right.”

I looked up, startled by Sakura’s sudden entrance. She stood at the table, her eyes challenging and her hair a flaming curtain around her shoulders. “I’ve fully studied you, at least to the point of public knowledge,” she admitted. “But, that doesn’t give you the right to read my personal pages.”

Ah, here we go. A good fight. She’d sulked for nearly an hour, nursing her injury and collecting her argument.

Excellent.

I threw down my dishtowel and put the syrup on the countertop. “I suppose not,” I relented, walking toward her. “But, you weren’t going to reveal anything on your own, and if there’s anything I can’t abide, it’s a secret.” I stood before her, looking down into her stormy grey eyes. “My entire being is made to unravel knots and to pick information from obfuscation; it’s foolish to assume I’ll keep ignorant when facts present themselves.”

“So, I’m foolish?” Sakura cocked her hip at me.

“You’re far from foolish,” I said. “But, you think more of me than is wise.”

“I’m starting to think a lot less of you,” she threw back, squaring her shoulders and stepping forward to push her chest nearly against mine.

“Wonderful,” I vowed, enjoying the sight of her puffing up like peacock. “Because I’m not some beautiful hero, Sakura; I’m a recently-cured schizophrenic with lingering delusions of godhood. I can’t abide hero-worshipping, not even for myself.”

“I do not worship you,” she denied, her voice strained.

“Bullshit.” I leaned down, forcing her to look me eye to eye from a very close range. “You’re a young, idealistic woman who has somehow fixated on me as the epitome of scientific endeavor.” I drew back only slightly, watching her eyes. “It escapes me how you’ve overlooked the evil I’ve done, or the truly fantastic monsters I’m responsible for. Are you blind?”

Her lips compressed. “Science isn’t clean,” she declared. “And no, I’m not blind. I know exactly what you’ve done.”

“Then you’re suicidal instead of blind.” I grabbed her wrists and forced her hands down the table behind her. “What makes you think I won’t strap you to an examination table and explore your inner workings, hmm?” Enflamed by several weeks of watching her lovely body move around mine, I pushed her backward with my hips, leaning over her. “What made you so confident I wouldn’t decide to make an experiment out of you, my dear? You’re perfect. You’re already malleable to my will and mostly open-minded enough to do exactly what I ask you to do.”

“You just try something,” she swore, glaring up into my eyes. “My estimation of your abilities isn’t a ticket to free behavior.”

I loved seeing her spirit come out. This was the Sakura I’d met that first day; confident, rebellious and spitting fire. Here she showed the core she needed to tap into when dealing with those chauvinistic, jilted suitors. I had her physically under my control even now, but she resisted me, staring angrily up into my face with the will and indignation of a scorned gorgon.

She inflamed my blood.

I gripped her, whirling her around and pressing her to the higher countertop. She fought me briefly, her eyes widening as she realized she couldn’t budge my strength. I remained far, far mightier than any man she’d gone up against. I wouldn’t be moved.

“You think Andrews and Burnside the limit?” I asked, shoving my burgeoning erection flush to her trembling pelvis. “You think these little boy-toys the end-all, be-all of masculine boundary?” I thrust against her, watching with pure delight as her pupils dilated. “They’re children,” I breathed, leaning even closer. “Children with functional cocks and little else.”

“Hojo,” she sighed, melting into my force.

“Yes,” I whispered, leaning close to smell her delightful scent. “Professor Kanaye Hojo, mad scientist of Shin-Ra, Inc.”

She quivered in my grip, staring up at me with large, grey eyes. I tracked her, watching her one free hand move toward my chest. She spread her fingers out across my knitted silk sweater, her heat making distinct imprints upon my flesh underneath. She shuddered, feeling me and moving with my slight tremor. “Hojo,” she said again. She lifted her lips and I surrendered to temptation.

She tasted like forbidden fruit, like sin itself. I devoured her, feeling her surrender to me as my lips plundered hers. I nipped her, sensing her body shake adjacent to mine. Thrusting my tongue inside her willing mouth, I dominated her. My body heaved, spurred by her willing water against a long drought.

God, she felt like heaven, tasted like heaven, sounded like heaven.

I moved her, pushing her back and taking more, more, more. Lust consumed me, urged me ever onward toward her delicious, supple body. Too long had I waited for a willing, thirst-quenching partner. I’d had enough of her teasing loveliness, enough of her gentle and unsubtle persuasion. I pressed, feeling her give in, give way, give up. She adhered to me, wrapping one, beautiful and perfect leg around my thighs.

“Hojo,” she groaned a third time, twining her fingers in my hair.

“Sakura,” I answered, speaking against her throat. My tongue lashed out to taste her, reveling in her sweet, feminine musk.

“No,” she murmured. “Too much, too soon.”

I pulled back at once, my body screaming for more. With greatest effort I wrenched away from her. Still, I couldn’t help standing close. I felt helpless to keep from drawing near her hot, feminine body. Inhaling her scent, I mastered myself. “Forgive me,” I said, breathing her scorching, fertile perfume.

“Yes,” she answered shakily, drawing away from me just a little. “But, I can’t believe you did that.”

“Why?” I brought the back of my hand down her cheek in a light, gentle stroke.

“Because I hardly ever get what I want.” Sakura’s eyes traveled to my mouth and back up. “You wouldn’t really strap me to an examination table, would you?”

I couldn’t help chuckling. Her voice told me the idea frightened her, but her eyes revealed the truth. The thought stimulated her. She had a fair amount of kink in her personality.

Well, it stimulated me, too. I could play the doctor and patient game. In fact, playing doctor had to be more fun than actually being one.

“Not unless you want me to,” I said lowly, watching her pupils dilate. “You I’ll give the choice.”

She shivered. “You’ve done some…wicked things, haven’t you?” she asked.

“I still am.” I smiled. “But, if I told you, I suppose I really would have to strap you down.”

Again her body trembled. “I…don’t know if you’re joking or not,” she confessed. “You’ve been very good to me, Hojo, but I know some of what you’ve done.”

I realized it stirred her, thinking of what I could do to her. She probably had a few scenarios in that pretty head. Oh, the fun I’d have with her. I would make every session in the lab an entrance, an opening to her sexual stimulation. Apparently I’d already unconsciously done just that. Now I knew why she always watched me so intently.

I leaned closer, reaching behind her for the brownie pan. She didn’t know it was there and she fought to remain still during my unexpected advance. “You don’t know a tenth of what I’ve done, Sakura,” I told her. “But, I believe you know what I’m capable of; your imagination can fill in the gaps.”

The scent of her strengthened. She quivered all over as I put my face closer to her neck, inhaling her intoxicating fragrance. I felt her heat. The predator in me howled with excitement.

“I made a remedy for your cramps and irritability,” I said, showing her the dark chocolate confection.

She blushed. “How did you know?” Her brows furrowed. “Oh, the wrapper in the bathroom trash,” she said, answering her own question.

I smiled. “Sit at the table and let me cut one of these for you.” If she knew I could smell her fertility she’d probably run far away from me.

Or maybe not, considering what she already knew and her continuing nerve in my presence.


She sat and I served her, adding a little glass of coffee liquor to her fare. Any amount of alcohol seemed to give me the advantage of hearing her thoughts. “This is bitter alcohol,” I said. “It will offset the sweetness well.”

Sakura sighed with pleasure often as she consumed the large brownie. I glanced at my watch as she drank the alcohol. If things followed the way they usually did…

Holy shit. This is exactly what I needed, chocolate.

I smiled smugly to myself and took a seat across the table from her. She offered a shy little upturning of her lips.

I am such a fool for him. My lips still tingle. Would he really strap me down if I asked him?

Oh yes, I would. She didn’t have any need to ask herself that.

It’s ironic. I’ve run and run and run from abusive, good-looking guys, and I ran straight into the arms of a man popularly thought as one of the most evil in the world. Sakura chewed, looking at me, her eyes lingering on my shoulders. But, he treats me like a lady. How he would treat me if I belonged to him?

Like a queen. Like a queen that needed regular, vigorous fucking.

His pictures don’t do him justice. She drank another swallow or two of liquor. He’s a terribly scary man. I know better than to get tangled in his web. Still, I can’t help myself.

Good, I thought. I don’t want you to help yourself.

I have always wanted to meet him. I was so excited when the adjudicator took my bribe. I went to that hall of justice with snakes crawling in my gut. Then, I saw him. He stood there in that lab coat, long black hair and black eyes shining blue in the filtered light. Sakura blew out a breath. I didn’t think he’d look at me twice. I suppose if he thinks all women are beautiful…

And now I sit in his kitchen, wearing clothes he bought for me, eating a brownie he made because I’m a miserable companion when I’m ragging. He’s just watching me eat, his expression like a cat with a mouse. I am so out of my league. He’s got to know every trick in the book at his age.

Not that I’d try to trick him. Oh hell no. That would let loose a demon, I’m sure of it. He really might throw me into his lab and lock me away.

A barrage of pictures flashed into my mind. My own image appeared several times, intertwined with hers in very compromising positions. To my wonderment, I didn’t always appear naked. Of course, Sakura only knew what I looked like from the waist up, and she knew her own body very well. Still, one particular vision made my cock sit up and take absolute notice of what my brain saw.

Sakura had a lab coat fetish.

Oh, beautiful girl. She wanted me fucking her while fully dressed and in my lab coat. She wanted me to take her on a worktable, and roughly.

I didn’t know if the sound coming from my lips qualified as a groan or a growl, but it made Sakura blink at me in surprise.

“Are you alright?” she asked. “Another headache?”

“It’s in my head, yes,” I answered, forcing my eyes to meet hers with some modicum of composure.

He works too hard, and now he’s also looking after me. I really ought to let go of the poor man. The extra burden I pose can’t be good for him. It’s time I moved on anyway. The others will find me soon, and I can’t keep exposing Hojo to them. Plus, it hurts my dignity to have people knowing how awful my life really is.

Maybe I can get into a protection program, change my name and start using my degree.

I would be damned if I let her run anymore. If I had to keep her with me at all times just to prevent her running, I would.

I got up and served her another brownie and yet another measure of the coffee liquor. “I’m going on a trip the day after tomorrow,” I informed, sitting closer to her this time. “I want you to come with me.”

She blinked rapidly several times. “What sort of trip?” I don’t think that’s wise. Now that he knows I’m hot for him, it’ll be that much harder to maintain some professional distance.

“I’m taking my son and daughter-in-law to meet my brother, Syvas, who lives in Gongaga. It is a very remote place, mostly farmland. His nearest neighbor lives forty kilometers away.” I took a brownie and tasted it, pleased I’d baked them so well. “I think it will be good for you to spend a few days where there’s no chance of you meeting up with a former paramour.”

Oh Shiva, that does sound wonderful. A few days of relaxing and not looking over my shoulder.

Hearing and seeing her weaken, I cast out again. “Syvas is a potions designer and has a greenhouse twice the size of this building; he grows his own ingredients. Some of his plants are exceedingly rare. I’m sure the two of you will find much to discuss.”

I’d be an idiot to turn this down.

Sakura nodded. “I’d be glad to go with you,” she said. “But, this is a family outing.” I don’t want to intrude on something so familial.

“I want you to go, and Aerith already looks forward to your company,” I said, dismissing her concerns. “Frankly, Sephiroth wouldn’t care who I included in this trip. This is the first time he’ll meet Syvas.” I sat back a little, meeting her eyes. “Say you’ll go.”

I’m tempted to say no just to see what he’ll do, she thought. His anger stimulates me beyond anything I expected. She licked her lips, looking at my mouth. Then again, everything about him stimulates me. Holy Ifrit, I’m fucked. Sakura nodded again. “I’ll go,” she said softly.

“Good.” I looked at my wall clock. “Let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll go out and get you some appropriate clothing. I also need something less formal than what I usually wear. I remember Gongaga being muddy this time of year.”

I wonder what he’ll buy to wear? She got up from the table, avoiding my eyes. He looks good in a sweater. Nice, long arms with some muscle on them and a good, hard chest. I stared at him as long as I could the day he shaved with the bathroom door open…

Shit, I’ll have to get more tampons tomorrow if we’re going rural. I’m glad it doesn’t seem to bother him to talk about it. Then again, he was married once so he’s not green to a woman’s necessities. And, he’s a doctor as well as a professor. He probably knows more about the way my body works than I do.

I smiled as I settled down on the couch to sleep. Oh yes, Sakura, I thought. You can bet I know more about your body than you do. But, I’m going to love getting to know it even more…