Pater Familias

I bathed to banish the smells of blood and fear. Couldn’t have my little Cherry Blossom upset.

As I shaved, I looked at myself in the mirror. Had I looked this good at thirty? I didn’t know. I’d had my head in science and madness, and barely paid attention to anything other than satisfying a monstrous curiosity.

How could Sakura be attracted to me? Any sane woman would never dream of meeting me. Any sane woman wouldn’t have kept a scrapbook filled with my life because she found it attractive. Had she hoped I would fix her, or did she hope I’d help finish her destruction?

Clean and dressed in gi pants, I navigated the shadowy, short path to the bed. Sakura, stretched and tangled in the blankets, seemed an oasis.

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SAKURA


He must have left to clean up. I smelled his copal shaving lotion and soap.

I cracked an eye to look at him. He hovered beside the bed, just staring at me. He looked like a pale shadow blending into other shadows. If I hadn’t smelled him, I’d not have known he stood in the room.

Rolling onto my back, I made it known I saw him. His expressive lips curled up for a smile, but it seemed a tired movement. Thinking he’d not slept enough, I moved to let him in. The mattress felt cold. He hadn’t been in this bed with me for quite sometime.

Hojo dropped beside me, stretching out. His arm wended under me, pulling me against his lean body. He had deceptive strength. He’d taken Michael out with one punch.

One punch.

Shivering, I tucked my face into his clean, damp shoulder.

I’d never imagined I’d even meet Hojo. For years I’d collected his papery pieces, reading of him and imagining what he could be like. Attracted to his genius, I’d focused on him shamelessly. Not having had any strong, male role-models had probably pushed me in his direction, but I didn’t know.

Oh, the wrangling and money-changing I’d done to get a place with Adjudicator Laelin! I’d seen it as my big chance to meet Hojo in person. He was notorious for not giving much of himself to the public, so this seemed the opportunity of a lifetime. It ended up costing me ten thousand gil to get in the courtroom and another twenty thousand to secure a place on the committee.

Then, he’d walked out and I felt him so worth the cost. There he stood, Shin-Ra’s genius, Shin-Ra’s controversial scientist, his black eyes sharp and attentive. In person, his hair shone blue-black, and his skin looked a shade darker than olive. I’d expected him to be obviously aging, but he looked young. In fact, he looked not much older than his silver son.

He had lean, handsome features. His little round-lens glasses gave him an intellectual air. He had long, strong hands. His slender, wiry build promised quick, deft movement.

I knew without a doubt he was every bit as dangerous as I’d imagined.

I couldn’t pin it down to anything, of course. He gave no sign of threat no matter if he stood or sat, spoke or didn’t speak. He just observed with those shining, black eyes. Still, I felt his delicious menace.

I’d tasted menace in many forms. All my previous entanglements made me sensitive for the ways a man could be harmful. But, Hojo’s peril didn’t lay in simple abuse or beatings. He had darkness in his soul. He had darkness strong enough to conquer darkness.

I found myself attracted beyond a silly infatuation, beyond a crush or simple admiration. His personality didn’t lend well to puppy-love. He was a man. An adult.

I’d only had silly boys.

I barely remembered our first conversation. My overwhelming desires conflicted between running from him or licking him from his feet to his head. I knew I asked to speak with him, and I knew he’d smoothly gleaned some of my personal information. I’d never stood beside such seductive evil in my life.

And he was seductive.

Hojo had a core of chaotic desires, blanketed and muffled by a calming layer of poise. He employed old world manners while using the most cutting, effective vernacular. He could draw me into revealing my innermost workings, but he rarely pushed. I found I would spill my guts to him just because of this, because he had a power over me he wouldn’t use casually. In my gratitude for letting me have my own power, I surrendered more power.

It was sick and I couldn’t help it.

He turned on his side, pushing his nose into my hair. I heard him take a long, appreciative sniff of me. His free hand traced the curve of my hip lazily, not a seductive ploy, but an enjoyment of me. His light touch brought swollen heat between my legs.

Just that it was Hojo seemed enough to enflame me.

“Have you rested enough, my dear?” he asked softly, in my ear.

“I don’t think I could ever sleep enough,” I told him truthfully. At least I slept well when lying beside him. None of my ex’s could attack or kidnap me while I lay in Hojo’s bed. I was the safest woman in the world while beside him.

Well, Aerith had that claim, too, actually. Only the insane would fuck with General Sephiroth.

“Shall I turn on the air conditioner and close the drapes?” Hojo sat up.

“Yeah, okay,” I agreed.

Nary a grumble marred the performance of his service to me. He kicked the unit on low, swept the first traces of dawn from the room, and returned, surrounding me with arms and legs. Holding my body close, he encouraged me to put my head back on his hard shoulder. “You should sleep whenever the urge takes you, Sakura,” he murmured. “You need to build up against years of fretful wear and tear.”

Yes, and I needed to exchange all my small-time thug boyfriends for this hardcore rogue.

Smiling, I acknowledged I’d done that before meeting him.

Shiva, he made the world just go away. I lolled against him shamelessly, inhaling his dark scent and feeling that lithe collection of limbs, torso and hard flesh. Drowsy again, I drifted in my senses and the quiet of early morning.

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The clock read two forty-five. I stared at it, trying to think if it proclaimed morning or afternoon. Finally, I spied the little dot that meant pm.

Hojo groaned and tightened his grip on me. My heart did a skip and flutter maneuver. Feeling bold, I pressed my lips to the side of his pectoral. His skin jerked from the muscle twitching underneath. I smelled his clean musk.

An idea surfaced in my sleepy mind. He’d let me, but should I?

Before I could nix the notion, I slid down under the sheets.

To my amused surprise, Hojo had his hand over the tip of his erection, drawing it to one side and holding it down. Carefully, I pulled his fingers loose and replaced them with my mouth. I had to stretch my lips to encompass him. Hojo drew a ragged, startled breath, releasing it in a pleased sigh that made me wet.

He tasted good. I’d known he would.

His fingers twined in my hair. He threw the blankets off of us. I looked up at him as I swallowed him down, shivering at the intense pleasure in his glittering black eyes. His gentle grip in my hair briefly tightened before he let go. Propping on his elbows, he coiled his strong abdomen to rise up and watch me blow him.

His observation made my task hotter than hell’s flames.

I sucked strongly, licking the flange of his cut head. His legs flexed and his head dropped back. Getting into it, I gripped him at his base and held him still for a thorough licking. It thrilled me to watch him shiver and sigh, to hear him release a long moan. He would let me know what he liked, let me know how well I did.

I loved that.

I loved that he didn’t try to guide me just yet. Most men grabbed my head immediately, tugging me roughly and forcing me to swallow more than I could take. Not Hojo. No, he let me have control.

For now.

“Sakura,” he whispered, his head still dangling backward.

I loved his voice. It could cut and soothe in the same sentence. Right now it sounded like a prayer.

I wanted to truly surprise him, to take him farther than any woman had taken him. With experienced whores for competition, I would have to work hard, I felt sure. At least I did know how to deep throat a man, but Hojo was bigger than any of my previous lovers. He wasn’t monster-scary, but impressive.

I buried him in me, sinking him to my very lips until his balls touched my chin. Hojo thrashed his upper body, but kept his hips still and didn’t choke me. Admiring his control, I withdrew and sank down again. I streamed wetness now, and just from watching him take his pleasure. Blowing another man had never affected me this way.

He certainly could take a lot of stimulation. His cock leaked salty pre-cum that tasted like the rest of him, and he gave me his uninhibited groans. He looked beautiful lying there, black hair all awry and over his shoulders. His lean muscles rippled under tight, scarred skin. Breathing heavily, his chest and stomach shifted rapidly.

I had power.

I fell into a rhythm of sucking and swallowing him down, jerking him when I needed to breathe. His body tightened at my increase of pace, and he began to curse quietly. That lovely tension made him all the more bestial. Holding and mouthing his big cock, I could believe he was a beast.

“Sakura,” he gasped, his tone one of warning.

I clamped down on him and twirled my tongue. With a rumbling groan he finally released the tension in his hips and shot into me. I gagged at the amount and the force of it, but swallowed quickly.

I rested my head next to his softening cock, breathing in the dark scent of him. His hand dropped gently to my hair. Slowly, he twisted strands around and around his fingers, seeming to savor my mane.

“Reclaiming your feminine power, pretty?” he whispered.

“Enjoying you, Hojo,” I answered. “Enjoying you.”