[Book of Eros] Chapter 3: He forces himself to part ways. (Patreon)

“Sorry for meddling,” he said, mostly to distract himself from his own thoughts. “Seemed like things were going to get ugly.”

“No, thanks for helping back there,” she said, grinning in an oddly cocky way. “Things really were about to turn ugly, and I didn’t want to cause a stupid scene the moment I put my feet in Japan.”

Maybe it was Leonardo’s wishful thinking, but he could swear the woman was checking him out, looking at him from head to toe. He started feeling a little self-conscious. He was only wearing a plain, red T-shirt and blue jeans, so he didn’t think he measured up to her level.

His heart skipped a beat when she started lowering the zipper of her jacket, slowly revealing that her chest was as massive as Leonardo thought. She had a yellow tank-top under her jacket that offered a generous view of her cleavage. She removed her jacket, and Leonardo could see more of her figure. She also had a lean frame, and her arms were more toned than he expected. There were faint but visible muscle definitions in them.

Fuck, he was very obviously staring. There was no way she didn’t notice. It made him no different than the cab drivers desperately fighting for attention. He turned his head away in the direction of the line of cabs.

“Fuck, this place is hotter than I thought,” she groaned. “A leather jacket wasn’t a good idea.”

She didn’t comment on his staring, which was good. Nevertheless, he had to leave. Seeing this woman wasn’t good for him. It… it made him want things, to do things. It made him want HER and do things to HER. None of those were possible, and only made him hotter and more irritated.

“I’m glad I wasn’t a bother, then,” he said, swallowing and hiding his feelings as best he could, just as he had become used to. This wasn’t the first time something like this happened, after all. Far from it. “Sorry, but I didn’t actually find a cab. I need to go. Someone’s waiting for me and I don’t want to keep them waiting.”

The look of disappointment in the woman’s face hurt him. It was like knowing that, somehow, he had a chance with her and he blew it. But it didn’t really matter, because truth was there was never a chance at all.

“You’re right. I need to get going, too,” she said, sighing with clear annoyance.

“Take care,” he waved goodbye and turned to walk away, but he managed to hear the woman mutter under her breath.

“Fucking shit.”

He forced himself to ignore that and went to take a cab, letting the driver read the instructions the old lady wrote for him. She even gave him the money to pay for the trip.

The cab took him to a small harbor full of fishing boats and tourist ships. Apparently Naha was quite the tourist attraction because of its clear, warm beaches. But Naha wasn’t where Leonardo would be staying. No, he had to take the ferry to a remote island.

The people of the harbor seemed used to dealing with foreigners, so Leonardo had no issues paying for his ticket and getting on the small, white ferry. He was one of the first, and he saw seven other people climbing aboard. One of them was none other than the blonde from the airport.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he said to himself.

With so few people on the boat, their eyes inevitably met. They both looked away at the same time, but after some hesitance, the woman still walked up to him.

“You’re going to Noroi Island, too?” she asked casually, leaning forward on the rail of the boat to look down at the clear, turquoise water.

“What a coincidence,” Leonardo forced a chuckle. “We could’ve taken the same cab.”

“Yeah, that was a waste of money,” she agreed.

The two laughed, but there was an awkwardness between them. There was an uncomfortable silence in the air, and it was nearly chocking Leonardo.

“Sorry for approaching all of a sudden,” she said with a quiet groan and a shake of her head. “But being surrounded by people I can’t understand creeps me the fuck out.”

“So you don’t speak Japanese either?” he asked, not knowing why he was surprised.

“Not a word. I’ve been using a phone app to try to learn, but I don’t feel like anything’s sticking.”

“I’m barely learning to read it, but it’s so different from the normal alphabet that it’s not intuitive at all,” Leonardo sighed.

He kept his eyes on the horizon as they spoke, because if he looked at her he knew his eyes would travel down to her cleavage. And with her hair flowing in the soft, warm wind, she made for a breathtaking sight.

“What are you going to the island for?” she asked.

“I’m moving there, against my better judgment, apparently,” he admitted. The fact that the old lady had paid for the plane ticking, the cab and the ferry lent more credibility to her story, but it didn’t take from the even bigger fact that Leonardo had to be way too desperate to actually agree to it. Looking at the woman beside him only made him remember that, yes, he was that desperate.

Deep in his heart, even if Leonardo’s head didn’t believe it, he wanted, no, he needed the old lady to be telling the truth. He needed her to have a way of removing this ‘curse’, because he didn’t know for how long he could bear the burning, agonizing sensation in his chest and his crotch. The need for release, to feel anything, was constant, but it only grew worse when there was an attractive woman in front of him. He was mostly able to hold it back from showing, but nothing more. It was the knowledge that nothing he did would solve it that prevented him for trying anything.

“Are you fucking serious?” the woman asked, looking at Leonardo directly, wide eyes blinking and mouth half-opened. “So am I! I’m moving there, too!”