Lilli could no longer deny it. She was getting used to this lifestyle. Sometime during the last six months, her monthly spa visits had gone from being an inconvenient pain in the ass to something she looked forward to.

Or maybe she was just so well-fucked these days that nothing fazed her anymore. These days she was more than happy to meet No’s aesthetic tastes, so much so that the spa visits felt like rainbows and unicorns rather than primping and waxing.

In any case, Lilli left her final luxurious soak at the spa feeling lucky, and walked into her nails and make-up appointment with a blissed out smile on her face.

She thought of the way No had looked at her this morning while she was on top of him, petting her with his eyes. Making her insides purr with his appreciation. It wasn’t just a Selena Gomez song anymore. She wanted to look good for him, she realized, even more so during their last days together.

And sure, Lilli was still a little sore and having serious trouble keeping her eyes open after all the “keep going” she had done last night and this morning.

But hey, how many women got to treat their body aches with massages and long soaks in therapeutic baths?

No, she really couldn’t complain, she thought to herself, her smile turning naughty as she settled into the quilted white hair and make-up chair in the private backroom. Couldn’t complain at all.

Behind her she heard the door open and close and she turned to greet women who usually did her nails and makeup with a happy smile.

But it wasn’t a flock of ladies who’d entered the room.

Before her stood a man. A little on the tall side for someone of his country origin and age. Five-eight, maybe even five-ten. And thin. But not in the same lean, muscular way as No.

But he definitely possessed No’s stillness and had the same way of looking down his nose at a person…studying them, head slightly inclined like a bird of prey. Yet where No’s hair was thick and wavy, this man’s was grey silk. And his nose was long and sharp rather than thin and slightly flared like No’s. So technically, they looked nothing alike.

However, Lilli immediately knew who the man was as soon as he walked into the room. From both her internet search before her first “interview” and the games she’d seen him at in her past life as the sister of one of the Nakamura Hawks’ foreign players. Kazuo Nakamura. Kazuo Nakamura was now standing in front of her!

She froze. All of her Osaka Charm lessons clashing with the ones she’d learned before coming to Japan as a travel nurse. What should she do? Get up? Bow? Kneel? Should she kneel?

The answer floated into her spa-fogged mind. She should stand and give the director of Nakamura Worldwide a forty-five degree bow…which meant she’d also give the man a 100% view of her cleavage, dressed as she was in nothing but a plush, white spa robe.

Oh, Jesus. She couldn’t do that. But this was No’s father! She couldn’t be disrespectful. What should she do? What should she do?

“Stay seated.”

The two words were a forceful command. And they should have been a relief since they effectively solved her quandary about how best to greet No’s father without flashing her boobs at him. But Lilli felt no relief whatsoever.

Instead she was filled with dread as she watched Mr. Nakamura Senior walk into the room.

He studied her with a frown.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-six,” she answered, keeping her face, voice, and posture as respectful as she could.

“A good age for a girl such as yourself. Charming, but no longer naive.”

Okay…she thought. Backhanded compliment much?

“Can I help you with something?” she finally asked, deciding to handle things in the blunt American way since the situation was way outside the scope of any Japanese cultural training she’d received. “I’m not sure why you’re here.”

Mr. Nakamura frowned at the nearby rack of nail polish, staring at it as if it were a foreign object.

“Are you certain you do not know why I am here?”

“Yes,” Lilli answered carefully, feeling like she was balancing on a wire rather than having a conversation with her lover’s father.

“Tell me,” he commanded, his eyes still fixed on the rack of nail polish bottles. “Have you seen my son naked?”

Lilli’s eyes widened in surprise. By American standards, this line of questioning was totally inappropriate. But by Japanese standards, it was plain rude. And by both standards, it was bizarre as hell.

A jumble of American-style reactions piled up in Lilli’s head creating a traffic jam of exclamations and indignant replies. What? How is that any of your business??? Why in the hell are you even asking me this?

But all she could manage to say was, “Um…”

“No, you have not,” Mr. Nakamura answered for her, as if her hesitation gave him all the answers he needed.

The older man’s eyes narrowed on one particular bottle of polish in the case, and he crossed the room to pick it up, shaking the small, glass container of light brown liquid in his hand. “Your contact has been compromised. I will be your new one until we can put another in place.”

The word “contact” brought her back up straight. “Wait…you mean…?” She couldn’t even find the words to finish her line of questioning. Was he serious? Was No’s father the one who’d sent her in to spy on his son?!

“Your brother, Mr. Tucker, has done slightly better this year than the last during pre-season training,” No’s father said in seeming answer to her unspoken question. “Perhaps there is a way we can extend his contract for five more years.”

No’s father walked to where she was sitting and set the small container of brown polish on the counter beside her chair, along with the rest of Sumiko’s tools. “You will wear this color today. And next week, when you return from Tokyo, you will call this number.”

He pulled a single business card out of his inside pocket and held it out to her. Lilli glanced down at the card. It was completely blank except for a single phone number.

“This is my direct line. Next week I will expect a full report of everything my son has revealed to you during your time together. In particular, I would like to know about his plans after the board meeting is done.”

Mr. Nakamura continued to hold the card out towards her, American-style, with no formality whatsoever.

After a moment of hesitation, Lilli took it, guilt and shame washing over her in waves, even as she reminded herself this was the job she’d signed up for.

To help her brother, Doug. The only person who’d ever given two shits about her. And to help her young niece, Ruby, who’d already lost a mother to cancer and who really didn’t need her entire life up-ended again if her father lost his job and went off the deep-end. No, Lilli could not let Ruby lose her father to his drug and alcohol demons. She owed it to them both. To the only family she’d ever really had.

“For now” was over, and the time for her to do what she’d known she’d have to do from the start had come.

Lilli pocketed the card without looking at the elder Mr. Nakamura.

It will be okay, she told herself. She could make the call as she’d been asked to and give a full report, and it would be fine. Mostly because there was really nothing at all to report. No rarely shared anything about his business and personal life beyond a few vague stories now and then. Lilli had so far managed to do exactly what No and, apparently, his father had asked without compromising herself or betraying anyone else. She could make this work.

“If I make the report, you’ll give Doug a five-year contract no matter what?” she asked.

A short pause. Then, “He is already contracted for a year, but I will personally present him with a new five-year contract after the Hawks first game of the year once you make your report.” Then the older man bowed as if sealing their agreement.

Finally, Lilli was the recipient of the customary Japanese politeness. But did it make her feel any better about doing business with the apparently extremely duplicitous director of Nakamura Worldwide as she bowed back? Hell no. It most definitely did not.