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“Okay, how about making out?”
“Kai, you have to stay focused!” Jun slapped her hand on the countertop in frustration.
“That wasn’t a no.” Kai grinned.
“You can’t give away your Chi.” Jun crossed her arms across her chest and frowned.
“Is that what we’re calling man juice these days?” Kai teased.
“Kai!”
“What? I can’t even talk about...Chi?” His grin grew bigger.
“Just sign the paper.” Jun grabbed the pen and thrust it at him.
Kai looked at her and then at the paper and grabbed the pen. He hesitated.
“You’re asking me to give up sex for four months. But have you ever done that?”
Jun scoffed. “Please. Four months is nothing.”
Kai raised an eyebrow, his curiosity clearly piqued. “How long?”
“How long what?” Jun felt her guard coming up. This was not where she wanted the conversation to go. Not at all.
“How long since you’ve had sex?” The intensity of his interest made her uncomfortable. Plus, she didn’t want to admit it had been two years. She knew he’d judge her and probably find her wanting.
“None of your business.”
“It is my business if you’re asking me to give up sex. How long have you gone without?”
Jun pressed her lips together, as if she feared the answer would pop out on its own.
“Six months? A year?” Kai’s eyes widened in shock. “Longer than a year?”
Jun couldn’t meet his gaze as she shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. Kai took her silence as confirmation, which, she hated to admit, it was. She’d never even thought it was a bad thing. In fact, she’d never really thought about her sex life at all, until recently. Kai’s bare chest had everything to do with that development.
“Two years?” Kai was practically shouting now as he put both hands on the counter as if to brace himself. “But you’re...” He gave her a quick once-over as he digested his shock. “I mean, you could have it anytime you wanted it.” The sweetness of the compliment temporarily soothed her humiliation. But the feeling was soon trampled by the judgmental shake of his head. It brought Jun right back to the time she’d admitted to Po’s father that, at nineteen, she hadn’t slept with anyone yet. He hadn’t thought it was sweet. He’d teased her about it.
“It’s not healthy to go so long without,” Kai said, and the way he said it sounded as if he’d be glad to end her drought.
She swallowed, hard.
“You’re denying yourself too much,” Kai said, and the criticism sounded exactly like what her sister would say. She felt herself bristle.
“And you don’t deny yourself enough,” Jun countered. He was busy drinking and having sex when he ought to be training. She remembered all too well how his knee gave out in the gym, like a weak toothpick snapping under the least bit of pressure. “I saw you at the gym. I know the knee’s far from 100 percent. You need all the Chi you can get, and you know it.”
Kai froze, pen in hand, and just stared at Jun. All humor fled his face, and red flames of anger danced up his neck. She’d hit his sore spot, she knew it, but it couldn’t be helped. The man needed to see how serious this situation was.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” She saw how quickly his defenses came up, which only proved that he knew as well as she did just how far they’d have to go to get him ready to surf competitively.
Kai dropped the pen on the counter. “I’m not signing this,” he declared, folding his arms across his chest. Jun wanted to shake Kai, hard. If he were Po, she’d have given him a time-out, but he was a grown man and there wasn’t much she could do.
“If you don’t, then I’m leaving.” Jun hoped she was calling his bluff.
Kai shrugged, and she felt as though he’d popped her balloon.
“You recruited me, remember?” Just yesterday he’d been willing to do anything to hire her, and now, at the very first challenge, he was giving up? Maybe he couldn’t be saved. Maybe he was a lost cause.
“That was before I realized you’d ask me to give up sex. Why not ask me to give up breathing? I made a mistake asking you. That’s all this is.”
