The Boss's Daughter

Chapter 7: Ebisu (4,8K)

Chapter 7: Ebisu (4,8K)

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Jace's PoV

When Jace woke up, Clarissa was still sleeping soundly against him, which didn't come as a surprise to Jace. The sun was barely up, and Clarissa was one of those people who liked to sleep in, in the morning. Actually, except for their first day in Tokyo when she tried to sneak out on him, Jace never saw Clarissa wake earlier than ten in the morning. But he was far from complaining since it gave him time to train a little. He never did something as crazy as to go for a jog (never knowing if she would use the opportunity to sneak out), but he did his usual warm-ups of pushups and abs, which of course Clarissa thought was crazy because to her, vacation meant leisure.

Still, Jace had taken the habit of watching Clarissa sleep whenever he woke up next to her. He didn't really know why, but he knew that he liked those five to ten minutes he got to see of her completely peaceful and sleeping, her red hair spread all over the pillows. He was sure that if he had been good at drawing, he would have been able to recreate Clarissa's face to perfection. Down to the smallest details, like how well sculpted the curve of her cupid bow was, of how many freckles were hiding on her face -and not noticeable at first glance-, or even how her long and thick lashes would create beautiful shadows on her high cheekbones.

As he'd done every morning for more than a week, Jace repressed his instincts to lean down and kiss his sweet, sleeping Clarissa and instead, decided to do his morning exercises. Though this time, he went to her room, instead of his own -so he wouldn't wake her-, taking with him his gun, clothes, and laptop. For an hour, he exercised, wishing all along he could be back in the US and use the gym for he could feel his muscles going numb from the lack of proper activity. Then, after a quick cold shower, Jace opened his laptop and scrolled through the internet, looking for one particular piece of information. He was almost tempted to call Raphael to rescue him, but given who this information was regarding, he knew that asking Raphael for help would bring more problems than solutions.

After almost an hour of looking through several meaningless articles, Jace finally found what he was looking for, and was writing it down on a piece of paper just as someone knocked on the door. With a small smile lingering on his lips, Jace walked to open the door for Clarissa, sure that she was over-thinking the fact that he didn't come back to her like he did every morning after exercising; and without any surprise, he found the petite redhead on the other side of the door.

She had obviously just woken up, her hair still a mess from sleep and s*x, her face smattered with marks of her pillow here and there, and her nightgown all rumpled (though Jace wondered how it could be since he disregarded the piece of clothing pretty early during the night). She sleepily smiled to him, before asking him, with the hoarse voice that Jace loved so much on her,

"Having second thoughts?"

He shook his head, a smirk growing on his lips without him able to stop it, and he let the young redhead step into her own room as he told her, "No. I was just watching porn. You know me."

He watched her glance at the laptop closed on the bed before she shook her head, sleep finally fading away from her features. "That insatiable monster-c**k of yours, what are we going to do about it?"

The two of them laughed before Jace let the girl know that he would let her take her shower in peace. He went to his room to put his laptop back in place and then went back to Clarissa's room, waiting for her to finish her shower. When she did come back from the bathroom, steam trailed behind her and her body was tightly wrapped in a white towel.

Clarissa smiled at him when she saw that he had come back to her room, and she turned her back to him, her long red hair swinging across her back as she rummaged through her wardrobe. Jace's eyes never left her, and given the way she was moving her body, he was sure that she was perfectly aware. He let his eyes wander all over her skin, a part of him liking it better when it was porcelain white rather than the hot pink it was at that moment.

"I don't know how you can take showers so hot," Jace said, sitting on the bed to let her get dressed and speaking without really thinking. He was mostly voicing a fact that he observed about the redhead. Every time she came out of the shower, either steam would follow her or her skin would be pink, almost to the point of being red.

Clarissa raised an eyebrow at him, a mocking smile spreading across her lips as she told him, "So, does that mean that we will never get hot shower s*x?"

Jace chuckled, shaking his head, slightly. "I think we already established that hot s*x is already a thing between us. Now, I don't think my monster-c**k will be able to survive the hot shower part."

"I think your monster-c**k would actually thank me for saving it from the reduction you impose upon it every time you take one of those icy showers."

Jace didn't have a response to that, recalling the high pitched scream she let out a few days before when she had the misfortune of going in the shower after him, and not taking the time to adjust properly to the water temperature. He watched her slip into her underwear with that secret way girls seem to have, that allowed them to be able to dress with an audience without having to be completely naked.

He let his eyes linger a moment longer on the curves of her back, appreciating how firm they seemed to be, and knowing that they were indeed. She was vigorously rubbing her hair in a towel when he broke out of his trance and asked her:

"What are your plans for today?"

"As I said, I mostly want to go to that restaurant I told you about. But we don't have to be there at noon o'clock …" She explained to him, straddling his lap with a luxurious smile.

Jace's hands automatically held her in place, holding her by the curves he liked the most on her with his eyes steady on her face. It was obvious in her green eyes that she was looking to have something lustful and carnal right at that moment, but Jace couldn't. He was bothered by the fact that she didn't open up to him concerning her real intentions today. It wasn't like he had ever been an ass when she told him something about her mother. On the contrary, he listened and never judged, no matter what she said or felt.

"Would you mind if we go somewhere not far from there, afterwards?" He asked, and he saw surprise in her eyes. He couldn't blame her, for all she knew; he couldn't speak a word of Japanese and knew nothing about the country they were in. Which was far from the truth, but he didn't bother pointing that out to her.

She barely thought about it, before smiling again at him and letting him know that she didn't mind. Then, she took his hands in her own, removing them from her being as her verdant green eyes stayed steady on his golden ones, and slowly, she made his fingers brush their way up to her breasts. Jace smirked at her, squeezing a bit where she had just lead his hands to, before leaning in to nibble her earlobe whilst letting her know,

"You know, I'm not really a boob kind of guy." Then he trailed his hands back to their former place and added as he firmly grabbed her buttocks, "I like better what you have here."

Clarissa giggled at those words, hiding her face in the crook of his neck, making Jace smile, the thought occurring to him that he very much liked that sound. Then, he rolled them both to the bed, his desire for the redhead suddenly growing in him, and said, "Let's give you an excuse to take another scorching hot shower…"

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After their morning amusements, Jace and Clarissa went to Ebisu, walking around in the Yebisu Garden Place until Clarissa finally found the restaurant she had been looking for. The first thought that occurred to Jace was that he never thought that Clarissa would willingly go into that particular restaurant during her trip in Japan when all she ever wanted since she got to the country was to blend in as much as possible.

The restaurant was anything but Japanese and anything but discreet. It was designed as an old European castle, lost in the middle of Japan and clashing with the places Clarissa had been going to during the past week. The name of the place was Château de Joël Robuchon, and if Jace could tell anything about that fact, was that he was about to be served French food.

He also understood why Clarissa insisted on him wearing his usual outfit for once and why she was so temptingly delicious next to him. The restaurant she was taking them to was nothing like the ones she took them to over the past week. It was fancy, and Jace wouldn't be surprised if a dress code was in order. Still, he didn't mind, because it allowed him to appreciate the sight of Clarissa wearing a little black dress that went all the way down to her knees (well just above), with high heels that made her head come just below his chin. Her attire was rather simple, especially knowing that the girl liked to dress up, but it was still eye candy to Jace, and he clearly wouldn't mind if she decided to dress like that every day.

They did not spend that much time in the restaurant, only eating in rather peaceful silence. Jace wondered why she had chosen this place among all the other restaurants that they'd passed by to get there, though his instincts were telling him that this place was connected to her mother in some way. He pondered on the fact that maybe this was the place Valentine took his late wife to but never asked Clarissa about it.

Actually, the more their time at the restaurant passed, the more he wondered if what he had planned was such a good idea. After all, Clarissa didn't really open up to him when it came to her mother, and maybe this was a part of her life that she would rather keep to herself, or at least not share with him.

When they left the restaurant, Jace was feeling anything but confident towards his plans; and he was thinking of a way to abort it when she asked him where he wanted to go. It wasn't much the question that gave Jace the strength to go on, but her smile. There was something about it that made him feel … lighter.

So Jace made them walk through Ebisu, all the way until they changed districts and went back into Shibuya, asking several times if she could handle the walk with her high heels. She dismissed him, saying that he had seen nothing of what she could walk in heels. Still, she seemed surprised that Jace knew exactly where he was going, and that he was not lost without her being his 'tour guide'.

They walked for a long moment until Jace stopped in front of the International School of the Sacred Hearts. He felt Clarissa look at him questioningly, but he did not say a word and simply pressed his hand on her smaller back as they walked into the school. At the end of the corridor was the honorary hall, and Clarissa abruptly froze when she caught glimpse of a picture.

Jace took a step back to give Clarissa space she probably needed, and he watched the redhead walk to the picture of her mother, her eyes mesmerized by the photo. She raised her hand to the frame, her finger following the legend beneath the picture before she looked back at the portrait of her mother, whispering mostly to herself,

"She was so beautiful."

At those words, Jace took a look at the picture and saw a young Jocelyn Fairchild. She was probably younger than her daughter was now, since this picture had been taken when she was in high school. But … Jace did not agree with Clarissa. He thought that Jocelyn was simply pretty. He wouldn't have used the word beautiful to describe her. Sure, she was far from ugly, and she was more than pretty, but Jace thought that Clarissa was more beautiful.

He compared the two redheads and had to admit that, at first glance, one would think that they were twins. But when he paid attention to the picture, he noticed the difference that made him think that Clarissa was more of a beauty compared to her mother. Jocelyn's nose was longer than her daughter's and failed to have the faint freckles that Jace loved to count in the morning. Clarissa's face had more the shape of a heart, whereas Jocelyn's was more rounded. And while Jocelyn had thin lines for lips, Clarissa's were pulpous and red and begging to be kissed at any given moment. But what Jace thought was the most striking difference was their eyes.

Up until this day, he had never found a feature of Valentine in the redhead. They were polar opposites. But now, he could say without a doubt that, even though Clarissa had inherited her mother's green eyes, the shape of her eyes belonged to Valentine. The way they were slightly shaped like an almond, or even the distance between their eyes and their nose, it was Valentine all over Clarissa's face. And even knowing that she shared her eyes with her father, Jace's favourite feature on Clarissa still remained her beautiful eyes. They were actually part of the reason why he thought that she was more beautiful than her mother.

Of course, Jace kept those thoughts to himself, not wanting to upset the redhead by giving his personal opinion on something he had no business of judging in the first place. But his concerns quickly went in another direction when Clarissa burst in tears, bringing her hands up to hide her face in them.

"s**t!" Jace exclaimed, suddenly feeling useless and uncomfortable. "I didn't bring you here to make you cry. I don't know … I just thought that you'd —"

"I do. It was a lovely thought, Jace."

Still, that didn't stop her from crying, and after a few seconds of watching her silently sob on her own, Jace took the redhead in his arms, letting her cry on his chest. For a long moment, they remained like that, until it seemed that Clarissa had no more tears to shed; and when she was reigning over her emotions again, she weakly smiled at Jace,

"Thank you. Do you mind if we leave now?"

"Sure."

He watched her glance one more time at her mother's portrait, and his instincts made him ask, "Do you want a picture with her?"

Clarissa blinked several times as if she was processing the idea in her brain before she smiled brightly at Jace and gave him her phone before standing against the wall next to the picture. Jace snapped several pictures and handed back to Clarissa her device as they walked out of the building.

Once they were back on the main street, Jace hailed the first cab he saw and told the driver to go back to the hotel. He was feeling bad for depressing Clarissa when he had only meant to give her something from her past, but he still saw the surprise in her eyes when he spoke to the driver.

During the whole duration of their trip, Jace had let Clarissa do all the talking when they were addressing a Japanese person because she was far better than him in that language. He knew quite a few things in Japanese, mostly related to his line of business, so he didn't mind that the redhead took the lead during the trip. Especially because of one key element: though he could somewhat speak Japanese, he could not read it for the life of him.

As the cab was driving the short way between their location and their hotel, Clarissa slipped her hand in Jace's, making him turn his head and look at her. "How did you know it was her birthday?"

"I just put two and two together. You know, I listen when you talk," He half lied. He did listen to everything she would tell him, even when she would marvel at the good grades the youngest Lightwood would get in school, or when she would rant because she didn't get to buy the pair of shoes she wanted. But the truth that he slightly altered was that it was Valentine who gave him that crucial information concerning the importance of the day. Though, Jace doubted Valentine would approve of Jace being so close to his daughter right now.

Clarissa smiled playfully as she pointed out to him, "You'd be the first guy in history who's not gay and who listens when a girl talks."

Jace shook his head as they left the cab, but Clarissa pulled his hand when she started walking to the hotel, and so they walked around the busy streets. For a moment, they remained silent, simply strolling, Clarissa's hand never having let go of Jace's; and after a while, she started opening up to him:

"You know, I always felt like … I was missing a part of her. My Mom. Because Dad never wants to talk about her. He doesn't have any pictures of her at home, he never mentions her, and he never spends the day with me on her death anniversary. And … well, I don't feel like asking my grandparents about her. I don't want to be insensitive to them. I mean …"

"It's hard to bury a child, I get it," Jace finished for her, and she nodded.

"So I only had Jon and Hodge to tell me about her. When I started forgetting her, I panicked, and Jon always told me that I simply needed to look in the mirror to remember her. I get what he meant, now. And Hodge … he was the one who told me the most about her.

He never told me how they met, but he told me that when my Dad saw my Mom, it was love at first sight. That she was a very loving and compassionate person, that she was very selfless. She was into many charities, helping every cause that could be helped.

After high school, she didn't go to college, she experienced life. She travelled the world on her own, doing small jobs all over the world, and helping the best she could. She used to be a waitress, a stewardess; she worked in a circus and in libraries. She helped build wells in Africa, and she fought in Asia to stop child slavery. She wanted to make the world a better place, and … I wish I were more like her, instead of being the spoiled brat of a rich and powerful man."

"You know, it is your choice to make your life your own. You just need to adjust to what life has given you. If you want to make the world a better place, do it, and don't compare yourself to how your mother did it. Instead, think of how you can do it better."

They had stopped walking; sitting on a little bench in a park, and Clarissa looked up at Jace, processing what he had just told her. She seemed to think about it for a moment before she smiled, and asked him:

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"What about your parents? I bet your parents are really tall, just like you. And I'm sure that you were a hassle as a kid. But I'm sure that your moth—"

"I don't know any of that, Clarissa. My parents died a long time ago," He eluded, not eager to speak about his parents. It wasn't much of a lie to him, because they were dead in his heart. He knew that if he had the misfortune of running into one of them, it would be as if they were any other given person. But he didn't feel like sharing that with Clarissa at the moment.

She didn't retort anything, and Jace was grateful about that for he didn't want her pity, or the useless words of sympathy people usually had for him. He also appreciated the fact that she didn't try to push further into their conversation, and just let it go. Instead, she got up and walked straight to the power line in front of them on which there was a poster.

"Well, tonight we're going to a parade," She brightly smiled, her tone clearly indicating to Jace that she was not giving him any choice on the matter. But it wasn't her tone that made Jace give in, it was the face she had. That particular face she made that made Jace feel like he could go to jail because of that face because he couldn't see himself refusing her anything when she was making that face.

.~°~. .~°~. .~°~.

When Jace woke up that morning, a sense of loss rushed through him. It was the last day of their trip to Japan, and Jace had this nagging feeling growing in his stomach. He was not going to lie to himself and pretend that he didn't know what it was about, he knew very well that a part of him wished that he and Clarissa didn't have to leave Japan yet, and go back to reality. Especially when he knew that the reality he would have to go back to wouldn't have a Clarissa to share his bed with.

With a small heave, Jace rolled onto his side to admire Clarissa's face, brushing her hair away from her soft cheek. This was probably the thing he was going to miss the most, waking up with her by his side. He loved those few minutes he got to look at her peacefully sleeping in his arms.

As he was gently tracing lines on her face, Jace recalled how Clarissa chickened out the day before when he took her to a tattoo parlour. During the whole past two weeks, she had been beaming at the idea of getting tattooed, and when the time came, she told Jace that she wasn't feeling up to it after all, that she will do it some other time. To which Jace said nothing, though he was genuinely amused by her.

Actually, Jace had to admit to himself that over the past two weeks, he had learnt to like Clarissa like he would like any other friend. She was more than a mission, and he wondered what he would miss the most about her. Would it be the s*x or the person she was? He liked how she was so different than him, carefree, acting on her first impulses. He liked when she smiled at him, her eyes sparkling with malice. He liked that she was never afraid to speak her mind, especially when she was having a smart mouth with him.

He was about to kiss her forehead like he did every morning before going to his room to exercise, when he thought better of it, and kissed her neck instead, closing the small gap that there was between them. She stirred a little, but did not awaken, which made Jace sneak his hand on her body, all the way down to her thighs. She moaned when his fingers touched her sweet little nub, and Jace sucked on her neck.

Clarissa shivered under his touch, her eyes still closed as she craned her neck to give Jace better access whilst arching her body, asking for him to touch her more. Jace stilled, caressing her face with his free hand and he demanded, "Open your eyes for me, Clarissa. Or I am going to stop all at once."

She opened her eyes at once before crashing her lips onto his and brought her hands to his hair to weave her fingers into it. Jace loved when she tugged on his hair, especially when they were kissing. With urgency, he slipped two fingers inside of her, grunting in her ear when he felt her so wet. Clarissa moaned even louder when he started rubbing her sweet little spot, saying his name in a delectable whisper as she closed her eyes.

With brusqueness, Jace made her roll so she was on her stomach, and after swiftly rolling a condom on his member, he impaled her from behind. She screamed out in pleasure when he fully filled her, throwing her head back, and Jace wrapped his fingers around her neck, putting a slight pressure there, making the redhead beneath him gasp in delight.

He felt her walls tighten around his member, making him wish that they could have more time so he could play longer with Clarissa. But since they didn't, Jace increased his pace, making Clarissa squeak out, "God, Jace! Just right there!"

Jace thrust in her harder and faster, his fingers contracting a bit more around Clarissa's fragile neck, but she seemed to not mind at all. Faster than he anticipated, Jace found his peak, bringing Clarissa with him with each of his last thrusts before letting himself fall next to her, both of their bodies glistening with sweat.

"This was the best morning call I ever had. If you had woken me like that every morning, I wouldn't have minded doing some exercise with you," Clarissa said, still a little out of breath. Jace shook his head, before retrieving himself and kissing her swiftly on the lips as he told her,

"This isn't the kind of exercise I had in mind. And I highly hope it is not the kind of exercise you had with Jordan."

He got up to throw the condom in the bin, and Clarissa sat up, a blissful smile lingering on her lips. Jace put a knee on the bed to caress her face as he let her know, "And for the record, this was the best quickie I ever had."

Clarissa giggled, making Jace wish he could always make her giggle like that, and she took his hand away from her face to keep it in her smaller one. She looked at Jace for a moment, apparently ready to tell him something, but when she said nothing, Jace told her, "I better get to my room to have a shower. I can't decently take the plane smelling of s*x. No matter how much I like having the smell of you next to me."

Clarissa shook her head, though Jace could see a slight frown on her forehead. He did not comment on it, simply slipping back into his clothes and leaving the redhead alone to take her own shower as he let her know,

"Yes, I still have no intention of getting scorched by water."

When he was back to his room, Jace did his best to not think of how the knot in his belly grew more and more as he prepared to go back to the US; and just when he was about to hop in his shower, his phone rang, making his insides freeze.

He knew very well who was calling him. Over the past week, Valentine only called once to know how Clarissa handled the birthday of her mother. Jace had texted Valentine a few times to let him know that everything was alright, but Valentine never called again, so why was he calling now?

At the second ring, Jace picked up, "Listening."

"We need to talk, Jace."

.

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