Page 74 of Pretty Obsessed

Someone had called the hotel ahead and arranged it. Alexander controlling him? I didn’t like it after what River had said.

“What’s first?” Iris asked after we freshened up.

“How are you not tired?” River asked, rubbing his temples. “I feel my age. Time zones kill me.”

“They’ve always killed you.” Iris rolled his eyes, flipping through his phone. “There are bathhouses…”

“Will they let you in?” I asked.

They both turned to look at me.

“Neither of you know?” I don’t know why this amused me. Sure they’d never been to Japan but neither had I.

“Know what?” Iris asked, setting his phone aside.

“The tattoos. I don’t think they’ll let you in.”

“What would they matter?” Iris glanced down at his mostly covered arms.

“It’s a thing. I’m serious.”

Iris went back to his phone. “Holy shit. Who would have known my addiction to pain would exclude me from places?” He laughed. “We have to find one that allows it.”

I glanced over at River, trying to silently ask if he was into it. He lifted his brows and tilted his head, which told me he was open to the idea. I stiffened behind my jeans. I didn’t think that meant sex necessarily, but I wouldn’t discount it and my body responded. If it kept on this way, it wouldn’t matter. I’d be hard behind the towel the entire time and I didn’t think he’d resist it, even in public. Hopefully, Iris could find a place that allowed tattoos and had NDAs. Or we were all kinds of fucked. And not in the fun away.

I would have said it was all the coke Iris did that gave him energy, but as I was wide awake too, maybe it was the energy of getting to a new city and having days to explore. Or maybe it was the renewed time with River that had me buzzing. Either way, I was filled with excitement and low-level nerves.

"What's that look?" Iris asked.

"He's trying to gauge if I'm okay doing a bathhouse."

Iris glanced between the two of us. "Well, are you?" He gave River another long look.

Was he trying to process the relationship between us, the differences in his relationship with River, and how it would change with me as the third wheel? Or maybe he felt like the third wheel?

"Run me through what this involves?" River said at length.

"The bathhouse?" Iris asked.

River nodded.

"How much do you know?" I asked Iris. "Because I know some." I'd never been, but I researched it for a book. This seemed like we were all going into it blind.

"Go for it. I've just heard it's cool." Iris waved me on. "I didn't even know tattoos were a problem."

"Tattoos are tied to organized crime here. So they are frowned upon." I recalled everything I'd read about for the tiny scene I'd mentioned. "So bathhouses are a tradition here. There are two types: Onsen and Sento. Onsen is a hot spring and more expensive, if I understand it right. Sento is a communal bathhouse. But this is totally nude."

"He shouldn't have an issue with that," Iris said with a smirk.

River glared at him. "That was at a private club, not a public bathhouse.”

"So have whoever is in charge of you guys make some calls. I'm sure there are private places. Plus you're going to need one that's okay with tattoos."

"Do people, like, fuck in these?" Iris pulled up his hair, twisting it around a pencil.

"Those are a little different. They are bathhouses turned brothels." I closed one eye, trying to remember the word for them. "Soaplands, I think but don't quote me. You could be asking for something completely out of the ordinary like an anal massage…"

"An anal massage?" River asked, amused.

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