#interstellar inn

Red Flag #1:

You filled out said application and were immediately called for an interview that day.

Red Flag #2:

You interviewed with the owner of the store, an older gentleman who rushed you through your answers to very simplistic questions: “Do you read?” “Do you know how to sweep?” To your non-surpise, you were hired on the spot.

The Reddest Flag of Them All:

On your first day, you asked a colleague about the whereabouts of the older gentleman who had hired you. They simply gave you a look of pity as they counted down their register to clock out. 

“Oh, you must have interviewed with Bill. Bill doesn’t really “manage” the bookstore. He pops in occasionally, sure, but we report to something else.”

You tilted your head at his word choice. Something else? At seeing your confusion, your co-worker gave you a pat on the shoulder and dropped a bomb that you weren’t expecting on your first day. 

“Doesn’t matter. It’s my last day anyway. Now you can deal with him.” As he concluded his dramatic sentence, the bell that indicated someone had entered the store jingled softly, and the most breathtakingly handsome man strolled in.

You put on your best customer-friendly smile, and as he approached you, your heartbeat thundered in time with the resounding tempo of his footsteps. He gave you a small smile, his eye closed, the other covered by an eyepatch, and he opened his mouth.

“Ah, you must be the newest meat. We’ll see how long you last.”

How’s that for an orientation?

The weeks that followed were like going through your own version of hell. Your new boss, who you had learned was named Hayato Suo, was a complete asshole. You could feel him breathing down your neck as he criticized your filing technique or how you couldn’t immediately identify the name of a book that a customer wanted. He had a snarky remark for everything, but worst of all was not how he spoke to you but how fucking attractive he was. 

You constantly found your eyes lingering on how he smiled at customers upon helping them with daunting requests or how his fingers would stroke the spine of books as he determined if they were worth pulling from the shelf. And despite your best effort–and you really fucking tried—you found yourself developing a bit of a crush on your asshole of a boss.

To you, Suo was just a simple Summer crush. There was no way your boss could ever be into you, right?

You wouldn’t know this because of his calm demeanor, but the first time Suo laid his eyes on you, he nearly had to remind himself to breathe. To Suo, everything about you is simply perfect. His attraction to you felt natural, and it also felt painfully inevitable. Not recognizing the immediate pull he had to you would be like denying himself of oxygen, which was a fact that had him often drumming his fingers against his desk in annoyance. 

But instead of pushing you away, Suo felt himself gravitating towards you every chance he could. He often stalked closely behind you to monitor the way you put away books in an attempt to catch the intoxicating scent of your hair. 

Your voice, which sounded of gospel, had him tuning into the conversations you had with customers–his eyes narrowing as other students would enter the bookstore just to steal away the precious time you had together. Never mind that they may or may not have been flirting; they were simply a hindrance during a time when Suo needed to bond with you. They were an obstacle that limited his ability to make you see the truth: that you two were perfect for one another.

And Suo was painfully aware that he only had you for the Summer when, in actuality, he wanted a lifetime. Time was of the essence, so he needed to act fast.

Suo was solely responsible for the schedule, so he ensured all your shifts included working alongside him. If Suo was opening the following day, he saw you bright and early—never mind that he was pushing a cup of coffee in your hand that was your exact order down to the amount of sugar you liked; he was just very observant, ok? 

If Suo were closing, he’d insist on walking you to your car because you could never be too safe, and he wanted to make sure that you were going home alone because if you were going home with any gentlemen, it should be him.

Next were the light touches. 

When you would attempt to reach a book that was far too high for your reach—and maybe he was the one who sent you to that particular section in search of that novel knowing you’d have trouble–semantics! He’d watch as you’d outstretch your body, the way your curves beckoned to him, his eyes sweeping over you with lustful satisfaction that made the hair on the back of his neck stand. He’d slowly walk up behind you, lean against you to the point that the heat from your bodies entangled one another, and place a seemingly innocent hand on the small of your back and retrieve the book.

As you looked over your shoulder at his unexpected proximity, your eyes catching his, you couldn’t help but notice the look in his eyes. Something in the pit of your stomach told you that maybe you should run–or at the very least call HR because you were most certainly in the jaws of something predatory–but there were two issues: there was no HR department, and you kind of had a thing for men that looked at you like you were something to be devoured.

It all came to a boiling point one night while you both closed the store.

As you were wiping down one of the display tables, you couldn’t help but feel eyes on you. You made a show of bending over further to give him a better view of your backside. You hadn’t thought he took the bait until you felt hot breath on the back of your neck and a sharp, strained voice in your ear.

“You do that on purpose, don’t you?” Long fingers curled around your hips as you felt him pushing you against the table. You, being the asshole that you are, decided to do the worst thing you could do to someone who doesn’t take teasing well–you laughed.

“Do what on purpose? Whatever hard-on you have for me is your problem.”

“You think so? You don’t think I catch you staring at me? You don’t think I see how you look at me? You’re insatiably filthy.”

“You haven’t seen insatiable, Suo, and I don’t think you could handle me at ‘insatiable.’”

Suo’s eyes widened slightly as he realized he had misunderstood you all along–you weren’t as innocent as you looked, which made him far more excited. His gaze darkened as he leaned forward, pressing his erection against the valley of your fabric-clad ass in your skirt. “I’m going to have fun breaking you tonight. Finish closing up and meet me in my office when you’re done.”

As your eyes wandered to the ‘We are Open” sign facing into the store's interior, you briefly contemplated an alternative universe where you hung up your apron and left the bookstore, never to return. But that alternative universe sounded boring, and if you weren’t being threatened by intense sexual undertones from your remarkably hot Summer boss, were you genuinely having a good time? 

No, of course not.

As you finished your duties, you cautiously pushed the door open to Suo’s office. He sat at his desk, and instead of appearing stern and upset, he seemed almost pleased, which frightened you more. He lifted a finger and pointed to the middle of the rug as he walked around his desk. 

Your eyes flickered between the rug in front of you and him. As you hesitated, Suo was on you in an instant, pushing you up against the wall, his fingers digging into your thighs as the nearby items on shelves clattered to the floor,

He leaned in, his breath hot and ragged against your neck. “You’re still willing to play these silly games with me? Despite this magnetic pull between us?”

“I’m not going to ask you again.” Suo suddenly pulls away, strides back to his desk, and leans against it as he looks at you with a neutral expression. And despite every fiber in your being telling you to not make this easy for him, you feel your legs moving your body to the center of the rug.

It must be that damn magnetic pull he was talking about earlier.

As you lowered yourself to the floor, you were stopped in a crouching position as Suo's voice halted your movement. “Your hesitancy from earlier has cost you the privilege of wearing panties. Take them off and give them to me.”

Your eyes shot up to his, and you saw unwavering and unbridled absolution in his eyes. You shivered as you hiked up your skirt and hooked your fingers around the hem of your panties. You maintained eye contact with him as you tossed them to him. His eyes narrowed as he caught them, but he said nothing of your continued bratty attitude. 

“Now crawl to me.”

Like a good girl, you follow his orders, and he offers you a hand–a kind gesture that puts you on edge. As he pulls you up, he presses your underwear to your lips, and once again, like a good girl, you obey by opening your mouth. 

He gives you a pleased smile before leaning in; his lips pressed to your ear as he poses a demand. “Tell me that you need me to touch you. Tell me that you want this, bunny.”

As you give him a muffled whine of approval, you feel the heat rising to your cheeks as he tilts his head in mock confusion. Fine, you think, I’ll just fucking show you. You hike one leg up on the desk, effectively pinning him in and allowing him the inability to deny that this is something you want.

And with the urgency of someone who has been dreaming of this very moment with you, Suo pulls your skirt up and slips his fingers inside your heat. And at first, he’s gentle, but as your muffled moans spur him on, he can’t help how he curls his fingers to hit your g-spot or the way he simultaneously rubs his palm against your swollen and aching clit. He watches you with such intensity that it makes you feel akin to being under a microscope. You can feel him studying you, committing every expression and involuntary movement to memory. 

His fingers explore you hungrily; he flicks his wrist, and his eyes stay locked onto your face as he finds the spot he knows that can make you shatter. His kisses along your jaw feel scalding, and you can feel the upward twitch of his lips as your eyes roll back for him.

He wants to see you at your most vulnerable and your most beautiful. He wants to see you unravel in the messiest of ways for him. And when you finally climax, he lets out a shaky breath, an indication that he’s so very close to losing control of himself—and all for you.

“There you go, bunny. You’re so much more tolerable when you have that look on your face.”

With a snort, you adjust your clothes as Suo’s intense gaze lingers. His voice sounds level as he speaks, “Semester starts Monday, but I can adjust your schedule to accommodate your classes…” 

And while you hadn’t intended for this Summer job to be anything but a quick and easy way to make money, you truly can’t deny the force of the pull you feel for him. 

“That sounds great, boss.”