CHAPTER FIVE

Karin walks towards the kitchen but stops short when she caught a glimpse of the dinning room.

The room is dimly lit, two lighted candles at the centre of the table, and just two chairs at both ends of the dinning table.

She smiles to her eyes, this man is out to impress me tonight, she thinks to herself, still smiling, "let's go see what we'll be eating tonight" she says out loud. She turns to continue her journey to the kitchen but sees Johan approaching with a bowl of white rice. He's taken off his jacket and now has a blue apron over his crisp white shirt.

She steps aside to allow him gain access to the dinning room, and watch him go in, following in his wake. "What you have there smells delicious Johan! What did you cook the rice with, or could it be the aroma of the dressing that's coming off you?" She presses her hand against her flat stomach unabashedly, "I can't wait to dig in."

He gently places it on the dinning table and turns around to look at her, smiling. "I hope you'll love it. This is the first time I've cooked since I broke up, so I hope you'll really enjoy it."

He walks past Karin, exiting the dinning room.

Karin turns to follow in his wake, "I want to help, what can I assist you with?"

They enter the kitchen and to Karin's amazement, everything has been arranged on the countertop just to be picked up. Also, his kitchen should be every good Cook's dream. Everything looks great and customised. It'll definitely spurn anyone to learn how to cook. I know I'll be asking a lot of questions when I get the chance, she thinks to herself.

"You're a tidy freak Johan, are you sure you'd want me to move in after we're married?" She smiles naughtily, some mischief obviously brewing in her mind.

Johan looks at her briefly, masking his expression. "I'm not worried you'd do anything, you just want to ruffle my feather, and you've have failed even before you begin to think of ways to do just that." He smirks.

Karin rolls her eyes in defeat. "Fine what should I help you with?" She moves closer.

He turns around and grabs her by the waist, pulling her so close, they were inches apart. He looks into her eyes, as if searching for any reason to stop him from what he's been wanting to do all evening, since they arrived at his apartment. He looks down at her lips and bends to kiss it.

He started lightly but when she parted her lips, he starts kissing her deeply. She returns his kiss, matching his hunger, he makes a deep groan and plunge deeper, his hands starts moving up her back, pressing her closer. His left hand leaves her back and makes it way to her upper arm but he suddenly stops and gently pulls away.

He looks into her eyes and sees her look of shock. "Shit!" He mutters to himself and takes a step back still holding her upper arm. "I'm so sorry Karen, I really am. When next I move towards you, can you do me a favour by pulling away? It's for the best. He clears his throat and gently takes his hands away. "Let's go eat some FOOD!" Trying to make the tense situation lighter.

Karen nods her head, hiding her disappointment, and not uttering a word, she follows him with her eyes.

He hands her the bowl of salad and another dish containing mixed up dressing; while he carried the bowl of chicken and bowl of tomato shrimp sauce. " I hope you can manage my dear, please take the lead"

They made their way to the dinning room, Johan walking behind Karin. He smiles to himself looking at how her dress accentuated her ass, enjoying the view all to himself.

~~~

Sipping the Moët and Chandon wine Johan served her, she looks across to him and smiles a little. She forks the last piece of chicken on her plate into her mouth and gently drops her fork, chews on for a short while, swallows and then relaxes a little.

"I'm stuffed Johan, thank you so much for dinner, everything was delicious and I say it without exaggeration of course!" Her gaze fixed on him.

Johan on the other hand, chews the food in his mouth and swallows it so he could talk. He picks up his goblet of wine, sips twice and then carefully places it on the table. "I'm happy you enjoyed it." He smiles at her "Let's go to the living room and chat a bit, I have some things I want to tell you." He pushes his chair back and stands up, walks to her side, ready to help her out. "You may take your wine with you, I don't mind but if..."

Karin cuts in "I'll do just that, it's really nice." She smiles up at him.

He nods in response "I'll just clear the table then meet you in the living room ok!"

Karin frowns a little, "I'd like to help in clearing the table as well, besides, it's the least I could do for the delicious meal." She gently places the goblet on the dinning table, gets up, picks up her plate, walks to his side of the table, picks his used plate as well and then exits the dinning room.

Johan chuckles, shaking his and then follows in her wake, picking the little items his hands allowed him, that needed to be cleared.

They worked together side by side cleaning the dishes, enjoying the amicable silence. After a little while, they headed towards the dinning room to pick up their goblets and the remaining wine bottle.

They both settled down on the large couch in the living room, leaving some space between eachother.

Johan focus his attention on Karin intentionally, he'd like to see how she'd react to his full attention on her; his expression a little too serious but then he relaxes and smiles at her. "I don't know how or where to begin, but I'm sorry to have taken advantage of the fact that you really don't know me, I shouldn't have kissed you the way I did earlier;..."

Karen chuckles cutting him off. "How else should you have kissed me?" She asks.

Stunned by her question, Johan opens his mouth to answer but no words came out. He clears his throat awkwardly, trying to find the words to answer with.

Karen continues, clearly seeing his discomfort because he couldn't answer her. "If I didn't like it, you'd have known believe me. I am not the type that waits a while before speaking my mind, life's too short to stack up someone else's issues on mine. Nah! I usually don't settle for that."

"Right, I can see how bold you are, I've experienced it first hand but if I may ask, have you always been this way?" Johan couldn't help but ask, finding her more amusing.

Karen smiles a little, the look in her eyes implying something else before she could answer. "No, I haven't always been like this. I guess I had it in me ever since but it took a little experience to bring it out and I haven't regretted or felt ashamed of it since then."

Yohan raises an eyebrow at her. "Interesting, would you like to share what really went down or should I let it stay in the past?"

Karin gives him a thumb up with her free hand, her lips paused in an unfriendly way "You read me well, let it stay in the past. I'm curious to hear what you have to tell me, so, let's forget about me for now."

Yohan slouches a little, stretching out his long legs, while Karin kicks off her shoes and sits on her legs.

Holding the goblet with both hands, he starts "Do I look familiar to you? What I'm trying to find out is if you might have seen me in any advertisement on TV, or on any magazines covers before?"

Karin frowns, a little confused by his question and shakes her head. "No! Is there something I'm missing here?"

Yohan smiles a little "Well, I don't know, perhaps you'd enlighten me. However, I'm a model turned photographer. Photography is what I do now. I'm a celebrity photographer, I have a gallery, but it seems to me that you either don't stack up magazines or perhaps you don't have time for it. Which is it?"

"I honestly don't have time to go through magazines or pay attention to adverts as such. If there is anything I need to know and I feel it should be in existence, I look it up and read about it." She shrugs her shoulders "It's just the way I am."

Yohan smirks, "Are you being serious right now or..."

Karin cuts in unable to accept that he won't believe her "Would you prefer I lie to you Yohan?" She sighs. "Ok I watch loads of adverts and I stack up magazines since I became a teenager! Happy now?"

Yohan tries to say something but words elude him. He closes his mouth and shakes his head instead.

Karin continues "I really don't have time to go through magazines like I said, however, my baby sister does so I'm sure she'd know about you somehow. Why do you ask though?"

Yohan stares at her, finding it hard to believe her, even though her eyes don't seem to conceal anything, he still couldn't believe her. "I thought you had seen me somewhere and you're just pretending..."

Karin gets a little annoyed by his assumption and cuts in. "Sorry to burst your bubble Yohan dearie, I really haven't seen you anywhere before meeting you. I got attracted to your profile to be precise and then got curious about your height before I really looked at you and liked what I was seeing. I can't say the same now though." Her eyes caresses his features before she looks back into his eyes. "Besides, I was a little tipsy..."

Yohan cuts her off by smirking "And you weren't pulled to me because of my aura?" His voice raised a little notch.

Karin frowns at his sudden change in attitude. "What's wrong with your aura and why are you fascinated about it? Is anything wrong with you?" She really looks at him wondering what the problem could be. "Should I be concerned?"

Yohan sits up, drinks up the remaining content in the goblet at one go, gets up and quietly places it on the coffee table. He returns to the couch, sits and faces her, his right knee resting on the couch. "I'm a little sensitive about my aura and it's going to pop up every now and in the future because I haven't come across a woman who genuinely likes me for just being me, and it's so freaking hard to believe that you are different."

Karin gets uncomfortable, he looked a little scary and different from the Yohan that cooked for her, took her on tour of his apartment a while ago, what could be going on in his head? She tries to sit up but suddenly spill wine on her dress. She lets out a gasp, annoyed at herself for forgetting she was holding a goblet half filled with wine. She quickly gets up as some of it gets to her skin, tracing downward. Lost for words, she looks down at her dress, still holding the goblet. "Shit!"

Yohan gets up as well, takes the goblet and its remaining content from her and gently places it on the coffee table, he goes back to grab the same hand as he guides her towards his studio. "So sorry about that, let's get you cleaned. You can use the bathroom in my studio, it's closer than the others and you haven't seen it anyway; this way."

Karin allows him to guide her, too embarrassed to utter a word.

***

She steps out of the bathroom a little later, wearing a defeated look on her face, she sees Yohan perched on one of the stools in the studio with a faraway look in his eyes, arms folded across his chest. She clears her throat a little to gain his attention "I think I'll have to leave early, I don't feel comfortable looking like this and I don't like how our conversation has gone awry." She gestures towards her dress to reveal her attempt at getting the stain cleaned, only to make it worse.

Yohan gets up and comes to stand in front of her, attempting to smile to reassure her but fails. "I'm sorry I judged and lashed out at you. I can't take back my words but I can still make up for my attitude." He holds her by her chin and raises it a little so he could look into her eyes. "Will you give me another chance?"

Karin swallows the saliva in her mouth. She really likes him but his attitude a while back is making her rethink. "I don't know Yohan, I don't want you to go an extra mile just to make me feel better, I just want to go home now, I really..."

Yohan cut her off putting his fore finger on her lips and then holds her face with both hands caressing her cheeks. "Please!" He looks into her eyes and then at her parted lips. "Do it for me, because I'm not ready to let you leave yet. Please Karin?" He looks back into her eyes resisting the urge to kiss her to submitting.

Karin tries to mask her feelings, she really likes him but... She still his hands, bringing them down with her own tiny hands and moves back a little. "Ok Yohan but I want to take this off..."

"I'll get something nice from the cloth selection I have here" he walks towards the closet in the studio, searches through the collection and brings out a mini dress, very similar to what she has on but lavender colour. He raises it for her appraisal "What do you say?"

Karin looks at him carefully, and then nods her head in approval. "It seems you will go to any length to make me stay Mr. Yohan." She walks towards him and gently takes the dress from him, turns and heads straight to the bathroom. "Let's see what you've got up your sleeve, impress me and I'll definitely change my mind." She says over her shoulder as she enters the bathroom and shut the door behind her.