Chapter 1 #2
“None of that matters, Tora. It’s just us two. Together. In this bed. Heads on the same pillow. Holding each other and listening to our whispers. Skin to skin. Saying what our hearts truly feel.”
“But. . .” My pulse skipped.
Then raced.
Then stopped entirely when his eyes pinned me.
My bottom lip quivered. “I love you, Kenji.”
“I love you too, and will always love you. There will never be another woman after you. No one else can compare.”
My heart pounded in my ears.
Those words were so much I had to sit with them and close my eyes just to let them imprint into my heart and drown any fear away.
Damn. . .
And in that instant, I realized loving the Dragon would never save me—only ruin me beautifully.
Fuck it. Then that is just what will be. . .
I opened my eyes.
He continued to watch me.
I had to change the subject, if only to give my heart a few minutes to catch up. I swallowed. “Why can’t you really go to sleep?”
“I told you.”
“That’s bullshit. You’re horny, but you’re exhausted.”
His eyes didn’t move, but his jaw twitched.
“Something is on your mind. Or maybe. . .a lot of somethings are on your mind.”
“Why do you say that?”
I tilted my head, studying him like I’d studied so many before. “Your face is giving it away.”
“It isn’t.”
“It is.”
He smiled. “Tell me how.”
“The set of your mouth. The way you’re watching me without blinking, like if you blink, the thoughts will escape. That tightness around your eyes that I believe comes when you’re not angry, but you’re stressing about something that’s really heavy.”
His hand tightened on my hip, almost reflexive, as if to stop me from peeling him open. “So you think you can read me?”
“Am I right or wrong?”
“You’re right.”
I shrugged. “But. . .you’re also at war with your father, so maybe what I said is just a good guess in the context of the situation. Anyone would reasonably think you are stressed.”
Kenji’s eyes narrowed a fraction, the kind of shift most people wouldn’t even notice. “Let’s test this.”
“What?” My brows lifted. “Test it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I’m intrigued.”
I caught it—the smallest flare at the corner of his mouth, the briefest twitch of muscle along his jaw, like his face couldn’t quite hold the burden of a big lie. His gaze slid away from mine for half a second before snapping back, too sharp, too quick.
I leaned closer, studying him the way I’d studied a hundred men who thought they could bluff their way through an interview.
“No. You’re not intrigued. You’re hiding something else.
The little tells give you away—your mouth twitches, your jaw goes rigid, your eyes can’t hold mine for more than a beat without overcompensating. You’re scared to tell me the truth.”
His nostrils flared. “Careful, Tora.”
Fear coiled in me, yes, but so did fire. I wanted his secrets, his shadows, his truths. I wanted to drag every hidden thing out of him, claws first if I had to. I steadied my next words. “Why do I have to be careful?”
“I don’t like to be easily read.”
“We’re naked. You’ve been inside my body. You’ve bit my flesh and drank my blood like a vampire. If anyone is going to be able to easily read you. . .it will be me.”
His eyes glinted, dangerous and molten, but his voice came out low and sensual. “You already have my heart and my cock. You have my soul. You don’t need my fucking brain too.”
“Yet,” I whispered, brushing my fingers along the hard line of his jaw, “I want it all.”
A dark chuckle left him. “Greedy Tiger.”
“You’re one to talk. You’ve swallowed my life whole. Every cell within me belongs to you.”
He moved his hand up and gripped my chin. “That’s because you’re mine.”
I thought back to what he said in the shower. “Apparently I’m yours in this life and others.”
“Correct.” His mouth curved into a sneer, beautiful and cruel all at once, like he was trying to remind me who the predator was. “Who do you belong to, Tora?”
“You.”
“Say it again.”
The command throbbed between us.
My body hummed, vibrating at the edge of fear and want. My pulse stuttered, but I didn’t look away. “I’m all yours, Kenji.”
He exhaled, rough, and for a heartbeat I saw the flicker of surrender in his dangerous eyes, the momentary crack in the fortress he carried across his skin.
His grip on my chin tightened, then loosened like he didn’t know if he wanted to cage me or worship me.
“Yes. I have a lot on my mind. And yes, I have a reason I want to test you. And yes, I don’t want to tell you the truth. ”
“What’s on your mind?”
“The test first.”
“Why are you testing me?”
“I will tell you later.”
“You will tell me now.”
He sneered.
I did my best to sneer back at him.
Unfortunately, it didn’t have the same effect. He widened his eyes and laughed.
I frowned.
After a few seconds, Kenji’s laugh tapered off, low and jagged at the edges, like it scraped his throat raw. He leaned closer, and his scent brushed against my lips as he spoke, “We do the test first, then I’ll tell you why. Can you trust me, Tora?”
“Only if you can trust me.”
His jaw flexed too hard, the muscle twitching like it was fighting restraint. And his eyes, those dangerous, molten eyes, didn’t burn with desire this time. They flickered. A shadow moved through them, quick but undeniable.
My chest tightened.
It wasn’t lust that lined his face in this moment. It was stress. Not the ordinary kind either—not fatigue, not tension from war plans with his father. This was heavier. The kind of fear that pressed into bone and marrow.
What’s going on?
Testing me was such an odd thing as we lay in bed naked. I couldn’t even think of why he would want to and how it could even deal with the war he had going on. But my curiosity for the strange test won over my need for answers right now.
“Okay.” I shrugged. “Test me.”
Kenji’s mouth curved, but not with humor. “Good.”
Then he sat up.
The sheets slid from his body, and for a moment I just stared, stunned that he’d actually moved. My lips parted, my chest stuttered with a shallow breath.
Wait—what?
He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and reached for his pants.
“Kenji?” I pushed up on my elbows, heart pounding. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t answer. Just stepped into the dark slacks and dragged them up his thighs with methodical precision. “Put on your robe. We’re going to have visitors.”
“Visitors?”
“Yes.”
I blinked at him, caught between disbelief and a rush of unease. “What? Kenji, you need to go to sleep.”
“After the test.” His voice was flat, almost cold. “I promise.”
I shook my head. “What sort of test needs visitors? What’s going on?”
“Do as I say, Tora.” He looked at me then.
Not Kenji, not the man who had whispered love against my skin seconds ago.
His eyes burned hotter, narrowing like blades being sharpened, and for a second I swore the air itself knelt to him.
The room itself shifted with that stare, and then that dragon-shadow began to rise behind him.
My stomach clenched.
The intimacy we’d shared moments before collapsed into a suffocating pressure against my chest. A moment ago, his body had been my fortress.
Now it was a citadel under siege, menacing shadows leaking through the cracks.
Silence stretched.
He buttoned his pants.
I swallowed hard.
Kenji is gone. Only the Dragon is here now.
“Alright.” With stiff fingers, I reached for the robe at the foot of the bed and slid it on.
The silk caressed my bare skin.
“Good.” He gave me a short nod, strode to the door, and turned the lights on in the bedroom. “I’ll be right back.”
Where the hell are you going?
The door clicked shut behind him.
And I sat there, robe wrapped tight around me, heart thrashing in my chest.
What the fuck?