Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 115388 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115388 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
But this?
The suite.
The key.
The driver.
It all made me nervous and I wasn’t sure if it was good or bad. If I stepped into that suite too fast, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to leave him. I didn’t want to be one of those women who lost the plot to the man’s true story of manipulation.
I don’t think Kenji is trying to control me, but. . .I’ll just chill for now when it comes to taking him up on that suite.
I set the card down.
Not yet, Dragon. You don’t get all of me that easy. Not until I know what it means when you call me yours.
If he wanted my submission, he’d have to survive my resistance first.
I’d watched too many women who looked like me give and give until they had nothing left but exhaustion and a man still asking for more. Black women were taught to be ride-or-die before we ever learned to rest.
Taught to pour honey on wounds.
Taught to fold into softness even when the world stayed sharp around us, always cutting.
But I wanted a soft life. I deserved one. And if he wanted to be part of that life, he had better come with tenderness in one hand and tenacity in the other.
I wouldn’t just be impressed by silk sheets and chefs on standby. I would more be impressed by consistency, by a man who saw the burdens I could carry and still thought I should be held like a jewel.
So no, not yet for the suite.
Not until I knew for sure if he was here to worship or to wear me down.
Not until I knew for sure that being his, also meant being free, not owned.
Even more. . .every woman before me probably said yes to his suite on the first night. But I wanted to be the one he couldn’t tame so easily. He said I was a tiger, and for the first time, I was actually starting to believe him.
Not just some soft kitten in silk sheets, not just some warm body to tuck into a hotel suite and call it love.
A tiger.
Regal.
Relentless.
Raw.
A Tiger Queen even.
Not waiting for a crown.
I was the crown.
And if he wanted to touch me, he’d need to bleed for the privilege.
You shouldn’t have jumped for those panties so fast, Dragon. Now look at me—fully feeling myself.
Smiling, I glanced at the little stack of my things on the floor—laptop, charger, and the fantasy book he gave me.
When the Dragon Swallowed the Moon. . .
I leaned over picked it up and shifted onto my side.
I could read until Zo gets out of the damn shower and Kenji’s chef appears.
The cover shimmered in the early light, bleeding through the blinds—deep obsidian, traced with gold and a silver title.
I flipped it open, trying to remember where I had left off.
Ah, right. . .the Dragon named Korin.
That chapter had hit me like a dream I wasn’t ready to wake from.
I remembered the weight of it—how Korin had torched the world from the sky, an ancient, unstoppable force. Cities burned, soldiers crumbled, and there was no stopping the wrath of that dragon.
Not until her.
God.
This beautiful, magical Black woman hadn’t even flinched when he roared across the heavens at her. Hadn’t moved an inch when towers collapsed and men screamed around her. She just stood there barefoot and raised her hands.
She didn’t scream nor did she run—she fought.
Cold power shot out of her and she silenced Korin’s fire. And when she got the dragon, it hadn’t been rage that came out of him, it was arousal and awe.
That dragon had hovered there midair, confused and trembling. His fire strangled. His cock—yes, even in dragon form—responded like her magic was the most forbidden touch he’d ever known.
Now that was a naughty dragon. Didn’t he show his dragon cock to her? Yeah. I’m pretty sure he did.
I shivered at the memory.
The audacity of that moment.
The heat of it.
Other lines hit me.
She’d seen the beast.
Next, she would meet the man.
His human form was one he hadn’t worn in decades. A form he’d buried to become legend.
I could still remember that last line.
He didn’t think he would survive another day if he didn’t at least know her name.
I let out a slow exhale, opened the book again, and flipped to the next chapter.
What would come next?
Would Korin really return to her as a man?
Would she let him close?
And what would he do to prove he was worthy?
I needed to know. Absolutely giddy, I pulled the blanket around my waist, curled up on the futon with the book, and began to read.
With each sentence, I didn’t know if I was reading a fantasy or a warning.
But my fingers turned the pages like they already belonged to the beast.
Chapter seven
The Lowly Who Dared
Sol
I did it! I scared the mighty Korin away! A girl with no name just rewrote legend. Let them choke on that.