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)
She watched me. "When was your last relationship, Kenji?"
My last relationship. Have I ever even had any?
I ran my mind through the past days, weeks, and months, then I tensed.
Oh.
A shadow passed through my thoughts—sharp, unexpected. Not regret. Not guilt. Just the cold click of a truth I hadn’t yet spoken to many.
Hmmm. How will she feel about that?
For the first time in a while I began to get nervous.
I set the spoon down.
Fuck. Why didn’t I bring this up earlier? Well. . .I never thought I would need to. I thought my Tiger was just going to be a few nights of fucking.
I reached for my drink, but my hand stalled halfway.
Just the confession was enough to shift something sharp inside me. I didn’t want to ruin this night, but I also knew I had to tell her, especially if she had put her foot down about the Four Seasons suite.
With Nyomi I had to be mindful and very fucking careful continuing forward.
She watched me. “What?”
"There’s something I should tell you, Tora."
“It looks like it’s something bad.”
“Well. . .” I ran my fingers through my hair. “It’s probably not. . .the best news to tell you on this spectacular date.”
Shit. What will she say?
Chapter thirty-two
The War of Seduction
Something in Kenji shifted.
It was small. The way he paused. The twitch in his sexy jaw. The slight hesitation before touching his glass again.
But I caught it—because I was slowly learning how to read Kenji the way I read subtext in a forbidden novel.
With caution.
With curiosity.
With the strange ache that comes from already caring too much.
What does he have to say?
I didn’t expect to feel this nervous. Not after everything we’d already shared. The stories. The jokes. The looks that lingered just a little too long.
And yet, as Kenji swirled his drink and stared at the condensation pooling beneath it, I felt a flicker of dread. The kind that creeps in when things are going too well.
Shit.
I’d opened my heart tonight—maybe more than I ever had with anyone else. And he’d done the same.
Still my pulse picked up, and just like that, my mind pulled back to earlier, before the club, before the music, before the Dragon had arrived.
My thoughts went back to Zo dressing me for this date. He had been fluttering around me like a nervous stylist-slash-hype-man, making sure the red leather gown sat just right on my hips, and the corset wasn’t pinching too tightly.
“Okay now,” Zo lowered and tugged at the hem. “Turn. Let me see the slit. Perfect. When you walk in. . .show that damned thigh!!!”
I looked down at him. “Do you have to scream like that? I’m already nervous.”
“That thigh is nice. I would bite it if I wasn’t already full off cornbread.” He pointed at my leg. “When you walk in, stop, then stick your leg out slowly. He MUST see the thigh. This is how kingdoms have crumbled.”
“That serious?”
“Very serious. I am a full-blooded man. I can tell you that slits are one of our many weaknesses, and I’m not just saying a slit in a dress—”
“Alright. You’ve had too much gin.”
He rose. “You look like danger’s favorite recollection.”
I looked in the mirror. “I hope so.”
“And don’t let him rip up that dress. It just came off the runway last week. I’m hoping to sell it or at least get a magazine spread.”
“Don’t worry. If he rips it, he will pay for it.”
“Hmmm.” Zo smiled. “If he rips it, he’ll probably be paying a lot more than I can get for it so. . .definitely make sure you show that thigh.”
Then the door flew open so hard I nearly lost a heel.
Hiroko stormed into the room, her kimono sleeves fluttering like wings. Her usually calm demeanor had evaporated. “Nyomi!”
Zo and I both jumped like we’d been caught doing something illegal.
I held out my hands. “Y-yes.”
Hiroko’s eyes grew wide. “Your date is with the Dragon?”
“Yes, Kenji Sato—”
“The Dragon!!” Her hand slapped her chest.
Zo whispered. “You never told her that it was going to be Kenji?”
“No.” I shook my head.
He covered his face. “Nyomi. . .”
“That’s the Dragon,” Hiroko repeated, like she needed to hear it out loud again to believe it.
“Yes, It’s him,” I said slowly.
Hiroko stepped closer. “He is not a beast, Nyomi. He is a Dragon.”
“Well. . .dragons are beasts.”
Her head tilted with a warning. “Yes. But a Dragon will only kneel because he wants to. Not because you make him. And once he kneels, he owns the floor he does it on.”
I blinked.
Hiroko shifted into Japanese and then shook her head.
“Uh. . .” I swallowed. “You don’t think I can still do this date?”
“You can.” She rubbed her forehead. “But. . .now this is not my giving you a lesson in how to seduce, this is war.”
“War?”
“A very, very high-level power exchange, so yes. . .war.” Hiroko exhaled hard. “If we can win, it will be a beautiful, erotic, heart-stopping war.”