Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 154368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 617(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 617(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
I also thought about Hiroko's slave. The one living in the cage in her villa and lovingly waiting for her return.
Fuck. He’s going to be devastated.
I thought about her assistants as well as the women who worked with her in Tokyo. They’d relied on her for protection and guidance.
So many people had just lost someone irreplaceable. And I felt it. A complete and sudden hollowed loss. Like something had been carved out of my chest and I couldn't breathe around the absence of it.
Yoichi studied me. “Nyomi. . .do you need anything?”
“No.”
Kaoru spoke, “Is everyone okay?”
“Yes. Everyone except. . .Hiroko. She was shot.”
He blinked.
Then, my tears came harder now. My whole body shook with them.
Calm down. Get it together. You’re a queen. That's what Hiroko would tell you.
But I couldn't. I pressed my hand over my mouth, trying to hold it in. Trying to stay strong. But I couldn't.
I closed my eyes and sobbed.
Soon, muscular arms wrapped around me.
Kaoru and Yoichi.
Neither said anything.
There, I surrendered to their hold and let it all out.
The fear.
The grief.
The exhaustion of trying to be brave when everything felt like it was falling apart.
Chapter forty-one
His First Bad Bitch
Nyomi
Kaoru and Yoichi had comforted me enough to go back in the theater box and feign joy.
I was too much of a coward to tell Zo that Hiroko had passed. He was enjoying himself too much with Satoshi.
I'll tell him later.
My hands didn't know where to go. They started in my lap, moved to the armrest, then came back to my lap like they were looking for a place that didn't feel like grief.
My throat kept doing this tight, dry thing as if my body were holding something my mouth refused to release.
I swallowed.
Then swallowed again.
Deja returned to my hair.
Her fingers pressed into my scalp and parted a new row.
My shoulders dropped an inch.
Then another.
She pulled a section taut and my breathing slowed.
The low hum of Zo and Satoshi’s playful conversation wrapped around me and gave my soul much needed warmth.
I closed my eyes and let the grief sit where it was—heavy but quieter now.
After a while, Zo left with Satoshi to help him get the mixture off his skin.
Time passed, and they never came back.
Maybe they were just talking. Maybe they were doing more than that.
Either way, I wasn't going to interrupt. Zo deserved to enjoy his evening. I'd tell him about Hiroko later. Tomorrow, maybe. When he was ready to hear it.
Hours later, my goddess braids were finally done.
Deja placed the mirror in front of me.
When I stood, the braids shifted against my back with a quiet swish. I checked out my reflection.
Wow.
Deja had truly created a masterpiece.
The goddess braids framed my face. Thick at the roots with clean parts and then loose spirals of curly hair wove through the structure.
Deja had threaded copper highlights through every third braid like veins of fire running through dark earth. They caught the light when I turned my head.
I tossed my hair over my shoulder and checked out the side. Those spiraling curls really changed everything about the braids as they cascaded down my back in dark, shiny streams laced with copper, some stopping at my collarbone, others brushing my waist.
My cheekbones looked sharper. My eyes looked bigger. The copper caught the light near my face and made my skin glow warm, like I'd been kissed by the last hour of sun.
I touched one of the braids near my temple. The silky texture shifted under my fingertip. “Oh this is beautiful.”
“I know right.” Deja held her hand up and tapped two fingers together. “I ate.”
“You sure did.”
And due to the copper addition, my dark brown skin looked like I'd walked out of fire and the fire asked to come with me.
“Yeah.” I did a little turn and the curls and braids moved and swayed. I shook my head and they framed my breasts, brushed my waist, and curved around my hips like they knew my body and liked it. “Girl. . .the only problem with this is that. . .you’ll be back in a few weeks doing my hair again.”
“What?” Deja blinked. “You don’t like it?”
“No. I like it, but my man is going to see this, love it, and spend these next days trying to mess it all up.”
She laughed.
“I can already tell.” I sighed. "In fact, I give it five days, before I call you."
Kaoru shook his head. "Two."
I stared at him. "Not two."
Kaoru shrugged.
Deja laughed some more. “I know dude is Japanese, but doesn’t he know he’s not supposed to put his hands on a Black woman’s head?”
“It’s not much you can tell that man.”
“Aww. That’s what’s up. A boss is a hard one to wrangle.” Deja snapped. “Call me if you need tips.”
“I will.”
Deja was already moving before the compliments finished and cleaning stuff up, capping spray bottles and gathering combs.