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)
"You've been busy," he finally said.
"Hiro and I were planning the cocktail party."
"I can see that." His gaze moved over the prep stations again. The scattered ingredients. The half-eaten samples. Then back to me. "Did you eat breakfast?"
"No. I was too focused on coming up with everything."
"Good."
"Good?"
"I'm taking you away from here. We need to spend some time together. Just us."
My heart fluttered. "Okay."
His voice softened, just barely. "We should talk."
Something in the way he said it made my chest bloom with heat, as if he'd reached inside and touched my heart directly with his fingertips.
My breath caught.
This wasn't fear. This was a delicious certainty that whatever storm was coming, he wanted me weathering it in his arms, against his heart, where I belonged.
“Sounds good.” I slid off my stool and turned to Hiro.
He stood too with a knowing smile on his face. "Go. Our job is done here. The cocktail party is going to be a success."
"Thank you." I stepped toward him. "For everything today. The lesson. The honesty. The—"
"The laughing at you?"
"Especially that."
He laughed some more, and I pulled him into a hug.
Not a quick one.
A real one.
The kind that said I see you and thank you and you're my family now all at once.
Hiro's arms tightened around me briefly, and then he leaned down to whisper in my ear. "Remember. Knight in shining armor. Anything you need."
"I remember."
“And don’t give my brother shit about Reo.”
“I won’t.”
He released me and stepped back.
I turned toward Kenji and saw that his expression had turned hard. "Hiro."
Hiro raised an eyebrow. "Yes, brother?"
"Next time you're around my Tiger. . ." Kenji's eyes dropped pointedly to Hiro's bare chest. "Wear a shirt."
Hiro looked down at himself. Then back up at Kenji. A grin spread across his face.
"Why?" He flexed his arms deliberately. "Afraid she'll realize she picked the wrong brother?"
Reo choked on his fifth croquette.
One of the Fangs snorted.
Thankfully, Kenji’s face turned to reluctant amusement. It was the look of a man who wanted to kill his brother but also loved him too much to actually do it.
When I got to Kenji, he placed his hand on the small of my back.
Hiro remained where he was and gave him a respectful bow. “However, I will wear a shirt from now on.”
That amusement remained on Kenji’s face. “Thank you.”
“It’s just that I happened to bump into her.”
Kenji steered me toward the door. “I doubt that. I’m sure you tracked my Tiger down to aggravate her about this party.”
I laughed as he guided me out of the kitchen. Hiro's triumphant cackle followed us into the hallway.
The door swung shut behind us.
And then it was just us. The noise of the kitchen faded. The chaos. The laughter. The brothers and their endless competition.
Just me and the Dragon.
His hand stayed on my back as we walked, and I let myself lean into him—into his warmth, his steadiness, the solid presence of him beside me.
"Your brother is impossible," I said.
"I'm aware."
"I love him."
"I know." He moved his hand from my back, grabbed my hand, and then closed his fingers around mine. "So do I. Unfortunately."
We walked in silence for a moment.
The hallway stretched before us. Sunlight streamed through the windows, and thank God that smell of the pyre was gone.
I looked at him. "Where are we going?"
"Somewhere private."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one you're getting." He glanced down at me, and his expression softened. "I missed you today."
“Me too.”
“As I said before. . .we should talk.”
“We should.” I swallowed and didn't know what else to say. So, I just held his hand tighter and let him lead me forward.
Whatever came next—the conversation, the talk he wanted to have, whatever burden he was carrying—I would face it with him.
Because that's what you did for the people you loved.
You carried it together.
Even when it burned.
Especially when it burned.
We walked a few more steps in comfortable silence.
Then he glanced my way. "Also."
“Yeah?”
“I’ve got a little surprise.”
“Oh really? What sort of surprise?”
“A hot one.”
I blinked.
What the hell did that mean?
Chapter thirteen
Rising from the Flames
Nyomi
What is Kenji's surprise going to be?
The question circled my mind as we walked down the hallway together.
After this morning—the pyre, the ash, the way I'd shattered in the kitchen and been held together by his brother's ocean-calm arms—I had no idea what to expect.
Yet, with every step, Kenji's heat began to surround me.
Not all at once.
Sensually slow.
It was a fever rebuilding after the cool cloth had been pulled away.
Hiro's calm had been an ocean—vast and exactly what I'd needed to breathe again. That steady coolness had settled over my skin, quieted my pulse, and brought me back from the edge of the fire.
But now?
Strolling beside Kenji with his heated hand around mine, I could feel that ocean evaporating.
Searing off.
Steam rising from the surface of me.
And his heat didn't ask permission.