Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 104141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
“Understood.”
We got to the dining room.
The guards opened the door, and this shocking sight hit me.
What the fuck is going on with this day?
Chapter eight
The Most Dangerous Fashion Show
Kenji
The dining room was already loud when we walked in.
The Claws' laughter rolled deep and unguarded. I'd never heard them sound so happy in my life.
And the space. . .my Tiger had transformed it. Two dozen black and silver candles threw flickering shadows across black velvet draping and polished wood. A soft piano moved through the speakers. Wax, dried flowers, and something older hung in the air. The Claws pointed, grinned, and high-fived like boys at a festival.
Candles and velvet. Fire on the table and music in the walls. That was all she'd done, and it had meant the world to them.
Very interesting, Tora.
But the real thing that shocked the shit out of me was the clothes.
They really took this Best Dressed contest seriously.
Hiro was already planted at the head of the table like he owned the estate and everyone in it.
A large hat sat on top of his head.
Massive.
Black.
Wide-brimmed and furry.
“Finally, the Dragon arrives.” Hiro hit me with a large grin, displaying two oversized diamond-encrusted fangs in his upper row.
I blinked. “What the hell is that?”
“Fashion.” Hiro rose. “You should see the whole outfit.”
“No. I don’t think I need to.”
“You do.” Hiro left the table anyway and began to strut in front of me, banging this gold and ivory cane on the floor with each step.
I didn’t know what to look at first.
His muscular chest was bare beneath a long black fur coat that hung from his shoulders like a cape. The hem brushed the backs of his calves.
Four sparkling diamond necklaces draped across his collarbone and sternum.
Then diamond claws capped every finger.
Black leather pants and heeled boots completed the ridiculous outfit.
I tilted my head to the side. "Did my Tiger dress you?”
"Our Tiger did send a very nice tuxedo." Hiro spread his arms wide. The fur coat fanned open like wings. "But I had to decline. Nothing could beat this outfit."
Reo looked him up and down. "Well. That's one way to look at this situation."
Hiro threw his head back and laughed.
I let my gaze drift past him and finally took in the rest of my Claws.
They'd dressed themselves, and it showed. Each one had interpreted the all-black dress code through the lens of whoever the hell he was beneath the violence.
Kaede sat on the far side of the table like a man posed for one of those old royal portraits. His platinum-blond hair had been braided and then pinned atop his head in the shape of a heart. The hair shimmered too. Perhaps glitter or something had been sprayed all over it.
I blinked. “What is going on with your head?”
“It’s a tribute to the Heart.”
Reo snickered.
I rolled my eyes and took in the rest of him.
Kaede had chosen a high-collared white shirt buttoned to the throat with a tailored black leather jacket over it. The lapels held a faint liquid sheen in the candlelight.
Obsidian cufflinks rested at his wrists.
Crimson red leather gloves covered his hands and tiny black hearts decorated them.
A single heart-shaped ruby ring sat heavy on his finger.
And then I saw his eye.
Tonight, his glass eye had been replaced with a diamond, and at its center, a ruby heart sat as the pupil.
And against all sanity I had to admit that under the candlelight, Kaede's face looked less like a face and more like something a Renaissance sculptor had chiseled and then regretted because it came out too beautiful to be allowed in church.
I sighed and turned to Daisuke. At least. . .I thought it was Daisuke. This was a Claw that relished in disappearing within the shadows and never being seen too much.
But tonight, he could not be ignored. He’d dyed his black mohawk candy apple red and had it layered to his head in waves reminiscent of women from the Great Gatsby movie.
Okay. They’ve put too much preparation into this contest.
But more insane. . .he wore a long black silk dress. Strapless. Ostrich feathers decorated the top.
I widened my eyes and checked Reo’s reaction.
My smiling Roar simply shrugged. “You look gorgeous, Daisuke.”
I turned back to Daisuke.
The dress hit his ankles and showed his heavy thick-soled boots. The cut followed his body without clinging. A slit ran up the left and right sides of his muscular thighs, exposing the twin blades strapped to them.
A faint trace of black lipstick softened his mouth. Red blush covered his cheeks. Somehow, he’d put white on his lashes and made them so long the bottom ones kept hitting his cheeks.
If I had not known it was him, I might have mistaken him for some 1920s silent-film siren. Even more, I wasn’t sure how I felt about some of my most dangerous men spending hours tonight on makeup and diamonds.