Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 161615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 539(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 539(@300wpm)
“Correct.” His mouth curved into a sneer, beautiful and cruel all at once, like he was trying to remind me who the predator was. “Who do you belong to, Tora?”
“You.”
“Say it again.”
The command throbbed between us.
My body hummed, vibrating at the edge of fear and want. My pulse stuttered, but I didn’t look away. “I’m all yours, Kenji.”
He exhaled, rough, and for a heartbeat I saw the flicker of surrender in his dangerous eyes, the momentary crack in the fortress he carried across his skin. His grip on my chin tightened, then loosened like he didn’t know if he wanted to cage me or worship me. “Yes. I have a lot on my mind. And yes, I have a reason I want to test you. And yes, I don’t want to tell you the truth.”
“What’s on your mind?”
“The test first.”
“Why are you testing me?”
“I will tell you later.”
“You will tell me now.”
He sneered.
I did my best to sneer back at him.
Unfortunately, it didn’t have the same effect. He widened his eyes and laughed.
I frowned.
After a few seconds, Kenji’s laugh tapered off, low and jagged at the edges, like it scraped his throat raw. He leaned closer, and his scent brushed against my lips as he spoke, “We do the test first, then I’ll tell you why. Can you trust me, Tora?”
“Only if you can trust me.”
His jaw flexed too hard, the muscle twitching like it was fighting restraint. And his eyes, those dangerous, molten eyes, didn’t burn with desire this time. They flickered. A shadow moved through them, quick but undeniable.
My chest tightened.
It wasn’t lust that lined his face in this moment. It was stress. Not the ordinary kind either—not fatigue, not tension from war plans with his father. This was heavier. The kind of fear that pressed into bone and marrow.
What’s going on?
Testing me was such an odd thing as we lay in bed naked. I couldn’t even think of why he would want to and how it could even deal with the war he had going on. But my curiosity for the strange test won over my need for answers right now.
“Okay.” I shrugged. “Test me.”
Kenji’s mouth curved, but not with humor. “Good.”
Then he sat up.
The sheets slid from his body, and for a moment I just stared, stunned that he’d actually moved. My lips parted, my chest stuttered with a shallow breath.
Wait—what?
He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and reached for his pants.
“Kenji?” I pushed up on my elbows, heart pounding. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t answer. Just stepped into the dark slacks and dragged them up his thighs with methodical precision. “Put on your robe. We’re going to have visitors.”
“Visitors?”
“Yes.”
I blinked at him, caught between disbelief and a rush of unease. “What? Kenji, you need to go to sleep.”
“After the test.” His voice was flat, almost cold. “I promise.”
I shook my head. “What sort of test needs visitors? What’s going on?”
“Do as I say, Tora.” He looked at me then. Not Kenji, not the man who had whispered love against my skin seconds ago. His eyes burned hotter, narrowing like blades being sharpened, and for a second I swore the air itself knelt to him. The room itself shifted with that stare, and then that dragon-shadow began to rise behind him.
My stomach clenched.
The intimacy we’d shared moments before collapsed into a suffocating pressure against my chest. A moment ago, his body had been my fortress.
Now it was a citadel under siege, menacing shadows leaking through the cracks.
Silence stretched.
He buttoned his pants.
I swallowed hard.
Kenji is gone. Only the Dragon is here now.
“Alright.” With stiff fingers, I reached for the robe at the foot of the bed and slid it on.
The silk caressed my bare skin.
“Good.” He gave me a short nod, strode to the door, and turned the lights on in the bedroom. “I’ll be right back.”
Where the hell are you going?
The door clicked shut behind him.
And I sat there, robe wrapped tight around me, heart thrashing in my chest.
What the fuck?
Chapter two
The Test
Nyomi
The door opened.
Kenji stepped back inside, and the world I’d just been safe in—the bed, the caresses, the warmth—snapped into a harder shape.
The air thinned.
Behind Kenji, three men poured through the threshold radiating quiet menace that made the room shrink around my shoulders.
O-kay. . .
Reo came too, silent and with a small notebook in his right hand.
What the hell is going on? Why does he need all of these people?
I stood immediately, silk robe tight against my skin, heart hammering in my chest.
A moment ago, I had been folded into a sensual forever made of breath and skin. Now it felt like my future had sharp teeth that could tear me open.
This wasn’t about pillow talk anymore. Not about love confessions or teasing chuckles against my spine.
This was about something larger, heavier, sharper.