Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 66993 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66993 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Yoichi corrected. “Two gifts.”
“Well. . .” I swallowed. “I thought it would be respectful. I was told that in Japanese culture, gift-giving is a sign of sincerity. . .of. . .wanting to make a good impression.”
Kaoru nodded. “It is. In most cases.”
“But?”
He grinned. “You’re not in most cases.”
My nerves flared. “So. . .you think I shouldn’t have brought them?”
He shrugged. “It depends.”
“On what?”
Kaoru slowed his pace just enough that we lagged a few feet behind Yoichi. Then, he lowered his voice. “The more. . .intriguing you become to the Dragon, well. . .”
“What?”
“The more you open doors that you cannot close.”
I parted my lips.
What?
We continued walking in silence.
Doors you cannot close.
Kaoru had said it so casually but it stuck to my ribs just the same.
I’ll have to be more careful with Kenji.
The path curved suddenly and the moment I turned the corner, I stopped breathing for a few seconds.
Oh my. . .
A grove of cherry blossom trees stood tall and opened to this secret garden shimmering under the full moon. The trees’ branches arched and formed a floral canopy of pink and white.
Here, their sweet, fragrance filled the air.
Thousands more petals blanketed the ground in quiet layers.
Well. . .the Dragon really knows how to romance a woman. . .but I’m not even a little bit surprised.
At the very center stood a single table low, round, and carved from dark wood. On it were blue and white porcelain dishes. Twin chairs waited next to it like a scene frozen in a love story.
It wasn’t just the table that caught me by surprise.
A small stage sat just beyond the table. It was about a foot high and ten feet wide, made of smooth cedar.
Above it, a sleek black ceiling had been built, elegant and minimal. . .except for one startling detail.
A single iron hook hung from its center, suspended on a thin chain, swaying gently as if stirred by breath.
I blinked at it.
What the hell is that hook for?
Was it for lighting?
A floral arrangement?
Maybe part of some avant-garde performance?
My mind immediately spiraled.
An aerialist?
Or. . .something darker?
I swallowed and forced my gaze away, only for it to land on a man sitting in the corner of the stage.
He was dressed in soft, dark robes and held a long, unfamiliar instrument in his lap.
It looked carved from polished black wood and had strings that stretched across a curved body—like a harp had married a sword, and they’d birthed this quiet, beautiful thing.
He plucked a single note—low and shivering—and the air responded.
The sound was ancient.
Honeyed.
Expensive silk unraveling in the dark.
Each note followed the last with aching slowness.
So warm.
Curling around my skin.
I parted my lips, completely hypnotized.
This wasn’t just music.
It was velvet sliding along the inside of my wrists.
It was cool water trailing down my fevered spine.
I loved music but I never knew that notes could reach beneath my ribs to touch my heart in this way or even slip between my thighs and damn near make me wet.
I stood there, suspended between cherry blossoms and moonlight, listening to a man summon desire.
Yoichi placed my two gifts on the table.
Kaoru grabbed my attention and gestured that way. “Your seat, Ms. Palmer.”
“Thank you. . .Pinky.”
He smirked.
I headed over there. “And you can call me Nyomi.”
Yoichi muttered. “He can’t.”
Kaoru frowned at Yoichi’s words but didn’t argue. Instead, he offered me one last smirk, before the two of them retreated just a few paces off, beneath one of the larger cherry blossom trees.
Once they got there, they didn’t sit.
They didn’t speak.
They just stood guard, shifting to scary statues made of shadow, muscle, and loyalty.
Suddenly. . .I felt it.
An invisible line.
It wrapped around my ankles and whispered. “You belong to someone now.”
Because it had just become clear that Yoichi and Kaoru were not allowed to be too close to me.
Not anymore.
Not once I’d stepped into his orbit.
Kenji’s.
He’s here. . .
No one had to say it.
There were no signs.
No rules posted on bamboo plaques.
I saw it in the way Yoichi watched Kaoru with that quiet warning. In the way Kaoru’s playful edge dulled. In the way their presence had shifted—from social companions to dangerous protectors.
I could see it in the structure of the date itself.
Every part of this night was curated.
Choreographed.
Not just to impress me—but to make a clear statement.
You’re mine.
Swallowing, I sat down slowly and as I settled in, my gaze swept the grove. The stage. The petals. The empty seat across from mine.
Because somewhere in this moonlit garden—even if I couldn’t see him yet—the Dragon was watching.
I was no longer just his guest.
I was being kept.
Possessed.
Cherished in that terrifyingly, beautiful way that only a man with real power can do.
The sort that didn’t beg.
Or chase.
The kind that built a kingdom for you and waited for you to step inside—then quietly locked the door behind you.
What the fuck did I just get myself into?