Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 115388 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115388 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Just a little.
Just enough.
Of course, it didn’t fully fall apart—Kenji would never let it—but that alpha expression fractured.
Like heat splitting marble.
Like a stone face cracking at the corners.
The muscle in his jaw ticked.
His lips parted, just barely, like he was about to say something and forgot how.
His nostrils flared, and a single breath escaped, slow and heavy.
His eyes devoured me. Dark and low-lidded, heavy with want. Hunger lived in them—not the kind that rushed but the kind that waited.
Stalked.
Prayed.
There was a flash of heat, yes. But there was awe too. As if he couldn’t believe I was real. As if he’d found something he didn’t know he was starving for until just now. And it wrecked him—quietly, exquisitely, behind the eyes.
My nipples tightened.
His gaze dropped to my exposed thigh, lingered on the garter strap kissing my skin, and then to my heels.
When his eyes came back to mine, they weren’t wide with shock. They were narrowed—like he was trying not to lose control.
Like he wanted to sin, kneel, disappear between my thighs, and forget the world ever asked him to be a king.
The air sparked with erotic electricity.
I stayed exactly where I was and kept my cape over me. “These are the rules.”
His head tilted, just a little. A flicker of interest—or submission—sparked in his eyes.Still, he said nothing.
I slowly licked my lips.
He sneered watching my tongue.
I gave him a wicked smirk. “You don’t touch unless I say you can.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched.
His fists clenched once, then relaxed.
Good.
My body vibrated with lust. “You don’t lick unless you beg.”
A low sound rolled out of his chest.
Dark.
Dangerous.
Hungry.
My nipples tightened beneath the bodysuit.
I didn’t move. Couldn’t let it show how that sound had shattered me.
I pointed to the floor in front of me. “You will come over but you will stop three feet away.”
He inhaled, slow and tight, his control visibly fraying at the edges. “And if I do not follow these rules.”
I didn’t blink or flinch. “Then you’ll never taste what’s already dripping for you.”
His jaw ticked again.
“And you won’t be invited back to play.”
A pause.
A beat.
His pupils had dilated fully now. His breath came in slow drags as if he were forcing himself not to growl.
I slowly adjusted my cape, parting it just enough to bare more of my thigh.
His gaze snapped to it and I savored the rising hunger in his eyes as they traveled—along my thigh, next, down to the curve of my calf, and then lingered at the slope of my ankle where the stiletto shimmered.
And just like that. . .I knew what he was imagining.
What he was aching for.
What he was dying to see.
The heat between my thighs.
The bare, wicked surprise hidden beneath all this black.
My thighs pulsed. Not from nerves—but from how wet I’d made myself, just standing there, being watched like this.
Craved like this.
“Obey or leave.” I tilted my chin and dragged the cape forward, covering my entire leg.
Closing the curtain on the act he hadn’t earned.
His jaw clenched.
I glanced down at his pants.
His cock was raging against the fabric—thick, desperate, aching. He was hard enough to tear the suit off himself. Hard enough to break rules. But he didn’t move.
And that made me even wetter.
For a moment, the only sound that filled the room was of our ragged breaths.
I watched through my lashes as his gaze flickered between my eyes and my mouth, the tension in the room heightening with each fleeting look.
Then finally he spoke. “I will follow your rules, Tora.”
“That’s my good little Dragon.”
His fists clenched and I knew he was holding himself back from rushing over and fucking the shit out of me.
The heat within me rose and spread like wildfire, flushing my skin.
“However. . .you will not call me Tora in here.”
He quirked his brows.
“On the outside, I am your Tiger.”
“And on the inside?”
“I am your queen.”
Another dark groan left. “Yes, queen.”
I almost came right there. It was so lathered in divine lust and absolute submission.
Holy fuck this feels so good.
I swallowed. “Come here.”
He didn’t walk over. He prowled. Slow like a beast who already knew his prey would never ever escape him. Each step clicked softly on the marble floor.
And I stood still with my heart thundering.
The lines of him—sharp, brutal, elegant—stalked closer until he stopped exactly three feet away.
Right where I told him to.
Yet. . .he owned the space even as he obeyed and the way he looked at me made it feel like I had been the one summoned, not him.
Never him.
And standing there he said nothing, just stared at me with that unreadable expression.
That dragon mask.
That heat-cracked marble.
God, this man is so fine.
My breath caught. For a moment, I didn’t feel like Nyomi the author or even Nyomi the Queen.
I felt like Sol, the dark-skinned powerhouse from When the Dragon Swallowed the Moon, standing in a clearing with Korin above her—wings flared, claws buried in earth, breath steaming against her cheek. A creature ancient and untamable, brought low to the Earth by desire, but still dangerous enough to burn the world and her down.