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)
"Tora, don’t. . ." he murmured, deeper this time. “I’m. . .sorry. . .”
A shiver climbed my spine.
Then his lashes lifted.
Slow.
Unhurried.
Sleep-heavy.
Next, those eyes found mine. He breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Tora. . .” He pulled me closer and then slid his muscular thigh up between mine until the heat of his hardening cock pressed firm against my belly.
He studied me. “You’re up.”
“I am.” I smiled against his chest. "Were you dreaming about me?"
He stared at me. The softness in his face did not crack, but the peace underneath did.
Silent seconds stretched.
My smile started to fade.
Why was he looking at me like this? Why wouldn't he answer? The silence kept extending and his eyes kept holding mine and my chest started to tighten.
"Kenji?"
He raised his hand to my face and stroked my lower lip slowly. "Yes. I was dreaming of you."
"What did you dream about?"
His thumb kept tracing my lip. His eyes searched mine like he was deciding whether to let me in to wherever he had just been. Then he spoke, and his voice was lower than usual. "There were white chrysanthemums around you."
"Flowers?"
"Endless." His thumb stilled against my mouth. "They stretched farther than I could see."
I saw it the way he must have seen it—a sea of white blossoms moving in the wind.
"And you were naked and on your knees. This dark lake was right in front of you.”
The image arrived in my mind before I could stop it. Me, naked and kneeling in a sea of white flowers that bent and swayed around my body while a lake rippled in front.
He frowned. "You were crying. No. Sobbing. So loud and so hard it looked like it hurt for you to breathe through it."
My heart ached as I saw myself sobbing in the field. Shoulders shaking. Mouth open. The kind of crying that wrecked the lungs.
I placed my hand on his chest. “And where were you?”
“Heading your way, but. . .I wasn’t a man. I was a huge dragon. Black and gold. And when I got close to you, I realized this horrible fact.”
“What?”
“You made that ocean with the steady stream of your tears. I got close and they were pouring into the water and expanding it along the flowers.” He moved his hand from my face and lowered to my hip. “And I began to call your name.”
“Tora.”
“Yes. Over and over, but you would not turn around.”
“You said sorry.”
He blinked. “How do you know that?”
“I heard you apologize.”
He studied me. “I blamed myself for your tears.”
“Why do you think you did that?”
“I don’t know.”
“I bet it wasn’t you that made me cry.”
He pursed his lips together.
“Do you know how I know?”
“How?”
“Because if you made me cry, I would not be making a lake of tears. I would be kicking your ass.”
He blinked and then he chuckled.
I winked.
He chuckled some more, low in his chest, and I felt it travel through his body and into mine.
Then second after second. . .his laugh quieted and his thumb brushed along my hip and stayed there. But his eyes had drifted past my shoulder, off to where the dream still lived.
Come back to me, Dragon.
I pressed my palm flat against his chest and relished in the rhythm of his heart. “It was just a dream. I’m here and I’m not crying. I’m happy.”
His gaze returned to me, and the shadow behind his eyes lifted a little.
"Besides," I caressed the dragon’s head tattooed on his chest. "I had a front row seat to the Dragon sleeping."
The corner of his mouth lifted. "You did."
"It was a fabulous show."
“A dangerous show too, Tora. I would not buy a future ticket.”
“It wasn’t a dangerous show.”
“It was.” A sleepy grin spread across his face. “Watching me in a state of rest. . .you learn too much. Knowledge is power, and you have quite enough over me already.”
“No. It’s not enough. I want full domination down to every cell.”
He licked his lips.
“Do you want to know what I learned this morning about the Dragon?”
“Tell me.”
“Even in your sleep. . .you hold me possessively.”
“You’re mine.”
Heat rose in my core. “You hold me tighter too. . .like you’re afraid something or someone might take me.”
The line of his jaw twitched, telling me that he didn’t like that I’d learned that. “But, that’s not fear.”
“Then, what is it?”
“Instinct.”
“Hmmm.” I smirked. “Or it is instinctual fear?”
“A dragon doesn’t fear, and a dragon doesn’t sleep without guarding what’s his.”
“Aww. What’s his.”
“Yes.” On my hip, his thumb drew a circle. “Even in a deep state of unconsciousness, my body. . .my arms. . .my hands. . .my heart. . .none of those will ever loosen their grip on what matters.”
A feeling of overwhelming delight rushed through me, and I fucking felt weightless from his love.
I rose up over him and slid my body along his. My thighs bracketed his hips as my hands came up to frame his face.