He could have snapped his fingers and I probably would’ve followed him.
But instead. . .he said. . .please.
I couldn’t even respond right away. My lips parted, but the words didn’t come. Not because I didn’t have anything to say. But because everything in me was already screaming the answer.
Yes.
Yes, I’ll come back with you.
Yes, I want to see where you sleep, where you think, where you become human enough to rest.
Yes, I want to know what your sheets smell like. What your voice sounds like in the morning.
But saying yes wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was knowing that once I stepped foot in Kenji Sato’s private world, I might never be able to leave. Some part of me already understood the truth. This question wasn’t just about tonight.
This was aboutforever.
And I hadn’t even unwrapped the damned gift yet.
I let my fingers graze the black matte paper on my lap. The pink bow looked even more fragile now.
What did he give me? And why. . .am I so nervous to surrender to him?
Suddenly, an explosion split through the air like a god slamming his fist against the sky, and I didn’t even flinch. My heartbeat didn’t stutter, my breath didn’t catch. I was already growing numb to the orchestra of violence that scored his world, each boom and blaze another verse in the dark lullaby I was probably going to learn to sleep through.
I took a breath.
My hand reached out to him.
It hovered just above his cheek, not quite touching, but close enough to feel the heat of him.
His steady, molten stare stayed locked on me.
“Kenji. . .if I come to your place tonight, will you. . .let me leave the next night?”
His eyes flickered. Something shifted in the air between us, and then he spoke, “No.”
One word.
It was sharp as a cracked bone and just as final.
He leaned forward with his hands still resting on his thighs like a warrior kneeling at an altar. “But that’s not the question you should have asked me.”
“What should I have asked you?”
“Whether you say yes or not, will I let you go at all?”
“And. . .will you?”
“No.” He licked his lips. “It doesn’t matter if you say yes or no. I just want you to say yes.”
My bottom lip quivered. “You. . .lowered to your knees and asked me nicely to come with you, knowing that you would trap me to you regardless?”
“My Roar thinks I should be polite about caging you.”
“And what doyouthink?”
“I think that you will say yes tonight, not because I asked, not because you are scared, but because your body already craves it.”
