I snapped a photo of the painting, buying myself time to process that. "Intriguing."
"Is it?"
"That you two made that decision so young." I moved to photograph another angle of the room. "Based on a fantasy novel."
"No. Based on what feltright, the story just gave us language for it."
I took another photo—the dragon in flight, the woman with ice powers. "And now you no longer will share.”
“Wrong again.”
“I’m not wrong.”
Hiro chuckled—low and dark. "We'll still share you. . .Tora."
My head snapped toward him. "What?"
He shrugged, utterly casual about the bomb he'd just dropped. "We will just share you differently from how we have shared before. Probably not sexual, but like with sharing your food and time."
Probably not sexual. I caught that, Hiro.
I stared at him. "Kenji sharing my food and time with you? That’s what you see?"
"We’ll figure it out."
"And has Kenji gotten that memo about you two sharing my food and time?"
"He will." The certainty in his voice—the absolute confidence—made something flip in my stomach.
I laughed, slightly unhinged, and turned back to my phone. "Right. Okay. Sure."
"You don't believe me."
"I believe you think that's what's going to happen." I snapped another photo, focusing on the bookmarks, the figurines, anything but his face. "But Kenji doesn't strike me as the sharing type. Not anymore. Not with me."
"You'd be surprised what my brother will do when properly motivated."
"Uh-huh."
"You think I'm joking."
"I think you're testingme.Seeing how I will react to what you’re saying.”
“I am.”
Those two words held heat, more heat than I wanted to consider. So I kept my expression neutral and forced myself to focus. Hiro's ideas about dynamics and sharing could wait. Right now, I needed to figure out which of these three women had weaponized their access to Kenji's world.
I checked the time and sighed. "Alright, let’s go to the rooms.”
“Good idea.”
I moved past him, very aware of how close he stood, how his scent—different from Kenji's but equally dangerous—wrapped around me.
And I absolutely did not think about that painting. The one with Sol between two identical men. Both of them looking at her like she was the only thing worth worshipping.
Nope. Not thinking about it at all.
I adjusted my grip on my phone and headed for Yuki's door, determined to focus on literally anything else.
