Leaking.
Desperate.
Hers.
My bottom lip quivered. “Marry me.”
She blinked.
“Marry me, Tora. Let me give you my name. Let me give you the empire. Let me give you everything I've ever built and watch you set it on fire if that's what you want.”
Shock hit her face, but she recovered quickly. “How about we discuss that at another time.”
“Now.”
“Silence.”
I pressed my lips together.
Yes, Queen.
Nyomi picked up a fresh wand, dipped it, lit it, and she didn't look at Hiroko.
She chose my stomach next.
“Oh!”
The flame traced the grooves between my abs like a tongue—slow, wet, and greedy for every inch of my skin. Down the center line. Along the ridges of muscle. Over the katana tattoo that pointed toward my cock.
The garden came again. But darker now. The cherry blossoms were falling faster and each petal caught fire before it hit the water. The koi surfaced, mouths open, swallowing flame.
The heat pooled in the hollows of my body—the dip of my navel, the crease of my hip bones—and it sat there. Warm, heavy, intimate. The way a lover's breath sits on your skin right before they kiss you in the place you need it most.
She lifted the flame, watched me disintegrate into a blissful, ruined mess, and then placed the flame lower.
Past the katana's blade.
Past my navel.
Toward the silk.
“Oh fuck!”
The flame stopped at the edge of the fabric. Right where silk met skin. Close enough that the heat bled through and kissed the base of my cock.
I choked and surged off the stone.
The restraints caught me.
I throbbed beneath the silk, and each throb pumped a fresh wave of blood into the shaft until I was so swollen, so full, so hard that the ache became its own heartbeat—separate from the one in my chest, louder, more demanding, pulsing in a rhythm that matched the flame's heat.
“Careful, Nyomi. He’s already so far gone. Don’t push him anymore or he’s going to be trouble.”
My Tiger pulled the flame away. "I like trouble."
Sweat dripped down my face.
“But I’ll be good.” Nyomi moved to my thighs.
