Page 164 of Dragon 7

My eyes watered some more.

His heat pressed against my chest. His breath moved my braids.

My hands lifted on their own and settled at his sides where the bandages sat under his shirt. My fingers found the ridge of gauze beneath the fabric. My palms pressed there, and I let myself, for one second, be a woman held by her man.

He groaned again.

Then. . .to my shock. . .he let me go and stepped back.

Cold rushed into the space he left.

I almost reached for him, but I made my hands stay at my sides.

He rubbed his face with both hands and then sighed. "You are not leaving until we are done talking."

"I said I do not want to talk about it."

"Yet we will talk about this."

I frowned. "You may be the Dragon of Japan, but you are not the fucking Dragon of me—"

"I am most definitely your Dragon. Never forget that."

I edged back from him. “We won the war—”

“I know that—”

“Then, that’s it—”

“It’s not.”

"Why are you doing this?" My voice was not mine. "It has been a long night. So much was lost. I do not want to do this. Respect that. If you love me. . .just leave it alone. . ."

"Leave it alone. . ." He said it back to me soft and turned the phrase over in his mouth. “Leave it alone. . .”

Then Kenji walked away from me, returning to the chair with the children's books.

What the fuck?

I trembled.

He browsed the stack of children’s books for a few seconds and then picked up a smaller book with a bear on the cover.

He opened it and turned a page. "One night my father was out on business dealing with something. He’d taken my older brother Jobon because. . .he was my father’s favorite. I don’t know what the business trip was about. I was young."

I quirked my brows.

He closed the book, set it down, and touched the other book’s cover. This one had a rainbowed-balloon on it. “It stormed and thundered that night. So bad that I crept into my parent’s bedroom and slept next to my mother.”

I parted my lips.

He traced the balloon on the cover with his finger. "That stormy night a woman snuck into our estate. My father had given her a key to the back entrance of his office so they could privately meet right under my mother's bedroom as she slept."

I blinked.

He moved his hand from the book and turned his attention to all the empty beds on his side. "That night she came to my mother's room, dripping wet. Completely deranged.”

He raised his hands and stared at them. “She held a knife and screamed over and over, waking us up.”