Page 31 of The Dragon 1

And then I saw it—Hiro smirking.

I narrowed my eyes. It hadn’t been a wide smirk or even a cocky one but it still curled at the edges of his mouth.

The lollipop twitched between his lips.

He didn’t say anything, just stood there with that damn smirk.

I straightened in my chair. “Do you think something is funny?”

Hiro pulled the candy from his mouth and examined it, “this is new territory.”

“What is?”

“Needing to defend you against a woman,” he glanced up, calm and dangerous as always. “An American one at that.”

I let out a slow breath. “I don’t need defending against her.”

“I peeked in when Reo came in. . .”

“And?”

“You were holding your dick like it broke off.”

Reo snorted on my side.

I pointed at Hiro. “Say one more word and I’ll have you eating a lollipop out of your kneecap.”

“Perhaps but you’ll still be clutching your balls due to yourtiger.” That smirk stayed.

And strangely, I didn’t hate it.

In fact, if Hiro could be amused—even for a moment—it meant something truly rare had happened.

Nyomi Palmer, you beautiful fucking problem. You’ve made even my Claw smile.

The smirk was still on Hiro’s face when Reo spoke. “We should finish our meeting, there are still two major points that I didn’t get to, before your new obsession entered.”

I let out a long breath.

“We must deal with these things before the meeting, Kenji.”

The Tiger had left claw marks on my soul and that was all I wanted to focus on, but this was the price of power.

The moment I wanted peace, the world demanded war.

"Then tell me,” I leaned forward, steepling my fingers beneath my chin. “What fresh hell is waiting for me now?”

Chapter five

The Price of Power

Kenji

I waved my hand lazily. “Go ahead.”

Reo placed his hands in his pockets. “First, someone is cutting off women’s feet.”

Shock hit me. “What?”