Page 80 of The Dragon 1

It was velvet sliding along the inside of my wrists.

It was cool water trailing down my fevered spine.

I loved music but I never knew that notes could reach beneath my ribs to touch my heart in this way or even slip between my thighs and damn near make me wet.

I stood there, suspended between cherry blossoms and moonlight, listening to a man summon desire.

Yoichi placed my two gifts on the table.

Kaoru grabbed my attention and gestured that way. “Your seat, Ms. Palmer.”

“Thank you. . .Pinky.”

He smirked.

I headed over there. “And you can call me Nyomi.”

Yoichi muttered. “He can’t.”

Kaoru frowned at Yoichi’s words but didn’t argue. Instead, he offered me one last smirk, before the two of them retreated just a few paces off, beneath one of the larger cherry blossom trees.

Once they got there, they didn’t sit.

They didn’t speak.

They just stood guard, shifting to scary statues made of shadow, muscle, and loyalty.

Suddenly. . .I felt it.

An invisible line.

It wrapped around my ankles and whispered.“You belong to someone now.”

Because it had just become clear that Yoichi and Kaoru were not allowed to be too close to me.

Not anymore.

Not once I’d stepped into his orbit.

Kenji’s.

He’s here. . .

No one had to say it.

There were no signs.

No rules posted on bamboo plaques.

I saw it in the way Yoichi watched Kaoru with that quiet warning. In the way Kaoru’s playful edge dulled. In the way their presence had shifted—from social companions to dangerous protectors.

I could see it in the structure of the date itself.

Every part of this night was curated.

Choreographed.

Not just to impress me—but to make a clear statement.