Niamh’s scream wrenched Kiyo out of sleep.
Heart in his throat, he reached for her and found the bed empty where she should be. “Niamh!”
“In here.” Her head appeared around the doorjamb of the hotel bathroom. “Are you okay?”
His relief was so intense, he could have wept like a goddamn babe. “Bad dream.” He exhaled shakily.
Niamh’s expression was one of understanding. “Come shower with me.” Her head disappeared.
Needing to feel her beneath his hands, Kiyo swung his legs out of bed, his eyes dropping to the new scar near his hip. The wound was completely healed. Touching his neck, he felt the raised skin of the scar there too. It wasn’t the first time someone had tried to take his head off. It was the first time they’d tried it with silver.
Stepping into the dimly lit bathroom, he drew to a halt at the sight of his naked mate.
She had her back to him, angled toward the mirror above the sink as she stared at herself.
Or more precisely at the scar on her spine. Her eyes flew to his in the mirror and then moved to the scar on his neck. “What a pair we make, covered in battle scars.”
Kiyo divested himself of his jeans to join her in her nakedness. Then he moved to her, every part of him aching with a strange emotion that almost felt like grief. What happened to her last night had yet to leave him. He didn’t know how long it would take, if ever, for him to recover from it. Lowering to his knees, he clasped her warm hips in his hands and kissed the scar. It was nestled on her spine just above the sexy dimples on her lower back.
Goose bumps pebbled her skin as he brushed his mouth over the raised area.
“Does it hurt?” he whispered.
“All healed,” she replied, hoarsely.
Kiyo pressed another kiss to it, wishing he had the power to erase the memory for her. With that feeling of powerlessness came an urgency to make her forget. If only for a while. He caressed her hips, trailing his fingers downward until they reached her gorgeous ass. He squeezed her cheeks as he rose slowly upward, peppering wet kisses all the way up Niamh’s spine.
Her gasps of excitement were the equivalent of her soft hand wrapped around his dick.
His hands followed his rise, chasing around her silken stomach. As his lips reached her shoulders, he palmed her breasts, catching her taut nipples on his thumbs.
“Kiyo,” she panted, arching into his touch as she rested her head against his collarbone.
Catching the erotic sight of them in the mirror, Kiyo turned her gently toward it. Her eyes were closed as she mewled at his fondling. “Open your eyes.”
They flew open, bright gold with arousal.
His reaction was immediate. All blood shot south.
They looked phenomenal together. Her golden paleness against his dark fawn. Their eyes locked in the mirror. Kiyo released one of her breasts to skim his hand down her belly, and he felt her tremble with anticipation. Her gaze dropped to follow his hand and her mouth parted on a quiver of want as his fingers found her clit.
“Kiyo.” She bit her lip, pushing into the touch, as he rolled hard circles over the peak of her while massaging her breast with his other hand. The act of watching her watch him bring her to climax had him so ready, he could feel the wet leak from his tip against her ass.
Niamh’s hands came to his outer thighs to steady herself as she rocked against his fingers, her moans and cries of pleasure echoing around the bathroom. Then she tensed. “Kiyo!”
She shuddered as the orgasm rolled over her.
Barely giving her a moment to process it, he grabbed her hair in his hands and twisted her head to kiss her, his tongue licking at hers, needing her taste and scent and sweat on every part of him. Breaking the kiss, he growled against her lips, “Bend over the sink.”
The gold that was bleeding back to aquamarine drenched her irises in liquid sunlight. She nodded, a little unsteadily, before she pulled away from him to bend over, hands to the sink.
Kiyo took her perfect rump in his hands as their eyes locked in the mirror again. “Spread.”
Niamh’s breathing grew shallow as she did what she was told.
His body was hot with anticipation. His mate hadn’t been joking when she said he was welcome to order her around in the bedroom. It was something he was definitely going to explore to its limits. Later. Right now, he just needed inside her.
Without another word, he tightened his hold on her hips and thrust hard into her, groaning with sheer bliss at the feel of her wet warmth clasping him so tight.
“Ahh!” Niamh’s back bowed at the intrusion but she kept her eyes on his.
He stayed still, giving her a moment to adjust until he felt her desire for more seep through the bond. Sliding a hand up her spine and beneath the strands of her long, pale hair, Kiyo found and gently gripped the nape of her neck. Holding her at the hip and the nape, he kept her locked there, unable to move, only able to take.
And he fucked his mate, holding her gaze in the mirror so she could see the savage possessiveness darkening his face as he pumped into her in powerful, hard strokes.
Niamh’s eyes fluttered closed as she lost herself to pleasure.
He smacked her ass and gritted out, “Open your eyes. Watch me fuck you. Watch how you belong to me.” He bent over her as her eyes opened, the change in angle causing her to moan in desperate want. He held still inside her, feeling her throbbing need, as he murmured in her ear, “Watch how I belong to you.”
Her inner muscles tugged around him as Niamh cried out his name in orgasm.
He grunted in surprise at her sudden climax and straightened to pump his hips against her ass, riding her through it until he couldn’t hold back any longer. Kiyo’s flooded into his mate with a yell of her name, his hips jerking and shuddering against her as she wrung every last drop out of him.
Every last drop of his essence, of his soul.
Of his fucking heart.
Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled out of her but only to bring her down to the floor with him. Niamh turned in his embrace, straddling him so she could kiss him. Soft, lazy, sexy kisses that worked like an aphrodisiac until he was hot and hard and wanting against her soft belly again.
Niamh moaned, feeling his arousal, and pressed kisses down his chin until she reached the scar on his throat. She kissed it sweetly then met his gaze.
Her fingers sifted through his hair. “That was the sexiest thing you’ve ever done to me,” she admitted.
“I got that.” He grinned, his arms squeezing around her. “There’s more where that came from.”
“Unfortunately, I think we better get a move on.” She pouted and then kissed him again. She grinned, pulling back. “You need to shave. I’ve never felt you all prickly before.”
“Been kinda busy.”
She rubbed her cheek to his like an animal bussing into its mate. “I like it,” she whispered in his ear, deliberately pushing her hips into him.
Kiyo smoothed his hands down her spine until his palm rested over her scar. “As much as I want you again, you’re right. We need to move. The pack are probably already maneuvering against us.”
Niamh exhaled and reluctantly stood. “Then you better call Bran and ask him to book us flights out of Osaka. Do you have a destination in mind?”
Kiyo shook his head as he got to his feet. “Up until now, we’ve been following your visions.”
“There’s nothing new on that front.”
“Why don’t I just ask Bran to book wherever he thinks best,” he suggested.
She chuckled. “It might be fun to see where he sends us. I’m not sure he likes you very much.”
“It’s better than no plan at all.”
“True.” Her amusement died. “And for now, we need to get the hell out of Japan. As much as I’ll be sad to say goodbye.”
While he was pleased his mate felt such an affinity for his homeland, she was also absolutely right. They couldn’t return to Japan for a while. Maybe years. A feeling akin to homesickness touched him. Sensing it, Niamh cuddled into him in comfort.
“We’ll find a way to come back,” she promised. “I won’t let the bastards take your home from you.”
Overwhelming emotion for this woman sought to rob him of words. But he needed her to know exactly what she meant to him. “They won’t ever take my home,” he replied, pressing a kiss to her hair. “They can’t when my home is right here in my arms.”
“I love you, Kiyo,” she said in answer.
He tilted her chin to look into her eyes. “If you need those words, I will give them. I love you, Komorebi. But know this … what I feel for you is so much bigger than three words.”
She smiled, understanding him completely.