Page 76 of Crossed By the Stars
No one but men like the three from last night.
Dax muttered something in his sleep, shifting so his hips were closer to mine, putting more of himself on display. All of him. He was so beautiful, torturing me like he always did. A thought flew through my head. A way to torture him back.
I didn’t even think twice about it. I just moved, surrounding him with my lips. As my mouth moved, his body tightened, eyes fluttering open, lust and desire filling them, and I relished it, hating myself for it almost as much as I ached to continue.
“What are you doing?” His voice was thick, full of sleep and longing.
I didn’t respond. I didn’t need to.
I just continued my gentle caress with tongue and fingers until he was close to reaching his climax. I could feel it in the way his body shifted and pulsed. He surprised me by not letting me finish. Instead, he moved in a flurry of motion, flipping me on my back and dragging his tongue up my inner thigh where he wasted no time in bringing me up and over the edge. My body clenched and shook, years of pent-up desire easily coalescing into this heady moment. The moans that escaped my mouth seemed to bring him out of whatever dream state we’d both been in.
He sat back, rubbed a hand over his face. “Putain…I’m sorry.”
The regret and rejection hit me so hard in my chest that I almost threw up.
I was grateful not to have to return his sorrow with snark as Kaida burst through the door.
“You’re late,” I told her, dragging myself from the bed.
“I had to take care of something forOyabun. When I came back, you were gone. I’ve been searching and calling for hours. Where is your phone?”
I shrugged. I had no idea. I’d lost it somewhere along the way the night before.
I picked up the red stilettos that were by the bed and headed for the door.
“Mon bijou,” Dax called after me, and the new and beautiful nickname twisted inside me. I ignored him, walking out without a backward glance while all the whilemy heart was shattering once again.
The memory of that night and morning was a perfect example of the dual-edged sword Dax and I had thrust back and forth at each other for years. He’d bruised his hands to keep me safe only to send me scurrying. I drew him in with teases and flirts only to toss him aside. Now…now he wanted to put the swords away and give me everything. Give me a future.
Hope stabbed and tore at the scabbed-over pieces of my heart. The little girl in me wanted to believe that our Romeo-and-Juliet story could find a different ending. One more like Shinji and Hatsue’s. One built on sweet acceptance. But it felt…unreal.
I barely glanced at my pale face in the mirror with the moonlight flooding the bathroom. I didn’t know if I could handle seeing the eyes that gave away the secrets of my soul.
When I came out of the room, there was a disturbance in the air that had me freezing at the foot of the bed. A hand found my mouth, and a knife appeared at my neck. The silver studded hilt with rubies was easily recognized as Kaida’s. I’d seen it many times in my past.
I didn’t turn around. I didn’t move an inch as fear spiked through my veins, the same fear I’d felt in the safe room two years ago when Ken’Ichi had me and Violet cornered at gunpoint. It was fear for my friend rather than myself. Only, this time it was fear for the man I loved. For Dax. He was as full of goodness as Violet was. They both deserved only the very best things.
Reality crashed into me, completely shattering the stupid dream I’d lived in for a few precious days. My life was never going to bring anything but evil to his world. I’d risked everything. I’d risked him. Guilt flew through me. Anger that was only directed at myself.
Kaida pushed at me silently, shoving me toward the door while keeping the knife at my throat, and I went willingly. The farther I got her from the man sprawled in my bed, the better. As we traveled down the stairs, my stomach heaved, thinking of the men on duty, thinking of Cillian and the other guards and wondering what she’d done to them.
I looked down as we passed the foot of the stairs and was grateful to see Mike without his throat slit. Instead, a dart stuck out of his neck. I could only hope it meant he was asleep and not dead. The front door was ajar, but no alarm was sounding. We’d barely stepped outside when pounding on the steps caused Kaida to flip us both around so that we were facing whoever had appeared.
Dax was bare-chested and wild-eyed as he stumbled down. He’d pulled on his jeans, but his feet were as bare as his chest.
“If you call for help, everyone dies, including her,” Kaida said softly. She was dragging me backward toward the dark sedan waiting for her in the drive.
Dax followed, keeping the distance between us wide but traveling at the same pace as us. “If you take her, you take me,” he said.
“You don’t get to make demands,” she said.
I didn’t understand why she was there. I still had a day left before I was expected to surrender to death. It made no sense for her to have come searching for me. But it meant that we’d been compromised yet again, that somewhere in the midst were more traitors.
Behind us, I heard the car door open. There was someone with her, and the pace of my heart multiplied. I begged Dax with my eyes to back away so I wouldn’t have his death on my conscience.
“Get in the car,Musume,” my father’s voice pounded through the air quietly. I shouldn’t have felt crushed by the knowledge that he truly was behind all this, yet his voice sliced through me, proving once more how much a parent can wound a child.
Dax’s face turned darker than I’d ever seen it—even more than that night with the three men at Benita’s. He lunged forward, barely getting hold of Kaida’s arm before she pushed me aside and kicked out, careening into his knee with a sickening crunch. A gun barrel appeared near my cheek, pointed in Dax’s direction.
