Bound by Forever - (True Immortality #3) Page 0,74
the gorgeous Japanese alpha who was still carrying a grudge twenty-six years after the fact.
“You have not aged. How can that be?” Sakura asked in wonder, stroking her thumb along his cheek.
“You haven’t aged either.”
“A kind lie.” She leaned in to whisper so softly, Niamh was sure only she and Kiyo could hear. “No one knows how kind and gentle you can be, Kiyo-chan. That was always just for me.”
Niamh wished she were anywhere else but here witnessing this. She felt like an awkward third wheel, and it was not a nice feeling when you were falling for one of the other wheels.
“I’m not being kind. It’s the truth. You’ve barely aged.”
“I have aged. But you … Oji-chan always thought you were older than your years. So mature for a young man. But he must have been wrong, hai? You had to only have been in your twenties. Which would make you nearly fifty now. Yet you do not look a day over twenty-five.”
Oh shit.
Niamh held her breath as Kiyo deftly handled the questioning with a casual shrug. “I have good genes. It’ll catch up to me one day.”
“Hmm, maybe. After all, everything always does. Speaking of which, we must discuss your debt, Kiyo. It is long overdue.”
“We seem to have a difference of opinion on that.”
“You were set to fight the biggest fight Tokyo has ever seen. Oji-chan put a lot of money on you … and you reneged. Kiyo, you owe us that money.”
“I don’t think I do. But if it’ll settle our score, I’ll pay you the money. I’m good for it.”
Sakura laughed prettily and then pressed her body against his.
Yup, Niamh was going to kill her.
Kiyo’s hands came to rest on Sakura’s hips and she slid her arms around his neck, settling deeper into him.
Any urge to kill Sakura transferred to him. He might as well have taken his katana to Niamh’s chest.
She lowered her eyes, hating that she was jealous over this cold, mercurial bastard.
“You know it does not work that way, Kiyo-chan. You have to pay the debt you owe.”
“You want me to fight?”
Niamh looked at them, despite how much it hurt to see their intimate embrace. They looked stunning together.
They looked right.
For a moment it distracted her from what was happening.
“I don’t have time.”
“You will make time.”
Kiyo sighed heavily, his expression softening as he gave her hips an affectionate squeeze. “Sakura, can’t we just put this behind us?”
“Do not try to charm me. You will pay your debt or you do not leave Japan without losing a limb. Do not make me do that. You know how I love every inch of you.”
Trying to slow her speeding pulse, Niamh dared to speak. “What’s going on?”
“Keep the mahoutsukai quiet.” Sakura flicked her a dark look. “Or I will do it for her.”
Before Niamh could break her fecking neck, Kiyo leaned down and brushed his lips over Sakura’s. “Show Niamh some respect … or I walk.”
His words should have made her feel better, but they didn’t.
That lip brush pushed Niamh further from Kiyo.
She felt like an outsider.
She felt alone.
Always alone.
She couldn’t understand why this hurt so much when she barely knew him and she never knew where she stood with him, anyway. Who needed that? If she had a friend and a friend told her about a guy who was nice one second and a cold bastard the next, she’d tell her friend to dump his arse.
Niamh couldn’t dump his arse physically, but emotionally …
The alpha seemed to bristle at Kiyo’s command, but she didn’t respond to it. She slid her hand into his top knot and gripped it, pulling his head toward hers so she could demand against his lips, “You will fight.”
“One fight,” he relented, to Niamh’s surprise. She didn’t know what this fight was they spoke of, but she couldn’t believe Kiyo was giving in. She hadn’t thought anyone mattered to him anymore, not since his mother, but clearly this snooty, stunning wolf had wheedled her way into his affections.
“We will see.”
“One fight.” He pushed her away gently, his expression hardening. “One fight, Sakura.”
She considered this and then sighed. “One fight. But it needs to be a big one. Shinjuku Gyo-en in two weeks’ time. We are closing it to the public for a big international fight. Some of the best wolves are coming from all over. Big money, Kiyo. I want you in that fight so I hope you are not going anywhere anytime soon.”