Bound by Forever - (True Immortality #3) Page 0,76
over Akihabara. As long as they leave the rest of the city alone, we stay out. No wolves.”
Kiyo nodded. The gaming ward wasn’t his cup of tea, anyway. “Anything else?”
“You might have heard Tsukiji Market moved to Toyosu, but the outer market with the food is still there.”
He almost laughed. Trust Haruto to think anything regarding food was important. “Good to know.”
Haruto nodded, looking satisfied he’d imparted news of great importance. “Arufua-san will call on you when you are required.”
Kiyo fought his frustration and nodded in agreement. Turning to Niamh, who waited at the hotel entrance with a coolly distant countenance, Kiyo cursed the damn vision that brought them to Tokyo. He knew Niamh felt they had to be there to protect him (from who knew what) and while he appreciated her motives, it had only landed him in trouble.
And exposed Niamh to Sakura and her pack.
He didn’t like that either.
He strode over to her. “Check in.”
She nodded and as she turned, he placed his hand on her lower back to lead her into the tower block. Kiyo didn’t think anything of it. The gesture was instinctual. Yet he was forced to think about it when she moved away from his touch.
Rejection and anger burned in his gut.
Not anger with her.
But with himself.
He’d fucked up from the moment he woke up on the plane.
Earlier, she’d been pissed at him. He got it. He could handle it.
This … not so much.
He hurried to catch up to her but didn’t touch her again.
Kiyo spoke in Japanese with the woman behind the reception desk, and she relayed that the lobby for checking into the hotel was on the thirty-eighth floor. He told Niamh who again nodded quietly and followed him onto the elevator.
“This place must have some views,” he said inanely as the elevator moved quietly upward.
“Mmm,” she acknowledged.
He gritted his teeth against a growl.
When the doors opened, Niamh seemed to jump out to get away from him. Her eyes had widened ever so slightly and while the change in her was infinitesimal, Kiyo already knew her well enough to know that the hotel pleased her. It lacked the western opulence of Sakura’s hotel. However, Kiyo preferred the Natsukashii’s warmth with its hardwood floors, midcentury furnishings, floor lamps designed to look like framed paper lanterns, and walls created entirely from shoji screens. There were open staircases that led down to the floor below. Incredibly impressive floor-to-ceiling windows reached from that floor to the height of the ceilings on the lobby floor. Tokyo could be seen for miles.
“Do you like it?” he asked Niamh as they approached the check-in desk.
She nodded, still not looking at him. “It’s beautiful.”
“Nicer than the pack’s hotel?”
“Much. Theirs is all about showing off how much money they’ve got. This is about Tokyo and thoughtful design.”
He agreed.
“Is Fionn paying for this?”
“Bran called it a bonus.”
Silence fell between them again as they waited in a small line at check-in. When Kiyo approached the clerk, he used the name on the passport Bran had provided.
The clerk checked his computer, relaying to Kiyo in Japanese that they had two deluxe suites booked. Kiyo shook his head, replying in their mother tongue, “We need one room. A suite with a sofa bed. And views of Mount Fuji, if you have one available.” He didn’t know why he added the last part. Maybe because he thought it might cheer Niamh up and pull her out of her strange mood.
“We don’t have sofa beds but our suites have sofas.”
That would do.
“A suite with a view,” he reiterated.
The guy typed and then sighed dramatically. “I’m afraid the only room available with a view of Fuji is our Oriental. It’s a one-bedroom suite with a separate living space. Quite an upgrade.”
Kiyo didn’t know if it was the guy’s tone and its insinuation that he couldn’t afford it or if it was something even more stupid, like a need to do something nice for Niamh, but he said, “We’ll take it.”
“It’s two hundred thousand yen per night.”
Roughly nineteen hundred dollars a night.
Damn it.
Fine.
Fionn was paying him a shit ton of money to protect Niamh. He could afford it. Kiyo would pay Bran back. “We’ll take it,” he replied more firmly.
It must have been firmer than intended, with a hint more of alpha behind it, because the clerk blanched and hurried to book the room.
A while later, once the clerk had photocopied their passports, he handed over two room cards and seemed relieved when Kiyo turned down the offer to