Page 18 of Black Widow's Kiss

It was definitely his musk that I smelled. It was intoxicating. Wrapping my arms around his pillow and pulling it to me, I tried to wrap my legs around it. I needed him to touch me. I yearned to feel his large hand grab my ass and make it his.

Lying there a bitch in heat, there was no relief except sleep. I had been awake all night waiting for him to come to me. He never had. He had to be taught a lesson for that. I was his wife, after all. That was no way to be treated.

However, waking up feeling rested, revenge was no longer on my mind. Was it June Cleaver who said that you catch more flies with honey? Or, did she say that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach?

Either way, I needed to take a different approach. I would be the perfect wife. Wearing pearls and high heels, I would bake a casserole. It couldn’t be that hard, could it? I just had to call the chief, tell them what I wanted, and it was done.

More pressing than the meal was the outfit I would wear. I had the perfect pearls. Unfortunately, they were back at my father’s house. And the idea of leaving this place to get it didn’t sit right with me.

If I left, would I be able to get back in? Of course, I would. I was Dante’s wife, after all. When I returned he would be happy to see me.

Still, entering the elevator felt like a one way trip.

“Yuki, can you do me a favor?” I asked over the phone.

When Yuki arrived, it was with more than just my pearls.

“I have a gift for you,” she said with one of her delicate smiles.

“A wedding gift?” I said taking the box.

Unwrapping it, what I found brought a smile to my face. It was couture and very me.

“I love it!” I told her immediately missing my sister.

“How was your first night?” she asked with sadness in her eyes.

“As a married woman? Everything I dreamed of,” I said continuing the fantasy.

Sitting next to me Yuki put her hand on my thigh.

“Kuroi, I’m sorry Father did this to you.”

“No, it’s okay. I really think this might be a good thing.”

Yuki met my eyes.

“Seriously, Yuki. Things have started off a little rocky, but he might be the one,” I said trying to look past evidence to the contrary.

Yuki slowly scanned the room. All of my stuff still sat just inside the living room. The kitchen looked like the scene of a knife fight. And there were drops of blood on the area rug.

When her gaze returned to me, I lowered my eyes.With an elegance that I could only pretend to have, Yuki straightened her spine and turned to me.

“Do you know why father named you Kuroi?” she asked as if pouring alcohol into an open wound.

“I think everyone knows why he named me that,” I said as my thumb tried one last time to rub the darkness off of me.

“It wasn’t because of your dark skin,” she said to my surprise. “It was to mark you as the dark stain on his honor. You were the price he paid for a moment of weakness.”

I cringed hearing what I never wanted to hear spoken.

“He lost everything for keeping you. There were those who had told him to toss you into the ocean. Even our brothershad told him this. But he didn’t. He kept you. And he knew for you to survive, you would need to learn your place.

“But you were stubborn. Like petrified bamboo, you would not bend. That is why he made you kagema. It was to teach you your place. It was to help you.”

Yuki’s words cut through me leaving me raw and bare.

“What are you telling me to do?” I asked again becoming the 14-year-old ripped from my home.

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