Page 73 of Black Widow's Kiss

“That wasn’t the point I was trying to make. I went to Yuki because she knew you better than I did. But, what she told me, it was beyond belief. She said that Sato had made you…”

“Kagema,” he said still unable to look at me.

“That’s it. And she said that Sato, gave you to someone as, like, a rent boy?”

“Rent boy? No, it’s different than that,” Kuroi replied.

“It shouldn’t be anywhere close to that. Tell me this is one of your fucked up fantasies. Or, tell me anything. But, if you tell me it’s true…”

“It’s true,” he said meeting my gaze.

Fire exploded within me as my skin fried. I was a caldron ready to boil over. I would kill every man who had touched him. Then I would kill Sato. I would cut off his fingers one by one and feed it to him.

“Take me to him,” I demanded.

“Who? Your uncle?”

“Fuck my uncle. The man Sato gave you to.”

“He’s dead.”

I struggled to catch my breath.

“Then take me to the next one.”

“He’s dead too. They’re all dead.”

“You killed them? You should have.”

“I don’t remember doing it. I don’t remember killing any of them.”

“What do you mean you don’t remember?”

“They died of heart attacks. All of them. I’m poison.”

The pain in Kuroi’s voice pulled me back.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m the poison that killed them. Anyone who sleeps with me dies. You’re going to die.”

“How am I gonna die?”

“I don’t know,” he said melting into regret.

I took Kuroi’s hand.

“Listen to me, Kuroi. You’re not gonna hurt me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. You aren’t poison. You’re everything I’ve dreamed of. I’ll do everything to protect you and you’ll do everything to protect me.”

“What if I can’t protect you from myself?”

“I don’t want you to protect me from who you are. I want everything you have. I want it all. You can’t scare me away. I’m here and I’m your husband. And the way I know I’ll be around forever is because I know you’ll make sure of it. You can count on me having your back and I know I can count on you having mine.”

Kuroi didn’t respond. He didn’t have to. I knew what I had said was true and there was nothing he could say to convince me otherwise.

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