She had already won tonight because she gave me this moment.
This rush.
This foreign, electric high that no amount of wealth, blood, or legacy had been able to buy me.
I didn’t know what the hell was going to happen.
But I knew this; I was going to fuck her like I had never fucked anyone in my life.
Not just because I wanted her.
Not just because she was mine.
But because she had given me back something I didn’t even know I’d lost—wonder.
Naughty Tiger.
I leaned forward just as the car turned a dark corner and rolled into a private alley that’s path was shaded by thick walls of wisteria vines.
Tora, what is this place?
Chapter twenty-four
The Threshold
Kenji
One black, unmarked door stood at the end. It was narrow, windowless. No sign. Just matte black steel embedded into a concrete wall wrapped in thick, hanging vines.
It looked more like a mistake than an entrance.
At first, I thought my driver would keep pushing us along—surely this alley wasn’t the final stop. But then I saw him.
Reo.
My Roar waited beside the door like a statue.
I blinked.
Tora. . .what is going on?
My driver eased the Rolls to a stop. Before I could question anything, he was out, rushing to my side and opening the door.
Stunned, I grabbed the gift and stepped out.
The alley was silent.
My heartbeats were not.
Every step closer to Reo dragged me deeper into some new territory—mental, physical, and emotional.
And still, that unmarked door loomed.
I didn’t know what the hell Nyomi was leading me into. A sex club? A private kink theater? Some kind of exhibitionist altar where I’d be expected to perform while masked strangers watched from the dark? Or maybe it was none of that—maybe it was personal. Intimate. Just her. Just me. Just something that would ruin me slower.
I swallowed hard.
Then my eyes landed on Reo again—and this time, I studied him. Black suit. Sharp lines. But it wasn’t the suit that threw me. It was the sunglasses. At night. In this alley, under no light, with no one to impress.