Page 34 of The Arrival
Haruka starts when Nino suddenly reaches up and takes hold of his chin, serious. He looks into his eyes. “And I’ll finish it.”
Haruka’s entire body springs to life, his pulse and heart racing with anticipation. The feeling intensifies when Nino flips him onto his back then pushes his knees apart to crawl into the hot, needy space of him.
Haruka writhes his lower spine against the mattress. Distantly, he is thinking that this day is, quite possibly, one of the best in his entire life. He cannot think of another singular moment in which he has been so uniquely fulfilled emotionally, mentally and, soon (very soon), physically.
“I want to watch you come,” Nino says, running his hands down the outsides of Haruka’s thighs. His fingertips and palms against Haruka’s skin are like warm tingles—fiery champagne bubbles teasing and arousing his flesh. “Do you want it like this, or do you want to sit in my lap?”
Feeling lazy, Haruka smiles. “Like this.”
Nino smirks. “You just want to lie here and be fucked without doing any work.”
Haruka laughs from his throat. That is absolutely what he wants. “I did the work earlier!”
Chuckling, Nino leans into him, teasing his opening with his fingertips. “And you’re going to do more later if we’re doing three rounds.” He dips, licking the inside of his thighs and kissing his way down lower.
Haruka means to respond, but he can’t seem to form the words through the haze of lust and ecstasy clouding his mind. And when Nino’s mouth replaces his fingertips against Haruka’s opening and he feels his tongue pulsing inside of him, he loses his breath and mind altogether.
SEPTEMBER
TEN
ARRIVAL
The months leading up to Nami’s birth are surprisingly calm for Nino. For the Kurashiki household as a whole, really. Nino takes this as an excellent sign.
Having intentionally lightened his workload in the weeks before the baby’s arrival, Nino is able to spend more time at the estate. He loves his work, but this new balance of work and home life fulfills him in an unexpected way.
After his abduction last year, he’d been forced to stay home for two months straight. The anxiety he felt during that time weighed heavily on him both mentally and emotionally. Once he’d physically healed, Nino had flung himself headfirst back into his work—like a bird frantically flapping its wings after being set free from its cage.
But now, he feels centered. He works and travels to Osaka and Kyoto four days in the week but spends the long weekends at home with his mate, Asao and Sydney. Together, they’ve finished setting up the nursery.
The wallpaper is a soft blue background laden with white birch trees. Bright yellow birds are littered within the branches like cheerful dots of color. The oak crib, rocking chairs and storage units are all painted white, and a soft, blue and fuzzy area rug covers the center of the hardwood.
Something about the room is calming, and Nino has found himself sitting in a rocking chair some evenings in silence. The back window propped open so that he can hear the birds singing into the twilight. Sometimes Haruka joins him and they sit in the lulled atmosphere together.
On the day that Nami is born, Nino and Haruka are at the hospital, waiting together in a small, innocuous room. Asao and Sydney are anxiously awaiting back at the estate.
“It’s beentwo hourssince we’ve gotten an update,” Nino says, pacing the speckled white tile as Haruka sits in a chair against the wall. “What if something has gone wrong with the delivery? Should we go and ask if everything is okay?”
Haruka closes the novel he’s reading and sets the thick hardcover in his lap. “My love, this process takes time. When they have news, I’m sure they’ll inform us.”
Nino sighs, rubbing his palm into his hair. “I know. But we’ve been here for seven hours and I just—”
A soft knock at the door makes Nino pause and stare. “Yes?”
The door slides open slowly, and Nino’s heart is pulsing in his throat. Soon, Doctor Jae appears in his white lab coat, smiling, with a nurse beside him. In his arms, he’s carrying a bundle swathed in a canary-yellow blanket.
“I’d like to introduce you to someone, if you have a moment?” Jae says, his eyes bright as he steps forward.
Nino walks to meet him. Already he senses the quiet, tiny swirl of familiar vampiric energy. Not quite identical to his own, or even Haruka’s. There are elements there that he recognizes—a certain coolness and power—but it is altogether new. Unique.
Haruka is standing beside him as they peek down at the bundle in Jae’s arms, which is almost completely covered except for a bright tuft of coppery, shiny hair.
“She’s asleep, at the moment,” Jae says. Still holding her in the crook of his arm, he lifts one hand, then uses his fingertips to pull the blanket’s edge lower. “I’m sorry for the long wait. I wanted to run all the tests and clean her up before we brought her so that she’d be ready to go home.”
Doctor Jae reveals her little round face—radiant olive skin, sparse coppery eyebrows to match the thick hairs on her head, and full rosy cheeks. Nino inhales, blinking. “She’s… lovely.”
“She looks like you,” Jae assures him. “Wait until she opens her eyes.”
