Page 13 of Beyond the Storm
I did as he said.
Castor softly kissed me as his fingertips trailed down my forearm. He stopped at my wrist before tying something around it. “Okay. Open them.”
Again, I obeyed. I stared into his green eyes for several heartbeats. A soft gleam shone through them. One that made my sternum tighten a bit. I knew right away it wasn’t one of his silly prank gifts. I glanced down. The leather band was about an inch wide with gold thread lining the edges. A silhouette of a dragon was burned into the center of it. It resembled the one I had tattooed on my chest.
“Do you like it?” he asked. He seemed almost shy.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and planted a hard kiss on him. He smiled against my lips, and his hands came to rest on my hips. When the kiss broke, our arms remained locked around each other.
As the avatar of Greed, Castor loved materialistic things. But he also loved giving me gifts and seeing me wear them. From what I knew about his childhood, his father had been the same way with his mother. Caim had bought his wife necklaces, rings, and the finest clothing, lavishing her with gifts he could admire on her body.
“Thank you.” That ache in my sternum grew as his half-smile bloomed to a full one. “I love it.”
“I ordered it from a guy who works with leather. A leather smith, I guess? Don’t know. But anyway, he makes everything. Armor, wrist cuffs, flasks, satchels, and stuff like your bracelet. He said a lot of his customers are Renaissance faire people.”
“It’s cute when you ramble.”
“Yeah?” Castor gently bit at my bottom lip. “How cute?”
“Cute enough to not be thrown off the balcony. This time.” I laid my head on his shoulder. He might’ve been a sarcastic prankster with an unfiltered mouth, teasing personality, and weakness for shiny things, but I loved him so much it scared me.
“Your sister wants to have dinner with us tonight,” he said. “I think she’s going to make those kick-ass noodles again.”
“My favorite.”
“I know they are.” He nuzzled me. “We should definitely bang first though.”
I laughed.
Yeah, he kept me on my toes. I never knew what would come flying out of his mouth. And I didn’t want him any other way.
***
“Fumihito!” Ryoko called after her son. “It is time for your bath.”
The almost three-year-old ran past me, naked as the day he was born. His twin brother was close behind him. I scooped one up, and Castor grabbed the other. We had been on our way to Tatsuya’s study to join him for a pre-dinner drink.
“Fumi,” Castor said, poking my nephew’s nose. “You gotta listen to your momma.”
“No!”
“Yep. You do. If she says you need to take a bath, guess what, bud? You gotta take a bath.”
“No!” Fumihito repeated.
“Is that the only word you know?” Castor asked.
A wide grin broke across Fumihito’s face. “No.”
“You’re a little stinker, you know that?” Castor lightly bounced him as he walked over to my sister.
After we handed the twins off to Ryoko and her husband, Akio, Castor and I continued down the corridor. Like Tatsuya, Ryoko was married to more than one person too. She had five husbands from different dragon clans and had children with all of them apart from one. Daichi. Which, now that I thought about it, seemed strange. He had been her first husband. However, maybe him living the life of a warrior played into the reason for that.
“Whatcha thinking about?” Castor bumped my arm as we walked.
“Children.”
He stopped and stared at me. The lights were on, but nobody was home.
