body fights for life, except for a small part of me, which is tempted to succumb to the madness of the moment. Kyon expects me to struggle, but he doesn’t want me dead. He went through so much trouble to have me—too much to kill me now. He wants my compliance—acceptance of the fact that he and the Alameeda Brotherhood own me. I have to gain the upper hand. I have to figure out a way to control a control freak.
I stop struggling against him, allowing my fingernails that are dug into his wrist to ease. I let go of him. My hands slip into the water, beneath the surf. My limbs wave in the current washing over me, lost within its embrace.
Kyon pulls me up once more. I break through the surface of the water. The starlight is just a blur. The glow from the Sea of Stars is reflected on Kyon’s angry face, highlighting the tight muscles of his neck and his cold stare. “Give up?” he asks me quietly.
“Never,” I croak.
“I can kill you right now.”
“You won’t.”
“How do you know?” he asks in a sinister tone.
“I’m your little savage. You want me too much.”
It’s there on his face. I’m right. We both know it. “I do want you too much,” he admits, “but I won’t tolerate defiance.”
“You’re sadistic. You enjoy defiance. It’s what makes me different from everyone else. I won’t blindly obey you.”
“I like it when you use your mind. But you’re wrong,” he says with a gentle voice as his fingers brush my wet hair from my cheek. “Right now I insist upon your obedience.”
A wave crashes into my back, pushing me against his chest. I clutch his shoulders and try to steady myself in the water. His hands move from the front of my nightgown to my waist. When the next wave pushes me forward, my breasts press against his chest, and his expression changes from anger to desire. He leans near; his rough cheek rubs against my much softer skin.
“I brought you here to hurt you,” Kyon murmurs, the timbre of his voice rumbles through his chest into mine. His words make my heart squeeze tight.
“Do your worst,” I retort with bravado, but inside I quake.
“Nothing’s in your control. When I hurt you—or how,” he replies, summing up my problem in a nutshell. “Submit to me. I own you.”
“You sound like owning me is something remarkable—an accomplishment. You don’t know what you have, do you?” I ask with an insincere smile. “I’m just a collection of sad stories, Kyon.”
“I want to know every one of those stories. Don’t fight me. We can make our story perfect.”
My blood is as thin as the seawater surrounding me. It courses through my veins too quickly, making me dizzy. “Where would be the fun in that?”
The deep rumble of his laughter vibrates through my chest as he holds me closer. “Our story will never end, Kricket. I’ll never let you go—not when we fit so well together. You’re my darker half.”
My eyes widen in surprise. “You’ve gotta be kidding, Kyon. If anyone is dark, it’s you.”
“A star will shine brighter than all the other stars just before it goes dark forever,” he murmurs, as if it’s a secret he’s imparting to me.
“You mean as it explodes and extinguishes forever?”
“I mean right before it transforms into something infinitely more powerful. And once your heart turns black, there will be no escaping it.”
“If I’m the dark one between us, why am I afraid of you?” I ask.
“Because you should be.”
My trembling becomes more pronounced under his intense gaze. I have to hide everything from him—keep everything I’m thinking a secret. His assault on me will be brutal—mentally as well as physically.
I have no place to hide, not the way the stars have aligned against me. I’m in this with Kyon until I find a way out. That realization makes me do something that I never thought I’d do in a million years: I pull Kyon to me and rest my cheek against his shoulder. Our feet touch beneath the water; toe-to-toe we stand. “I don’t want to be dark.”
Kyon’s arms tighten around me before he slides his hand up my back to the nape of my neck. “You make me want to beat the life out of you one moment, and in the next I ache to drag you to the beach and make love to you in the sand.”