“Come here.” He patted the bed where he sat propped by pillows, a faint sheen of discomfort on his forehead.
The remnants of a Caesar salad for lunch sat on the bedside dresser.
My heart fluttered.
Closing the laptop, I carried it with me and curled up close to him. “How are you feeling?”
He chuckled, wincing a little as he shifted. “Like I’ve been at war for the past few decades.”
I moved to sit cross-legged, placing the closed laptop on my thighs. My shorts kept my legs bare in the warmth of the suite, my yellow t-shirt draping off one shoulder thanks to being a size too big. “Well, you kind of have, so it’s understandable.”
He looked at the ceiling for a moment, thoughts racing in his eyes. “Is it strange that I feel almost lost?” His gaze flickered to me. “Now that I’ve achieved everything I set out to, I’m left wondering what other purpose I have?”
I shook my head, reaching over to wrap my hand around his bandaged one. “Not at all. You deserve to rest and just enjoy the moment for a bit.”
“I’ve done enough resting. I’m bored of resting.”
“Your body seems to think differently.”
“My body can just get over it. I need to do something.”
“You need to just relax.”
He snorted. “Relax? Have you met me, Pimlico-san?”
My eyes widened at the Japanese address.
He sucked in a breath, licking his lips. “Sorry. After talking to Daishin, the other part of my culture is a little more alive in my brain at present.”
“Would you tell me something in Japanese?”
His eyebrow rose. “Like what?”
I shrugged. “Anything. I’d just like to hear you.”
I didn’t say how sexy I found it or how his lips were born to speak in different languages.
He paused, clenching his teeth as if weighing up the pros and cons of embracing a little of his culture that he’d always run from. “You know…my father encouraged me to speak Japanese to make my mother happy.” He sighed. “I always preferred English, though. Probably because I preferred my father over my mother. She was hard to love—mainly because earning her love wasn’t easy and I always failed. Kade, on the other hand…” He drifted off, laughing softly. “He had that witch wrapped around his little finger.”
I let him speak, glad he could finally discuss his family with me.
“Kade loved to speak Japanese.” His voice turned gentle, wistful. “He’d scribble Hiragana and Katakana characters all over the house—sometimes on the walls in our mother’s lipstick. If I’d ever done that, I would’ve been smacked. But Kade…he got away with a lot.”
He glanced at me, full of ghosts. “He was my mother’s favourite. I knew that and was content with it. I had my father’s friendship and my cello, which was enough for me. I suppose that’s why she blamed me so much.” His eyes darkened. “Because I killed her favourite son and survived.”
I rested my head on his shoulder, earning a slight hiss from him. “Oops, sorry.” I pulled away from his stitched wound, but he pulled me back. “No, stay.”
I relaxed as he kissed the top of my head, breathing, “Aishiteru.”
My belly tightened at his husky, sensual tone. Something about Elder speaking a different language pulled a cord deep inside me.
I shivered as he nuzzled my hair. “It means, I love you. But not many people in Japan say it that way.”
“They don’t?”
He shook his head, his nose still buried in my hair. “No.”
“How do they say they love each other then?”
“They show them.”
I twisted a little so I could look at him. Our noses brushed. Pressing upward, I kissed him on the lips.
He froze as I pressed gently but firm. I didn’t deepen the kiss. I didn’t pressure for more. I just kissed him because I was in love with him and we were alive despite overwhelming odds trying otherwise.
He kissed me back, his lips softening beneath mine but not deepening the chaste romance. The last remaining tension in my spine finally, finally siphoned away.
Nothing else mattered but this.
Him.
Me.
Us.
Pulling away, he murmured, “Was that your way of showing me you love me?”
I nodded. “I have many other ways to show you, too.”
“You do?”
I smiled. “I can be inventive when I put my mind to things.”
He chuckled. “In that case, I look forward to finding out just how much you love me.” He kissed me swift and hot. “I have so many ways to show you. The minute this fucking body of mine is back to working order, you’ll find out.”
We laughed together as I slotted against him.
I stroked the laptop lid, wondering if any of my school friends had found someone as incredible. I pitied them if they hadn’t even though they probably pitied me for what I’d lived through to find Elder.
Silence fell between us, and I guessed he’d fallen asleep again, bound to his body’s healing whether he wanted to or not.