Without Reservations (28 page)
He stared at Liu, pleased by the way the young man’s pulse quickened with excitement. Kuro sat up all the way and leaned forward. “I can make you a warrior, Liu. I can make you a man so strong that no one can defeat you, that no one will ever deny you what you want, be it a material thing or more intimate pleasures.”
Kuro let his mind reach out again, pulling at the passion Liu felt for Kiyoshi. Kuro saw the images embedded in the young man’s memory and drew them to the fore, adding his own power to make Liu squirm and bite back a moan of pent up desire.
“Stop it,” Liu whimpered, but he reached down to pleasure himself with desperate strokes that matched his heaving breath. He brought himself to the verge of coming; Kuro could smell the musky scent on the young man’s perspiration. Liu swallowed back another groan and pitched forward, resting on his palms. He moved towards Kuro, crawling on his hands and knees. “Leave us alone—we just want peace.”
“Then why do you reach for the
kama
so quickly?” Kuro touched Liu’s knuckles as the young man gripped the wooden handle of the curved scythe. “Your instinct is to take a farmer’s tool for reaping crops and transform it into a weapon of death. It comes easily to you, doesn’t it?”
Liu’s eyes widened. He looked at Kuro’s fingers as they brushed over his hand, his face twisting with confusion. “I want to be stronger,” he admitted, seemingly for the first time. “I want Kiyo-kun to be stronger too. I—I want so many things. But he’s happy here…”
“There are ways for you both to be happy.” Kuro leaned forward, his lips just grazing Liu’s ear. “Many ways. That I promise you.”
“How?” Liu shivered, but the trembling in his body was from anticipation. “What are you?”
“I am the excitement you’ve always dreamed of. I am the giver of gifts you’ll never encounter anywhere else.”
Kuro’s tongue snaked out and flicked along the edge of Liu’s ear. The young man shuddered with pleasure pure enough for Kuro to taste. Smiling, he stroked Liu through the folds of the
yukata
.
Lie back, Liu. Lie back and let me taste the power I know you have.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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