“Toho needs someone who can be nurturing,” Sho had said. “I thought of you, Aoki-san, because even though you’re a man, I know how gentle and caring you are, the way a kind woman would be.” With that, he’d encouraged Toho to come forward. Toho had, hesitantly at first because of the trauma he’d suffered, but as soon as Aoki had knelt before him, smiled and offered him sweets, the friendship began.
Back in the present, Aoki’s heart squeezed again. His arms ached to embrace the child, whose love and trust in him had blossomed just as Sho had predicted. But Toho had not been the only one to benefit from their friendship. Aoki never expected the tenderness and protectiveness welling up in him to bond him and the boy so deeply. “To-chan,” he said softly.
Toho lifted his gaze and as always, captured Aoki with those deep-set, striking dark eyes, the perfect shape of half-moons under arched brows. By Toho’s gaze alone, Aoki could see he would make a fine, honorable samurai. Aoki reached out his arms to him.
Without a word, Toho rose and took the few steps to close the space between himself and Aoki. He let Aoki wrap him in an embrace and rested against him, his face buried in the fall of Aoki’s long hair. Toho loved Aoki’s hair, loved to run his hand down it and feel it against his cheek. Aoki could always feel Toho remembering what he’d lost yet also healing because he had that same nurturing back, even if just a little bit. Aoki sighed, now feeling Toho’s hands fist his kimono. He closed his eyes a moment and rested his cheek against the boy’s head.
The boy’s anguish came through in the clench of his fingers on the linen material. “I’ll come back to you, Aoki,” Toho said. “I promise.” Already his voice carried the determined passion and devotion both his fathers had. Only months ago Toho had been a traumatized silent mess. Under the care of his fathers and—Sho and Hirata both often said—Aoki’s nurturing love, the child had healed by leaps and bounds and the samurai had begun to emerge.
Warmth surged through Aoki’s chest and he squeezed Toho closer. “I’ll be very happy on that day, To-chan. I’ll wait right here for you.” He refrained from adding how lonely he’d be without his three dearest friends. In spite of his success on the kabuki stage and the beautiful little home he now had, without the love of his friends to warm it all, the world felt cold and empty. But he didn’t want to burden them with his grief. Sho and Hirata had both been away from their families for many years and the journey ahead of them would be difficult enough, especially with a troubled child in their care. Aoki did not want to add to their concerns. He wanted to be for them what he had been: a source of support and care.
After several quiet moments, Sho stirred. “We must be off, Aoki-san. We have a long journey ahead.”
Aoki nodded. He tried not to cry but when Toho squeezed him hard, his tears rolled freely. He wanted to reassure Toho, to tell him everything would be all right, but he wouldn’t lie to the boy. There was no way to know such a thing. He’d been separated from his own parents a long time ago and had suffered so much aching loneliness from missing them. All he could do was return Toho’s embrace while his tears wet the top of the child’s dark head. When he heard Sho retrieve his cane and the two men begin to rise, he gently disengaged Toho from his embrace and wiped his wet cheeks. “Oh my,” he said in a sniffly voice, “I must look a mess.”
But Toho fixed him with that newly emerging look of strength he now had. “You could never look a mess, Aoki-san,” he said in his fierce child’s voice. “You’re my beautiful big sister.”
Aoki laughed through his tears. “Thank you, my dearest.” Then he thought of something. He reached for the tie in his hair, pulled it out and handed the length of black ribbon to Toho. “Take this, To-chan, to remember me.”
Toho gazed up at him. Then he reached up and yanked the tie out of his own hair. “We’ll trade, Aoki-san, and I’ll wear yours all the time until I’m able to bring it back to you.”
Aoki forced himself to smile. “That’s a perfect idea.”
Sho and Hirata had to wait while Aoki redid Toho’s hair. To their credit, they didn’t scold Toho. They both understood the horrible losses the child had already endured, watching his parents brutally murdered by a gang of killer ronin, and so allowed Toho his last moments with the friend who’d helped bring him back to emotional health.
After gathering up the boy’s hair to the crown of his head, Aoki wrapped the length with his ribbon until the end fanned out like a beautiful ebony tea whisk. Then he lowered his hands. “There. Perfect.” He expected Toho to get up but the boy held out his hair tie.
“Put this in first, please, Aoki-san.”
More tears escaped Aoki’s eyes. He accepted the tie wordlessly and wrapped it around his long length of smooth hair. Only then did Toho rise, his little face a mask of sadness. He stood, staring up at Aoki and in the next second, threw himself at Aoki, squeezing him tightly. “I’ll come back to you, Aoki-san,” he said, his voice muffled by the soft material of Aoki’s kimono. “I promise!”
Aoki returned the embrace. His very heart ached. “I’ll be right here, To-chan,” he said, closing his eyes and treasuring their last moments together. “I’ll be right here.”
More from Sedonia Guillone
Sword and Silk: Book One
In eighteenth century Japan, during the golden age of samurai and of the Kabuki theater, young actors known as “flying fish” traveled the countryside, performing for audiences by day and giving their bodies to their samurai patrons at night.
Genji Sakura is one such flying fish, yet he dreams of finding the man he can give his heart to and leave the loneliness of his itinerant life behind. Though he loves theater, he doesn’t love every part of his profession, especially some of the patrons. So when a handsome ronin comes upon him stealing some solitude for a bath in a hot spring and their encounter turns passionate, Genji’s surprised and delighted.
Daisuke Minamoto’s past fills his life with a bitterness that grips his soul and makes him dangerous. Yet passion takes him when he spies on a graceful young man bathing naked in a hot spring. He has always loved women, but he can’t deny the call of his heart.
After an afternoon of sexual bliss, his heart and soul are tormented and torn. Keeping this miraculous lover will require giving up the one thing that has kept him alive for years: his hatred for the lord who murdered his wife. If he loves another, how will he go on and who will he become?
Multipublished, award-nominated author, SEDONIA GUILLONE lives in Florida in winter and on a river in Maine in summers with a Renaissance man who paints, writes poetry, and tells her she’s the sweetest nymph he’s ever met. When she’s not writing toe-curling romances, she loves watching spaghetti westerns, Jet Li, and samurai flicks, cuddling with her cat, Molly, and eating chocolate.
She loves to hear from readers so please keep in touch. Here’s where you can find her:
Website: www.sedoniaguillone.com
Blog: www.sedoniaguillone.com/blog
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sedonia.guillone
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/915705.Sedonia_Guillone
Twitter: @sedoniaguillone
By Sedonia Guillone
SWORD AND SILK
Flying Fish
Blind Love
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Blind Love
© 2016 Sedonia Guillone.
Cover Art
© 2016 Reese Dante.
http://www.reesedante.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and an
y person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-63477-543-4
Published November 2016
v. 2.0
First Edition published by Ai Press, 2013.
Printed in the United States of America
Blind Love Page 11
