Amery’s head had fallen back. Her lips were parted, and Ronin saw she’d drifted into the floaty headspace of a bondage high and she’d been there awhile.
He lost all track of time when he had ropes in his hands and inches of pliant flesh waiting to be tied and touched. He secured the last of the rope around her left foot and tucked the remainder underneath the wrap, which caused her whole body to jerk and him to smile; he’d forgotten her feet were ticklish.
Ronin made some last-minute adjustments before he cupped Amery’s face in his hands.
“You humble me with your beauty.” He kissed her—another first in a demo—and it wasn’t a gentle tease or a quick peck, but a kiss full of the passion she brought out in him.
When she wiggled her body, as if reaching for him, he broke the seal of their mouths and jerked on the rigging, lifting her higher off the floor. Then Ronin spun her slowly around and around, showing the rope work on the backside.
Amery’s hair flowed out as if she were underwater.
Time for the finale.
He twisted the free rope dangling from the second chain through the back of the gauntlet binding her feet.
Then he clicked off the overhead lights and the black lights came on.
A collective gasp echoed in the room as the neon green glow- in-the-dark rope he used on Amery outlined her body in luminescence, creating the effect of a mermaid.
He pulled on the second rigging, raising her feet to hip level so it appeared she was swimming. The bindings on her feet created the effect of a mermaid’s split tail. The way her hands were raised above her head looked as if she were swimming to the surface.
The woman was absolutely fucking stunning. An ethereal, mythical creature come to life. The diamond pattern gave the appearance of scales, and the cinched binding at her waist divided her body. The swishing motion of her hair added to the illusion of a mermaid in motion.
Applause broke out and startled him. Ronin was so mesmerized by her that he’d forgotten for a moment they weren’t alone.
And suddenly he wished they were. He wanted to marvel at this bound woman who owned him body, heart, and soul.
He didn’t want club members touching her or asking questions or breaking this spell. He allowed himself another long look at her. This wasn’t about anyone else but them; he wouldn’t treat this any differently than if they were in the practice room when he finished the binding. He held on to her as he lowered the rigging. Once he had her unhooked, he brought them both to the floor.
She sighed and remained pliant no matter how he manipulated her body.
Ronin left the black lights on as he cradled her in his arms. First thing he did was slip off the blindfold. He kissed her as he unwrapped her wrists.
She blinked at him, and then her gaze drifted to the glowing rope crisscrossing her body. She smiled at him with that sweet quirk on her lips.
Next he unfastened the ties around her feet. “How’s your circulation?”
“A little tingly but good.”
As Ronin slipped the knotted ends of rope free from the tucks and ties, he let the rope zigzag across her skin.
Amery trembled and arched. Then on the next pass, she would try to move away.
So he took his time unbinding her. Touching and kissing to his heart’s content. He hadn’t even noticed that they’d brought the lights up halfway until he pulled back away from her mouth after another drugging kiss. “Baby. I love you.”
“I know.”
Then he swept her up into his arms and carried her out the side door, striding down the hallway.
Inside their private room, Ronin set her on her feet only long enough to wrap a blanket around her. Then he picked her up again and settled them on the couch.
The first noise she made was a laugh. “Glow-in-the-dark shibari ropes, Master Black? You are certainly full of surprises.”
He pressed his lips into her hair. “I’ve never used them before.”
“Why not?”
“They seemed a little . . . stage showish.”
“At least you didn’t play the theme song from The Little Mermaid while you were binding me.”
That made Ronin laugh. “You must be down from your bondage high if you’re cracking jokes.”
Amery twisted to look at him. “I’m fine. Were you worried I’d be weepy and shaky afterward or something?”
“I honestly didn’t know how you’d react.”
“And?”
“And you reacted perfectly.” Ronin took her mouth in a kiss that was a lazy exploration.
After he ended the kiss, Amery murmured, “Unwrap me so I can touch you.”
“You can touch me all you want when we get back to the penthouse. But not here in the club.”
“Because that’s the way you’ve always done it?”
He stared into her eyes. The blue so deep and pure it was easy to get lost in them.
“Ronin? Are you okay?”
“Sorry. I’m great. My mind just traveled off track for a bit.”
“To where?”
“To how lucky I am that you’re in my life.”
She pressed her face into his neck. “I’m glad I didn’t do something weird and embarrass you.”
Ronin kissed the top of her head. “If you decide you don’t want to do a demo again, I’m fine with that.”
“Really?” Amery tipped her head back and looked at him. “Why?”
He wondered how honest he could be with her.
Or maybe it was how honest he could be with himself.
He tried to arrange his thoughts into some semblance of coherency.
“Sweetheart, talk to me. Don’t hold back how you feel—even if you think it’s something I might not like.”
“That’s the thing. It doesn’t have anything to do with you. Or your initial fear of being publicly bound.”
“Then what?”
“It’s been a while since I’ve done a demo with a woman I’m involved with. Now that I know what real love feels like, I realized I’ve never done a demo with a woman I love. When we’re in the practice room or anywhere we’re together, it feels right. Our being together like that is Zen for me. Tonight, it wasn’t . . . pure. And, baby, it didn’t have anything to do with you. What happened tonight was performance art. While that has its place, I am not a performer.” Ronin closed his eyes. “In the past few months with you? I really found the heart of what kinbaku is. It’s not about teaching others. It’s about teaching myself. It’s about creating art and beauty with love and trust. I never got that until you.”
“Are you trying to make me cry?” she asked softly.
“No.” Ronin tucked a hair behind her ear. “I’m trying to explain that tonight was more of an awakening for me than for you.”
“So you really aren’t okay.”
He sighed. “The only reason I joined this club was for access to rope models who wouldn’t freak out about what I needed. Any sexual contact would be safe because a health certificate is required to be a member of Twisted. After Naomi . . . it took me several months to want to do anything but the most basic configurations on a live model. And even then, I had to have some connection to the model to consider taking it further, and honestly it was so rare that I found that.” Ronin locked his gaze to hers. “Are you sure you want to hear this now?”
“If you’re ready to talk, I’m ready to listen.”
“Now I don’t know what else to say.”
“Are you afraid that now that I’ve done the public demo once and it didn’t cause me to freak out, it’s something I’ll want to be part of on a regular basis? Because that situation happened with Naomi?”
“Maybe. Are you?”
Amery shook her head. “I’d rather it just be the two of us. But I’ll admit it didn’t feel any different to me because I was blindfolded. In my mind, we were in the practice room.”
“In my mind too.” Ronin feathered his thumb across the dark mark beneath her eye that hadn’t completel
y faded in the past ten days. She’d done well covering it up with makeup, but he knew it was there.
“Stop staring. It’s almost gone. And I don’t want her here in this room with us any more than she already is.”
Ronin smoothed her hair back from her face. “Get dressed. I’ve got to talk to Knox about one thing before we go home.”
She gifted him with a fierce kiss, a claiming kiss that let him know he was hers just as much she belonged to him.
• • •
HIS need for her raged through his body like a fever.
The instant they stepped off the elevator, Ronin was on her. She made a surprised eep when he pushed her against the wall. Then his mouth covered hers in a kiss born of fire.
She tasted so damn sweet and hot. Like heaven, like home—like his. She clutched his shirt, returning his kiss with unrestrained passion.
“Baby,” he whispered against her throat. “You’re like a goddamn drug.”
“So take me.” She reached under his shirt and scraped her nails up his chest, pausing at his nipples. “Use me.” She pinched the tiny tips hard. “Let me have the raw side of the rope master.”
Amery nuzzled his ear, outlining it from lobe to the inner shell, her tongue licking at the scar tissue with such wicked sensuality that he forgot he never let anyone mess with his ears.
“Every dirty, raunchy, nasty thing on your sexual arsenal . . .” She sucked the air clean out of his head, and his skin erupted in gooseflesh. “Do it to me. Without warning, without apology. We’ll make this a night we’ll never forget.” She nipped his earlobe hard enough to leave a sharp sting. “I’m yours. Prove it to me. Prove it to yourself.”
“Knees.” He pushed on her shoulders until she was on the floor before him. He tugged his gi pants down and clamped his hands on either side of her head, pulling her mouth to his cock. The head breached her lips, and he started to work himself deeper into her mouth with every pass.
Her hands gripped his thighs. She didn’t look up at him; she just let him fuck her mouth. Her saliva coated his cock and made her chin and neck shiny and wet.
The visual of his shaft disappearing between her lips . . . Christ. Talk about fucking sexy. This hot, wet mouth of hers could bring a man to his goddamn knees. She sucked hard as he pulled his length out completely past her teeth, and she opened her throat when he shoved in so deep his balls hit her chin.
His legs began to tremble. The electric tingle started at the base of his skull and zipped down his spine. Too fast, but he couldn’t stop it. Didn’t want to fucking stop it. Ronin hammered his hips into her face with shorter strokes.
Yes. Fuck. Almost there.
He rammed in, feeling the head of his cock against the back of her throat. He slid his hands down to cup her jaw, his thumbs on the pulse point in her neck. In that split second before he shot his load, he growled, “Swallow. All of it.” He looked down, her head tilted back, her eyes on his. Her throat muscles working him with an intimate kiss, and every fucking time she swallowed, he felt as if his body were being zapped with a live wire.
And he didn’t look away. He let her see his pleasure. He let her feel every twitch of his body until he had nothing left. Then he let his fingers caress her face, tracing the outline of her lips still enclosed around his cock. “So fucking hot with you on your knees and my dick buried in this mouth I can’t get enough of.”
Amery closed her eyes and made a soft moan when he slowly eased his dick out, as if she were savoring every inch as she let him go.
As soon as she sat back on her haunches, he kicked off his gi pants. He ran his thumb over her swollen lips. “Strip. Then come find me.” He made a quick stop in the bedroom before he strode to the dining room and took the seat at the head of the table.
She appeared a couple minutes later.
Ronin patted his lap. “Come. Here.”
She sauntered over. But before she could sit down, Ronin said, “On second thought, get up on the table.”
Amery perched on the edge and watching him warily with those big blue eyes.
“I’ve got a surprise for you.” He reached behind him and showed her a small rectangular box.
“What’s that?”
“Something I saw online that made me think of you. Open it.”
She lifted the lid and looked at him with confusion. “What are these? Some kind of paperweights?”
He laughed. “No. They’re geisha balls.” He ran his finger over the glass. “The flower inside is a cherry blossom.”
“They’re, ah, very pretty. What do you do with them?”
Ronin lifted them out by the silken tie that tethered the two glass orbs together. “I’ll show you. Lie back and bring your heels to the edge of the table.”
Amery bit her lip.
He got right in her face. “Don’t go all shy on me now. Lie back on the table. I want to see every inch of your pussy, spread wide for my enjoyment.”
She muttered something, which earned her a punishing kiss—a kiss he knew she thoroughly enjoyed—before she stretched out on the table.
He scooted the chair up and pressed his face between her thighs. Perfect height. He glanced up to see Amery resting on her elbows. In that position, the gap in her knees narrowed. “Baby. If you can’t follow directions, I will get out the restraints.”
“Don’t you think we’ve had enough rope play tonight?”
Oh, such a sassy little thing. Ronin reached behind him. Then he dangled the leather straps above her belly. “What’s the rule about questioning me?”
This time she didn’t say anything.
“Tell. Me.”
“Any challenge will be answered. Sir.”
He secured the looped end around her ankle and widened her seated stance by fastening the strap to the table leg. He did the same thing to the other leg and stepped back to look at his handiwork. “You’re beautiful open to me like this.” Placing his hands on the inside of her thighs, he pressed down and licked her slick cunt.
She groaned.
“So fucking wet.” Another short lick right over her clit. “I’m going to fuck this hot pussy of mine with my tongue, with my fingers, with my cock. As many fucking times as I want to tonight.”
“Yes.”
“Reach down and hold yourself open for me so I can suck on that sweet little clit until you come against my mouth.”
And it was erotic as hell, seeing her slender fingers exposing the soft flesh. He let his tongue tease those helpful digits every time he made a sweeping pass from her pussy lips and up her slit.
He settled his mouth over her hot spot and pushed one finger inside her pussy. Then two. He lightly flicked his tongue over her clit and began to rub both fingers on her G-spot.
“Goddamn you have . . . yes, more.”
“More?” He added a third finger and continued to torture her.
Amery begged. Then she threatened.
Just before he let her come, he plucked the geisha balls from the case and pushed them in her wet pussy.
“What is that . . . ? Omigod, are those the flower thingies?”
Ronin lifted his mouth long enough to say, “Yes.” Then he settled his mouth over her clit and flicked his tongue over that swollen nub until she started making that soft wail. He switched to full suction and let her fly.
He knew the instant the balls began to vibrate from the strong pull of her pussy muscles squeezing around them. He continued to suck in time to the clit pulsing against his lips.
Amery’s legs twitched, her body shook, and she expelled those silent breathy moans that indicated she’d gone beyond speech.
While she came in a wet rush all over his face, his cock rallied for the next round.
After the shaking stopped and she went lax, he pressed kisses