over her mound. He rubbed his lips from the ticklish spot he’d discovered mid-thigh to her hip bone. The overwhelming urge to mark her arose. On a night like tonight, when he skated on that edge, he didn’t deny the instinct. He sucked love bruises from the inside of her knee, up to the crease of her thigh and back down the other side.
“What are you . . . ?”
“Whatever I want.” Ronin pushed to his feet and stood, placing his hands by her head, stretching his body over hers until they were nose to nose. “You’re mine. And I intend to make that perfectly clear tonight.”
Amery grabbed a handful of his hair. “Bring it, tough guy.”
“Good thing you don’t have to work tomorrow, because it’ll be goddamn difficult for you to walk.” He unhooked the straps from the table and moved her legs to dangle over the edge. He clamped his hands on her ass and lifted her. Keeping his gaze locked to hers as he carried her into the bedroom and tossed her on the bed.
“Hands and knees.”
After Ronin grabbed the lube, he noticed Amery had pulled back the comforter. He lifted an eyebrow.
“It’s slippery. I figured with as hard as you’ll be fucking me, I need to be on a surface that won’t send me flying.”
He caged her body beneath his, his pelvis against her ass. He stayed like that for several long, deep breaths. Hard skin to soft skin, the scent of her filling his nostrils. His lips found her ear, and he rocked his hips into her.
She gasped softly.
“What’s that feel like, baby?”
“I feel full. When I move, those . . . things inside the ball vibrate like a tuning fork, starting strong and then tapering off.”
“Do you like it?”
Amery angled her cheek to rub against his. “The fact that I creamed all over your face points to . . . yes.”
“Such dirty talk,” he murmured and latched on to the skin at the nape of her neck. He sucked hard and drank in her quick gasp and full-body shudder like a shot of adrenaline that traveled straight to his cock.
When he snapped his hips again, her torso was thrust forward. His arms bore the brunt of the motion, and he pushed back.
“Oh god.”
“Widen your knees.” Once she had a solid stance, he planted kisses down her spine, to her tailbone, letting his tongue follow the crack in her ass down to that tiny rosette. He flicked his tongue across it a couple times and felt the muscles relax.
She groaned.
Ronin pushed to his knees and grabbed the lube. He squirted a thick dollop on his fingers and reached between those soft butt cheeks until he found her damp, puckered hole. He smeared the lube around and worked a finger in past that tight ring, then another, scissoring his fingers to open her up.
Then he pressed the tip of his lube-slicked cock to the spot and pushed through the resistance. The sphincter muscle closed around the head. He let it rest there, feeling the lure of her back channel, so hot and so fucking tight.
Goddamn. He couldn’t resist that lure. He plowed into her to the hilt.
Her body moved forward, and she dropped her head down.
Ronin built a hard, driving rhythm. Vigorous enough to dampen his hair and coat his body with sweat.
He’d come once, and that usually meant the second round would take him longer. But the clasp of her anal passage and the sensation from the geisha balls swaying inside her cunt put him on the fast track to orgasm again.
Amery was panting, and he noticed she’d clutched the sheets in her hands.
“Give me one more.”
“I need . . .”
He returned to the caged position, his chest on her back, his pelvis pumping. “Not done with you. Never going to be done with you.” He dragged openmouthed kisses across her shoulder, then stopped and bit down, gifting her with another mark.
That sent her spiraling into the abyss again.
The squeeze and pull of her orgasm propelled him into thrusting harder, deeper until he came in a scalding rush of heat that momentarily struck him stupid. When he realized he’d kept up that punishing rhythm even after he’d come, he worried for the first time he might’ve taken her too hard. He slowed and stopped. “Amery. I got carried away. I’m—”
“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry,” she warned. “It’s a rush that I can make you lose control like that, so don’t apologize.”
He followed the arch of her spine with kisses as he slowly withdrew. When he reached her buttocks, he gave her a big hickey on each cheek.
“You weren’t kidding about marking me everywhere.”
“No, I wasn’t. Loosen your grip on the geisha balls so I can take them out.” Ronin found the string and tugged them free.
Amery caught him off guard and pushed his elbow, rolling him to his back. She scooted off the bed until her feet hit the floor, and she sauntered to the bathroom. Her eyes glittered with lust when she stopped in the doorway and looked over her shoulder at him. “You promised to fuck me until I can’t walk. I’m still standing. What are you gonna do about that?”
Growling at her challenge, Ronin chased after her.
He fucked her in the shower.
Then he fucked her in the living room.
Then he fucked her over the bar.
After that, she couldn’t walk, so he carried her to bed.
Hard not to feel cocky about that.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
AMERY adjusted the lighting on the objects scattered on the black velvet for the twentieth time. Over the past two weeks, since the demo in the club, she’d been inundated with new clients. Between that and the Okada project, she could work nonstop seven days a week, and she knew she had to settle on whom to hire. The dynamic between her and Molly was so good she didn’t want to upset the balance and make a bad decision, so she’d been lax on making her final choice.
She’d moved a few of her things to Ronin’s penthouse. Cooking utensils, clothes, a few quirky knickknacks that looked wildly out of place amid Ronin’s structured furniture and minimalist furnishings. Ronin hadn’t complained—just the opposite. He wanted the mix of their pieces to make it seem more theirs. She was the one who’d been dragging her feet.
Amery didn’t doubt her feelings for him. She spent her nights and weekends with him anyway, so it shouldn’t have been such a big deal. But anytime she brought up paying rent and splitting the grocery and utility bills, Ronin said he’d cover it. She’d been too independent for too long just to let him take care of her. Especially financially.
She refocused on the items on the table. It was harder than she’d imagined to make homemade sex toys appear sexy and not weird. The paddle with the tacks on it looked painful. What part of the body was that used on?
Ronin’s voice popped into her head. Any part I want to use it on, baby.
She bit back a grin and wondered what he’d think if she used the modified Wartenberg wheel on him. She crouched down and snapped off a couple of shots, using the edge of the velvet-covered table to steady the camera. She’d been jumpy all damn day. She couldn’t attribute her jitteriness to caffeine since she hadn’t had a single cup.
“Amery?”
“Hang on a second, Molly. I’m trying to get the angle on this right. Would it be too over the top for this catalogue if the edgier sex toys had a glint coming off the metal?”
“Uh . . .”
“Would that defeat the purpose of getting people to try something new and kinky?”
“Amery!”
“What?” she said testily and whirled around to find herself face-to-face with her parents.
Her parents?
What the hell?
“What are you doing here?” A sick feeling nearly knocked her to her knees. “What happened to Aiden?”
“Nothing, as far as we know. He’s still in Afghanistan.”
“Thank god. I mean, I wish he’d be done with this tour, but I’m glad he isn’t the reason you’re here.”
“No, something has been brought to our at
tention. Something we need to discuss with you in person. Alone.” They both turned and glared at Molly.
“I’ll see you’re not disturbed.” Molly left and shut the door.
Amery wasn’t surprised her parents hadn’t hugged her. They weren’t much on public displays of affection. But that’d also mean they’d have to feel some type of affection first in order to display it.
“Okay. Wow. This has caught me off guard.”
Her mother shot a disgusted look at the prop table. “We can see that. This is how you make money? Taking photos of perverted things?”
She blushed. Goddammit—she tried to stop it, but her body still reacted instinctively to her mother’s condescending tone, and that annoyed the piss out of her.
“Put them away,” her father demanded. “They’re upsetting your mother.”
“Then maybe you should both wait outside,” she snapped.
“In this case, out of sight does not equal out of mind. You can no longer hide the sick things you’re doing, Amery Lee Hardwick.” Her father marched up to her. “And we will stay right here. We will not be brushed aside so you can call this Ronin Black, the man who has exerted some kind of control over you.”
How had they found out about Ronin?
“Yes, we know about him. We know the type of sick, dangerous things he’s involved in, things he’s tricked you into getting involved with too, brainwashing you into thinking those types of activities are normal. We’re here to put a stop to it.”
“Whoa. I don’t know where you’ve gotten your misinformation, but Ronin Black is a respected businessman.”
“He’s a deviant, promoting deviant behavior. He’s violent and uses violence as a weapon to further his control over you.”
Amery had the overwhelming urge to laugh, and she couldn’t stop one quick giggle.
“This is not funny. And that you think it is shows us how far you’ve fallen into his web of deceit,” her father said hotly.
“Where did you get this information?” When they stared at her stoically, she said, “It’s all hearsay, isn’t it? You’re assuming a lot because Ronin runs a martial arts studio.”
Her parents exchanged a look. Then her father said, “It’s not hearsay. Marion, show her.”
Show her. Amery watched as her mother removed a thick manila envelope from her purse. “What is that?”
“This is what was sent to us. It contains a letter telling us all about this Ronin Black”—she grimaced at his name—“who he is, what sick things he does, and pictures of the two of you together. As well as this.” Her mother pulled out a DVD and shook it at her. “Do you have any idea how disturbed we were to discover that you’re involved with the man in this piece of filth? After viewing it, we understood why you never mentioned him. Because you know what he does is wrong.”
“He does it to you, too, doesn’t he?” her father said angrily. “He has convinced you that it’s normal? That if you want him to love you, you need to be this type of woman for him?”
Amery asked, “What’s on the DVD?” even when she had a pretty good idea.
Her father got right in her face. “You’ll see. We want you to watch it. Every second of it.”
“Fine. Hand it over.”
He shook his head. “We will watch it together.”
Her stomach turned. “Why?”
“So we know you’ve suffered through it like we had to. So you’ll understand our concern.”
“Give it to me. I’ll watch it.”
“There’s more than just one DVD,” her mother added. “There are two and pictures.”
“Pictures?” she repeated. “Of what?”
“One thing at a time. Where’s your DVD player?”
They were serious. They were going to force her to watch whatever was on that DVD with them in the room.
“I’m sure she has one in her apartment.”
No way was she taking her sour-faced judgmental parents to her loft, the place that’d always been her sanctuary. Amery grabbed her laptop off the prop table. “I can watch it right here.”
“I want to warn you that it won’t matter if you try to destroy it. We’ve made copies of everything.” Her mother placed the plastic case in Amery’s hand.
“Of course you have.” She pointed to the folding chairs. “If you want to sit.” She pushed the rolling chair up to the table and popped open the DVD slot. When she felt her parents behind her, she wheeled around. “Do not stand over my shoulder, or I will take this in another room.”
Her mother harrumphed. “You do not get to decide—”
“Yes, I do. And besides, aren’t you supposed to be studying my face and body language to see how I react to what I see?”
“Now, sweetheart, we understand why you’d be defensive—”
“Don’t you ever call me sweetheart, Dad. Ever. You couldn’t show love and compassion when I was growing up, so you have no right to it now. I’d rather have your fucking contempt, which apparently I’ve got, so stick with that. Now, sit down.”
Her parents were shocked into complete silence for once.
Amery loaded the DVD. It was more than an hour long. “Do you expect me to watch the entire thing? Right now?”
“Yes. Why do you think we drove all the way from North Dakota?”
To shame me in person.
Before Amery hit PLAY, she wondered if someone had gotten a copy of the shibari demo they’d done at the club. At first she’d been annoyed Ronin had taped her without her knowledge. But after she’d seen it, she understood that Ronin needed her to see the demo from a different perspective. She’d actually cried during the part where he’d so lovingly removed the rope. Amery knew there was an amazing sexual chemistry between them; she felt it every time the man touched her. But to see it on-screen? To see the passion and tenderness in Ronin’s hands and on his face as he’d bound her and then untied her? That had unwound her completely. She had no defenses left where Ronin was concerned.
Somehow she didn’t think she’d see that on this DVD, and her pulse spiked when she clicked the start button.
The images were grainy, like a home movie with crappy video. But she knew the man she was seeing was Ronin. A younger Ronin.
There wasn’t any sound in the first segment as he bound an unknown naked woman. The focus was on the binding itself, not the sensuality of the act. The next two scenes were clearer, but the atmosphere had changed along with his rope partners to a harsher scene. The women were more intimately displayed. One even asked him to stop, at which Ronin crouched down and talked to her. Then he resumed his binding.
She might not have recognized Naomi after the first fifteen minutes of viewing if she hadn’t seen that annoying smirk up close and personal and heard that cooing baby talk voice.
The queasy sensation rolled over her as she watched Ronin binding Naomi. Not in the clinical manner as in the previous scenes, but with the loving touch she knew firsthand.
It shouldn’t have shocked her when Ronin stripped and started having sex with Naomi after finishing the binding. The shock, coupled with Naomi’s betrayal in taking something so intensely personal and almost . . . sacred to Ronin and using it to hurt him, sent her thoughts spiraling toward desolation.
To think her parents had watched this didn’t embarrass her; it infuriated her. This side of Ronin wasn’t Naomi’s to share. It never had been. Add in that she’d secretly taped them, and it spoke of her absolute evilness, vileness, and vindictiveness on a different plane.
By the third scene with Naomi, tears coursed down Amery’s face. She ached from the very bottom of her soul. Ached to see that the tenderness and care in Ronin’s beautiful eyes had been so wholly undeserved for this woman. Knowing when he saw this, he’d be mortified. Would he close himself off to her all over again?
To the untrained eye, or maybe to anyone who didn’t know Ronin on the level she did, the scenes that followed were harsher. The love and gratitude for the experience that shone in his eyes wa
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