Unraveled

  So he flicked just the very tip of his tongue across that sweet spot and returned to fucking her with it. A nuzzle here, a lick there, and whoops—another short pass of his tongue between her pussy lips to mix things up. He planted kisses across the denuded skin of her mound, letting his nose tease her lower belly as he dragged his mouth back and forth across that tempting patch of hair.

  Shiori had started to bump her hips into his face, practically chasing his mouth to get him to put it where she most needed it.

  Ask me. Beg me. Because, baby, I can do this all goddamn night.

  After another round of lick, suck, bite, when he then blew on her hot and wet tissues, she finally gave in.

  “Enough. Stop teasing.”

  Knox lifted his mouth enough to say, “Beg me,” and then tickled her clit with his lips.

  “Make me come.”

  Not the begging he’d wanted, but her command was pretty damn hot. He said, “Yes, ma’am,” and latched on to that pouting little pearl, lightly tonguing it until the first hard pulse against his mouth. Then he sucked in time to the rhythm of her body.

  She expelled a loud gasp that was as good as a scream.

  Teasing her had the desired effect; her orgasm seemed to last awhile, and he stayed with her to the last slow pulse, wanting to gift her every bit of pleasure he could.

  He pressed his mouth to her even after she went limp against the back of the couch. Even when his jeans were trying to cut his dick in half.

  Then her fingers were stroking his hair. “Okay. You can back off now.”

  “But I don’t want to.”

  She sighed.

  “So does that sigh mean I passed?”

  “With high marks.”

  Knox pushed back onto his knees, dying to tear off his jeans and fuck her any way she told him to.

  But when Shiori bent to retrieve her pants—interesting that she’d gone commando—his hopes deflated even as his cock stayed hard and proud.

  After she put her pants back on, she took her phone out and poked at the buttons. Then she perched on the edge of the couch and smoothed his hair back, gently mapping his face before she leaned in and kissed him.

  Her kiss was equal parts gratitude and control. When she broke free, Knox stubbornly kept his eyes closed.

  “Look at me.”

  Warning himself not to glare, or look fucking pitiful, he peeled his eyes open halfway.

  “I know you’re hard and uncomfortable and are probably cursing me for it. But since I’m not going to do anything about it, you can’t either.” She waited, probably expecting him to explode with outrage, but he knew it’d be a waste of breath.

  “You don’t get to touch yourself or get off until I say. So no washing your cock and balls in the shower and the next thing you know, you’re jacking off when you didn’t mean to. Ditto using wet dreams as an excuse of why you came when I told you not to.

  “I’m not doing this to torture you, Knox. I’m making this demand for two reasons. First for you to learn you have no control. Accept it. Accept that you won’t always like it. The second reason is orgasm denial builds stamina. If you can get off whenever you want, then it’s harder for you to get off when I want. Understand?”

  He blinked at her.

  “Have something to say?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Don’t pout.”

  He bit off, “I. Don’t. Pout.”

  She pressed her lips to his. “Kiss me.”

  But Knox’s mouth was closed down as tight as Fort Knox.

  Yep. Definitely pouting. She laughed. “Kiss me like you mean it, Knox. Kiss me and touch me as if I’d given you the green light and you were carrying me off to bed.”

  That broke his frustration. He brought her on top of him and rolled down to the floor. One hand in her hair held her head in place so he could eat at her mouth the same way he’d eaten at her pussy, the other hand pressing down on her lower back, so he could rock his dick against her pubic bone.

  Shiori’s hands were trapped between them, and she just dug her nails into his chest and held on.

  Finally the frustration eased and he released her.

  “That’s what I want from you,” she whispered against his throat. “An honest reaction.” She rolled to her feet and offered a hand to help him up.

  Knox laughed. “I’m not falling for that. You might just throw me on my ass for fun, and wouldn’t that be the perfect capper to my night?”

  “Any regrets?”

  He scrubbed his hands down his face and looked out the window rather than at her. A Lincoln Town Car pulled up to the curb. “Doesn’t matter. Your ride is here. And for the record, Mistress, I fucking hate that you won’t at least let me take you home.”

  She slipped her coat on without his assistance. “I’ll consider it for next time, okay?”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night.” She bowed to him before she fled.

  Bowed.

  As he watched her drive away, he realized whatever justification he’d made about this situation felt hollow.

  CHAPTER NINE

  SHIORI, Fee, Katie, Tasha, and Molly met at the North Seventh Girls Club Saturday morning. Molly, being her usual sweetheart self, brought doughnuts for everyone—including the girls in the class.

  Katie served as the MC, introducing everyone, and did a great job of explaining the differences between traditional jujitsu and Brazilian jujitsu. Then she emphasized how long each of the black belt instructors had been training and what tournaments they’d placed in. It surprised Shiori that Katie had that info on her because she’d never given Black Arts a full bio. So the woman was resourceful; she’d grant her that.

  Then she introduced Molly. Molly’s story of her attack, her recovery, and her enrollment in self-defense training kept the girls riveted, especially the part where Molly swore knowing she could defend herself had made her a stronger, more confident person in all aspects of her life.

  Shiori and Fee demonstrated the simplest self-defense techniques on Tasha and Molly while Katie explained each step. The girls, ranging in age from eight to fourteen, were partnered up by size, and then the real work began. Although Shiori supposed that fits of giggles were better than crying fits.

  Katie kept an eye on the entire class and alerted the instructors when she could see who hadn’t been helped at all or who needed extra help. Plus she offered lots of praise in a genuine manner that boosted the students’ confidence and made them work harder.

  Time flew by. Before they ended the class, the girls begged Shiori and Fee to do a grappling demonstration. It didn’t take much to convince them because they liked to mix it up.

  Neither woman held back. And maybe some of the hip throws and takedowns were over-the-top, but the audience loved it. By the time they finished the match, they were both sweating, breathing hard, disheveled, and happy for the challenge.

  Katie declared the match a tie. While Shiori and Fee were evenly matched in skill in some areas, in others Shiori had a clear advantage. The last time they’d faced each other in an MMA fight, Shiori had won. But she knew Fee wanted a rematch. Maybe that would be a way to increase ticket sales for the next Black and Blue Promotions event. She’d bring it up with Katie first. From what Shiori had seen, both Blue and Ronin were dismissive of Katie’s abilities in the promotion business. That didn’t make sense to her. Why would they keep her on staff if she wasn’t contributing in a positive way? Sure she was a knockout as a ring girl. Amery had mentioned that Katie had a six-month probation period, but that’d passed. Yet Blue and Ronin still hadn’t allowed her to do the job she’d been hired for. It seemed the only person who listened to her ideas was Knox. No wonder she hung around him whenever possible.

  Ronin had asked her to keep an eye on Black and Blue Promotions, so maybe it was time to dig deeper into the business plan for the next year.

  “What do you think,
Shi?” Fee asked.

  “Sorry. I was thinking about something else. What did you say?”

  “I said those guys were so smarmy about us going shopping; I say we shop our asses off. Then let’s have a girls’ day and night. Dinner, drinks, dancing . . . Who knows where it’ll lead?” Katie said.

  Tasha spoke first. “As much fun as that sounds, I have to work tonight. But you guys have a blast.” After a round of goodbyes, she got in her car and sped off.

  “What about you, Molly?”

  Molly pulled the elastic band down, releasing her ponytail. Then she fluffed up her dark brown hair. “Well—”

  “God, I hate you. Both you and Fee. You’ve been moving around and sweating for four hours and your hair looks that amazing immediately afterward?” Katie’s gaze winged to Fee. “Go ahead and do the hair flip and primp thing so I can lament the hideousness of my overprocessed stick-straight hair and bask in the gloriousness of yours.”

  “Yes!” Molly did a fist pump. “Katie envies me for something! I’m writing that in my diary.”

  “Me too,” Fee said. Then she added, “Or I’ll write it on my girls-of-the-ring calendar with Katie’s hotness as Miss September.”

  Katie flipped her off. “The calendar was for charity, Fifi.”

  “Fuck. I hate that nickname. Fee is so much better than the drawn-out So-fee-ah that my mother saddled me with. But Fifi is the name of a damn dog. I want to kick him in the face whenever he says it.”

  Shiori frowned. “I’ve never heard Blue call you that before.”

  “Blue calls me brat or Sophia. Gil is the one who teases me with that.”

  “Anyway, the two perfect-hair chicks can’t complain about a bad hair day keeping them from shopping and carousing. What about you, Shi? Ready to do some damage to your credit limit?”

  “Let’s do it.”

  “Saks first? Then the boutiques downtown?”

  “Perfect.”

  Molly and Fee were whispering to each other.

  “Share with the class, ladies,” Katie chided.

  “Okay, here’s the thing.” Molly looked at Fee again. “Where you two shop is way out of mine and Fee’s budgets. Way out. But it’ll be fun to see how the one percenters live. So we’ll come along, as long as you both understand we’ll be window-shopping.”

  “Yeah, and this isn’t a hint for you to take pity on us and buy us shit.” Fee grinned. “And I really wanna see how much Katie spends on shoes.”

  Shiori had never considered it might be uncomfortable for Molly and Fee. Her entire life she’d had the luxury of buying whatever she wanted. Price didn’t matter, and she’d never had to stick to a budget. Their way of living was as foreign to her as hers was to them. But she was glad they had been honest about their hesitations. She nudged Katie with her shoulder. “You heard them. Shoe shopping first.”

  * * *

  BY the time they sat down for dinner at Denver’s hot new western-styled Mexican food cantina, they were ready for a pitcher of margaritas.

  “So how often do you shop like that?” Fee asked, helping herself to chips and salsa after the waitress took their orders.

  Katie shrugged. “Not as often as I used to. Now I understand the term shopping spree because that’s how I do it.”

  “What about you, Shi?”

  “In Japan I used to shop with my mom. I miss that. I miss her.” Ever since she’d walked away from the career path she’d been on at the family company, she and her mom had drifted apart. But part of that was their physical distance.

  “You seemed familiar with the stores here,” Katie pointed out.

  “I am. I mostly shop when I’m bored. When I first got here, before I was teaching at Black Arts and I had a plane at my disposal, I’d fly to Vegas or Chicago to shop.”

  Molly’s hand holding her margarita stopped in midair and she gasped, “For real?”

  “For real.”

  “That’s so crazy to me. I’m saving up to take a vacation in Daytona. And you can just jet off whenever you feel like it.”

  “I have to admit I didn’t realize it was so far to fly—for a foreigner it’s hard to grasp the size of America. Flying off to shop wasn’t something I did regularly in Japan. My job with Okada was seventy hours a week, so Saturday was the only day I had off. It was tempting to sleep, but I forced myself to have a life. So in my younger years, in order for me to have time to go to parties or events or the clubs, I hired a personal shopper so I didn’t spend my one free day shopping and I always had the hottest clothes.” The way they were looking at her after she finished speaking, she wondered if she’d said too much.

  No, you didn’t tell them shopping had been your refuge during your marriage. That no matter how chic or well adorned you were, it didn’t hold your husband’s interest for long.

  “I never had to work for the money I got from my family,” Katie offered. “My dad didn’t think I had the drive or the brains to be part of any of his businesses. I fell into that mind-set for a while—if he thinks I’m a fuckup, why shouldn’t I just be one?” She paused. “I got over that attitude after some bad choices. But I still live off the family trust fund, because what I’m making at Black and Blue Promotions definitely won’t keep me in designer shoes.”

  They all laughed, and Shiori’s tension lessened.

  “So is having that kind of money almost like it’s not real money?” Molly asked. “Because if I would’ve bought those cute boots that were five hundred bucks, I’d have to cut back on something in my budget to make up the difference.”

  Fee snorted. “I’d have to tell my brother, hey, I can’t pay my portion of the mortgage this month, but look at these awesome new shoes! He’d bury me in them.”

  Another round of laughter. The conversation lightened up. Then the food arrived—good thing because they’d downed the pitcher of margaritas.

  While Fee and Molly were discussing roller derby, Shiori brought up Black and Blue Promotions.

  After some casual back-and-forth, Shiori said, “I’d like to see your proposals for promotion.”

  “All of them?”

  “Yes. Even if there are ones that Ronin and Blue discounted, I’m still interested in them. And I’d like to take a peek at the remaining schedule for this year.”

  “Absolutely.” Katie bit her lip and leaned forward. “But I suggest we do this after hours, when Blue is gone. He’s constantly looking over my shoulder. He doesn’t have any faith in me or trust that I can actually do this job and do it well.”

  Or maybe there was another reason Blue monitored Katie so closely.

  “Hey, no telling secrets,” Fee said, butting into their conversation. “And no work talk.”

  “We’re not talking about work. We’re arguing over what flavor of margarita we should order next,” Katie retorted. “Blood orange? Or blueberry?”

  “Yuck. Neither. This mango kind is good.”

  “I vote mango too,” Molly said.

  “Mango it is.” Katie gestured with the pitcher to the waitress for another round. “So where are we going tonight?”

  “Not Diesel,” Fee and Shiori said in unison and laughed.

  “Agreed,” Molly said.

  “Do we wanna dance? Or just drink? Or watch hot guys dance together at a gay club while we drink?” Katie asked.

  At the mention of a club, Shiori found herself wondering if Knox was going to Twisted tonight. The past four days had been so crazy she and Knox had seen each other in the dojo and that was it. They hadn’t been left alone for even two minutes.

  “Speaking of hot guys . . . who is the hottest guy at Black Arts and ABC?” Katie asked. “Molly, you first.”

  “Ronin Black.”