Unraveled

  window and got a death grip on his hair. Her cunt muscles contracted around his dick, and her clit spasmed beneath his stroking finger.

  “Fuck, yes, oh yes.” Shiori didn’t scream, but she gasped and moaned through every pulsing throb until he heard her voice turning hoarse.

  After the storm of pleasure ebbed, she curled her hand around the back of his neck and pressed the side of her face into his. “You . . . that . . .” She sighed. “Yeah, I love the way you fuck.”

  He wondered if she’d noticed the grinding of his teeth and how he’d slowed his thrusts to keep himself in check.

  Shiori angled her face to capture his lips. After teasing him with almost kisses and an exchange of breaths, she said, “Thank you for this.” Another lick on the inside of his bottom lip because the woman knew how crazy that made him. “You rocked me.”

  “My pleasure. Mistress, can I come?”

  “Yes.” She returned her hand to the window, knowing he’d finish this with sheer force.

  Knox curled both hands into her hips, anchoring her to receive these last few pile-driving thrusts. He watched himself plunging into her until that moment when his balls lifted and his orgasm jetted through him in pulsating waves.

  It felt so fucking good to be sated and soft within her hot walls that he kept pumping even after that last blast.

  Shiori didn’t stop him. Didn’t say, “Enough. Pull out.” She just let him come down from his orgasmic high gradually. She got him. Every single time she knew what he needed and found a way to give it to him.

  No wonder he worshipped her.

  Immediately after Knox eased out, he helped her down from the ledge. He turned her around and kissed her for a good, long time, knowing that’s what she wanted. Bodies and mouths touching, not to establish her dominance, but to strengthen their bond.

  Once he was certain she had regained her sense of balance, he dropped to his knees, despite the awkwardness of having his pants around his ankles. He didn’t ask for permission since she’d given him the appearance of his being in charge. He lowered his mouth to her pussy, using his thumbs to get at the sweet pearl already returning to hiding within her pink folds. He sucked gently but relentlessly until she came against his mouth. He drank her orgasm down, swallowing her juices like fine wine.

  She petted his hair afterward. “Being with you is like nothing I’ve ever experienced, Knox.”

  “I’m striving to make a good impression.”

  “You’ve succeeded. Thank you. Now we need to get dressed.”

  Even dressing separately wasn’t uncomfortable, which proved to him how easy it was being with her. Shiori didn’t play mind games. She didn’t try to trick him or trip him up so she could punish him. She simply . . . enjoyed him, in whatever manner she chose.

  And it was a real boost to his ego that he could make her mindless, that he could make her come so hard she couldn’t breathe or speak. That she’d chosen him to be part of all that with her.

  “What are you thinking about so hard, over there?” she asked.

  Knox buttoned his shirt, watching as she did the same. “That you’re right. We need to have more fights.”

  She laughed.

  “Seriously, is it all right if I look for activities we can do together that keep the competitive nature alive between us?”

  Her eyes softened. “I’d love that.”

  “Cool.” He opened the door to let her leave first.

  Right as they walked out of the supply closet, Deacon walked into the office.

  Deacon looked from Shiori to Knox and then to the closet. “Were you two fucking around in the supply closet?” He paused and held up his hand. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

  “Did you need something?” Knox asked.

  “A couple of the guys you cut from the MMA program would like to speak with you.”

  “Did they show up with flowers and chocolates to thank me personally for cutting them?”

  “I wish they’d come in through the dojo and not up to the business offices. That way they would’ve gone through the metal detector.”

  Shit. “That bad?”

  “Spewing shit like any other dumb fucker who thinks looking tough and acting tough translates to toughness in the ring.” Deacon cracked his knuckles. “They’re punks.”

  Knox ran his hand over the top of his head. “All right. Let’s go.” He looked at Shiori. “Translate those reports into English.”

  She smirked. “Sure thing, boss. Don’t you want me to help explain a few things to the punks?”

  “Nope. We’ll handle it.”

  For a moment it seemed like she’d argue, but she slipped behind her desk.

  Knox and Deacon walked side by side down the hallway. “Who showed up?”

  “Radley and Lotte.”

  “Of course it’s those two. They don’t know when to shut their fucking mouths.” Knox dropped his voice. “Where the fuck did they get their egos? Jesus. It’s not like they did anything of note to earn them.”

  “No clue. They’re pathetic little wannabes. Ronin wouldn’t let me work with them full force or they wouldn’t have lasted as long as they did.”

  When they entered the training room, Blue gave a subtle nod and slipped out the side door.

  Both guys had taken on belligerent postures like punk-ass gangbanger rejects. They also looked high. Great. “What are you doing here?”

  “It’s bullshit that you think you can just cut us from the MMA program with no warning,” Lotte said.

  “Yeah, you tell him, bro,” Radley piped in.

  “Black Arts is a private dojo, and we have the right to revoke training privileges at any time.” Knox’s gaze swung between them. “Is that all you needed me to clear up?”

  Lotte sneered. “You don’t have the fucking authority to kick us out.”

  “I’m in charge of the dojo while Sensei Black trains out of the country. What I say goes. You’re both done. I know you packed up your gear and were refunded the balance of your fees, so I don’t get why you’re here.”

  “You act like you’re hot shit, but you don’t know shit. You’re the joke in the MMA program.” Lotte threw back his shoulders. “You have no skills to offer. You just wander around the training room like a big, stupid ape.”

  Even these bottom-feeders see how worthless you are to the program.

  His ego picked a helluva time to push that crisis to the forefront of his thoughts.

  “Yeah,” Radley added. “When Sensei Black gets back and hears that you cut his two most promising fighters, he’s gonna be pissed.”

  Knox flashed his teeth. “Black Arts’s two most promising fighters are still on the roster, and it ain’t you two. Won’t ever be you two. You sucked the day you walked in. Your so-called skills became more laughable the longer you tried to pretend you were badass motherfuckers. Am I right, Deacon?”

  “One hundred percent right as usual, Shihan.”

  “Do you suck his dick too?” Lotte and Radley high-fived.

  “I hear the comedy club in Writer Square is hiring . . . busboys,” Deacon drawled. “You jokers oughta fit right in. Now, get the fuck outta here.”

  Lotte and Radley looked at each other.

  “Here’s where you say, ‘Make us leave,’ giving us the chance to kick your scrawny asses down the stairs. Or you do the smart thing and shut your mouths and get out.” Deacon stepped away from the door, giving them a clear path.

  “We’ll leave, but this won’t be the last you’ll see of us,” Lotte warned.

  “Yeah, you’d better start locking your door during the day,” Radley said smugly. “You never know who could show up. Homeless guys are always looking for a place to hide out during the day. Maybe we’ll tell the hobos at the Sixteenth Street Mall about this place.”

  “Was that a threat?” Knox asked.

  “Call it whatever you want. A warning.” Lotte grinned nastily. “A p
remonition.”

  “That’s supposed to intimidate me into putting you back in the program?”

  Lotte shrugged.

  Knox started toward them. “Tell you what. If one of you bests me? I’ll let you train.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “So which one of you is it gonna be?”

  “Me,” Lotte and Radley said simultaneously.

  “There can be only one,” Deacon said, deadpan.

  Holy fuck. Knox was about to burst out laughing at Deacon’s Highlander reference. This whole thing had headed into farce territory.

  “I can punch a fuck of a lot harder than you,” Radley said to Lotte.

  “That’s the only fuckin’ thing you can do,” Lotte shot back. “My takedown skills are way better than yours.”

  Radley snorted. “Because you took a year of tae kwon do at the Y? Give me a fuckin’ break.”

  Where the hell had Ronin dug up these dumb fuckers?

  “Make a goddamn decision,” Knox snapped.

  Lotte stepped forward. “Me.”

  A quick spike of adrenaline juiced him as he closed the distance between him and that cocky little punk. Lotte started to speak, but Knox swept his feet out from under him.

  Lotte landed on his ass.

  Then Knox flipped him onto his belly, pulling his right arm crossways to his opposite hip and trapping his left arm beneath the front of his body. He pressed his boot on the side of Lotte’s face. He didn’t bother to lean down or to whisper. “I’ve got you pinned down, bro, and I’m using only one of my arms and one of my legs. Guess worthless applies more to you than it does to me.”

  “Let me go.”

  “I will. Then you’ll take your little friend and get the fuck out of this building and never show your faces here again.” Knox pulled on Lotte’s arm until he whimpered. “The training room is under surveillance, so if a single homeless person shows up here? The tape goes to the cops. Got it?”

  Lotte nodded.

  “Answer the fucking question out loud so I know you understand.”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He released Lotte.

  Radley didn’t wait for his bro. He hightailed it out the door. Lotte slunk out like a scalded cat, and Deacon followed them to make sure they got gone.

  Knox scrubbed his hands over his face. He didn’t need that shit today. When he looked up, Shiori leaned in the doorframe.

  “Impressive, Shihan.”

  “All in a day’s work.”

  “I love watching you deliver the smackdown. No one expects a guy your size to move that fast. In fact, it really turns me on.” She sauntered forward with that heated look in her eye.

  Instant boner.

  Shiori stood on tiptoe to whisper in his ear. “I finished those reports.”

  “Okay.” Goddammit, he loved that little bite of pain when she dug her fingers into his abdomen.

  “I left them in the supply closet.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s time you had a lesson in Japanese. Oral is the best way to learn, don’t you think?”

  He groaned. “My brain just totally went offline and I can’t think at all.”

  “Luckily, as your Mistress, it’s my job to think for you. Get your ass in the supply closet.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  KNOX followed through with his idea of keeping a friendly athletic competition going between them, since their grappling practices had deteriorated into a game of grab ass.

  He’d rented out the rock-climbing wall and obstacle course at a local gym that catered to the outdoor set. Something about Knox’s pleased grin had Shiori worried.

  “Is there a reason you’re beaming sunshine from those pearly whites, Ob-Knox-ious?”

  “Could be I’m thinking about watching your ass as you’re moving up the rock wall. Or it could be I’m thinking about kicking your ass, timewise, when we climb the rock wall, She-Cat.”

  Shiori adjusted her shoes. “So confident.”

  “I am.”

  “Willing to make a wager?”

  “Depends. What are you offering?”

  “If you win, I’ll let you top me tonight. But if I win, I get to break out the strap-on I bought for you.”

  He smoothed back a piece of hair that’d escaped her ponytail. “While I’m humbled by your offer, Mistress, I have no desire to change that dynamic between us, even for one night.”

  Her jaw almost hit the floor. “You’re serious.”

  “Yes. I’ve realized that when I’m with you . . . I’m who and what I’m supposed to be. I want to make you happy that you took a chance on me.”

  This was the moment she’d waited for. And now that it was here . . . she had no idea what to say. Or do. “It was a no-brainer. I mean look at you. You’re this hot-bodied Viking. Even if I couldn’t bring you to heel, I’d have a great time trying to convince you submissive doesn’t mean subservient.” She smirked. “At least not all the time.”

  “You’re being flip about this. Which I know you well enough to know means the conversation makes you nervous. Why?”

  Because every day I’m falling for you a little more and I’m imagining all sorts of ridiculous romantic scenarios where you are mine, just mine, for good.

  “Shiori?”

  “Because this isn’t a conversation I want to have here.” She poked him in the chest. “Stop trying to get in my head and put me off my game. Not happening. The bet stands. Take it or leave it.”

  “Leave it, but I’ll take you. Anytime, anyplace.” He kissed her with sweet heat that blew her concentration to hell.

  They walked hand in hand to the cavernous room with four different wall configurations.

  The hipster guide named Errol ran over the safety rules before he turned them loose.

  Knox bowed to her with a smile and kissed her knuckles. “Mistress first.”

  Shiori eyed the wall, trying to discern a fast rise pattern. In the end, she just went for it. She scaled the first wall freehand and made it to the top in less than three minutes.

  Knox high-fived her. “Great form.” He put his mouth on her ear. “And I’m not just talking about that delectable ass, kitten.”

  “Stop distracting me or I’ll yell out filthy suggestions during your turn and see how well you can climb with a hard-on.”

  “Hmm. You know, a third leg might come in handy.”

  She whopped him on the arm.

  The second wall required a harness. Finding both her balance and the right footholds proved difficult. She finished without falling—major feat—around the ten-minute mark.

  Not a great time. But she reminded herself that being small and agile was an advantage in this contest.