“I don’t know what happened or why Naomi returned to Denver, but the truth is she’s the psycho type who’d show up here just because she’s heard Ronin is happy and she wants to f**k with him and f**k that up for him.” Shiori took her hand. “He will try to close himself off from you, and you can’t let him do that. You should go to him. He needs you.”
Amery shooed Shiori out the door and got in her car.
• • •
AFTER Ronin’s run-in with Naomi, he returned to a private practice room at the dojo and worked on kata forms for two hours, until he was drenched in sweat. Reaching the exercise high dulled some of his rage. But it wasn’t enough. He headed up to the roof, ditched his gi, dove into the pool, and started to swim laps.
The water temp cooled more than his hot head. In the repetitive rhythm of his strokes and the silence, he found his calm center. Where maintaining breath work required every ounce of concentration. Where time was irrelevant. He could’ve been in the pool ten minutes or four hours. His existence boiled down to stroke, stroke, breathe, stroke, stroke, breathe.
When he had depleted all the oxygen in his muscles, he stopped and floated on his back, arms and legs spread out in an X, still aiming for sensory deprivation.
Then he heard footsteps across the concrete deck.
A rush of happiness, of completeness, of need, of relief flowed over him.
Amery.
He let his feet sink to the bottom and he stood.
She waited at the edge of the steps, holding a bath sheet.
Ronin slowly exited the pool and let Amery wrap the big towel around his body. He remained still as she wrapped herself around him.
They stayed like that, bound together by unspoken words until the night chill caused him to shiver.
Amery eased back and stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Let’s get you warmed up. I turned the fireplace on.”
Inside the penthouse he noticed she’d moved a chair directly in front of the fire. After swapping the wet towel for his favorite stadium blanket, she settled him in the chair and swaddled him in fleece. Once she’d gently towel dried his hair, she ran her fingers through it, gifting him with the soothing touch he craved.
Warmth from the fire and her TLC seeped into his muscles and bones, turning his blood sluggish and his breathing slow. Physically and mentally exhausted, he dozed off.
A loud pop awoke him.
Startled, he glanced over at Amery sitting in the chair next to him, staring into the fireplace. Since she appeared to be brooding, he watched the golden glow of flames flickering across her beautiful face.
“Didn’t your mother teach you it’s impolite to stare?” she asked softly.
“She taught me to appreciate beauty.”
Amery looked at him. “Are you warmed up?”
“Yes. Thank you.” He paused. “I need—”
“To go to bed. It’s late. And you’ve had a trying day.”
Not the answer he wanted.
“But it seems a shame to waste this ambience.”
She pushed her chair back and spread another blanket on the floor in front of the fire before she started stripping off her clothes.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m apologizing with my body tonight. We’ll get to the talking stuff tomorrow.”
Ronin stood and tried to kiss her, but she gave him a sultry laugh and ducked her head.
“I’m the seducer here, Master Black.” She playfully tugged the blanket. “Lose the cover.”
He let the blanket drop.
Amery’s eyes ate him up. “Handy that you swam naked.” She moved in to him, rubbing her bare skin against his, teasing his lips with flirty kisses. Reaching between them, she stroked his shaft, which had already gone hard. “You like the idea of me being on top.”
“I like the idea of us naked together any way I can get you.”
She slid her soft lips over his jaw, eliciting a sigh, and then down his neck, eliciting another. “There’s no sexy, romantic way to get us on the floor. So you first.”
He crouched down and rolled to his back.
Amery followed him down. Her knees bracketed his hips, and she hung above him on all fours. “How is it possible you look even more beautifully fierce by firelight?”
“Baby, you don’t have to sweet-talk me. I’m a sure thing.”
“As a gorgeous specimen of manliness, you should be able to take a compliment because you should be used to it.” He shivered when she pressed her lips in the hollow beneath his ear. “If you’re cold, I can get the blanket.”
“No.” Ronin pushed her hair over her shoulder. “I want to watch you moving on me.”
Her teeth grazed his earlobe. She zigzagged her tongue down to his ni**les. Sweetly tormenting them with her mouth while the silky ends of her hair swung against the side of his body like a hundred ghostly fingertips.
She didn’t tease him until the point he begged her—but almost. Finally she circled his c**k at the base and adjusted her hips, drawing the tip across her wet entrance before pushing down on a slow glide. She slanted her mouth over his and swallowed his groan.
So good. Every damn time. He felt enveloped by her completely—she’d caged him in, her chest against his, her forearms by his head, her elbows above his shoulders, her hair a veil of softness around his head. Every time he breathed in, his lungs were filled with the scent of her.
Ronin palmed her hips, feeling the muscles in her ass flexing as she rode him. The heat from the fire warmed his left side, but the fire she’d started inside him turned his blood white hot.