Lorelei James - Bound

“Fine, I’ll drop it. But I have to ask, what do your folks think of these changes in you? Do they approve of you being involved with a guy like Ronin?”

“I don’t care. They’re not in my life. It only matters that I’m happy with the changes.”

“But are you making all these changes for him?”

“That’s an insulting insinuation.”

He grabbed her biceps and hauled her closer. “Listen to me. You may think you’re tough because you live in a city now rather than a small town, but you don’t have the experience to deal with a man like Ronin Black. Very few people do. He’ll chew you up and spit you out.”

Slightly alarmed by his vehemence, she said, “Tyler—”

“Let. Her. Go.” A pause. “Now.”

Ronin.

Tyler immediately retreated.

“Never put your hands on her like that again. It would end very badly for you. Am I clear?”

If Ronin’s tone were a weapon, Tyler would be lying in bloody chunks on the floor.

Tyler raised his hands in mock surrender. “Sorry. We have a history and it was easy to slip into those old roles.” He shot Amery a quick smile. “Great to see you, Amery. If you ever need to talk . . . now you know where to reach me.” He spun on his heel and left the dance floor.

Then Amery was wrapped in Ronin’s arms. She clutched his back and held on tight.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. He’s just a blowhard who hasn’t changed, except he’s become even more of an asshole.”

“Why did you dance with him?”

“He asked me to.”

His body stiffened. “That’s it? That’s the only reason?”

“Do you have any idea how long you were gone? I was just supposed to cool my heels until you returned? I’ve already done that once tonight, Ronin. I was bored and he was here.”

He made that displeased noise.

“Besides, I was involved with Tyler for a few years. It’s not like he was a strange guy hitting on me.”

“I would’ve preferred a stranger hitting on you to him.”

Amery tried to look at Ronin, but he kept the side of his face pressed into hers, holding her in place. “Why?”

“A stranger hasn’t seen you naked. Hasn’t touched you. Hasn’t fucked you. Tyler has. Goddammit, he had you for three years. The realization that he’d screwed up by letting you go was written all over his face tonight.”

Ronin had read that wrong. Tyler didn’t want to be with her; he just didn’t want her to be with anyone else. “It doesn’t matter because I’m not with him. I’m with you.”

His thumb swept over the pulse point in her throat. He repeated the motion and it felt as erotic as when he’d touched her clit. His scent, his touch, his uneven breathing stirred her hair and her desire. “But are you really with me?”

“I’m confused. With you how?”

“In every way I need you to be.”

“Still confused.”

“Come home with me and I’ll show you what I mean. What I need. You said anytime, any way. I want you to prove it to me tonight.”

She shivered. “Let’s go.”

They left the dance floor in the middle of the song.

RONIN held her hand as they waited at the valet stand.

Amery’s entire body tingled just from Ronin lightly stroking the inside of her wrist with his callused thumb. How would it be between them when they were alone? Mind-blowing.

Maybe it did scare her how addicted she’d gotten to his touch.

She shivered.

He swept her hair over her shoulder. “You’re shaking. Are you cold?”

“A little.”

“Here.” He unbuttoned his jacket and shrugged it off. Then he draped it around her shoulders. “Better?”

This was worse actually. The body-heated fabric that carried his scent completely surrounded her. “Yes. Thank you.”

He curled his hands around her face. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“I can’t think of anything else but you.”

“Why is that making you frown?”

“Because you overwhelm me. Maybe I’m saying this because of my run-in with Tyler, and realizing he never knew me, not in the three years we were together. You’ve been in my life less than three weeks and you already know aspects of me better than I know myself. You don’t have any problems pushing my boundaries.”

“Are you afraid I might push you too hard?” he asked softly.

“No. I’m afraid that I’ll find out that I don’t have any boundaries at all when it comes to you.”

Ronin rested his forehead to hers. “You have no idea what you do to me when you say that.”

The valet broke the moment. “Your car, Mr. Black.”

Ronin released her and opened her car door. Then he skirted the front end and slipped into the driver’s side.

As soon as they were on the road, he said, “You are spending the night with me.”

Not a request. “We’ll have to swing by my place so I can get some clothes.”

“I still have your jeans. I’d like to see you in one of my shirts.”

“Then I guess we’ll go straight to your place.” Feeling buoyed by her confession, Amery unbuckled her seatbelt. She leaned across the console and worked the knot in his tie. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about the equal time.”

“My tie isn’t connected to my zipper.”

“Want me to go straight for the good stuff?”

Ronin gave her a look so hot it scorched the breath from her lungs. “Yes.”

“Eyes on the road.” Amery found the buckle on his belt and unhooked it. She unzipped his pants, and his shaft jumped against her hand. “Spread your legs wider.”

He hissed in a breath when her fingertips brushed the crown of his cock.

With the angle of the seat, she couldn’t de-pants him and she couldn’t play with his balls, so she pulled his cock through the opening in his boxer briefs. She glanced at his hands, gripping the steering wheel much more tightly than before. She lowered her head and swallowed as much of him as she could.

“Sweet Jesus.”

Amery let his shaft slide back out of her mouth. She did that a few more times and his legs went rigid. “Do you wish you had my hair in your hands so you could force me to keep this cock in my mouth?”

“Yes.”

“Pay attention to the road, Sensei. I know how you prefer to look at me while I’m blowing you, but I don’t want to die choking on your dick after you wreck your fancy car.” Amery let her mouth slowly engulf his cock. When she started bobbing her head, the hard shaft bumped the back of her throat on every pass. She hollowed her cheeks and sucked, loving the musky tang of him and the feel of his velvety-soft, steel-hard shaft gliding over her tongue. Flicking the very tip and the thick ridge beneath the cock head before taking him deep. She circled the root and stroked up as her mouth slid down.

“Don’t use your hands. Just your mouth.”

Bossy man preferred her hands on his thighs or his abdomen, or gripping his butt cheeks when she was on her knees before him. Pleasing him gave her such a heady sense of power. But this time she controlled him. She pushed him to the edge at full throttle. No reason to drag this out. She wanted—no, she’d earned the right to make him soar and swallow him down.

“Amery. Fuck. Stop.”

She pulled her mouth away long enough to say, “No, give it to me. All of it,” before she took him back in.

Ronin swore under his breath.

His body went rigid. She heard his grip increase on the steering wheel. He bumped his hips up and she felt that moment when he let go. His cock hardened further for a split second and then hot, wet spurts hit her soft palate. She firmed her lips as she swallowed.

As soon as his orgasm ended, she licked the shaft and lightly tongued the tip. He’d never given her the opportunity to nuzzle and kiss his softening flesh.

He tugged on her hair. “Baby, you have to stop. I’m about to wreck the car.”

Amery kissed the head of his penis before pushing upright. “Why were you going to wreck the car?” she asked innocently.

“Because instead of throwing my head back and closing my eyes like I do whenever your hot mouth works me, I focused on the road. But my foot stepped on the gas and I don’t need a ticket for a hundred and seventy miles an hour.”

“We were going that fast?”

“Almost before I blinked.”

She zipped his pants, then refastened his belt. “There. You don’t look so disheveled.”

“I like that look.” He snatched her hand and kissed the center of her palm. “On you. And by the time I finish with you tonight? You will be thoroughly disheveled.”

Silence settled between them, only broken by the hum of the engine.

Amery angled her head in the confines of the car and stared at the Denver skyline as it came into view. How many of the people at the party tonight lived in the expensive high-rises with the gorgeous view of the mountains? Probably their places made Ronin’s penthouse look like a dive. But how many of them were poseurs like her? Only there rubbing elbows with Denver’s elite because of a benefactor who invited them to the fancy shindig?

“What’re you thinking about?”

“The ratio of people at tonight’s party who were filthy rich and how many of them were pretending to be. Tyler told me the event tickets were ten grand a pop.”

“They are. But for all the glamour and glitz, it is a worthwhile cause. The bulk of the money goes to the organizations, not to fund a party, which is why I’m still donating to them.”

Twenty grand. Poof. All that hard-earned cash just passed over and tucked in someone else’s pocket. Amery didn’t know if she could ever be that cavalier about money. Ronin must be doing better in his dojo than she assumed if dropping that many Benjamins didn’t put a dent in his checkbook.