Lorelei James - Bound

“Such beautiful hair.” He brushed it straight back and gathered it at the back of her head. “I’ll braid it so it’s out of my way.”

“You know how to braid?” tumbled out.

“Same principle as braiding rope, right?”

“I guess.” And he’d know all about that.

Ronin’s warm breath drifted across her ear as he loosened the blanket. “Stretch out on your back.”

Her heart beat faster—not from fear.

His hands caressed her shoulders, her arms, her sides, her belly. He placed tender, warm kisses on every mark. Ronin continued to stroke her as he applied arnica gel to the areas that needed a salve stronger than the loving touch of his mouth.

Amery kept her eyes closed. Her thoughts scrolled back to the night he’d shown her in the mirror how she looked bound by him. She remembered the dreamy quality of sitting perfectly still and feeling his hands on her everywhere. His fingers caressing her as he worked the ropes. Even when he’d unbound her, she’d still felt the pull, as if the ropes were digging into her skin.

She felt that same type pull now—as if Ronin were burrowing beneath her skin. When she reached up to touch him, she saw the bruise on his jaw had darkened. Her gaze moved over his face. Was his bottom lip swollen? Why hadn’t she noticed the scratches on his neck?

“What? You’re glaring at me.”

“Where were you last night that you ended up with marks on your throat?” Now that she thought about it, he’d been fully dressed when he came looking for her. And the entire time he’d been touching her—he always took his shirt off. So what other marks was he hiding? And why?

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing to me. You didn’t have those Saturday morning when you pinned me to the bed and fucked me.”

“Amery—”

“Did you go to Twisted?”

Ronin scowled. “No. I told you—”

“You haven’t told me anything. So you’d better come clean about where you were last night or you can leave and don’t come back. I’m not kidding.”

He sighed. “I know you’re not.” He pushed back onto his haunches and studied Amery for a long time before he spoke. “The only time I’ve slept in the last seventy-two hours was when I crawled in bed with you. After my twenty-four-hour surveillance gig, I came here and we went shopping. Seeing Kiki . . .”

A knot in her chest tightened.

“I’d signed on to ref ten matches in an amateur MMA event last night. The last guy’s opponent didn’t show, so I stepped in.”

“Wait. You fought last night? In an actual match?”

“Yeah.” He jammed his hand through his hair and she noticed his knuckles were shredded. “I saw the chance to alleviate some of my aggression from the previous forty-eight hours and I took it.”

When his eyes met hers, she recognized the challenge. Go ahead and judge me.

“Before you ask, yes, I won. But he managed to kick me in the head, which rang my bell pretty good. The fight went all three rounds, so the fans got their money’s worth.”

The casual way Ronin relayed all this raised red flags. “How did you hear about the event?”

“It was my event. I set it up.”

Why didn’t she know that about him? Was that part of the shady business dealings others had mentioned? Was that why he didn’t talk about where he’d been or what he’d been doing some weekend nights? “You do that often?”

“Often enough. And no, it’s not something I advertise through Black Arts.”

Vincent’s warning surfaced again. “Mr. Black doesn’t list all his services on his dojo’s Web site.”

“The only reason I’m telling you this is that the kick to the head scrambled my brain. I hope you know I never would’ve done what I did this morning if I’d been in my right mind.” He curled his hand over her cheek. “I shouldn’t have shown up last night, but I can’t stay away from you.”

Somehow that didn’t bring the relief she thought it would.

“I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“I know you are.”

Ronin stretched out beside her and snugged his body behind hers. “I could use a nap.”

Even before she could jokingly warn Mr. I Don’t Nap not to sleep-fuck her again, he’d fallen asleep.

FOUR hours later they sat at the kitchen counter finishing the salmon salad Ronin had made for lunch. Things had seemed normal between them after he’d tended to her, and she didn’t want to wreck the moment. But she had questions that couldn’t wait any longer. “We need to talk.”

“I know.”

“What happened between you and Naomi? Just talking about her yesterday affected you and now that’s spilled over onto me, so I have a right to know.”

He shoved his plate aside and ran his hand through his hair. “I met Naomi six years ago at a club.”

She didn’t have to pussyfoot around and ask what kind of club. “Did you use bondage on her?”

“Yes.”

“Right away after you met her?”

“Yes.”

So he hadn’t sprung it on Naomi as he had on her. “Did you demonstrate erotic bondage on her and then fuck her in front of a roomful of people?”

Ronin gently wrapped his fingers around her jaw. “Are we going to talk about this, or are you just going to hurl jealous accusations at me?”

Amery closed her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“I am too. Can you please look at me?”

She shook her head, but she didn’t shake his hand off.

“Why not?”

“I know you cared about her and I can’t look into your eyes when you tell me about her. Even though I’m the one who’s making you do it.”

“Sweet baby.” He softly kissed her lips. “Come here.” He led her to the couch and settled her between his legs with her back resting on his chest. He strapped one arm over her belly, holding her in place.

Why did his tight hold on her make her feel . . . secure?

“When I met Naomi she told me she was thirty when in fact she was twenty-six. That’s just the first of many lies. She claimed to be familiar with shibari and kinbaku—also a lie, but she convinced me she’d be willing to try it. Within a few weeks we became involved outside of the club.

“We’d been together two years, in a relationship and she was my exclusive rope partner, when she asked if instead of adjourning to a private room after a kinbaku scene to have sex, we could add it to the scene.”

“So you had her naked, tied up in provocative poses, and never fucked her during a demo? Not once in two years?”

“No, because we were in public.”

“You never had sex in public? With any of your bondage partners?”

“No.” Ronin bent closer and brushed a kiss across her temple. “I’m a private man, Amery. For me sex is as private as it gets. But I’m a foolish man sometimes because I agreed to try it.”

His voice was filled with so much regret she squeezed his forearm.

“Took me a month to map out a new complicated suspension scene—mostly because I didn’t want to do it. At the end of the demonstration, I fucked her.”

The harshness of his response meant it hadn’t gone well.

“Afterward . . . it didn’t leave me in a good place. I went home and downed a fifth of scotch.”

“Did Naomi come with you?”

He absentmindedly stroked the inside of her wrist. “No. Should’ve been my first indication things were wrong. She wanted a repeat performance at the club the next time and I said no. She threw a tantrum. No one undermines my authority at the dojo, or during a demo or at the club, so I forced her into a hojojutsu punishment scene.”

Amery’s pulse jumped. “What happened?”

“No matter how much she begged and cried, I refused to punish her in private. I bound her in a pose called humiliation, which includes neck ropes. Then I gagged her and used a paddle on her. After I’d broken her, I fucked her but didn’t allow her to come.”

She turned her head away. That didn’t sound like him at all.

“Rather than it upsetting her, she got off on it. I rarely use humiliation in the dojo as a teaching tool, because it doesn’t work. I was completely unprepared for her reaction and my disgust with myself. I quit going to the club.”

“Ronin.”

“Then Naomi stopped showing up at my place, unless she was drunk, crying, and a mess. I always took her in. At the time I hadn’t known she’d still been going to the club and she’d become a submissive to several Doms. A few months later the club owner asked me to come back and give a shibari demo, but Naomi refused to be involved unless I fucked her during the scene. I found another rope model. Naomi went a little psycho after the demo and started threatening me. So I had her banned from the club.” He set his chin on top of her head. “She told everyone I ruined her life and she returned to Japan.”

Amery let that sink in before she spoke. “She was responsible for her choices. You did what you had to, to protect yourself and your reputation.”

“It is my fault. She was young and I pushed her to the edge and she liked it.”

“And you ended up at war with yourself for giving her what she wanted.”

“Yes.”

Amery turned and kissed his jaw.

“Needless to say I joined a new club—the same one Knox belongs to. The women who agree to be bound by me know my rules. I rarely deviate from them.”

“So the woman at the club who ended up with Knox . . . ?”

“The club auctioned off a rope session with me for charity. The woman’s husband gave it to her as a birthday gift. They requested Knox as the demonstration closer.”

“I didn’t stay for that part.”

“Good. You should know that Naomi is also the reason I built the practice room. I thought if we had a designated place she wouldn’t need to go to the club. It didn’t change anything. And that room has been unused since then, until I met you.”