“You’re picking at the salad. My feelings won’t be hurt if you don’t like it.”
“No, it’s not that. This is delicious. I was just thinking it’s refreshing we don’t have to talk all the time. It’s like people are afraid of silence.”
“And you’re not?” he asked.
Amery shrugged and swigged her wine. “I work alone seventy percent of the time. I don’t have music playing in the background. I don’t call people and spend hours on the phone. To be honest, I think being content with silence is out of the norm. Chaz can’t work without his iPod blaring in his ears. Every thirty minutes he has to wander around and see what everyone else is doing. Even Molly wears earbuds most of the time she’s in the office.”
“What about Emmylou?”
“She has soothing music playing, and she only holds a minimal amount of conversation with her clients during her sessions. But as soon as she’s done, she’s talking a mile a minute on her cell or surfing online.” Amery shrugged. “Or maybe there’s something wrong with me.”
“Then it’s wrong with me also. I’d prefer a quiet dojo with students working on mastering techniques without distractions. But my supervisory belts disagree with me. They claim music inspires the students to work harder. And since I trust their judgment, I’ve left it their choice on how to run their classes. But if I’m teaching? No music.”
“Did your stance on that come from your monastery years?”
“I learned many skills there, including finding the balance between what I need and what the world requires from me.”
Amery sighed. When he said Zen stuff like that, she wanted to curl into him and absorb his strength and wisdom, while surrounding herself with his enticing scent.
She managed to eat half of her meal and felt guilty when Ronin asked, “Are you finished?”
“Yes. Thank you. It was delicious.” She excused herself to freshen up in the bathroom. After rinsing her mouth and popping a mint, she ran her fingers through her hair and double-checked her makeup. Then she turned away from the mirror—it was a rare day when she was happy with the reflection.
Ronin was staring out the windows in the space separating the living area from the kitchen. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to his mood changes. He could switch from hot to cold literally in the blink of an eye.
Maybe he’s decided this isn’t worth pursuing after all.
She approached him cautiously. “Ronin?”
He didn’t turn around.
“Is everything all right?”
“Not really.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m a liar.”
She froze. “About what?”
“I told you I didn’t invite you here for dinner because I intended to take you to bed. But that’s a total f**king lie. I want you in my bed in the worst way, Amery. All I can think about is stripping you bare and feasting on every part of you before I bend you over the back of the couch and f**k you. Then I’d f**k you on the chair or on the rug before dragging you to my bed and starting all over again.”
That was his I’m a liar confession? Amery nestled her cheek against the heat and hardness between his shoulder blades. She couldn’t help it; she smiled against his back.
“You find that amusing?” he said a bit testily.
“Somewhat.” She snaked her arms around his waist. “Because when I saw you standing in front of this window, I half expected to see your keys in your hand. Like you’d changed your mind and couldn’t wait to get rid of me.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Maybe I’m not what you expected? We’re different when it’s just you and me, rather than in the dojo, or talking business, or when we’re having lunch in a crowded restaurant or a drink in a crowded bar.”
He spun around and cradled her head in his hands, keeping their bodies close. “No, baby, it’s better when we’re alone like this. I’m the one who feels like . . .” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “I don’t want to go fast, and yet everything inside me races when I see you.”
The man had all the right words. “So take the pressure off yourself and off me. I didn’t come here tonight expecting to get laid.” Amery turned her head, letting her mouth whisper across his jaw. “In fact, I wore crappy, mismatched lingerie so I’d be too embarrassed to take my clothes off in front of you.”
He laughed softly. “You are such a breath of fresh air in my life.”
Amery looked at him. “I don’t want to scare you off, but I haven’t done the whole dating thing in quite a while.”
“I know that.”
“How?”
“Because you’re not completely jaded. You weren’t sizing up my assets.”
“Well, yes, actually I was sizing up one asset in particular.” Her palms slid up his chest. So firm and defined. She wished she could feel the warmth of his solid muscles beneath her hands.
“Amery,” he warned. “I’m a little on edge, so tread lightly.”
“That commanding tone is so sexy.”
“It’s who I am.” He fastened his mouth to hers. The kiss started out slow but didn’t stay that way for long. His heat, his passion bowled her over. His hot, wet, demanding tongue warred with hers. He gathered her hair in his hand, pulling until she angled her neck exactly how he wanted it.
Her skin was electrified from his openmouthed kisses. Each nuzzle, below her ear, on the pulse point of her throat, the arc of her shoulder, the underside of her jaw, sent her senses reeling. “Ronin.”
“Your skin is like a drug.” He planted kisses to the top button on her shirt. He released her hair and ran his hands down the sides of her face and her neck. His fingers circled her wrists and he brushed his mouth across her ear. “Beautiful girl, I’d better get you home before I come up with one hundred more reasons why I shouldn’t take you home.”
Ronin placed another kiss on her temple and stepped back.
Amery noticed the bulge in the crotch of his jeans.
His rough-tipped fingers were under her chin, forcing her focus higher. “Eyes off my asset.”
After he’d driven her home, he insisted on walking her to the door in the alley she used to reach her loft. “I had an amazing time tonight, Ronin.”
“Same here.” He kissed her fingertips. “Unfortunately I’ve got things scheduled, so we can’t do it again this weekend.”