“Jesus, Amery. Stop with this.”
“You betcha. Wouldn’t wanna speak up when something bothers me. I’ll just let the big, strong man handle it and put it out of my empty little head.” She granted him a fake smile, along with two cheesy thumbs-up, and stomped off.
He would not chase her down.
Would. Not.
Right. Who the f**k was he kidding? He always chased her down.
Ronin smacked his sore knee on the side of the desk and bit back a curse when it slowed him down. When he reached the hallway, Amery was nowhere to be found.
Blue came around the corner. “Hey, do you—”
“Did you pass Amery?”
“Yeah. She was not looking too happy.”
“Where’d she go?”
“I don’t know. So do you have time—”
“Not now. I have to deal with this first.”
Blue clapped Ronin on the shoulder. “Hope you have a cup on, man.”
He heard the elevator ping, so he reversed course and opened the door to the stairwell. In Amery’s present mood, she wouldn’t head for the penthouse, so he started downstairs. She’d have to get off at the second floor since classes were in session in the dojo.
So when the elevator door opened, Ronin was leaning against the wall waiting for her. When she saw him, she frantically poked buttons, trying to close the door in his face, but he was too fast. He snagged her wrist and hauled her out.
“Hey! What the hell? Let me go.”
Ronin didn’t respond; he just towed her down the hallway.
“You are pissing me off.”
He tightened his grip on her wrist in warning.
“Don’t make me use kung fu on you.”
Jesus. The shit she said sometimes . . .
The conference room door was open. Ito, Terrel, one of Blue’s instructors, and Knox were lounging around the table. They all looked up.
Ronin bit off, “Get. Out.”
Ito and the other dude were gone lightning fast. But Knox said, “Fair warning. I hear you throwing furniture around and glass breaking again, and I will come in.”
“Lock the door,” Ronin said to Knox without taking his eyes off Amery.
Knox grumbled, but he left.
Ronin slammed his mouth down on hers as soon as the door shut. One hand holding her head in place, his other hand locked around both of her wrists as he literally pushed her into a corner.
After returning his kiss with equal voracity, Amery must’ve remembered she was mad at him and kissed him angrily. If he hadn’t moved his mouth, she would’ve sunk her teeth into his lower lip hard enough to draw blood.
“Not nice, baby,” he panted against her throat.
“I’m not feeling very nice toward you right now, baby.”
“What has gotten into you? You’re never this insanely jealous.”
“What has gotten into you? You’ve never put a p**n star on the payroll.”
Do. Not. Laugh. “This is all about Katie?”
“Yes. When did you hire her? While we were broken up? Because I will be screaming banshee mad at you if you already had my replacement picked out. What did—”
“Stop talking. You’re just getting yourself in deeper.”
“Make me stop talking, hotshot. Just because—”
Ronin put his hand over her mouth. “Calm down, and listen, because I’m going to say this one time.”
She blinked.
“We are together. That means I don’t look at another woman the way I look at you. I don’t touch another woman the way I touch you. I don’t feel about any woman the way I feel about you. Got it? Don’t ever think I’d throw away what we have for a cheap, meaningless f**k. You either trust me, or you don’t. So what’s it going to be?” He moved his hand from her mouth and released her wrists.
She studied him without speaking, which was so unlike her. Then she slapped her palms on his chest. “Goddamn you. I worked up a really good mad and then you say something like that.”
“I should’ve said something like . . . Do you know how f**king hot it is that you’re jealous?” He pressed his dick into her hip.
Amery tossed her head. “Oh, that hard-on is for me? I thought maybe . . .”
“What?”
“That you were hard before I walked into your office.”
Ronin growled. “Now you’re just provoking me. The only woman who gets me this hard is you.” He put his mouth on her ear. “I’ll prove it. Right f**king now.”
“Ronin—”
“I warned you not to throw down a challenge in my dojo because it will be answered.” He used his teeth on the cord in her neck as she strained to get away from him.
“Master Black—omigod you are not doing that here.”
“What? This?” He zeroed in on the sensitive section of skin between her collarbone and shoulder that made her squirm, made her wet, made her moan.
When she called out his name, it came out on a long wail.
“Tell me to stop.”
“I can’t! You know I can’t.”
“Because you want this.”
Amery angled her cheek into his. “I always want you. It makes me crazy when I see other women wanting you too.”
Ronin took her mouth hungrily, giving her every ounce of passion she brought out in him. He eased back, looking into her lust-glazed eyes as he brushed whisper-soft kisses across her lips. “Crow’s Nest. Now. The penthouse is too goddamn far away.”
She swallowed hard and nodded.
He stepped back and she tried to duck past him, but he snagged her upper arm. “Stairs.” He didn’t touch her at all as they left the conference room.
Inside the stairwell, Ronin pushed her against the wall, sliding his leg between hers so she rode his thigh. Then he slipped his hands underneath her shirt, letting his thumbs sweep across the arc of her rib cage. “Undo the buttons.”
Her hands shook as she unbuttoned her blouse.
As soon as she’d exposed her camisole, he lowered his head and dragged his mouth over the mounded flesh spilling from the white lace. Her skin was so soft. So warm. Smelled so f**king sweet, like cherries, that he wanted to take a big bite. So he did. Sinking his teeth into her flesh and sucking hard.
Amery’s head fell back, and she groaned.
“Someday I’ll tie you to my bed and leave these marks everywhere. I want you to see that every part of you is mine.”
“Are you trying to make me come before that big c**k of yours is inside me?”