Amery tapped his cheek. “Look. At. Me.”
Ronin slowly lifted his lids, but two tears escaped anyway.
“Don’t,” she whispered. “It’s not worth your tears.”
“But you are.”
“You didn’t even cry when you were beat to shit.”
“This hurts me so much worse than that, because it’s hurting you.”
She sniffled. “But it’s not. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
“So your anger, humiliation, and indignation is all for me?”
“Who else would it be for?”
“For you for having to deal with it because you’re involved with me.”
“Oh, Ronin. No.” Her eyes filled with tears again. “I hate that she’s still f**king with you. With us.”
What had he ever done to deserve this beautiful, wonderful woman? She should be running from him. Instead, here she was, crying for him. Hurting for him. Ronin caressed her cheek. “She brought your parents into it, thinking it’d mortify you, and you’d lash out and blame me. Naomi wants to hurt you because she knows that will hurt me.”
She rested her forehead to his chest. “What a mess.”
“And yet you’re still here.”
“Because you and I aren’t in the wrong. You were wronged. What happened between you two doesn’t concern me, and it sure as hell doesn’t concern my parents.”
He stroked her hair, unsure where she was going with this.
“If someone had sent them pictures from the demo we did at the club, or if they’d placed cameras here or at your place and had shots of us in intimate moments, that might’ve given my parents the idea I was in an unhealthy relationship. Then I could understand their need for a face-to-face visit with me.”
“But?”
“But they chose to come here and confront me and demand . . .” She made a hiccupping sob. “They gave me an ultimatum. Break it off with you and get some help. If I choose to stay with you, then they’re washing their hands of me. I can’t go crying to them when it’s goes bad.”
“God. Baby. That’s harsh.”
“I know. I just can’t help but wonder how sad it’d be if I was in an abusive situation. They’d turn me away and say ‘we told you so’ rather than helping me because I didn’t take their help on their time frame.”
“Luckily you’ll never have to test those fears. You’ll never need to go crying to them because this won’t go bad between us when it’s so good.”
“You know what bothers me? The only time they show up during the six years I’ve lived in Denver is to cram yet another thing they perceive I’ve done wrong down my throat. They don’t know me at all, Ronin. They never have.”
“Their loss. I know you. I know this big heart of yours, and I know this is hurting you. No matter how different your life philosophies are from theirs, they are still your parents. There’s part of you that wants their acceptance. Not necessarily their unconditional love, because it doesn’t sound like they’ve ever been capable of giving that. But at least their acknowledgment that you’re happy in your own life.”
“Do you ever think you’ll get that acceptance about your life choices from your grandfather?”
What a question. He didn’t think Amery asked just to deflect the conversation from her own situation, but because her confrontation had brought family issues front and center. She’d respected his boundaries and hadn’t asked specifics on his current relationship with his grandfather. But now those boundaries had been tested, and he felt, maybe for the first time, he could be honest with her—and himself—about his complicated relationship with the man he both admired and resented. “He’s been different since everything happened with Naomi. I know he feels guilty—as he should. He stopped putting pressure on me to take over the company. But because of our history, I’ve wondered if he was using reverse psychology on me.”
“Sometimes when you talk about him it’s with . . . disdain, like he’s the evil, controlling emperor. And other times you almost sound fond of him.”
Ronin threaded their fingers together. “There have been times when I’ve disliked what he’s done or the parameters he’s set, but I don’t hate him. I respect him too much.”
“Do you think he respects you?”
“I know he does. That’s why he was after me to run Okada—he knew I wouldn’t run it into the ground.” Ronin kissed her knuckles. “How did we get on this topic?”
“I’m tired of talking about my f**ked-up family situation.” She sighed. “In fact, I’m just plain tired. Too much booze, too much angst. Can we just crawl into bed and put this day behind us?”
“Whatever you want.”
Amery shed her clothes and slipped between the sheets naked. “It’s been a while since you stayed over here.”
Ronin spooned her. It’d be thoughtless, given the state of her emotions, to say he hoped it’d be the last time either one of them crashed here. He was damn near desperate for her to make the final leap, but she needed to do it on her own time frame.
• • •
THE next morning, Amery smelled coffee, and that enticed her to get out of bed. She saw Ronin at the breakfast bar with a baker’s box. “Am I witnessing Ronin Black holding a box of doughnuts?”
“Of course not. These are seven-nut, whole-grain pumpkin muffins sweetened with organic honey and raw sugar.”
“Is it wrong to hope one day I’ll see you with powdered sugar all over your face and frosting in your teeth?”
“Yes.” He kissed her, but not a pleasant good-morning smooch. A whole-body kiss with one hand clamped on her butt cheek, the other on the back of her head as he devoured her mouth.
Dizzy and panting from the sheer passion of Ronin’s kiss was a perfect way to start her day.
He growled against her lips, “For as poorly as the evening started out, it sure ended with a bang.”
“Mmm-hmm.” As many times as they’d had sex, made love, f**ked each other raw during their relationship, the joining of their bodies had gone beyond that last night, when they’d turned to each other in the night. Clichéd for sure, but they’d reached another level of intimacy and deepened their connection.
“I love waking up with the taste of you on my tongue.” He zeroed in on the sweep of skin between her shoulder and neck. “I let you sleep in, but now I can’t think of anything but dragging you back to bed,” he murmured.