Bound

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

AFTER the meeting with Ronin’s sister, Amery found herself at loose ends. She drove aimlessly for an hour, knowing once the shock wore off, her wrath would kick in again—full force this time—and she’d go off the rails.

She had no one to talk to. Although she and Emmylou had mended fences, her friend hadn’t revised her opinion on Ronin Black. She’d just accepted that the man would be in Amery’s life. So showing up to cry on Emmylou’s shoulder, about Ronin’s lies, and deliberate omissions, would make Amery look like a naive idiot for blindly trusting him and not heeding any of her friends’ concerns about him.

Was saving face really more important than unloading all the heartache that was threatening to choke her?

Yes.

She couldn’t go to Chaz either. He’d been marginally more supportive about Ronin than Emmylou, but Chaz defined materialistic. He’d be wowed by Ronin’s status as a billionaire heir. He’d encourage her to forgive Ronin for misleading her about his true colors—which were apparently green, the color of money. Then he’d toss off a comment that he could think of a billion reasons why she should just let this issue go.

Yeah, it sucks to be involved with a gorgeous sex-god billionaire.

But Amery wasn’t that shallow. And she couldn’t give a damn about Ronin’s financial status—until she’d learned that he’d withheld the truth about it.

What burned her ass, scarred her soul, and shredded her heart was that Ronin hadn’t trusted her enough to tell her anything about who he really was. But he’d demanded full disclosure, body and soul, from her.

A sick feeling started to take root.

That wasn’t really true. Ronin had never demanded anything from her. She’d just been so crazy about him, so happy that he’d helped free her from some of the moral confines that’d held her back her entire life, that she’d given him every part of herself without question. She’d willingly handed herself over to him physically, emotionally, sexually because she’d trusted him, because she’d believed he was being equally honest with her.

Not so.

Even after his rope proclivities came to light, he’d basically said take me as I am.

She had.

But that wasn’t who he really was.

And that made her question who she was.

AMERY showed up at the dojo and rode the elevator to the second floor. Not many classes were held this time of day, but she didn’t give a damn if the entire dojo was in attendance. She’d say what she had to.

She found Ronin Lee Black, otherwise known to her now as Rich, Lying Bastard, in the largest training room. He remained at rest in front of the class of black belts. Amery paused out of view and watched two men grappling until one guy plucked up his opponent and slammed him into the mat.

What she wouldn’t give to be able to do that to Ronin right now.

She didn’t know if her heart had ever pounded as hard or her blood had ever pumped as fast and hot and angry as when she stormed in.

Every student turned to see who was dumb enough to interrupt his class.

Amery didn’t wait for him to acknowledge her. “Sensei. A word please. Now.”

Ronin spared her one quick glance. “The ‘no observation’ policy is in effect all day, every day. Return to the main room.”

“I’m not leaving until I talk to you.”

“I am teaching.”

“And that time is sacrosanct?”

When he looked at her, his face betrayed nothing. “My classes take precedence over everything, Ms. Hardwick.” Including you went unsaid.

Putting her in her place and then he all but dismissed her? Screw that. Screw him. He spoke to the wide-eyed students as if she weren’t seething in the doorway.

She interrupted him with, “Would you prefer to discuss the meeting I just had with your sister in front of your students? Because I’m good with that too.”

Without meeting her gaze, Ronin said, “Everyone out. Five minutes. Don’t go far.”

After the students were gone, she said, “I’m thrilled you can spare five whole minutes for me.”

“Which I won’t waste on pointless bickering. Tell me where you were that you just happened to run into my sister.”

“I didn’t just happen to run into her. She sent for me. Okada Foods ringing a bell?”

He glided toward her, his expression devoid of emotion. “Conference room.”

Amery followed him, feeling like a naughty child about to be punished by the headmaster. Seeing the conference room at the end of the hall, she hustled past him to reach it first. She stood at the far side of the table and watched as he closed the door and blocked it with his body. That’s why she’d chosen her spot first. She had an exit behind her.

“Talk.”

“Shiori Hirano is your sister. She’s also vice president of Okada Foods, the multibillion-dollar conglomerate, which also happens to be your family business.”

Ronin said nothing.

Not that she’d expected anything different. She laid it out for him brick by brick. “Weeks ago I received a phone call from Okada’s North American director. She’d gotten my company’s name—gee, I wonder where—and asked if I’d be interested in doing design work on a new healthy frozen food line. I’ll admit it was a big ego boost when I got the call. The client confidentiality nondisclosure meant I couldn’t talk about anything, which is why I didn’t tell you. Still, I’d thought it odd that this ginormous international corporation would contact little old Hardwick Designs. I finished the specs, sent them off, and was told to proceed with my design ideas.

“Imagine my surprise when I learned that Okada Food’s VP was in Denver today and had requested a meeting. With me.”

His jaw tightened.

“There’s a sign of life. Didn’t your darling sister share her business travel plans with you?”

“No.”

“I wasn’t supposed to ever deal with her, was I? You’d gone out of your way to demand that Maggie at Okada hire me sight unseen. Which tipped off the VP—aka your sister—that something wasn’t right. She was curious about my company and my connection to her billionaire heir brother.”

“I’m sure my sister told you that with absolute glee.”

“Actually she seemed shocked you hadn’t shared that tidbit with me.”

Not a spark of guilt showed in his eyes.

“When did you plan to tell me about being a billionaire baby? Ever?”

“That’s not who I am.”

“So that’s your logic for not sharing that you’re an heir to one of the twenty largest corporations in Japan?”

“You knew when you met me that I’m a very private person, Amery.”

“To the world at large, yes. But to me?” She shook her head. “I thought I was different. I thought—rather mistakenly, it appears—that we had something together.”

“You’re using the past tense.”

She ignored his flat statement and looked for a glimmer of anything besides apathy on his face. “I opened up everything to you: my body, my thoughts, my feelings, my fears.” My heart.

“I didn’t demand that of you,” he pointed out.

She felt as if he’d thrown her on the mat and knocked every bit of air from her lungs. She didn’t recognize this man at all. “Which is what makes it so much worse.”

No response.

“I trusted you.” She curled her hands into fists. “My friends were right. I am naive. I should’ve heeded their warnings about you. Only their warnings about you being a dangerous man didn’t even come close to the real truth. I can’t believe you investigated me through my family and friends the week after we met! And yes, they all told me about the invasive phone calls, but I didn’t know you were the one who initiated it. God. If you thought I was such a sketchy person, why did you even want to get involved with me?”

“What did your friends say about me?”

Amery met his gaze after he’d sidestepped yet another question. “That you were a thug. Your past was suspect. No one knew anything about you until you just showed up in Denver ten years ago and set yourself up as a jujitsu master in a building you couldn’t possibly afford. Some suggested you got the building on the cheap from TP. In exchange, you owed him favors. Which he collected, demanding you root out vagrants and criminals in this area so he could buy other real estate cheap and then cash in on urban renewal funds to get them up to code.”

“Who’s your source?”

“Then someone else hinted,” she continued without pause, “that with your martial arts background, you hired out as muscle for the Russian mob and handled TP’s management problems.”

“Anyone tie me to the Yakuza?”

At any other time she would’ve laughed at his mention of the Japanese Mafia; now she just wanted to cry. “After we were attacked in the alley, the fact that you knew just how to ditch a gun put me in the camp that you were a street thug who’d made good. Your secrets, or maybe I should say your nondisclosure and layers of protection, made sense. I accepted them. I’d hoped that given time, you’d let me in.

“I did get to you a couple of times, but then those walls came right back up like they’d never been down. You know you got to me with your sexual expertise, with those times you were so sweet . . .” Don’t cry. Jesus. Keep it together, Amery. “I actually bought into your sincerity.” She closed her eyes. “God. Could I have been any more moon-eyed over you? Especially when you gave me that whole bullshit story about the stupid scar on my arm being the same symbol for your name and it being a cosmic sign.”

“Amery—”

“Now I have to wonder why you took it so far. Was I just a game for you? Toying with the . . . what did you call me? Wholesome? Toying with the wholesome North Dakota farm girl because she provided a different challenge than the usual skanks you met at the various clubs? Get her to open up, get her to sleep with you, get her to let you practice bondage on her, get her to spend all her free time with you until she’s crazy about you. Then act like it could be a long-term relationship by offering to lend her money to help her struggling business. I bought it all.

“And while I was beating myself up on the way over here, about why you didn’t trust me enough to tell me about your true station in life, I realized the Okada ‘reveal’ was part of your master plan. So you took it as far as you needed to. Go, you, Master Black, master manipulator. You win.”

“Part of my plan?” he repeated.

“It stings that I didn’t see the signs. Gorgeous penthouse. Check. Expensive cars. Check. Relationships with the bigwigs in this town. Check. Your devotion to an art not dependent upon income from it to thrive and survive. Check.”

“Not going to throw anything in about me being a spoiled rich kid who expects women to accept my sexual kinks?”

“No, but I’ll add that you discard your partners when you get what you want from them and they no longer please you,” she retorted.

“Where’d you hear that?”

Amery looked at him. “Deacon. He repeatedly expressed surprise that your current flavor of the month—me—had lasted an entire summer.”

“Deacon wasn’t speaking of my lovers, Amery; he meant that in the rope partner sense.”

“That’s comforting. Does Knox, closest thing you’ve got to a friend, know that you’re a closeted billionaire?”

“Yes.”

“Deacon?”

“Yes.”

“Your sister told me Naomi knew too.”

“Why do you think she stuck around as long as she did?” he said testily.

“You led me to believe she was some poor waif who used you and needed more kink than you could provide. I had no idea she was an international businesswoman you met at a social club.”

“She wasn’t an international businesswoman when I had her bound. And how did the subject of Naomi come up?”

“I figured out the meeting with the Okada VP was a setup when the exotic Asian woman started asking me personal things. I thought she might be your ex trying to get to you, given the hush-hush nature of the project and the last-minute meeting. Plus, the woman wore sunglasses until I asked her to take them off. When I saw her eyes I knew.”

“That’s the only way you’d know, because my connection to Okada is not common knowledge. And yes, that is intentional.”

“In this day and age where information can be at your fingertips in a nanosecond . . . why doesn’t everyone on the planet know who you are?”

“Who’d care? I’m not a celebrity.”

“So there’d be no interest in a story about Denver’s hidden Japanese billionaire?” she taunted.

That’s when he cracked. “You plan to out me in the Denver Post? Or is this just the threat of exposing me where the real money is?” he snapped. “Think I’ll pay you to keep quiet about my family ties and my kink? Think again.”

Once again she felt as if he’d kicked her in the teeth. Once again she looked at the man in front of her, the man she thought she’d loved and she saw a stranger. “You actually believe I’d try and extort money from you? Wow. I’ve already been lumped in with Naomi as a total backstabbing bitch. Now that I know what you really think of me, I’ll go.”

Ronin laughed harshly and it was an ugly sound. “You’re leaving now? Bullshit.”

“I’ve said everything I needed to.”

“Except for one very important thing.”

Yes, I fell in love with you. Yes, I’m going to suffer for that for the rest of my life. “What?”

“Did Okada offer you the project today?”

“That would get you off the hook, wouldn’t it? You had your fun and games with me and you’re throwing me a bone to alleviate your guilt.”

“That’s not an answer.”

How’s it feel, asshole?

“It doesn’t matter what my sister said to you. One phone call to my grandfather and you’ll have the Okada project.” He angled forward. “Because yes, I do have that much power. I’m just selective on when I choose to use it.”

“Save yourself a phone call and don’t waste your power on me. There’s no way I’d ever take the job after this. No fucking way.”

“That right? A struggling company like yours turning down a contract worth several million dollars? One job with Okada could put you on the map for the rest of your career.”

“I don’t care.”

“Don’t be stupid.”

She hated being called stupid. “You don’t know me at all if you think I’ll stand here and take your insults just because you have—”

“Money?” he supplied. “That’s what it always boils down to, which is why I never goddamn talk about money.” Ronin stared at her, the anger pulsing off him. “So you really want to punish yourself by saying no? You’d be losing a lot.”

“If not for us hooking up, Hardwick Designs wouldn’t be on Okada’s radar at all. So I haven’t lost anything, because I never truly had it.”

“I thought you were a smart businesswoman.” He looked at her as impassively as a bug. “Apparently I was wrong.”

That stung. “Apparently I was too. About a lot of things.”

“You don’t know what’s really going on. You only have half of the story.”

“Doesn’t matter. I never knew what was going on with you and that’s the way I’ll leave it—as clueless about who you really are as I was when we met months ago.”

“You know who I am.”

“No, I don’t. Is this where you promise to explain everything to me if I just trust you?”

“Is this where you storm off?” he countered. “And expect me to run after you with apologies and explanations?”

Another direct hit. “When have you ever done that?”

“Every single time we’ve had a problem,” he bit off.

“Wrong. And it’s just another example that we’ve never seen things the same way.”

“That’s because you only see what you want to see.”

Goddammit, she wouldn’t cry in front of this man. She grabbed the door handle.

“You don’t get to walk out on me, Amery.”

“Watch me.”

“I mean it,” he warned. “Don’t you walk out that door.”

Amery turned and looked at him, her heart heavy, her nerves shot, feeling as though part of her world had caved in. But she didn’t cave in. She met his golden-eyed gaze with as much dispassion as she could muster. “Or what? Are you going to tie me up to make me stay?”

Raw vulnerability flashed in his eyes and he flinched as if she’d slapped him.

Don’t fall for it; next he’ll close himself off like he always does.

Then it happened, the mask dropped back into place.

“That’s what I thought. Don’t bother running after me with the excuses you consider apologies or offering more lies masquerading as explanations because we’re done this time. Done.”