Lorelei James - Bound

When the storm ended, he brushed his mouth over her temple. “You okay?”

“Better than okay.” Then reality encroached. “Do you think anyone—”

“No. We appear to be exactly what we are: lovers enjoying a quiet moment together.” Ronin discreetly removed his hand and tugged her dress down.

Amery didn’t dare look around the table. “Now what?”

“Let’s wander through the crowd and see if we can find trouble.”

“Very reckless tonight, Master Black.”

“You don’t have any idea. And the night is young.”

They exited the dining room and Ronin was waylaid several times. He remained polite but slightly aloof, which baffled most people. Including her.

So maybe seeing the many faces of Ronin Black bothered her. In the times they’d been together, had he really shown her the man beneath the mask? Or was that side of him a mask too?

They’d almost made it out of the ballroom when a barrel-chested man with thinning gray hair and an unlit cigar clamped between his teeth approached with what looked like a posse.

“I wondered what it’d take to get you out of that dojo on the wrong side of the tracks.”

Ronin offered the man a slight bow. “Always a pleasure to see you again, Mr. Pettigrew.”

Pettigrew. Even Amery recognized that name. Thaddeus Pettigrew of Pettigrew Petroleum, Pettigrew Properties, Pettigrew Mining, and the restaurant chain Pettigrew’s. He was rumored to be the richest man in Colorado.

“Cut the bullshit, Ronin. I got a dozen people fawning over me every damn day calling me Mr. Pettigrew. You’ve more than earned the right to call me TP in public too. Anyway, glad to see you here. I wanted to bend your ear and it saved me a trip to the seedy side of town.”

“Of which you currently own what? Twenty percent?”

Pettigrew grinned. “Closer to thirty now.”

“Any pies you don’t have your finger in, TP?”

“I steer clear of political soup. Since the bastards won’t let me smoke in here no matter how much green I dump in the coffers, I was headed outside. Walk with me. We can discuss that family business issue you called me about.”

Family business?

“I’d be happy to.” Ronin nudged Amery forward. “I’ll introduce my date before I leave her to her own devices. Amery Hardwick, Thaddeus Pettigrew.”

Amery offered her hand. “A pleasure, Mr. Pettigrew.”

“It certainly is.” Pettigrew winked at her. “I won’t keep your man long.”

Ronin matched his pace to the lumbering Pettigrew and they exited out a side door.

Amery marched to the bar and ordered a drink. Twenty minutes passed with no sign of Ronin.

Someone moved in behind her and she turned, hoping to see her date, but Tyler invaded her space.

“Dance with me.”

She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Where’s Chantal?”

“Who knows? You’ve been standing here by yourself for too long and so have I. The music is playing. Let’s dance.”

Amery’s gaze darted around the room. No sign of Ronin. And to be honest . . . it annoyed her she’d been cooling her heels so long. “Fine. One song.”

A rock power ballad came on. Tyler settled his hands above her ass. “Huh-uh,” she said. “No junior high slow-dancing.” She held up her hand in waltz formation.

He clasped her palm in his. “Did we ever dance like this when we were together?”

“I don’t remember. Why?”

“It’s nice. Better than the mosh pit at Theta Tau.”

“I wouldn’t know. I avoided that mass of writhing bodies back then.”

“But now? If you had the chance to do it again?

“I’d try it.”

“You’ve become the girl who’ll try anything once, huh?”

Amery shrugged.

“Still a little coy, but I don’t buy it because I can see how much you’ve changed.” He twirled them backward. “So, out of curiosity . . . why did you bail from the apartment complex after things ended between us? You just vanished and I didn’t know how to get in touch with you. I wondered if you were okay.”

Bullshit. She’d just changed apartments, not jobs. “I left after having enough of living in Tyler Pessac’s love hotel.” She cocked her head and studied him. “Did Chantal ever find out about Brittney? Did either of them know about Lorena? Or was the fact that their apartments were on different floors enough to keep them from seeing you sneak out of the others’ places?”

Tyler smirked. “See, that’s where everything gets blown out of proportion. Lorena was just one of those things. Brittney was a flash in the pan. I’m really sorry that I didn’t come clean with you about Chantal. There were better ways for you to find out—”

“Than letting myself into your apartment and witnessing Chantal bent over your couch as you fucked her? Yeah, you’re probably right. An e-card or a text would’ve worked better as a breakup instead of the live sex show.”

That took him aback. “You never used to talk like that.”

“Wrong. I think you had some image in your head of me that’s patently untrue. You never really saw me.”

“I was young and cocky. Self-absorbed. People change.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to point out that little had changed with him.

“Anyway, it’s nice to see you’ve gotten out of the shell I could never crack.”

That’s because ham-handed you didn’t have the right tool.

“Although I’ll admit I didn’t expect to see you at a ten-thousand-dollar-a-plate dinner.”

Her head snapped up. “The pair of tickets for tonight’s dinner was twenty thousand dollars?”

“You didn’t know that? Black didn’t brag how much money he was dropping on this?”

“Ronin doesn’t brag.” He doesn’t have to went unsaid.

“Right. He’s pure of thought, deed, and motive.” Tyler spun them deeper into the dancers. “He’d like everyone to believe that. But the truth is he’s a dangerous, violent man.”

She shrugged. “Comes with the territory of living in the world of martial arts.”

Tyler’s eyes searched hers. “That’s not what I was talking about. He’s not what he appears to be, Amery.”

“Don’t pretend you know him. You don’t.”

“And you do?”

Sometimes. Other times he was as much a stranger as when they’d first met. But she wouldn’t give Tyler the satisfaction of admitting that. “Yes, I do.”

“Knowing him and him knowing you are two different things. Trust me. Break it off while you can.”

“Come on, Tyler. That’s a little vague. If you’ve got the low-down dirty on him, tell me.” Of course Tyler didn’t recognize her sarcasm.

“There’ve been rumors that he’s not who he says he is. Rumors that he hasn’t completely distanced himself from his violent past that financed his lifestyle and his dojo.”

Ronin had told her his fighting skills earned the money needed to buy the building he owned, but she wasn’t sure if that was common knowledge. “Where’d you hear that?”

“Denver is a small community in the realm of sports. Ronin is well respected, but he’s feared too. Don’t you wonder why? Don’t you wonder how he’s able to afford to run with major players like Thaddeus Pettigrew and Max Stanislovsky? His dojo is successful, but not to that extent.”

“I wonder why you’re so concerned about what kind of man Ronin is, and questioning his financial background, and listing who his friends are. Are you jealous?”

“No. I’m just worried about you. You’re in over your head with him. You didn’t see the self-satisfied looks he shot everyone who looked at you, but I did. He gets his kicks forcing you to do what he wants, when he wants, where he wants.”

Amery looked Tyler square in the eye, despite her suspicion that he knew what’d gone on beneath the table during dessert. “No one forces me to do anything anymore.”