He hadn’t scattered personal items on the horizontal surfaces. No family pictures. No accolades from his jujitsu career.
Art hung here and there. One picture contained a graphic scene—a fat Japanese man opened his robe, exposing his exaggerated genitalia to a disheveled geisha cowering on the ground. Two more similar in theme hung next to it. One with a long-haired samurai wielding a sword at a snarling tiger standing in front of massacred bodies. The last picture featured a crouching Japanese man, naked, his oversized genitalia resting on the ground. In front of him was a half-clothed woman, tied to a post in some fancy rope configuration, and the man held her foot, licking the sole with an enlarged tongue.
From behind her, Ronin said, “Those are shunga prints.”
“Interesting decorating choice.”
“They’re heavy with symbolism, not at all what they appear to be on the surface.”
Ironic that description could also be applied to him?
They skirted a wall that divided the living spaces but didn’t reach the ceiling or the other two walls and left a large gap by the floor. Gave the illusion of a floating wall, which was cool.
A dining room and kitchen area took up the entire side.
She frowned. For the size of the building, the main living spaces seemed off.
“Something wrong?” Ronin asked in that deep and sexy voice.
“I just was trying to grasp the area spatially. The dojo, for being divided into smaller training areas, seems much bigger than this open space. Since I know the building is the same dimension on the bottom as it is on the top, it’s throwing me off.”
Ronin took her hand. “Very astute observation. As a single man, I don’t need seven thousand square feet of living space. The remodel chopped the top floor in half. So this is roughly four thousand square feet.”
“So you don’t use the other half of this floor for offices or anything?”
“No.” He skirted another long floating wall that created a corridor between the living areas. He opened the first door. “Guest bedroom.”
Amery wasn’t sure if he expected her to nod and move on, but she wanted to see the space because it actually had personality. Two bright red club-type chairs were arranged in front of a window, creating a small sitting area. A queen-sized bed with an ornately carved headboard with red lacquered accents took up the far wall. The floors were wood. Sisal rugs with red borders were scattered throughout. She wandered to the open doorway in the corner and stepped into a large bathroom. The shower stall walls looked like rice paper; the bathroom sink was a polished teak bowl atop a black lacquered cabinet. All the accents were red. “Great room, but does it make your guests want to stay longer?”
“I discourage that.”
She laughed.
Between the guest bedroom and the next room was the main bathroom, which also carried the wood, black, and red theme. The next room housed an enormous blank wall for what looked like a projection-screen TV, a pool table, and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on one wall that were filled with DVDs and CDs. No snapshots or funky kitschy things either. Just out of curiosity she approached the shelf. Yep. The titles were alphabetized. That made her smile.
“Do you spend much time in here?” she asked.
“Not as much as one would think.”
Cryptic.
Ronin took her hand and she knew the next stop would be his bedroom. He bypassed the next door, which had a lock on it.
“What’s that room?”
“Storage.”
“Got valuables locked up in there?”
“A few things.” Ronin opened the last door. “This is my bedroom.”
Her face flushed.
He led her inside and released her hand.
The white carpet in this room was so plush she swore she sank to her ankles. The focal point of the room was a king-sized bed on a raised platform with two steps leading to the mattress. The headboard, easily ten feet tall, had been crafted out of twisted black metal and smooth chunks of thick wood. A beautiful, luxurious-looking turquoise silk covered the bed. Were his sheets silk too? Or simple cotton?
Why don’t you dive in and find out?
Ronin came up behind her. She closed her eyes against the surge of want when the hard wall of his chest connected with her shoulders. She breathed in his intoxicating scent.
“What are you thinking about?”
You and me naked, rolling around in silk. “How much I want to jump on your bed to see if it’s as puffy as it looks.”
“Know what I was thinking about?” His warm lips moved down the side of her neck.
She sighed and angled her head, giving him full access to wherever he wanted. “What?”
He lifted her hair, wrapping it in his fist as he kissed the sweep of her shoulder. “I want to see how you’ll look spread out on my bed.” His mouth stopped at the ball of her shoulder and he lightly sank his teeth down. “Will you indulge me?”
Amery twisted away from him and climbed up the platform, facing him. Something spiked her daring side and she taunted him. “How were you imagining me in your bed, Ronin? Like this?” She fell back onto the mattress and threw her arms above her head.
Was it her imagination or had Ronin just . . . growled? She lifted her head. Wasn’t her imagination that he’d inched closer.
“Or maybe you want me like this.” She turned and dropped to her hands and knees. She arched her back, canted her hips, and wiggled her ass, emitting a soft moan.
The bed dipped and Ronin was on her. His big, hard body caging hers, his mouth at her ear. “I definitely want you like this. Not for the first go-round, though. For that, we’ll be like this.” Ronin smoothly flipped her onto her back and pinned her arms above her head, settling his groin against hers. His mouth landed on hers hard. His tongue plunged into her mouth and he turned her inside out with a kiss that wasn’t careful and exploratory but packed with pure hunger. He rocked his hips, transferring her wrists to one hand, and followed the outside curve of her body from her forearm down to her hip.
Amery arched into him, lost in him.
But Ronin slowed the kiss. He released her wrist and offered that side of her body a thorough caress before he rolled to his knees and gazed down at her.
She pushed up on her elbows, trying to play it cool even though her body had gone haywire. Her chest was heaving; her panties were damp. Her breasts ached for his touch—his mouth, his hand, his chest, she didn’t care. She also tuned out the voice in her head warning her not to sleep with him on the first date. She’d played it safe, always been a good girl—yet something about Ronin Black made her want to throw caution to the wind for the first time . . . ever.
Ronin stared at her. His breathing was equally labored. “As much as I’d like to strip you and fuck you until we knock this mattress off the platform, I didn’t bring you into my home for this.” He angled close enough to curl his hands around her face. “This will happen between us, but not now. Not even tonight.” Then he kissed her once more.
His kiss was a promise, a tease and completely . . . sweet.
Ronin Black . . . sweet? Totally unexpected.
He stood and waited for her at the edge of the platform.
Feeling free, she laughed and leaped to her feet, bouncing in the center of the bed. “This is a springy mattress. I bet when I’m under you I won’t even feel the mattress coils digging into my spine.”
Another growling noise. “Tempting the beast while still in the cage might not be the wisest course of action for you.”
Ooh. A philosophical threat. “I’ll stop.” Amery bounced once more before landing on her feet.
“Let’s eat.” Ronin held her hand and towed her back to the kitchen.