Unraveled (21 page)

“It was a loan. If Ronin gets on board with Maddox, I will expect repayment.” She
bit her lip. “So that was part of your problem earlier at the dojo. After you’d heard
from her, you thought I was trying to buy her affection.”

“The thought had crossed my mind. Until I realized if that had been the case, you
would’ve taken credit for it.” He kissed her. “So thank you.”

This time she held him in place when he tried to pull away. “Knox. I can feel your
restlessness. Will you let me take care of you tonight?”

“Isn’t that against the Domme code or something?” he joked.

“Completely. I’ll probably get kicked out of the ‘I don’t give a shit about my sub’s
well-being because it’s all about me’ Domme club. Oh, right. I don’t belong to that
club anyway, so we’re good.”

“There’s that smart mouth. I’ve missed it since we’ve become civil to each other.”

“Then I’ll try to insult you at least once a day.” She pressed her palms to his cheeks.
“Go into your bedroom, strip, and lay facedown on the bed.”

“Shiori—”

“No games. I just want to touch you.” She hopped off his lap and held out her hand.
“Lead the way.”

It was late, and the two beers had made him tired. He shed his clothes and pulled
back the covers on his bed before he stretched out.

Then she was there, straddling his butt, leaning forward to rub her naked breasts
on his back. She whispered, “Hard or soft?”

“What? My cock? Getting harder by the second.”

She playfully sank her teeth into the nape of his neck. “No, your massage. Do you
prefer hard or soft?”

“Hard.”

When Shiori dug her fingers into his shoulder muscles, he let out a hiss of pleasure.
He made that sound frequently as she worked him over. Reaching those deep tissues
by pressing with her thumbs. Using her fists in a circular motion and digging her
knuckles in.

Giving himself over to her—a sneaky way for her to prove her dominance—Knox felt himself
sinking deeper into the state of bliss.

“Turn over so I can do your front.”

She massaged his hands. His forearms. His biceps and triceps. His nipples hardened
when she massaged his pecs. When those caressing fingers stopped at his sternum, he
forced his eyes open.

Shiori brushed the back of her hand down his face. “Keep your eyes closed. No matter
what.”

“Okay.” He stared at her, struck by the softness in her tonight. It was a side of
her that he never would have believed a month ago.

“Starting now.”

He let his eyelids flutter closed. And his body, which had been relaxed almost to
the point of sleep, perked back to attention when her silky hair trailed down his
belly.

His cock went erect as the moist breath from her soft laughter blew over the tip.

Knox clutched the sheets beside his hips instead of grabbing her head.

In true Shiori fashion, she teased him with licks and hand action. Stroking his balls.
Letting her hair drift up the insides of his legs.

The teasing ended abruptly, and she sucked him into her mouth, past her lips, over
her teeth.

So wet, so hot, so fucking perfect.

When she began to bob her head, he drifted into an altered state. The hot, wet suction
felt amazing. Tiny swipes of her tongue in the magic spot beneath the head of his
cock. Then long strokes as she pulled back and pushed his shaft back in deep.

She started with sexy humming noises that drove him to the edge. With all those sensations
together . . . this would be an embarrassingly short blow job.

Shit. He couldn’t come until she allowed it.

“Stop. Please.” He panted. “I can’t hold off.”

“Yes, you can. Two more minutes. Count the seconds off in your head.”

Definitely was the fastest he’d ever counted to one hundred twenty. But it’d worked.

She let his shaft slip from her mouth. “Good.”

Her hand worked his cock, slippery with her saliva. Then she bent her head, and holy
fuck his balls were in her mouth as she rubbed her thumb over the strip of skin behind
his sac and his anus.

The sensations were so intense Knox couldn’t control the shaking in his legs.

But he kept his eyes closed.

His balls were wet and tight when she pulled away. He thought she’d finish him with
a hand job, but she said, “Come now,” and all that delicious heat enveloped his dick
again.

Four sucking glides and he was done. He groaned with relief when that first spurt
shot out and she swallowed it down. He pulled the damn sheets off the bed when she
caught the rhythm of his release and sucked in tandem with every spasm.

Add in the way her nails scored the insides of his thighs brought even more sensation.
It was the mother lode of blow jobs.

At some point his consciousness might’ve left his head and spun around the room because
he lost any sense of reality.

This? This was a true fucking Zen moment.

Her soft body moved up to lie next to him. Smooth lips brushed his. “Now you can open
your eyes.”

He lifted his lashes a little at a time, so he could drink in her beautiful face slowly
from her stubborn chin, over her full mouth, her nose, to those golden eyes. “Thank
you.”

“My pleasure.”

Knox twisted a section of her hair into a spiral, watching as it uncurled and straightened.
“Not that I’m not happy to see you, but why are you really here?”

“Because I missed you.”

“We saw each other on Saturday night,” he pointed out. That’d easily been one of the
hottest nights of his life. But it had gotten weird. After he’d come so hard he worried
he’d ruptured brain cells, it seemed she hadn’t cared about his inner struggle because
she’d basically left him with his dick hanging out. “Then I didn’t hear from you or
see you until today.”

Shiori tucked herself along the left side of his body and positioned his left hand
on her lower back—a subtle reminder that she needed his touch. “My departure Saturday
night was rude. I’m sorry.”

“Why did you leave like that?”

“Because I wanted to invite you to spend the night with me. Then we could have had
a repeat of last Sunday.”

Knox lifted his head to look down at her. “And that would’ve been bad . . . why?”

“It wouldn’t have been bad. It would’ve been great. But I don’t know how this kind
of thing works, okay? Every other sub I’ve been with, we parted ways at the club.
Last week, when we ended up at your house, it was an easy transition. Saturday night
after the scene, you acted like you didn’t want anything to do with me.”

“You could’ve just commanded me to come home with you.”

Her eyes were so serious. “I know. But I didn’t want to fuck this up, and I ended
up doing it anyhow. Last weekend wasn’t us only being Domme and sub, or coworkers.
We were—”

“New lovers getting to know each other outside of bed.”

“Exactly!”

He kissed her forehead. For someone so smart, sometimes she overanalyzed things too
much. “Shiori. There’s a word for that. It’s called a relationship.”

She sighed. “I suck at this.”

“You suck very, very well, so don’t ever apologize,” he murmured against the top of
her head.

She pinched his side.

He pinched her ass.

They didn’t speak for several long beats as they each gathered their thoughts.

“I did some thinking, which is why you didn’t hear from me,” she said. “I also did
some painting, but that was way less productive than the thinking.”

“Painting? Like painting the walls?”

“No. Like painting pictures. But I’d be hard-pressed to call my paint smears art.”

“Wait a sec. Did you paint that picture you brought me the first night you came over?”

“Yes.”

“I love it. I put it front and center on my mantel.”

She smiled against his chest. “I’m glad.”

“Keep going with the other part. The thinking part.”

She propped her chin on his chest and looked up at him. “Ironically, what I decided
is exactly the opposite of what I originally told you.”

This caginess drove him crazy. “Get to the point.”

“I don’t want to hide that we’re romantically involved. Not from the people we work
with or anyone else.”

Knox couldn’t stop his big grin. “Seriously?”

“Yes. I know how to be your Domme, but the rest of it outside that . . .”

Knowing how much pride she had, he understood how hard that’d been for her to admit.
“I’ll make you a deal. Since you are the big, bad Domme for sexy times, I’ll take
the lead on the relationship side. If what we do together as a couple is in the gray
area of who calls the shots, we’ll discuss it, okay?”

“Okay.”

He kissed her, and soon soft and sweet turned into hard and hungry. He wanted to eat
at her pussy the same way he ate at her mouth. “Stay with me tonight.”

“I can’t. But ask me tomorrow.”

“And every day after that. I like having you naked in my bed, kitten.” He let his
breath tease her ear. “Be forewarned; I’m staking my claim on you tomorrow at Black
Arts.”

“How do you plan on doing that?”

“Well, I have this fantasy of bending you over my desk and fucking you until you scream,
Yes, Shihan
, over and over.”

“You’d have to get my permission to do that, remember?”

“Huh-uh.” Knox nuzzled her neck. “The dojo is
my
domain, remember? I’m in charge.”

She sighed. “Nailed on a technicality.”

“Literally.” He laughed. “But I promise I’ll only nail you when we’re alone. No one
gets to see any naked bits of you, Mistress. They all belong to me now.”

“Same goes,” she murmured.

“And since you outed yourself as my Mistress to Master Merrick, that means I get to
take you out on a real date this week too.”

“You are enjoying the hell out of this.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

TUESDAY
morning Ivan walked into the conference room and caught them kissing.

His face turned the color of borscht and he left without uttering a word.

“Won’t be long now,” Shiori said.

“Three minutes, tops.”

Sure enough, Deacon stormed in. His gaze went from Shiori, sitting on the conference
table, to Knox, standing between her knees, to Shiori’s hand on Knox’s chest, to Knox’s
hands on Shiori’s ass. “I told Ivan he’d probably misread the situation. Either that
or I’d misheard him—figuring he’d meant you two were
killing
each other, not kissing each other.”

Knox brushed his lips across hers. “Ivan’s eyes did not deceive him. We got a little
carried away. Probably something you should get used to seeing.”

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. You two are together?”

“Yep.”

“How long have you been secretly playing grab ass?”

Shiori tugged the lapels of Knox’s gi top. “A couple of weeks.”

“That’s it. I’m making a call.”

Deacon made it to the door when Knox said, “Wait. Who are you calling?”

“My priest. Seeing the two of you sucking face is a sign the end of the world is near,
and I’ve got a lot of shit to confess.”

After Deacon slammed the door behind him, Shiori said, “That went well.”

Knox laughed.

Later that afternoon, when Shiori was changing in the women’s locker room, Fee ambushed
her. “You’re bending the bedframe with that knockout Knox and you didn’t tell me?”
She hit the metal locker with her fist. “I thought we were friends.”

“We are.”

“Sisters share shit like this, Shiori.”

“Say that five times fast,” she muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing. Look, we didn’t tell anyone. We weren’t sure it would last beyond—”

“One good, hard fuck?” Fee said.

“Yes. What if we fizzled instead of sizzled in bed? Not something we wanted everyone
we work with to know about.”

“I’m assuming the sizzle factor won out.”

Shiori slumped against her locker. “It’s so fucking hot between us sometimes I think
we should wear fire-retardant clothing.”

Fee held her hand up for a fist bump. “Damn, girlfriend. You’ve bagged Knox. I’m jealous.”

“Thanks . . . I think.”

She laughed. “Now you can wear that well-fucked look with pride, my friend. After
sneaking around, you’ve earned it.”

Shiori returned to the office and found Knox alone, staring out the window. She didn’t
hesitate to move behind him and wrap her arms around his waist. “What’s up, Shihan?”

“My man cred.”

“What?”

“Evidently my man cred is at an all-time high because I’m boning Black Arts’s beautiful
badass.”

She groaned. “Who called me that? Wait. I don’t want to know.”

“If they would’ve kept talking, you’d know exactly who said it by their black eye
or busted lip.”

Knox didn’t sound amused. She wormed her way in front of him, creating space for herself.
She slid her hands up his chest and looked into his eyes. “Are you mad?”

“I tried to be cool when they broke you down body part by body part. But you’re so
much more to me than a fantastic ass, killer arms, and a wet-dream mouth.” He rested
his forehead to hers. “I know guys say stupid shit about women and I used to chime
in. But it’s different when it’s my woman.”

“We’ll be old news by Wednesday. For what it’s worth, I’m happy we’re out.” She touched
her lips to his. Once. Twice. “Because now we can do this anytime we want.”

“You’re right. And if we need privacy, the door to the storage room does lock.”

After the first couple of days, the catcalls and
bow chicka wow
sounds tapered off.

Deacon still complained about their PDA, regardless of whether he found them holding
hands, grappling, or even sneaking hot looks at each other across the dojo, but he
was the only one.

She and Knox started spending every other night together, alternating between his
house and her penthouse.

The sweet, crazy man even took her on a date. A fancy date where he brought her flowers,
picked her up wearing a suit and tie, and piled on the compliments about how stunning
she looked in the slinky cocktail dress she’d worn. The restaurant he’d chosen had
a bohemian vibe from the food to the decor. She couldn’t stop staring at him throughout
the meal—especially considering how the glow of candlelight sharpened the angles of
his face, making him almost beautiful. After eating they’d strolled around downtown
Denver and stopped into a jazz bar for a nightcap; then he’d taken her back to her
place, where he’d leveled her with a mind-blowing kiss at her door before he said
good night.

Knox proved he could be a perfect gentleman.

The more quirky, sexy, funny things she discovered about Knox, the more she wanted
to uncover.

No surprise they were total opposites. He did everything himself from working on his
house, to changing the oil in his truck, to washing his clothes. Whereas she dropped
her clothes off at the dry cleaner, she never fixed a meal, and she didn’t own a vacuum.
Knox liked the outdoors. Fishing, camping, target shooting, and hiking were his idea
of a good time. She was happier inside, where she wouldn’t get sunburned or bitten
by bugs and had access to the Internet and takeout menus. As a jock, if Knox wasn’t
playing sports, he was watching them: MMA, football, basketball, rugby, and hockey.
Shiori considered shopping a sport. She exercised only so she didn’t have to monitor
every bite she ate.

But somehow the manly man and the girly girl worked so far. They really worked when
it came to sex. She loved the glazed look in Knox’s blue eyes when she switched into
Domme mode. She loved how quickly they segued from lovers snuggled on the couch to
Knox awaiting her command. She loved that he anticipated her needs, and he took pride
in fulfilling them. She loved that they pushed each other’s boundaries; his role in
the bedroom and hers outside of it.

Yet Shiori wasn’t thrilled with Knox’s latest attempt to increase her independence.
Her argument that her dependence on others to do things for her had created jobs made
him laugh.

“Kitten, you’re pretty even when you’re surly, but lose the pout and let’s get moving.”

“You can’t make me.”

More laughter. “Yes, I can.”

“How?”

He shot her a smoldering look. “You know how.”

“By withholding sex?”

“Got it on the first try.”

Shit. “So? Sex is overrated.”

“Says my Mistress who fucked me twice yesterday.” His voice deepened. “You riding
me in the shower first thing yesterday morning ringing a bell? Or how about you riding
my face last night?”

“Is that a complaint?”

Knox aimed his hungry stare at her mouth. “Never.”

She leaned closer and nuzzled his cheek. “If you take me home, I’ll suck your cock
until the top of your head blows off.”

“Nice try. But no. You’d keep me hanging on the edge for hours just so we didn’t have
to come back and do this. So suck it up or there’ll be no sucking of anything between
either of us.”

“That’s it,” she huffed. “I’m using my safe word.”

His mouth brushed her ear. “You don’t have a safe word.
I
have a safe word, remember?”

“Knox.” That sounded whiny. “Why are you pushing me on this?”

“Because you’re thirty-five years old and it’s time you learned to drive.”

She pointed to his big truck that was like twenty-seven feet off the ground and had
tires the size of a bulldozer. “I’d rather not crash and burn a monster truck.”

“Stop saying that. This is a standard-sized pickup.”

“It can’t be.”

“It is.”

“Compared to what? Tractors? Have you seen the size of cars in Japan?”

“Nope. And we’re not in Japan; we’re in America, where our public-transit system in
the Wild West isn’t up to Japanese bullet-train standards.”

“Not the same thing.”

“Quit being a pain in the ass and get in.”

“I don’t like your tone.”

Knox got right in her face. “You won’t like my hand smacking your ass either if you
don’t get it moving.”

“Acting a little cheeky today, sub.”

“I’m not your sub right now, remember? So quit stalling, whining, and bitching, and
pull up your big-girl panties and get in the damn truck.”

“Fine. I assume you have a ladder?”

He muttered something. Then he pointed to the thin piece of silver chrome below the
door. “That’s the running board. Use it to get in.”

Shiori opened the door and launched herself into the driver’s seat. First thing she
moved the seat closer to the steering wheel. If Knox’s knees were hunched against
the dashboard, it was his own fault for being so tall.

Knox climbed in the passenger side. More muttering. Then, “Move the seat back. You
don’t need to be directly under the steering wheel to drive.”

She eased the seat back.

“Now. You have two pedals at your feet. But you’re only going to use one foot. Gas
is on your right. The brake is in the middle. Now look on your dashboard and see the
letters
P
,
R
,
N
,
D
,
L
?”

“I see them.”

“What do they stand for?”

“Pretty Reckless New Driver, Lookout?”

He didn’t crack a smile.

She sighed. “Park, reverse, neutral, drive . . . no idea what the L is for.”

“Low. You can drop it into a lower gear if the weather is bad or if you’re driving
down a steep grade. Now turn the key and start ’er up.”

“It seems too soon. Shouldn’t we go over the safety features of this vehicle?”

He shook his head. “Turn the key and press on the gas at the same time.”

“I have to do two things at once?” she practically shrieked.

“Shiori,” he snapped. “Stop freaking out. If sixteen-year-old kids can do this, so
can you.”

She turned the key and slammed her foot down on the gas pedal. The engine roared.

“Good. Now put your foot on the brake and move the gearshift into drive.”

“So then we’ll be moving.”

“Hopefully.”

“Where are we going?”

“Around and around in this empty parking lot until you feel comfortable behind the
wheel.”

Jesus. They’d be here for two months if that held true. She pulled the gearshift down
until the red needle was on the D. “Now what?”

“Now take your foot off the brake. The truck is in gear and it will move, but not
much until you apply the gas. So when you step on the gas, do it gradually, not all
at once.”

Okay. Here goes.

She fought the temptation to close her eyes. She put her foot on the gas like Knox
said, and the truck lurched forward. She took her foot off and slammed on the brake.
Then she tried it again. This time it went smoother. She tried a little more gas and
it didn’t lurch.

“Doing great. Now, try not to drive down the middle but stay to the right.”

“There’s so much to remember.”

“When you get to the end of this row, turn right and go up the other side. And you
might get a better feel for driving if you went faster than ten.”

Was he snickering? She didn’t dare take her eyes off the road to glare at him or take
her hands off the wheel to flip him off.

She putted down four rows, gradually increasing her speed. By the time she’d reached
the end of the last parking row, she’d ramped the speed up to twenty-five. When she
saw the curb and the cement block base for the streetlamp in her path, she panicked.
She cranked the wheel hard and the truck almost spun in a circle.

Knox yelled, “Brake! Brake!”

She jammed on the brake with both feet and they lurched forward. Good thing they wore
seat belts.

“Jesus Christ, Shiori. What the hell were you doing? You trying to roll my damn truck
and give me a heart attack? You can’t take a corner at twenty-five!”

“You kept telling me to speed up!”

“Not when you’re turning a corner. That’s when you slow down!”

She moved the gearshift into park. Then she turned the ignition off, unbuckled her
seat belt, and bailed out of the truck. Wrapping her arms around herself, she started
walking.

Tears fell, which pissed her off.

Knox ran past her and planted himself in front of her.

She just stepped around him and kept walking.

Then he blocked her path again. “Shiori. Can you please stop?”

She stopped.

He framed her face in his hands and tipped her head back. “Why are you crying?”

“You yelled at me.”

“I’ve yelled at you a thousand times before.”

“But not like this. You scared me.” She sniffled. “I don’t want to learn how to drive!
Not knowing how to drive a car doesn’t make me a lazy, stupid reject. I hate that
everyone makes me feel that way.”

“Do I make you feel that way?”

“Sometimes.”

That surprised him.

“I’ve done the financial analysis on owning a car versus hiring a
car service. When you add gas and insurance and depreciation and maintenance, I’m
actually ahead at the end of the year by not driving. Not to mention the work I get
accomplished when I’m being driven.”

“Hey. Come here.” Knox crushed her to his chest. “I’m sorry if anything I’ve ever
said makes you feel like a reject. You’re far from it.” He kissed her forehead. “You
know how I feel about you, Nushi. You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.”

That caused the tears to fall a little harder. Knox worshipped her—every day in every
way, without her having to demand it or beg for it. That was so new, so precious.
She was so afraid of losing it, afraid of losing him.

“I was a dick to push you on this.”

“Why did you push me?”

“Because you’re stinking rich and can buy any fast car you want. How cool would it
be to be able to drive them?”

“That’s your reason?”

“No, I’m kidding. I just hate that you have strange men driving you all over town
and you won’t turn that job over to me.”