“So, is this your usual hangout?”
“I’m usually in one night a week. I never see you here.”
“My first time.”
“I ought to buy you a drink to celebrate.”
A hand landed on her shoulder and Ronin’s smooth cheek brushed hers as he inserted himself between them. “Sorry I’m late. I know how much you hate waiting.” Then he offered his hand to Will. “Ronin. And you are?”
“Will.”
“Thanks, Will, for keeping my girl company.”
What was up with Ronin acting as if they were a couple?
“My pleasure.” Will smiled at Amery. “Good seeing you again.” Then he moved to the other side of the bar.
“You ready?” Ronin asked.
“For you to explain to me exactly what the hell that was? Yes. Start talking.”
Ronin squeezed her shoulder. “A friendly reminder that you’re off the market.”
“Like I’m a slab of meat?” she asked sharply.
“You are Grade-A prime cut all the way, baby.”
“Ronin. That’s not funny.”
“No, it’s not.”
His eyes were so . . . penetrating that her heart sped up. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re a beautiful woman, who just rejected eight offers from strangers who wanted to buy you drinks.” He traced the edge of her cheek and tipped her chin up. “Watching you was a special kind of torture for me because I willingly devised it.”
“Why?”
“I wanted you to see the truth about yourself. Then I realized you would’ve let some of those guys buy you a drink or maybe even left with them had the situation been different.”
“Do you want me to admit you were right?”
“About letting any one of them buy you a drink? No.” Ronin’s thumb slowly followed the curve of her lower lip. When she trembled, he seemed to take great pleasure in treating her to another leisurely pass, ensuring that she trembled from his touch again. “Was I right about you being the sexiest woman in this bar? Yes. So say I’m unaware of my own beauty and you were irrevocably right, Ronin.”
Somehow Amery eased back from his enthralling touch. “Fat chance. So, where were you sitting while I was proving your point?”
“In the corner.”
“Watching my back?”
He gestured to the front of the bar. “I didn’t want to watch your back; I wanted to watch your face.” He plucked up her restless hand. “Since I won, I get to pick what we do tonight. Have any idea what that might be?”
Please say hours of hot, raunchy sex.
Ronin’s eyes narrowed. “Did you say something?”
“Uh. No.” Thank god she hadn’t said that out loud, but she half suspected he’d read her mind. “What are we doing?” she asked quickly. “I hope it involves food.”
“Isn’t it fortunate I planned to cook for you at my place?”
So maybe hot sex was on the menu for tonight. She smiled. “Sounds delicious.”
“Let’s go.”
Amery upended her drink and took his hand as he led her outside. No worries about driving since she’d walked to the bar. She’d even worn jeans in case Ronin had driven his motorcycle.
But out on the street he stopped beside a black Lexus SUV. He opened the passenger door. “You look disappointed.”
“I kind of like the bike.”
“Next time.”
Once they were tooling down the road, she said, “I don’t know where you live.”
“Same as you: where I work.”
She frowned. “You live in the dojo?”
“On the top floor. And also like you, I own the building.”
“What else is in the building?”
“Dojo offices and additional training areas take up the second and part of the third floor. I rent out the fourth floor to businesses that don’t have much walk-in traffic but needed office space.”
“How long have you owned the building?”
“Bought it ten years ago. Needed a ton of work. My priority was the dojo. Then my living space. It’s just in the last six years the middle floors were updated and ready to rent out.”
“So, do you have instructors and students just pop into your place to say howdy?”
Ronin shook his head. “It’s no secret I live on the top floor, but access is limited.” He circled the area twice. “The downside to this area is the lack of parking.”
“Sucks when you have to haul groceries, doesn’t it?”
“That’s why I don’t have a membership at Costco.”
He had a better sense of humor than Amery had credited him for. She headed for the front entrance, but he snagged her hand and led her to the alley. “Back door.”
“Afraid you’ll get waylaid and need to show a technique or ten to some poor struggling white belt?” she teased.
“No.” They stopped in front of a rusty steel door. He unlocked a small metal box, which housed a keypad, punched in a code, and the locks popped.
“Fancy.”
“Safe,” he corrected.
Amery could hear the sounds of the dojo as they cut down a narrow hallway. They stopped at another door, which also required a key card for the code box. Through that door was an elevator bay with two elevators. They rode in silence to the fifth floor and got off.
She followed him down a short carpeted hallway and he stopped in front of a set of double doors. Another swipe of the key card, another code.
“I’m starting to feel like I’m in a spy movie.”
Ronin held the door open for her. “Almost there.”
Before her was another elevator. She faced him, her mouth open. “You have a private elevator to your apartment?”
“Keeps the riffraff out.”
She laughed.
“It’s no different than standard high-rises. The top floor always has a separate elevator.”
With all the security measures, how would she get out if she had to? Her heart raced at the sudden thought and she studied the pattern in the fake-wood paneling as Ronin messed with another keypad.
The elevator started to go up.
He didn’t speak until the door opened. “After you.”
Amery stepped onto a tiled entryway and stopped.
Then Ronin was in her face. “What’s wrong?”
“This . . . private elevator, super-secret security stuff. What if there’s a fire and I can’t get out because I don’t have the key card or the codes? Or what if I just want to leave?”