you’ll let me.”
Cocky. Shiori unhooked his wrist cuffs from the chains and massaged his arms for a
moment before she pulled his arms behind his back. She stepped around him to admire
her modern-day Viking—from his muscle-bound body, to his handsome face, to the barely
leashed power vibrating from him as he fought against himself and his very nature
to obey her.
Shiori let her skirt hit the floor and kicked it away as she moved in closer. Her
bare pussy throbbed with her arousal—this man made her so hot that the insides of
her thighs were soaked. She reached up and grabbed on to the bar holding the chains.
A low growl rumbled from his throat in response to her pussy mere inches away from
his mouth. But he wouldn’t touch her until she gave him the go-ahead.
“Look at me,” she said softly.
His lust-clouded eyes met hers.
“Make me come so hard my knees give out. Then pick me up and do it again.” She held
her breath as he dipped his head and his tongue shot out, eager to connect with her
hot flesh . . .
That’s when she woke up. Heart pounding, body tight, thighs quivering, panties wet,
mouth dry, and need driving out all rational thought.
She punched her pillow with frustration. When that didn’t help, she wrapped her arms
around it and screamed into it.
You should’ve known it was a dream. Where else but in fantasyland would he say
let me serve you?
She’d never get back to sleep now.
She threw on some old sweatpants and a T-shirt and headed to the room she’d turned
into an art studio. She had a table coveredwith different types of paint, several easels with pictures at various stages of completion,
and small finished canvases lined along the walls. She’d always wanted to paint, but
her life had been so hectic before she’d resigned her position at Okada that she’d
lacked the time.
Now she had time, but as she studied the paint lines on the closest canvas, she realized
that old adage “practice makes perfect” wasn’t true for everything because she was
a shitty artist. She hadn’t improved at all in the last few months. While that bothered
her on one level, on another level, she loved the freedom of wasting time.
She cranked up the volume on the MP3 dock and indulged in her other guilty pleasure—Japanese
boy bands. So she sang along as loudly as she wanted as she painted pictures of posies
and wondered what the hell a therapist would make of her.
* * *
ALTHOUGH most of the accounting for Black Arts was done off-site, Shiori still had loose ends
to tie up before the week started and she got sidetracked by her own projects.
While she was no longer working full-time in the Okada corporate offices in Tokyo,
she hadn’t walked away completely. Several of their big food suppliers refused to
deal with anyone at Okada besides her—she’d tried to transition them to another account
specialist, but they’d threatened to pull their business. The amounts were significant,
so she’d sucked it up and stayed on.
No one had asked her how long she planned to stay in the United States. The only reason
she was allowed to remain here was because of her work visa. For the first time ever,
being on Okada’s payroll gave her more freedom instead of less.
After getting everything in order for the accountant, she cut to the training room
for cardio. Teaching meant she had to stay in better shape than ever, so she worked
out in the weight room four days a week.
She’d just finished a brutal punching combination and wastaking a moment to catch her breath when she heard, “There’s a rule against training
in the workout room alone.”
Her stomach flipped at the sound of his voice, but she ignored Knox and hit the heavy
bag three more times. Finished with that, she moved to the next station and added
kicks to her strikes against the training dummy. She felt Knox’s gaze studying her
every move, but she knew he’d