about to test that theory. Oh god.”
Even before she clapped a hand over her mouth, Knox was on his feet and leading her to the bathroom.
She had little in her stomach, so she mostly dry heaved.
Knox stayed beside her, rubbing her back.
After she flushed the toilet and stood, she rinsed her mouth. “Ack. I’m so tired of barfing.”
He lifted her into his arms. “I’m putting you in bed.” He slipped her between the sheets as though she were made of crystal, then covered her up. “Want some water?”
She nodded.
Knox stroked her cheek. “Be right back.”
Everything that’d been spinning around and around in her head quieted.
He returned and held the bottle of water to her lips.
She swallowed two sips and hoped it didn’t immediately come back up.
Knox crawled into bed beside her and wrapped himself around her as much as he could without moving her. He placed a soft kiss on her temple and one hand over hers on her belly. “Sleep. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”
* * *
THE room was completely dark when Shiori woke up. For a minute she was disoriented.
“Hey, how you feeling?”
“Better.” She didn’t move for several long minutes, hoping she hadn’t spoken too soon. In the cocoon of Knox’s body, she listened to the rhythm of their breathing.
Then the feeling stirring inside her wasn’t from nausea but from desire. She loved the tease of Knox’s breath across her skin, in her ear. The rise and fall of his chest against her back.
She wiggled her butt, as if trying to get comfortable, and felt his cock—hard and ready.
Until he tried to discreetly move it away.
She rocked her hips back into him again.
This time he said, “If you need more room, I can scoot over.”
Shiori rolled to face him. “I need something.” She pressed her mouth to the curve of muscle above his nipple.
“I’ll give you whatever you need, Mistress.”
She dragged her tongue across his nipple. “I need your hands on me. Your mouth on me. I need to feel you all over me.”
He shifted and peeled her yoga pants and her panties down her legs. He made short work of her bra. Then his hands, his big, wonderful, callused hands were petting and stroking and teasing. His mouth zeroed in on all her hot spots and he was relentless in proving he knew exactly what would make her writhe and moan. He knew exactly how to drive her crazy with desire.
But Knox never ventured beyond their parameters. He wouldn’t bury his face in her pussy until she gave him the go-ahead.
“Knox,” she panted when she couldn’t take it anymore.
“Yes, Mistress?”
“Put your mouth between my legs and make me come.”
He threw the covers back and pushed her thighs wide apart. “I have one request.”
Shiori looked down her torso to where he’d settled between her legs. “What’s your request?”
“Pull the skin away from your clit with your fingers using the hand that has the bracelet.” His eyes glittered in the darkness. “I want to look up and see my claim on you as you scream my name.”
The sexy growl sent a delicious shiver through her. She slipped her hand down the flat—for now—plane of her stomach and hooked her first two fingers under the flesh and exposed her clit.
“Fucking beautiful.” He blew a stream of air over the sensitive tissue, offering a wicked grin when she jumped. “Fast or slow?”
“Fast.”
They had different definitions of fast. So by the time he’d thoroughly wound her up, all it took were a few concentrated sucks on her clit and she unraveled. A hair-pulling, gasping-his-name, hip-pumping orgasm that kept going with every sassy flick of his tongue. When Knox finally relented, she melted into the mattress.
Knox kissed her abdomen, and then he placed a kiss on the bracelet on her wrist.
When her brain unscrambled, she pushed up on her elbows to see him resting on his knees between her thighs. “Come here.”
He ran his hand up the outside of her leg. “Would it be better if you were on top?”
“No. We’ll have plenty of months where we’ll have to get creative with positions as the baby grows. Tonight I want to look into your eyes when you’re moving inside me and when you spill yourself into me without a condom. I want your ear close by so I can tell you how much I love you when you’re making love to me.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He levered himself over her, keeping his eyes on hers as he slowly pushed inside. “Fuck, that feels good.”
“Very good.”
His eyes stayed intense on hers. He balanced on his arms, not putting his full weight on her.
Each long stroke drove her up, up, up that slow rise until she reached the crest.
Knox left her dangling there. “Let me come with you.”
She pulled his mouth to hers in response, and they sailed into the abyss together.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Two weeks later . . .
KNOX sat on his back deck, enjoying the warm evening. He really enjoyed having his warm woman curled into him, her small body tucked against his. He ran his hand down the side of her body, stopping to palm her ass.
Shiori sighed against his neck, and he kissed the top of her head.
After they’d left Tokyo—on Okada’s private jet, no less—they’d moved Shiori’s stuff into his house. He’d found it funny that she’d left her clothes with Katie, since she wouldn’t fit into them soon anyway. She hadn’t seen the humor in that until he’d dropped to his knees and pressed his mouth against the tiny swell.
A baby. He couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. His mother and sisters were as ecstatic about the pregnancy as Shiori’s mother and grandfather were. Fee, Katie, Molly, and Amery were already planning a baby shower. Why they weren’t planning a wedding shower stumped him, since he and Shiori were tying the knot in two weeks, after some snafu with Shiori’s visa was settled.
Shiori nuzzled his throat. “What are you thinking about so hard?”
He placed another kiss on the top of her head. “How I can’t wait until you’re my wife, Mistress.”
“I can’t wait for that either. Shiori Lofgren has a nice ring to it.”
“Yes, it does.” He trailed his fingers up and down her thigh. “I love you. I’m so glad you’re here with me.”
“I love you too.” She kissed the side of his throat.
The gate hinge squeaked.
“Were you expecting someone?” Shiori asked, pushing up to a sitting position.
Knox turned his head, and a dark shape materialized into Ronin Black. Stealthy bastard. He wouldn’t have known the man was there if not for the squeaky gate. “Hey. Pull up a chair.”
“Thanks. Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“You’re always welcome in our home, brother,” Shiori said softly.
Our home. Damn but he loved the sound of that.
“Thanks, Shi. How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ll get sick of that question in the next six months.” She smiled. “Most days I feel great.”
Ronin seemed at a loss as to how to respond.
Shiori set her feet on the ground and stood. “I’m hungry.”
“Want me to fix you a plate?” Knox asked.
“I can do it. I know you guys have stuff to talk about.”
“Nothing you can’t be a part of,” Ronin said. “I didn’t mean to chase you off.”
“You didn’t.”
Knox put his hand on her belly. “I’ll be in to check on you in a bit.”
“No rush.” She bent down and kissed him with enough sweet heat to make his dick stir. Then she turned and ruffled Ronin’s hair. “If your conversation turns to fisticuffs I’m calling Deacon, since I’m not allowed to fight or break fights up anymore.”
“Like we can’t take him,” Knox scoffed.
“I don’t know about taking him,” Ronin said. “Maddox is turning him into a fighting machine.”
“’Bout time he got his shot.” Knox grabbed two Fat Tires, used the opener to pry off the tops, and handed one to Ronin.
“Thanks.” Ronin took a couple of sips before he spoke. “I can’t believe you knocked my sister up.”
“You and me both.”
“Jesus. You’re gonna be a dad.”
“I’ll be a damn good one, if that’s what you’re worried about. Just because I didn’t grow up with one—”
“Hold on. That wasn’t what I was getting at. Not even remotely. Shiori and I essentially grew up without a dad, too. I just had an image of you carrying a diaper bag and baby talking.”
“Fuck you. I ain’t gonna baby talk. It’s not good for their language development.” He’d been reading everything he could on pregnancy and childbirth. It was already starting to drive Shiori crazy—which was half the fun.
Ronin laughed. “But there are diapers, strollers, stuffed animals in your future.”
“Yep.” Knox swigged his beer. “It’s a good thing.”
“I think so too.”
Knox smiled. “Bet Amery’s pregnant sooner rather than later.”
“I’ll admit after the shock wore off I was a little jealous.” He gave Knox a sly look. “Ojisan offered Amery a million bucks if she got pregnant in the next few months.”
“Seriously? Dammit. I knew we should’ve waited to tell him. I could’ve had a cool mil in the bank.” He laughed. “But we’re just so happy about this we couldn’t keep it quiet.”
“I’d be happy if we had a kid in the next year. But Amery’s not ready.” He shrugged. “So we’ll wait until she is.”
They sipped their beer and each got lost in their own thoughts.
After a bit, Ronin said, “That baby is one tough little thing. Surviving a car accident and an MMA fight.”
“Strong, stubborn, and resilient. So I’m betting it’s a girl.”
Ronin laughed and clinked his bottle to Knox’s. “Amen, brother.”
Another bout of silence settled between them. A soft breeze stirred the leaves and carried the scent of freshly mown grass.
“Knox, I gotta ask.”
“About my resignation as dojo GM?”
“Are you sure that’s what you want?”
“Yes. It wasn’t an easy decision to make. But you had to make some hard choices too.” After the Shihan issue—misunderstanding, drama, whatever it was—Ronin opted to bring Beck Leeds back to Black Arts from House of Kenji. So Beck would become Shihan. Again. Knox had always liked the guy, and he’d be a great fit for Sensei Black and the dojo.
“How much will you be working for GSC Security?”
Knox had followed through and called the security company after returning from Tokyo. He’d passed both interviews. “Two to three days a week for a couple of hours, teaching hand-to-hand defensive tactics.” He took another drink of beer. “Look, I hope you understand that I needed to do something for myself outside the dojo. After I quit wallowing, I realized I’d gotten complacent.”
Ronin looked at him. “I never saw that in you. Just the opposite, in fact.”
“It was a wake-up call when I realized I didn’t have anything to offer the MMA program, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have skills others would find useful. I’ll still be teaching at Black Arts, so it isn’t like you’re getting rid of me. Especially since we’ll officially be family.”
“That’s fucking weird to think about.”
“No doubt. Did you hire a replacement for Shiori?” Knox had nixed her teaching during her pregnancy, and she hadn’t given him any grief about it. She had nagged her brother to hire a woman with at least a third-degree black belt to replace her.
Ronin sighed. “No. A few have expressed interest. I imagine now that Black Arts is paying an above-average salary for all instructors, we’ll have more applicants for all the openings. I’m just damn glad it’s summer and all these changes haven’t affected the students.”
“You still feeling guilty about using your inheritance to fund dojo expansion?”
“Honestly? Not as much as I thought I would. The money is just sitting there. Seems a waste not to use it.” Ronin shot Knox a sly smile. “Does it bother you to be my sister’s kept man?”
He laughed. Oh, if Ronin only knew how true that statement really was. In addition to meeting her scary-ass grandfather in Tokyo, he had gone with Shiori to her club where she’d become Mistress B. Afterward they’d decided they were done with any club scenes since they’d found what they’d been looking for in each other. “Not at all. It’s not like I’m not working. Being part-time at GSC, teaching at Black Arts, and comanaging Black and Blue Promotions with Katie—all adds up to full-time work. After the baby is born and Shiori decides how invested she wants to be in a career at Okada, I’ll need a job with fluidity that’ll allow us to travel with her. I know my Mistress won’t want to be away from me or baby Shox any longer than one night. Her inheritance allows us the luxury of focusing on our family so we both can be hands-on parents.”
Ronin looked at him oddly.
Shit. He’d screwed up and called Shiori Mistress. “What?”
“Baby Shox?”
Whew. Lucky, Ronin had zeroed in on that. “We don’t like calling the baby ‘it’ so she combined our first names; hence baby Shox.”
“Jesus.”
“That name is taken.”
Ronin laughed. “Did you ever think a year ago our lives would be like this? Me married, you about to tie the knot and having a baby and the dojo not the most important thing in our lives?”
“Nope. But I’d always hoped for this.”
“Me too.”
Knox tapped his beer bottle against Ronin’s bottle. “Change is good, brother.”
“Change is very good.”
EPILOGUE
Six months later . . .
SHIORI Lofgren wanted to beat the fuck out of someone.
And by “someone” she meant Knox Lofgren, her husband—the man responsible for putting her in such excruciating pain.
She grunted, and it might’ve turned into a frustrated scream.
“Nushi, come on. You’re almost there.”
“I don’t . . . I can’t . . .” she panted.
His soothing voice burrowed into her ear. “Yes, you can. You are the strongest woman I know. A couple more pushes and we can finally meet our girl.”
She curled her hands more tightly around the metal bars and bore down when Dr. Barr told her to.
“Breathe, baby. That’s good,” Knox cooed, wiping the sweat
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