“I understand. Is there a chance the property management company would relax the penalties for breaking your lease?”

“I’ll ask.”

“Let me do some checking around. I know some guys in the business.” Denver mover and shaker Thaddeus “TP” Pettigrew owed him a favor, so the real estate angle would be easy to check.

“You’d do that before we signed any formal agreement?”

“Let’s put it this way: I’ll feel better signing an agreement with you if all of that stuff is already taken care of.” Ronin stood. “Let’s join the tour. And if you’re all right with it, we can get Shiori started on the transitional paperwork.”

“As long as she’s willing to work with Sophia. She handles the business end of ABC.”

“You should know that Shiori is my sister. She’s here temporarily handling some family business and filling in as an instructor.”

Blue grinned again. “A sure sign that this arrangement is meant to be, no? Because Sophia is my sister.”

• • •

THE next evening, Ronin said, “I think I might go back to teaching next week.”

Amery lifted her head from his chest. “I know the bruises have faded, but are you really ready? Or are you just feeling guilty?”

“Teaching is what I do.” Fuck. That’s all they’d let him do.

“What classes are you usurping? Poor Sandan Zach’s women’s self-defense class?”

He slapped her bare ass. “I did my penance teaching you.”

“Hey!”

“Don’t pout, baby.” Ronin dropped a quick kiss on her forehead. “I’d be helping Ito with the younger kids.”

“Why? Aren’t your highly advanced skills wasted there?”

“I should be accessible to all students, not just those in advanced classes. Plus I need to assess all levels more frequently to ensure their skill sets are up to par.”

“Will you have time to do that, given how much time you’ve already committed to the new promotion company?”

Ronin would be going f**king crazy if he didn’t have that. In just one day, he’d expanded on Blue’s original idea and he’d become a little obsessed with it.

“What are you calling the promo company?”

He frowned. “No idea.”

“I have one. My creative little brain has just been cranking.”

“And?”

“What about . . . Black and Blue Promotions?”

Ronin laughed. “That is perfect. Damn, woman, you are brilliant.”

“I know.” Amery’s lips started a southerly path down the center of his chest. She detoured to his right nipple and sucked so hard he nearly bowed off the bed. So when she slid her wet lips across his sternum to his left nipple, he expected the same treatment. But she flicked just the tip of her tongue around the flat disc until it puckered. Then she reconnected with the line bisecting his belly and licked straight down to his cock. Anytime her hot tongue teased his skin, his c**k took notice. It’d begun to stir, but was still soft and curled on the inside of his thigh. No sweet nuzzling like he expected. Amery’s mouth enclosed his cock.

That time he did arch up.

She sucked gently as blood filled his shaft. When her mouth couldn’t contain the swelling flesh, she changed her position. She started bobbing her head.

Ronin closed his eyes and groaned. His thought processes grew hazy, and his pulse jumped as her hot, wet mouth worked him. She drew the length in and out rapidly, not sucking, but keeping his shaft slippery. So slippery that moisture seeped down and coated his balls.

Usually he preferred to be in control, even when Amery was blowing him. He liked keeping a tight grip on her hair. He liked pushing his c**k to the back of her throat and holding it there when he came. He liked binding her hands and holding her face between his palms as he directed how fast, how hard, and how long he plunged in and out of her addictive mouth.

But he kept his hands by his sides, allowing himself to feel all the nuances of how she wanted to please him. Her soft tongue. The scrape of her teeth. Heat and wetness and pressure.

He tensed when she reached between his legs and fondled his balls. But she didn’t stop there. She rubbed his perineum with her thumb. Up and down until she brushed his ass**le. She swept around and around, the wetness making the pucker slippery enough so she could press the digit in slightly.

Jesus, that felt amazing. He’d started to pant as she brought him closer to the edge.

Amery switched her hand position, easing a finger past the sensitized ring and into his ass. She sucked his c**k with shorter, tighter strokes, and she rubbed the tip of her finger across his gland.

Ronin felt every other muscle in his body going equally rigid, desperate for the explosion of orgasm. When he glanced down at Amery’s beautiful face, her sexy look of determination had him relaxing into the mattress, allowing her to give him the orgasm rather than chasing after it.

As much as he tried to focus on her, he squeezed his eyes shut in ecstasy as his c**k and balls tightened with a warning tingle. Then his ass clamped down on her finger, and liquid heat pulsed out of his dick so violently he felt the pulling sensation in his lower abdomen.

“Fuck. Yes. Jesus, don’t stop.”

Amery kept that magical mouth and finger connection going, dragging out his climax until he saw spots behind his eyes and his entire being floated in a quiet void. As the pulses faded and he became aware of his surroundings, he decided the bliss of orgasm defined a Zen moment.