Bound: The Mastered Series

by Lorelei James

  “I assure you Okada Foods Conglomerate is not a scam.”

  “I know that. I did my research. I’m saying your being here doesn’t make any sense and I wonder what you really want from me.”

  “A little paranoid, aren’t you, Ms. Hardwick?”

  Amery shrugged. “So prove me wrong.”

  “How?”

  “Take off your sunglasses.”

  “Why is that necessary?”

  “Because playing the cool, mysterious food magnate hidden behind unflattering cheap sunglasses doesn’t ring true for you.”

  She cocked her head prettily. “How so?”

  “Nothing about you is cheap. Or unstylish. You bought those sunglasses for one reason only; they’re big enough to mask more than half of your face. So why do you want to hide your face from me?”

  “You read that much into this? How is it you think you know so much about me thirty minutes after meeting me?”

  Amery pointed to the purse on the opposite end of the table. “Your handbag is from Hermès and runs about twenty-five thousand dollars. The diamond-encrusted watch on your wrist is easily in the hundred-thousand-dollar range. Your shoes? Roughly ten grand. I don’t have any idea which designer you’re wearing, but I’ll bet a month’s rent that suit is not off the discount rack from a Tokyo department store. Your scarf, also Hermès, set you back around fifteen hundred bucks. So the cheap sunglasses don’t fit. Besides, if you truly had a vicious headache, you wouldn’t take a meeting with me.”

  She smiled. “Very astute.”

  “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but my gut instinct is warning me to walk out.”

  “Walk away from a project that could potentially pay you six figures?”

  Don’t think about the money; think about the principle. Amery raised her chin a notch. “Yes, ma’am. Who are you?”

  “Who do you think I am?”

  Ask if she’s Naomi.

  No. She didn’t even know Naomi’s last name. “You ditching the shades or not?”

  “How like him you are,” she muttered. “Believing eyes are the windows to the soul and all that crap.”

  Who was him? Was this woman completely bonkers?

  Just as she’d decided to cut her losses and run, Ms. Hirano lowered her head and removed the shades.

  When she glanced up at Amery, Amery’s entire body seized in shock. In recognition. Looking into those amber-colored eyes, she knew. Only one other person she’d ever met had eyes like that.

  Ronin Black.

  “They are a giveaway, aren’t they?” she murmured. “You can see why I felt the need to mask them.”

  “Yes,” Amery managed, relieved this woman wasn’t Naomi. But facing a member of Ronin’s family when she knew next to nothing about said family . . . not fun either. She couldn’t be certain yet how this woman was related to Ronin. “You are Ronin’s . . . ?”

  “Sister.” She gave Amery that same seated bow she’d seen Ronin do a hundred times. “I’m Shiori Hirano.”

  Ten billion questions bounced around in Amery’s head, but she couldn’t give voice to a single one.

  “You’re not what I expected, Amery.”

  “To say that I wasn’t expecting you, Ms. Hirano, is an understatement.”

  “Please. Call me Shiori.”

  She pronounced it she-o-ree. “Where’s the Hirano come in? The whole Japanese family surname first, and then the given name last confuses me.”

  “Hirano was my married name. I opted not to change it back after the divorce. In Japan I introduce myself as Hirano Shiori. When dealing with people in Europe or the West, I switch it to the Westernized version Shiori Hirano. My headache is such I neglected to do that today.”

  Amery couldn’t help but stare at Ronin’s exotic-looking sister.

  “I know Ronin and I don’t look alike—except we both have our mother’s eyes. Although we do have the same parents. Our father was an eighth Japanese.”

  Amery frowned. Had Ronin ever told her that about his father? No. “Does Ronin know you’re here in Denver?”

  Shiori shook her head. “Curiosity about you got the better of me.”

  He’d spoken to his sister about her? “What did he tell you about me?”

  “Nothing. He circumvented my involvement by dealing with Maggie. He demanded that we hire your firm, sight unseen, for a major product launch for the family business. Naturally that caused a major red flag.”

  “What family business?”

  Shiori’s gaze sharpened. “You really don’t know? When you can rattle off the retail price of every item on my body? You know exactly what Ronin is worth. I’m observant too, Ms. Hardwick. Don’t try and snow me like you’ve snowed my brother.”

  Snowed her brother? What the hell? “The Ronin Black I know owns a dojo. That’s it. There is no snowing the man. Ever.”

  “Ronin isn’t only some two-bit dojo sensei, teaching classes and putting together amateur mixed martial arts fights. Ronin Black is heir to the Okada Food Conglomerate. An international company currently valued at five billion U.S. dollars.”

  After a moment of stunned silence, Amery said, “What? Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “No, I assure you, I am not kidding.”

  Not happening. Ronin would not do this. He had too much integrity to lie to her on such an epic scale.

  But he didn’t lie; he just wasn’t completely honest. He wasn’t honest with you about a lot of things. Why are you so shocked by this?

  Because she’d trusted him. She’d believed he was just a jujitsu master living his life according to the tenets of his discipline.

  She had to keep her teeth clenched to hold back the roar of fury threatening to escape. Her face and neck became fire hot, which was odd when she’d felt the blood drain out of her face and her entire body turned ice-cold.

  Shiori leaned over the conference table. “You had no clue about who he is, did you?”

  “None at all.”

  The man was a fucking billionaire.

  The sick feeling spread from her gut straight up to her heart. He’d lied to her about who he was from the start. While she’d bared everything to him. Everything—her mind, her body, her will. And what had she gotten in return? Hot sex, kinky sex. Not the same type of soul-baring disclosure. He’d kept his place in the international billionaire’s club a fucking secret.

  “I wasn’t wrong in my assumption that you two are intimately involved?”

  “We’ve spent time together the last couple months.”

  Shiori gave her a skeptical look. “You didn’t use the fact that you were spending time together to demand that he give your company the new Okada food line project?”

  “How could I have demanded anything from him when I had no goddamn idea he had any tie to Okada? When I hadn’t even heard of the company . . .” Until a couple of weeks after she’d mentioned her financial struggles to one Ronin Black. She exhaled. “He set this whole thing up. He set me up.” Amery wanted to beat her fists into the table. “I was flattered when my little graphic design company garnered interest from a big corporation. Naive of me to trust it, but I had so much hope that playing in the big leagues would turn things around for me. Now to learn it’s all been a lie?” She shook her head. She’d never bounce back from this type of betrayal. Never.

  “I saw your financials. It’s been a rough year.”

  Of course she’d scoured Amery’s financials—a company like Okada wielded a lot of power. Which probably meant that Ronin was also aware she had two grand in her checking account, the exact amount of her outstanding mortgage payment and how much she’d socked away in her 401k. Pitiable amounts to billionaires, for sure. Her face heated again. “I never asked Ronin for money.”

  “He most likely considered this a favor to you?”

  “A favor? A favor is helping your friend move into a new apartment. Or taking a self-defense class with a friend to bolster her self-esteem. A favor is not secretly demanding you
r billion-dollar family business take pity on your flavor of the month and tease her with the possibility of a multimillion-dollar contract.”

  Shiori studied her. “How long have you been . . . ?”

  “Several months. So when he demanded you hire me, did he ask you not to tell me?”

  “Like I mentioned previously, I haven’t actually spoken to Ronin about this. He instructed Maggie to find a project for your company and hire you outright. She contacted me, letting me know what my brother had demanded. I decided to intervene.”

  “So you came to Denver to see if I was some gold-digging hustler.”

  She lifted a slim shoulder. “It’s happened before.”

  Amery frowned. “To Ronin?”

  “No. To me.”

  Why was she being so forthright? Because it sure as fuck didn’t run in the family.

  “You seem surprised I’d tell you that.”

  “I’m used to your brother’s nondisclosure.”

  “I’d point out it’s a Japanese thing. But it’s mostly a Ronin thing.”

  “Didn’t you do a background check on me?” Amery demanded.

  “I didn’t need to.” She nonchalantly sipped her tea. “Ronin had you checked out shortly after you two met.”

  “Checked out how?” And how had Ronin’s sister found out about it?

  “Having the investigative company Okada keeps on retainer call your known associates, your customers, your neighbors, your friends, and your family.”

  That bastard. It hadn’t been the insurance company after all. Another wave of anger rolled over her.

  “So you know nothing of our family’s background?” Shiori asked.

  “None,” she said flatly.

  “Our grandfather married an English nurse who treated his injuries after World War Two. She was assigned to Japan during the allied occupation. She was quite a bit older than him, but they married anyway. Evidently my grandmother had been exposed to chemicals during the war and with a weakened immune system, she died during an influenza outbreak a few years later, leaving my grandfather a widower at age twenty-two with a year-old daughter. In his grief he threw himself into his food supply business and ended up building an empire.

  “Our mother fled his control and married an American soldier. After our father’s death, our mother chose to bring us to Japan. I was five and Ronin was eight.”

  While Amery appreciated the family history, she wasn’t sure why Shiori felt the need to tell her. Simply because Ronin hadn’t? Nothing she’d said had helped Amery understand why Ronin had kept so much from her.

  “Earlier when I asked you who you thought I was, why did you hesitate?”

  “I wondered if you were Ronin’s ex, Naomi. I don’t know much about her beyond that she’s Japanese. Someone told Ronin a few weeks ago she planned to visit Denver. I imagine since she and Ronin were together for a while you knew her.”

  “I was at the club when Ronin met Naomi. In fact, the only reason he went there that night was me. Did he tell you about it?”

  Ronin’s sister was aware of his club activities? Or maybe she was fishing for information. For some stupid reason Amery wanted to protect Ronin’s secrets.

  Because you’re in love with him.

  And right about now that made her the biggest idiot on the planet—how could she possibly love someone she didn’t know?

  When she realized Shiori was still waiting for her response, she shook her head.

  “I’d just been granted a divorce and I came to the U.S. with a friend. She wanted to go to the Denver Japanese Social Club and I was afraid she’d hook up with her old boyfriend and ditch me, so I begged Ronin to accompany me. He hates those places, but he agreed and that’s where he met Naomi. She was involved in international finance and was in the U.S. to oversee her father’s business interests. They hit it off. For a while anyway. Until Ronin found out . . .” Shiori looked uncomfortable for the first time. “Sorry. I talk too much.”

  But Amery’s mind had already latched onto the fact that Ronin hadn’t met Naomi at a sex club as he’d led her to believe, but at a social club.

  Was there anything he hadn’t lied to her about?

  His lust for her.

  “So knowing all this . . . what are you going to do with the information I gave you today?”

  Something in Shiori’s tone seemed off. Amery turned the question back on her. “What did you hope to gain from telling me this?”

  “An insight into my brother’s frame of mind.”

  “Through me?”

  “Yes. And I’m afraid I can’t say any more than that.”

  “You don’t have to.” Amery stood. “You’ve said plenty.”

  A panicked look flashed across Shiori’s face. “Wait. You’re leaving?”

  “No point in staying here and listening to more of the Okada/Black/Hirano saga since it no longer affects me.”

  Shiori’s eyes narrowed. In that moment she looked so much like Ronin that Amery’s chest tightened. “How does this not affect you?”

  “Okada Foods dangled the carrot and I bit. Shame on me for being hungry. But now that I found out it wasn’t a real carrot, I won’t make that judgment error again. You got the answers you wanted and so did I.”

  “You’re not pitching the project?”

  No fucking way. “No.”

  That shocked Shiori, but she recovered quickly and tossed off, “Petulance doesn’t make good business, Ms. Hardwick.”

  “Neither do lies.” Amery picked up her portfolio and dumped all of the design work on the conference table. As she reached inside for her keys, her fingers brushed crinkly wrapping paper. She pulled out the package and all but threw it on the table. “Oh, I almost forgot to give you this.”

  “What is it?”

  “A parting gift, a cheap token of my affection, a meaningless gesture I’d brought in good faith. Take your pick.”

  Amery walked out with her head held high.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  AFTER the meeting with Ronin’s sister, Amery found herself at loose ends. She drove aimlessly for an hour, knowing once the shock wore off, her wrath would kick in again—full force this time—and she’d go off the rails.

  She had no one to talk to. Although she and Emmylou had mended fences, her friend hadn’t revised her opinion on Ronin Black. She’d just accepted that the man would be in Amery’s life. So showing up to cry on Emmylou’s shoulder, about Ronin’s lies, and deliberate omissions, would make Amery look like a naive idiot for blindly trusting him and not heeding any of her friends’ concerns about him.

  Was saving face really more important than unloading all the heartache that was threatening to choke her?

  Yes.

  She couldn’t go to Chaz either. He’d been marginally more supportive about Ronin than Emmylou, but Chaz defined materialistic. He’d be wowed by Ronin’s status as a billionaire heir. He’d encourage her to forgive Ronin for misleading her about his true colors—which were apparently green, the color of money. Then he’d toss off a comment that he could think of a billion reasons why she should just let this issue go.

  Yeah, it sucks to be involved with a gorgeous sex-god billionaire.

  But Amery wasn’t that shallow. And she couldn’t give a damn about Ronin’s financial status—until she’d learned that he’d withheld the truth about it.

  What burned her ass, scarred her soul, and shredded her heart was that Ronin hadn’t trusted her enough to tell her anything about who he really was. But he’d demanded full disclosure, body and soul, from her.

  A sick feeling started to take root.

  That wasn’t really true. Ronin had never demanded anything from her. She’d just been so crazy about him, so happy that he’d helped free her from some of the moral confines that’d held her back her entire life, that she’d given him every part of herself without question. She’d willingly handed herself over to him physically, emotionally, sexually because she’d trusted him, because she’d
believed he was being equally honest with her.

  Not so.

  Even after his rope proclivities came to light, he’d basically said take me as I am.

  She had.

  But that wasn’t who he really was.

  And that made her question who she was.

  • • •

  AMERY showed up at the dojo and rode the elevator to the second floor. Not many classes were held this time of day, but she didn’t give a damn if the entire dojo was in attendance. She’d say what she had to.

  She found Ronin Lee Black, otherwise known to her now as Rich, Lying Bastard, in the largest training room. He remained at rest in front of the class of black belts. Amery paused out of view and watched two men grappling until one guy plucked up his opponent and slammed him into the mat.

  What she wouldn’t give to be able to do that to Ronin right now.

  She didn’t know if her heart had ever pounded as hard or her blood had ever pumped as fast and hot and angry as when she stormed in.

  Every student turned to see who was dumb enough to interrupt his class.

  Amery didn’t wait for him to acknowledge her. “Sensei. A word please. Now.”

  Ronin spared her one quick glance. “The ‘no observation’ policy is in effect all day, every day. Return to the main room.”

  “I’m not leaving until I talk to you.”

  “I am teaching.”

  “And that time is sacrosanct?”

  When he looked at her, his face betrayed nothing. “My classes take precedence over everything, Ms. Hardwick.” Including you went unsaid.

  Putting her in her place and then he all but dismissed her? Screw that. Screw him. He spoke to the wide-eyed students as if she weren’t seething in the doorway.

  She interrupted him with, “Would you prefer to discuss the meeting I just had with your sister in front of your students? Because I’m good with that too.”

  Without meeting her gaze, Ronin said, “Everyone out. Five minutes. Don’t go far.”

  After the students were gone, she said, “I’m thrilled you can spare five whole minutes for me.”