“I don’t want you deleting anything until we’ve gone through them all,” he warned. “It sounds as if you can’t be objective when it comes to photos of yourself, let alone half-naked photos.” He kissed her nose. “Grab the camera and let’s take a peek.”

“What if they’re all bad? You’ve already untied me, so it isn’t like we can do a reshoot.”

“First of all, I can have you retied in five minutes. Second of all, my fear is that you burned up the camera with your smoking hotness. Especially when I went down on you. If the image could capture the sex noises you made, tied up for my pleasure and coming on my tongue, the images would easily sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Amery wiggled out of his hold. “Now you’re just being ridiculous.”

“Am I? Get dressed. I’ll be back.” He snagged his shirt off the floor and ducked out.

She put her clothes on before she unhooked the camera from the tripod.

Ronin rolled her office chair into the studio. He lowered into it and patted his lap. “That way we can both see.”

Meaning he wouldn’t let her escape and he’d know if she tried to delete something.

The camera had a decent-sized viewing screen. She selected the first shot of the session and held her breath as she enlarged it.

The binding was intricate, making her body look delicate and malleable, yet strong in her submission.

“Keep going.”

Ronin didn’t comment . . . until the pictures where the angle of her head had changed. When he’d put his mouth on her.

Holy. Shit. The arch of her back, the way her hands had tightened into fists, even the bend of her neck screamed woman in the throes of passion.

Amery couldn’t believe that sexy woman was her.

“Told you,” he said smugly. “I’ll bet they’re all like that.”

So maybe she was a little more eager to view the remaining shots. The subtle changes toward the end when Ronin had taken advantage of her orgasm-scrambled brain suggested movement. When they reached the last three images, Ronin’s hands tightened around her biceps and his body went rigid.

“What?”

“That one.” He pointed to the picture of her glancing over her shoulder, her hair in motion, her eyes sultry, her lips parted. “Is mine.”

“What?”

“That look belongs to me because I put it there. It’s mine.”

His possessive tone wrapped around her like a silken ribbon.

“I want a copy of that one for myself. No one else will ever see it.”

She leaned back, turning her head to kiss beneath his jaw. “You promise?”

“Yes, baby, I promise.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“I cannot believe you talked me into an IKEA trip on a Saturday,” Ronin complained.

Amery returned the green glass vase to the shelf. “I bet you’ve never been in this store, regardless of which day of the week it is.”

“My place is furnished. Why would I need to add more to it?”

“You can go into a store and just look at things without buying them.”

With a perfectly straight face he said, “If I need an item, I go into the store and buy it. Why would I waste time going into a store if I didn’t need to buy anything?”

“For sheer shopping pleasure? The joy of being a consumer?” she offered.

Ronin continued to give her a blank stare.

No wonder his apartment was so minimalist.

“Do you even know what you’re shopping for?”

“Yes.” She smiled and said, “Doodads.”

That earned her a sigh. But he did follow her to the next room display. Everything looked so hip and put-together. Amery had the pang of self-awareness that any funky cool vibe in her loft was strictly by accident.

Ronin asked, “Do you like this?”

“Yes. I wish I could create a room this chic and modern. My decorating style is castoffs, garage sales, and the occasional piece headed for the Dumpster. I can spend hours looking in here and leave without purchasing a single thing.”

“Hours?” he repeated.

She couldn’t help laughing. “I won’t torture you today. Spending hours in IKEA is something you work up to.”

“For the first time ever I hope to have zero stamina.”

“Come along. Let Master Hardwick teach you all the tricks about being a ninja shopper.”

They stopped at the next display and were discussing form and color when a female voice said, “Sensei Black?”

Immediately his posture changed and that blank mask slid onto his face before he turned toward the woman.

“I thought it was you, but I never thought I’d see Sensei out shopping.”

Amery scrutinized the Asian woman who spoke in heavily accented English. She in turn scrutinized Amery.

And Ronin didn’t seem inclined to introduce them.

Then she refocused on Ronin. “Is this your new girl?”

Ronin switched to Japanese. His tone seemed sharp, but the language inflections were so different that Amery couldn’t be sure.

The woman snapped back in Japanese, her eyes flinty, her gestures choppy.

Definitely an angry reaction. Which got her no reaction from Ronin besides a shrug.

She attempted to get in Ronin’s face.

All he had to do was hold up his hand; she stopped in her tracks. But her mouth kept running as she rattled off something that sounded like a verbal smack-down.