“The hell I will.” Deacon leaned back and glared at Fisher. “Since when is it all right to poach another instructor’s student?”

“What? Whoa. I didn’t know—”

“That’s because there’s nothing to know,” Molly told Fisher. “I’m in his kickboxing classes. That’s it. If I want to hire you for private lessons, that’s my business.”

“Is it, Shihan?” Deacon demanded.

Knox looked at all the players and held up his hands. “I’m out of this one.”

The birthday shots arrived.

Forcing himself to be jovial, he knocked back the vodka. But it seemed he was the only one projecting a happy face.

Blue was flat-out growling in the corner, watching Katie’s exuberance over Ivan’s birthday. Whenever Katie looked at Blue, she made a lewd comment. But Blue refused to take the bait.

Fisher and Fee were taking advantage of the open bar. So far they’d downed Titty Twister shots, Blow Job shots, and were flirting as they waited for the next round.

Katie’s good humor disappeared when the cocktail waitress struck up a conversation with Blue—and Blue couldn’t tear his eyes away from the woman’s gigantic breasts.

Molly and Deacon went from ignoring each other to getting right in each other’s faces as they whispered and argued.

And Shiori wouldn’t even look at him.

Enough.

Knox stood to make his escape. “I’m gonna walk around for a few minutes.”

As expected, no one noticed his departure.

But a minute later, after he’d nearly cleared the hallway, a hand slipped through his. He glanced down at Shiori.

“Nice try, leaving me there with the horny, drunk, and bickering bunch.”

He laughed.

Shiori moved in until they were chest-to-chest. “I love your laugh. That’s the first time I’ve heard it this week.”

“Is that your way of saying you missed me?”

“Yes.”

“So prove it.”

Immediately, she pulled him into an alcove. Then her hands were on his neck and she brought his mouth to hers and proceeded to kiss him until his lungs were filled with her scent and her taste filled his mouth.

The kiss didn’t slow. It just kept getting hotter.

He forced himself to put the brakes on. “Damn, woman. What you do to me with just a kiss.”

“Need to make an adjustment in your jeans before we go back?” she said with a cocky smirk.

“Yeah.” He swept her hair over her shoulder. “What if I said I didn’t want to go back?”

“They wouldn’t miss us.”

“Then let’s go look around.”

“We have to pretend we’re not enjoying walking around together,” she warned him.

“I’ll send you dirty looks once in a while.”

“As long as you’re secretly thinking dirty thoughts.”

“So dirty I’m afraid my eyes will turn brown.”

She laughed. “Come on.”

Off the main floor was another room with more shops. These booths had demonstrations. The vendor selling candles was doing a wax-play demo. Same with the violet wand vendor. A small crowd had gathered in the back, so they moved in that direction to see what was going on.

Rope play.

An African-American woman with huge tits was sitting in a chair while a man tried to get his ropes untangled—which should’ve been dealt with before the demo. The man kept up a running dialogue. When people got bored and started to leave, the rope model pulled on her hoodie and left too.

Knox was about to move on when the guy said, “Do I have any volunteers?”

“For what?” Knox asked.

“To be tied up.” His gaze rolled over Knox. “You interested?”

“No. But I am interested in doing the tying.”

“That’s not possible. I’m a trained professional. This is not as easy as it looks.”

“I didn’t say it was.”

A challenging look settled on his face. “You know what, hotshot? Put your money where your smart mouth is.”

“I will, thanks. Do you have Japanese hemp rope?”

“No. You get to use these.” He kicked the pile of ropes toward Knox. “Knock yourself out.”

“I need a volunteer.” He pretended to scan the crowd. Then he crooked his finger at Shiori. “You look like the type of woman who likes to tie men up in knots.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Let’s turn the tables on that. Come on up here, darlin’.”