“We work with you guys all week and we need a break from all that testosterone, which is why we go elsewhere.”

“Or you don’t come out with us because you’re afraid we’d cock block you.”

“Right.” Shiori blinked at him. “You’re serious.”

“Yep. If we saw the loser guys you planned on hooking up with at that dive bar you two troll in, we’d . . . encourage those jackoffs to look elsewhere.” His lips brushed her ear and he felt her shiver. “Like the fucker at the bar who was probably texting his wife while he tried to lure you in with a doofy smile. Be happy he’s gone.”

Shiori leaned back to look at the empty barstool. “Nice going.”

“You’re welcome.”

Next thing he knew she had two fingers squeezing the skin on the inside of his knee. “Don’t cock block me again, Knox. You’re not my big brother. You don’t get to decide who I do and don’t fuck.”

Jesus. That tiny pinch stung. “You can do better than him. You would’ve broken him like a twig, She-Cat.”

“Maybe that’s what I like.”

He smiled. “What a coincidence. I like that, too.” He stood but left his hands on her.

She pinched him harder.

Why the fuck that made him hard made no sense. He moved away from her and scooted into the booth next to Katie. Not because he had a thing for her, but because it put him directly across from Shiori. He poured himself a beer. “So what’d I miss?”

“Nothing.” Katie sat between Knox and Blue. “I thought your MMA guys were coming tonight and cutting loose with you.”

“Just Deacon. He’s parking his car. Anyone in particular you were hoping to see?” Knox teased.

“Just you, Shihan,” she cooed back.

A noise sounded from across the table, and he looked over to see a sneer on Shiori’s lips.

Was she annoyed by his harmless flirting with Katie? That was interesting.

Deacon showed up and straddled the chair next to Fee. “S’up, buttercup?”

“Feelin’ fly, wise guy.”

They did some weird fist-bump handshake thing.

“Are we ordering food?” Deacon asked.

“Not at ten at night. You are a bottomless pit.”

He patted his belly. “I’m in training, darlin’. So will you help me burn off calories by—”

“No! You’re such a pervert.” Fee shoved him.

“You’re the pervert. I was asking if you’d two-step with me later.”

“I don’t know what that is. Like the tango?”

“Lord, I miss Texas sometimes.” He filled a mug with beer. “What about you Shi-Shi? You know how to dance?”

“In a club with my friends? Yes. But the moving-around-the-floor-with-a-man kind? Uh. No.”

“You don’t know how to slow dance?” Knox asked.

Shiori shrugged. “Not really.”

“So tell us about this two-timing thing,” Fee said.

“Two-step,” Deacon corrected.

Knox watched Shiori as she listened to Fee and Deacon. Normally he tried not to stare at her, but it was hard not to, with her exotic looks. Flawless ivory- and rose-colored skin tone. A heart-shaped face with a delicate jawline. Full lips. Topaz-colored eyes, slightly angled in the corners. And that hair—a black sheet that shone like onyx and fell in a straight line down her back.

Yes, Shiori turned heads. He could admit she’d turned his head the moment she’d shown up at Black Arts, sliding into the back row during one of his classes. Laughable really, that she’d believed her beauty, grace, and power would go unnoticed.

After she’d demonstrated that her martial-arts skill level exceeded his, he’d gotten pissy, hating that he’d felt threatened by the bit of a thing. Then he’d worried that he’d lose his stature as Shihan—the highest-ranking belt after Sensei—because Shiori was Ronin’s sister. She hadn’t pushed to take over his position, but she sure liked lording it over him that she outranked him.

So he used that antagonistic nature between them to mask his fascination with her. Ronin was his friend, his boss, and his mentor. No way could Knox admit he lusted after Ronin’s little sister. Even when that sister was a thirty-five-year-old business shark who could buy and sell small countries and kick the shit out of just about anyone.

As he’d gotten to know her over the past few months, he suspected what she showed people of herself was only the surface view—just as her brother did.