Unwound (Mastered 2)

Amery turned and put her lips on his ear.

Before she could speak, he said, “She is exactly Knox’s type, and he dabbles in shibari.”

“Good. I don’t like the way these women fawn all over you.”

“I didn’t notice.” He kissed her temple. “I don’t see anyone but you.”

“That comment is so getting you laid later,” she murmured.

The small ready room had been set up the way he preferred. Usually he prepared alone and he met the model on stage. Or if he’d needed a binding and sex encounter, he booked a different, private room. So it was a little strange he and Amery were in here together.

He dropped his bag of ropes by the door and watched as she hung up the suit bag with the two outfit choices.

She rubbed her arms and checked out the space.

“Are you cold? There’s a blanket on the table.”

“Ronin, I’m fine.”

He stepped in front of her and nudged her face up to look into her eyes. “Tonight, more than ever, you need to be completely honest with me about how you’re feeling. This is a suspension binding. There comes a point that it will be unsafe to untie you if you’re having an issue.”

“I’ve come up with a way around that.” She lowered her lashes. “If it pleases Master Black.”

Such a smart-ass. “Tell me.”

“I know in many traditional shibari and kinbaku bindings, the model is blindfolded. You should blindfold me.”

Once again he tipped her face up. “You sure? You’ve never wanted that before.”

“It’ll be easier to concentrate on what you’re doing to me if I’m not looking wide-eyed at the audience.” She placed her hand on his chest. “I realize this won’t be like other times between us. Not only because I won’t be naked.”

“At least this time you didn’t say naked and dangling in the air like a slab of beef.”

She smiled. “So whichever outfit you choose for me to wear, I have a blindfold.”

“Amery, I told you I’d let you choose.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to pick.”

The one he chose was a no-brainer. “The bodysuit.”

“Would you like the blindfold now?”

“Yes, because I need to check out the stage.”

Amery unzipped the suit bag and pulled out a long section of white satin.

His gaze locked on to the wide strip, and he realized it was the tie from her robe she wore into the practice room. Touched by her need to stay connected to him outside of this public display, he closed his eyes and rubbed the satin against his lips. “Perfect.”

“Are you nervous?”

“Anxious. I always look forward to binding you.” He kissed her forehead. “I’ll see you out there.”

He bowed to her. Then he grabbed his duffel bag and headed to the big room that contained a staging area.

Ronin had utilized the space dozens of times over the past few years. Hardware had been provided, but he preferred to use his own. He double-checked the lighting, glad to see the owner had installed Ronin’s requested changes. Merrick McBride ran a top-notch club. He’d apologized repeatedly for his manager’s indiscretion with Naomi and had assured Ronin any breach in club security had been fixed.

He grabbed a ladder and climbed up to affix the rings to the chains for this suspension. He tested the swing ratio before pushing the remaining chains out of the way.

All set.

Now he had to decide whether to bind her hands above her head in a gauntlet with the dedicated body rope or just bind them in a quick tie with plain rope. He crouched down and unloaded his rope bundles from his duffel bag. He’d already seared the rope ends and folded each length in half to ensure faster connection times when he needed to add more rope. He preferred to work with shorter sections, especially in this case, since he intended to create the knotted version of the full-body tortoise.

If he wrapped the gauntlet-type tie on her from the ankle down, completely around each foot, she’d have no balance. But that played perfectly into the theme.

That decided, he divided the rope coils for easy access. Then he retreated to the far corner of the staging area hidden by a curtain and searched for his calm center.

In this situation, Ronin had mastered the ability to block everything out. So he heard nothing but the sound of his own breathing. His mind stayed focused on the pattern, so he wouldn’t be thinking about it when he bound her. He mentally finished the tie twice before Knox approached him.

“The room is full. They’re ready for you.”

“Merrick approved the camera?” The club owner had asked if there was anything he could do for Ronin to make up for the Naomi situation, and Ronin had requested that he be allowed a video camera in the room for this binding. Cameras, phones, any type of device that could send images outside the club were expressly forbidden.

Knox crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes. But I’m uncomfortable with this, so I can’t imagine how upset Amery will be when she finds out. You should’ve asked her permission.”

“I don’t need her worried about being on film. She and I are the only ones who will ever see the video. Now that she’s decided she wants to be blindfolded, it’ll be her chance to see how exquisite she looks in this binding.”

“Still think this is gonna come back on you, Sensei. But Merrick agreed—just this one time—and provided a camera that is encrypted. I’ll show you where the recorder is.” He took Ronin to the side and pointed to a chair in the front row marked off as reserved. “There.”