Bound by Tradition Read Free Page A

frown.
    “You okay?”
    “Terrific,” I answered sarcastically.
    “You were amazing, if that helps.”
    “I lost,” I said harshly.
    “I wouldn’t call second losing, especially against Suki Miura.”
    “Miura?” Damn it, I know that name . “Which means Gichin Miura is probably her father,” I said more to myself than the guy. I shook my head, irritated he was staring at me.
    “Is that a problem?” he asked.
    I laughed cynically. “No. I have nothing against Suki. She was great. My father will never let me hear the end of this one. He and Gichin Miura are rivals or something.”
    “Rivals?”
    I shrugged, not sure why I’d explain, but starting to anyway. “He was my father’s best friend once upon a time. They went to school together, trained together…” I pushed my lips together. Why was I elaborating on my father’s decades-old feud? Where was my family loyalty? “It doesn’t matter.”
    I turned to go, not sure where I was headed. Maybe back to the hotel. I stopped in my tracks, realizing the guy standing beside me looked too much like Suki for it to be a coincidence. Great . “You’re a Miura too.”
    “Guilty,” he admitted. “Suki is my sister, and honestly, we’re both insanely curious about you. Do you want to go for a drive?” He patted the side of his Jeep. “This is mine. We could get something cold to drink…maybe you could blow off some steam before you actually go back inside?”
    “Blowing off steam would be great.” I turned to face him, taking a closer look at my would-be rescuer. “Got a first name, Miura?”
    He mock bowed. “Shiro Miura, at your service.”
    “So you know about the feud between our parents?”
    “Probably more than you.” He opened the Jeep door for me. I didn’t climb in.
    “When you smiled at me in the parking lot this morning, like you knew me, it was because you did know who I was…that our parents have history . I just didn’t know who you were.”
    “I wanted to say hello, to tell you who I was, but you kept disappearing. That’s why I followed you out here. I thought it might be my last chance to introduce myself, and I really needed to.”
    I gave him a confused look. “Why? Just because our parents knew each other a long time ago? That’s just weird.”
    He smiled sardonically. “Weird doesn’t even begin to explain it.”

Chapter Two
    It seemed like there was a split second before he leaned in to kiss me that I knew it was going to happen, but then we were kissing.
    “You’re not gay?”
    “Gay?”
    “I thought… Nothing, never mind.”
    He leaned in and whispered, “I’m not gay,” then placed his hand beneath my elbow to help me climb into the Jeep. I narrowed my eyes as he climbed in beside me. “Why would you and your sister be curious about me, when I didn’t even know the two of you existed? I think you have a lot of explaining to do after you buy me that cold drink.”
    The cold drink came from a drive-through on the way out of town. I just didn’t realize that we were driving out of town until we were.
    “Can you grab the map in the backseat?” he asked. “I think it’s on the floor.”
    I turned and then started rummaging. There was a lot of rubbish on his floor. And rope. Lots of rope. “Do you climb?” I asked, grabbing the map.
    “Climb?”
    “The rope,” I clarified. “You have a lot of rope in your backseat.”
    “Nah. That’s for my sport. My sister has always been the family martial artist. I took a less traditional familial path.” He smiled, and it was a beautiful smile, filled with wickedness and teasing.
    “I feel like I’m missing something here.”
    “My grandfather is an erotic rope master.”
    “Shibari?” I guessed, rolling my eyes. “Like BDSM?”
    “I use shibari for the classes I teach, but in Japan there are other words to describe it. Rope art has gained popularity in this country because it fits well into the parameters of the kink community, but in Japan it is taken