Who was him? Was this woman completely bonkers?
Just as she'd decided to cut her losses and run, Ms. Hirano lowered her head and removed the shades.
When she glanced up at Amery, Amery's entire body seized in shock. In recognition. Looking into those amber-colored eyes, she knew. Only one other person she'd ever met had eyes like that.
Ronin Black.
"They are a giveaway, aren't they?" she murmured. "You can see why I felt the need to mask them."
"Yes," Amery managed, relieved this woman wasn't Naomi. But facing a member of Ronin's family when she knew next to nothing about said family . . . not fun either. She couldn't be certain yet how this woman was related to Ronin. "You are Ronin's . . . ?"
"Sister." She gave Amery that same seated bow she'd seen Ronin do a hundred times. "I'm Shiori Hirano."
Ten billion questions bounced around in Amery's head, but she couldn't give voice to a single one.
"You're not what I expected, Amery."
"To say that I wasn't expecting you, Ms. Hirano, is an understatement."
"Please. Call me Shiori."
She pronounced it she-o-ree. "Where's the Hirano come in? The whole Japanese family surname first, and then the given name last confuses me."
"Hirano was my married name. I opted not to change it back after the divorce. In Japan I introduce myself as Hirano Shiori. When dealing with people in Europe or the West, I switch it to the Westernized version Shiori Hirano. My headache is such I neglected to do that today."
Amery couldn't help but stare at Ronin's exotic-looking sister.
"I know Ronin and I don't look alike-except we both have our mother's eyes. Although we do have the same parents. Our father was an eighth Japanese."
Amery frowned. Had Ronin ever told her that about his father? No. "Does Ronin know you're here in Denver?"
Shiori shook her head. "Curiosity about you got the better of me."
He'd spoken to his sister about her? "What did he tell you about me?"
"Nothing. He circumvented my involvement by dealing with Maggie. He demanded that we hire your firm, sight unseen, for a major product launch for the family business. Naturally that caused a major red flag."
"What family business?"
Shiori's gaze sharpened. "You really don't know? When you can rattle off the retail price of every item on my body? You know exactly what Ronin is worth. I'm observant too, Ms. Hardwick. Don't try and snow me like you've snowed my brother."
Snowed her brother? What the hell? "The Ronin Black I know owns a dojo. That's it. There is no snowing the man. Ever."
"Ronin isn't only some two-bit dojo sensei, teaching classes and putting together amateur mixed martial arts fights. Ronin Black is heir to the Okada Food Conglomerate. An international company currently valued at five billion U.S. dollars."
After a moment of stunned silence, Amery said, "What? Are you fucking kidding me?"
"No, I assure you, I am not kidding."
Not happening. Ronin would not do this. He had too much integrity to lie to her on such an epic scale.
But he didn't lie; he just wasn't completely honest. He wasn't honest with you about a lot of things. Why are you so shocked by this?
Because she'd trusted him. She'd believed he was just a jujitsu master living his life according to the tenets of his discipline.
She had to keep her teeth clenched to hold back the roar of fury threatening to escape. Her face and neck became fire hot, which was odd when she'd felt the blood drain out of her face and her entire body turned ice-cold.
Shiori leaned over the conference table. "You had no clue about who he is, did you?"
"None at all."
The man was a fucking billionaire.
The sick feeling spread from her gut straight up to her heart. He'd lied to her about who he was from the start. While she'd bared everything to him. Everything-her mind, her body, her will. And what had she gotten in return? Hot sex, kinky sex. Not the same type of soul-baring disclosure. He'd kept his place in the international billionaire's club a fucking secret.
"I wasn't wrong in my assumption that you two are intimately involved?"
"We've spent time together the last couple months."
Shiori gave her a skeptical look. "You didn't use the fact that you were spending time together to demand that he give your company the new Okada food line project?"
"How could I have demanded anything from him when I had no goddamn idea he had any tie to Okada? When I hadn't even heard of the company . . ." Until a couple of weeks after she'd mentioned her financial struggles to one Ronin Black. She exhaled. "He set this whole thing up. He set me up." Amery wanted to beat her fists into the table. "I was flattered when my little graphic design company garnered interest from a big corporation. Naive of me to trust it, but I had so much hope that playing in the big leagues would turn things around for me. Now to learn it's all been a lie?" She shook her head. She'd never bounce back from this type of betrayal. Never.