Lisa Hampton is serious about her martial arts career...but a woman in the traditional Japanese martial arts is seldom taken seriously. At least, not until one hunky and hot man takes her...very seriously.

James Rhee runs his own brand of martial arts studio...teaching advanced moves and technique to movie stars and competitors who want to win. Something Lisa genuinely doesn't want any part of.

Being a serious teacher of serious stuff, she finds it hard to swallow his methods. But she soon finds it's damn hard to refuse the maddening man anything...including her body.

EXCERPT

“Um " of course you may see my letter.” I opened my case with trembling hands and drew it out, handing it to him through the open window.

As he stood up and looked at it, I opened my car door and shimmied out, feeling that it was awfully rude to be sitting in my car while he was trying to talk with me. As I rose to my full height, I realized how big he truly was. At 5’ 7” I was used to looking down on most Asian men. I was craning my neck up to read his expression. And the man had absolutely no concept of personal space.

Instead of stepping back and giving me room to take a deep breath, he remained planted like an oak right where he stood, making it impossible for me to not feel the throbbing heat sifting off that Greek-God body and enveloping my senses in the heady scent of sandalwood and hot male. He glanced at me, and I noted his gaze taking another slow detour down my businesslike slack suit before returning to my face. My woman-senses went to full red alert status. Dear God. What a hunk.

“I’m afraid my Japanese is pretty rusty. Can you translate?” he shifted slightly, his hard, mouth-watering chest brushing my shoulder, as he handed me back the letter, and I chewed the corner of my lower lip as I ended up being the one to take a cautious step backward to sanity and safety. I avoided his eyes, opening the letter again and glancing at it, flushing warmly at the praise Matasi had heaped on me in the letter.

I felt uncomfortable translating the letter as written, so I edited out the more effusive compliments and the part about my being his finest student. I gave him only the facts about my rank and my years of study, and the part about my capabilities as a teacher. I refolded the letter, but he reached for it again, nodding with a slow smile as he opened it and his eyes ran over it again. I had the sneaky feeling that he could read the damned letter as well as I could, and I blushed again as he glanced back up to meet my eyes. His eyes were sooo damned sexy.

“You left a few things out,” he murmured as he handed me the letter back. “When can you start?”

I must have looked comic, with my mouth sagging open and my eyes shocked, but he was polite enough not to tell me so. “Start? You… you mean I have the job? Without even showing you anything?”

His eyes were glittering black as he said softly, “I’ve seen everything I need to see, and the recommendation of a man as highly respected as Matasi Kanegawa is good enough for me.”

“But… I’m a woman!” I blurted, totally confused now.

His eyes detoured down my tailored suit again, and he nodded as they returned to my face. “I can see that.”