With eyes squeezed shut, she waited while he got up, stumbled around the room, and returned to wind something around her head. The tie? Had he taken it off?
“See anything?”
“No.” She reached up. Not the tie. This was thick and rough. Cotton.
“Good. Stand up.”
She stood, disoriented and a little seasick and not at all sure she was ready to take orders rather than give them. He moved her back a few steps to the bed. She settled on top, cross-legged, listening to her own heart and the popping of the fire, breathing in smoke and metal. Waiting.
The mattress dipped under his weight, and he was there, close beside her.
Her hand reached out blindly to land on his forearm, stilling him. “Will you stop if I ask you to?” She sounded wretched. Scared and tiny.
“I’ll do anything you ask me to.Anything. Always.”
Oh shit.Those words were like a spark to Uma’s tinder. “Then come ’ere,” she gasped, digging her fingers into his flesh and enjoying how he obeyed—instantly.
A shift of mattress and his breath. His nose found her cheek, lingered, skimmed along her skin to her ear, before trailing farther down to graze her neck and back up—a circuitous route to her mouth. Once he reached her lips, tongues twined, teeth clashed, and he wound around her.
“Ouch!” His knee sank into the back of her hand, and she pulled it away, holding it to her chest. “What are—”
“I’ve still got mine on. The blindfold.”
“Are you serious?” Uma giggled when he moved in and jostled her again. She tilted precariously before he gripped her hand and brought her back against his body. Her giggles turned to squeals when his hands moved to her waist and poked her, just enough to tickle.
Her screeched “Stop that!” stilled him immediately.
“You want to stop?”
“No. I meant the tickling. Actually, I…I haven’t laughed in a while.” And she’d never laughed in bed with a man.
“If that’s the case, then—”
Ivan’s thick hands were surprisingly precise as they made their way up her body, manhandling her into a prone position, head on the pillows and legs curled in protectively. He explored her with half tickles, half caresses that gradually lost their sense of humor. She went from howling laughter to groans and finally quieted entirely.
Uma opened like a blossom under his attentions, limbs heavy and relaxed.
As her cries died down, other things took center stage: the rough rasp of his fingers against her skin as he slowly pulled down her pants, followed by the soft, soft slide of his lips against her belly. Perhaps sexiest of all was Ivan’s breathing, surprisingly erratic and shaky, peppered with manly little grunts and groans. Animal sounds. Sounds of discovery…and satisfaction. Like an explorer happy to have his theories confirmed.I did this to him, she thought with a sense of pride she’d never thought she’d have in bed, of all places.I made this big man shudder.
Underwear followed pants. When he grasped her shirt, she stopped him. “I…I don’t think I can do this.”
“Here.” He took her hand and held it to his face, showing her his blindfold. “I can’t see you. I won’t look.”
She swallowed her anxiety down. “Okay. Okay, but—”
“Just say stop. That’s all you’ve gotta do, baby.”
Finally, with difficulty, her shirt was pulled up and over her head, careful not to disturb the blindfold.
For a few silent moments, Ivan settled beside Uma, trailing one hand, exploring her body by touch alone. Lightly, so lightly, mapping her shape.
“You’re soft,” Ivan whispered as his fingers found surprisingly tender spots, like the round underside of her breast or the outside of her knee. Places she hadn’t known were beautiful. For ages, he learned her, probably better than she’d been known by anyone, and yet…
“Stop, Ivan.”
He stopped.
“I want to touch you now.”
