Because he knew the body inside the gown so well, the nunlike outer casing only spurred his imagination in picturing what it concealed.
She led him to the foot of his bed.
Releasing him, wordlessly she pushed until he stood with his back to the bed, his thighs against the mattress’s edge. She positioned him in the center of the four-poster, then grasped one arm, raised and slapped his palm to the ornately carved post on that side.
“Hold that. Don’t let go.”
She did the same with his other arm, setting that hand, too, level with his shoulder, against the other carved post. The bed was wide, but his shoulders were broad, his arms long; he could reach both posts easily.
She stepped back, assessed, nodded. “Good. That will do.”
For what? He was utterly intrigued over what she was planning. For all his experience, he’d never considered anything from a woman’s perspective; it was a novel, and unexpectedly arousing experience, arousing in an unusual way.
He’d been aroused from the moment he’d closed his hands about her head, painfully so once his lips had found hers; he would have taken her against the door in his sitting room if she hadn’t stopped him. Although she had, courtesy of her peculiar direction, the fire in his blood hadn’t died.
She trapped his eyes. “Under no circumstance are you to let go of the posts—not until I give you leave.”
Turning, she walked away from him, and the fires inside him burned brighter.
He tracked her across the room, aware of his hunger growing. Curiosity balanced it to some degree, let him wait with some semblance of patience.
Crossing to where he’d slung his clothes on a chair, she shifted things, then straightened; because of the sharp contrast between the shadows cloaking the room and the brilliance of the shaft of moonlight beaming like a searchlight on him, he couldn’t make out what she held in her hands until she drew near.
His cravat. Two yards of white linen. Instinctively he shifted his weight to his toes, about to step away from the bed.
She halted, caught his eye—waited.
He eased back, gripped the posts more firmly.
She uttered a small “humph,” and walked down the side of the bed. The covers rustled as she climbed up, then came silence. She was on the bed a little way behind him, doing something; her gaze wasn’t on him. “I forgot to mention—you aren’t allowed to speak. No words. This is my script, and there are no lines for you.”
He inwardly snorted. He rarely used words in this arena; actions spoke louder.
Then she moved closer behind him. He sensed her rising high on her knees; her breath brushed his ear when she murmured, “I think this might be easier if you.” He sensed her arms rising over his head. “Can’t.” His cravat, folded to a narrow band, appeared before his face. “See.”
She settled the band over his eyes, then wound the long strip multiple times around his head before tying it off at the back.
A cravat made a damned fine blindfold. The material sank across his eyes; he couldn’t lift his lids at all.
Effectively blind, his other senses instinctively expanded, heightened.
She spoke by his ear. “Remember—no speaking, and no releasing the posts.”
Her scent. The brush of her breath across his earlobe. Inwardly he smiled cynically. How was she going to remove his shirt?
She slid from the bed, and came to stand before him. The subtle beckoning heat of her. Her light perfume. The more primitive, more evocative, infinitely more arousing fragrance of her—the one scent he hungered for most strongly, that of his woman aroused and ready for him.
He’d had that taste on his tongue; it was imprinted on his brain.
Every muscle hardened. His erection grew even more rigid.
She was two feet away. With his hands locked on the posts, she was out of his reach.
“Hmm. Where to start?”
At his waistband, then head down.
“Perhaps with the most obvious.” She stepped into him, plastered her body against his, drew his head down, and kissed him.