"I noticed," I said, grinning.
"Vive la différence, I always say. You're petite and luscious." He kissed me again, his lips curving up in a smile beneath mine.
"Are you ever going to take off my blindfold?" I said.
"I don't know. I might keep you in bed all night and day with that on, doing all kinds of things to your body that you can't see and can only feel."
"Mmm," I murmured, smiling. "That sounds very hot."
"It does, does it? Have I created a monster in you, Ms. Bennet? An insatiable sex goddess?"
"Insatiable sex goddess," I said, grinning like an idiot. I reached out and felt his face, slipping my hands behind his head, pulling him down for another deep kiss.
Finally, he pulled the blindfold off and leaned over me, his face serious, his blue eyes intense.
"Kate," he said, his voice soft. "I don't want another night like tonight. I can't handle it. You have to follow the rules of the agreement. I'm going to have to be stricter with you, until you do so without thinking. If I'm going to control you, I have to control myself. If you're going to submit, you have to trust me completely. Only then will we be truly happy."
"I will," I said, my voice breaking from emotion. "I don't want another night like tonight either. I can't handle it." I pushed a hank of his dark hair behind his ear, and searched his eyes. When I looked in his blue ones, I felt an incredible surge of warmth for him. He knew his own power, he was aware of his strength, and he wanted to control himself to make us both safe.
"I will follow the rules," I said, my breath catching in my throat. "I didn't think you wanted to, because you never really have been very dominant with me. I thought you wanted a relationship with me that was more than D/s and sex."
"I do," he said and stroked my cheek. "But I've been single, for all intents and purposes, for five years. The only relationships I've had with women have been purely D/s. No emotion." He didn’t say anything for a moment as if fighting with himself. "But with you…" He inhaled deeply, his gaze moving over my face. "If I'm going to let you in, I have to trust you. That means you tell me everything when it comes to sex. That means when ex-boyfriends hit on you at fundraisers, you tell me right away. You have to follow the agreement completely. Will you?"
I looked in his eyes. He was this amazing intense intelligent incredibly erotic and dominant man. I wanted him in my bed and in my life.
"No."
"No?" He frowned.
I shook my head. "I want to amend our agreement."
He pulled back a bit, his eyes wary. "What do you mean?"
"I want," I said and ran my finger along his very square and scruffy jaw. "I want the option to get fucked first thing in the morning occasionally, when I need it and when you can spare the time."
His eyes flashed and then he leaned his forehead down to mine and smiled.
"Consider it done."
We kissed again, lying together with our limbs entwined, the moonlight flooding in from the window.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The next morning, Drake gave me a soft kiss on the shoulder and left the bed for his morning shower.
I stayed nestled in the bed, moving over to the spot where he had lain, enjoying the scent of his pillow – his cologne and his body scent. He came back in the bedroom when he was finished with his shower, a toothbrush in his mouth, toothpaste on his lips. He tried to talk to me with a mouth full of foam.
"I'll be gone all morning," he said. "I have an appointment with the oncologist and then a lunch meeting. I've got things to do at the Corporate office. Won't see you until later."
I sighed. "I've got to finish the canvas so I'll probably spend the day at the studio and come back here when I'm done."
"I'm glad you're painting," he said. "If the oncologist says Liam's in the clear, we're free to go to Africa but I'll have to wrap up my work on the board and at the Foundation."
"No, I understand." I smiled although I would miss him. After the disaster of the previous night, I felt a need to cling to him to make sure he still wanted me. Even him leaving and staying away all day felt like deprivation.
"You're not trying to avoid me?" I said, my voice almost a whisper.
"What?" He frowned and pointed the toothbrush at me. "Hold that thought." Toothpaste almost dripped down his chin and so he ran to the bathroom to finish. He returned sans toothpaste and lay on the bed beside me.
"Ms. Bennet, I am not trying to avoid you. Liam's getting tested this morning to see if the transplant is working and so my mind will be occupied with how it's going. I need to keep distracted all day. I have work to do and that will keep my mind busy so I don’t ruminate too much on all the possible things that could go wrong. As a doctor, I already know what those possibilities are and so you can imagine how my mind is working, imagining them all." He touched my bottom lip and leaned down to kiss me. I pulled away and held a hand over my mouth.