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finished tying the knot. He sat back and looked down at her, the expression in his eyes completely opaque. “Of course.” As if this was self-evident. “Here, I’ll show you.” And he showed her how to twist her hands so the scarves fell off without having to be untied.
    Izzy’s doubt faded. Because he looked at her as if she was the centre of his existence. It was so erotic. It made her shiver with longing.
    “I want to blindfold you.” He paused, asking permission.
    “Okay.” If she was going to do this, she was going to do all of it. No half measures. No holding back. Wasn’t that why she was here?
    Aleks got off the bed and went over to his bag again.
    “So what brings you to Bangkok? Business or pleasure?” Izzy asked inanely as he rummaged around in it. Okay, so perhaps the nerves hadn’t gone away entirely.
    “Business.” Aleks pulled something out of the bag. A T-shirt. “A chess tournament.”
    “A chess tournament?”
    He began to fold the cotton carefully into a long strip. “Yes. I play chess professionally.”
    Weird. “You can be a professional chess player?”
    “Yes.” Aleks came back over to the bed. “There aren’t many of us.”
    “But how do you make a living?”
    “Prize money. Articles in chess magazines. Tutoring and teaching people how to play.”
    “You do all that?”
    Aleks’s gaze settled on her. “No. I just play games. And win.”
    “You must win a lot then.”
    “I do.”
    There was no false modesty in his words. No pride. It was a simple statement of fact.
    She stared at him, fascinated. Forgetting she lay naked on his bed with her hands bound and about to be blindfolded, she asked, “Why? Why chess? Aren’t there easier ways to make a living?”
    “I do find it easy. And the prize money can be very good.” Aleks lifted the makeshift blindfold. “Stop talking now, Izzy.”
    And then the soft cotton covered her eyes.
    She shivered a little as he tied it. The T-shirt smelled of him though, and she found that oddly reassuring. And erotic.
    The bed moved, him sliding off it. She could hear nothing, just the hum of the air conditioning.
    Izzy waited, her heart thudding in her chest. She didn’t know what to expect and somehow the not knowing felt unbearably exciting. But she knew he watched her. That he stared at her. Could feel the pressure of his gaze like a touch.
    She had become the object of his focus, holding his complete and utter attention. Like the chessboard.
    Goose bumps rose on her skin, her mouth dry. He hadn’t even touched her yet and already she trembled.
    Then, at last, his fingers moved down the underside of her arm in a gentle caress, and she couldn’t stop the gasp that broke from her, the touch sending shivers like little earthquakes through her body.
    Another touch, this time a stroke down her hip.
    Then another on her other arm.
    He touched her lightly, a collection of soft, undemanding strokes that were more tender than sexual and yet began to build into something that she knew would be intense. More intense than anything she’d ever experienced in her entire life.
    Izzy trembled then groaned as a gentle finger traced the curve of one breast. By now she felt so sensitised it was like he’d touched her somewhere far more intimate. The finger moved away, touching her somewhere else, the inside of her wrist, her knee. A soft brush against the arch of her foot.
    Then nothing. The bed moved beneath her as she felt his body shift away.
    Silence.
    “Aleks?” Her voice sounded shaky. All she could hear was her own ragged breathing.
    But the feeling of being watched, of being studied didn’t lift and she liked it. Liked it so much.
    Izzy stretched in subtle invitation. He tormented her, no reason not to return the favour.
    Warm breath near her ear. “Stop it.”
    She froze. “Why?”
    “Because I told you to.”
    Ah yes, he was supposed to be in charge, wasn’t he? Izzy opened her eyes under the blindfold, stared into the blackness of the