Read Bound in Blue for Free Online

stroked her hair.
    “So,” he said in a low, warm voice. “Real
enough? How did you like that?” When she didn’t answer, his voice
took on a note of concern. “Was I too rough?”
    She rolled over and looked at him, but she
didn’t say anything, because she was afraid of the ridiculous,
lovelorn things she’d say. He drew her into his arms, cradled her
against his chest so her cuffed hands nestled between her breasts.
She pressed her head against his shoulder, enjoying the comfort of
his embrace. Ah, his hair was so soft, and it smelled so good. She
sniffed it furtively, imprinting the scent of him in her
memory.
    “Struck speechless, are you? I guess that’s a
good thing.”
    “It was fun. Very fun.” It hurt to belittle
their incredible scene, their incredible connection, with an
adjective like “fun,” but it would hurt more to give voice to the
depth of her feelings. He might see how infatuated she was, and how
foolish. “Are you going to uncuff me?”
    He drew back from her. “Not yet.”
    “I have to go.”
    “Not yet,” he repeated. He helped her up and
drew her over by the bed. He sat on the edge of it and tugged her
forward until she was standing between his legs. He was dressed
now. Well, half dressed. His chest and muscles still beckoned her.
She could have traced them for hours, never tiring of exploring
him. He looked bemused when she finally dragged her gaze up to
his.
    “Still set on one time? I’m not trying to
talk you into anything, but…you’re sure?”
    She nodded, hardening her heart against him.
He was leaving .
    “I’ll be here a few more days. I work
for—”
    Her cuffed hands flew to his mouth. “Don’t.
The more I know about you, the more difficult you’ll be to
forget.”
    The twinkle left his eyes, replaced by
resignation. He drew down her hands and worked at the clasp between
the cuffs. “Would you like to keep these? Or will they also make me
too difficult to forget?”
    “You have to keep everything.”
    He unbuckled the first cuff, setting it on
the bed. “That’s fine. I won’t mind remembering this. Remembering
you.” He unbuckled the other one and paused. “You’re a very
memorable person. A Mongolian woman who speaks English like a
proper British person.”
    “Do I?”
    “Almost. It’s very charming. I like your
contacts too.”
    “My contacts?”
    He pointed. “Yes, the blue contacts. For your
eyes.” He leaned closer at her expression of confusion. “Or are
those your real eyes?”
    She gave a nervous laugh. “What else would
they be?”
    “Some people wear contacts to change their
eye color. I thought... Well, I hadn’t seen anyone else here with
eyes that color.”
    She lowered her lids, the way she always did
when people noticed her eyes. Sometimes people teased her about
them, a mean kind of teasing that said you don’t really belong
here . But she’d been born in Mongolia, to Mongolian parents.
People whispered that she wasn’t her father’s daughter, that her
blue eyes had come from someone else. She’d have to find out about
these contacts, so she could make her eyes gold, or brown.
    She looked back up at him and shrugged. “My
mother used to say they were blue because I was born outside, and I
looked up at the sky, and so my eyes stayed blue. In Ulaanbaatar,
it’s dirty and polluted, but in the north and the west, the blue
sky stretches as far as you can see. Do you know they call Mongolia
‘the land of eternal blue sky’?”
    “No, I didn’t know, but now I do.” He
squeezed her hands, then inspected her cuffless wrists. “I want to
give you some money.”
    “No. Absolutely no. This wasn’t a
transaction.”
    “Of course it wasn’t. Sara, I don’t want to
cheapen what we just experienced. Because we just experienced
something. Something you’re going to remember every bit as vividly
as me.”
    Exactly. That’s why I have to get out of
here. She didn’t know if it was the kindness in his voice, or
the wistfulness,