“Is this okay?” I rasp.
“Yup,” she says and closes her eyes. “I need to give you a few pointers.”
“All right.”
“No holding my wrists or squeezing my neck.” She says, and I feel the cold rush down my spine. “Also, no pinning me down with your body.”
The moment the words leave my mouth, Roman goes still under me. I hate speaking about this, but I had to tell him. I don’t want to risk freaking out on him if he unknowingly did some of those things. He just lays there, and I hear his heartbeat quicken under my ear, and then he removes his arms from my back.
“Go back to your room,malysh. We are not doing this,” he says in a clipped tone.
Shit. I knew he would react this way.
“It’s okay, Roman.”
“No. You’ve been hurt. I’m not going to make you—”
“You are not making me do anything.” I raise my head to look at him, then crawl up until my face is right in front of him.
“Nina—” he starts, but I quickly put my finger over his lips.
“I had sex... after. I have no problem with being in the same bed as you. I won’t freak out if you are holding me, or from being close to you.”
His lips are so soft, and for a moment I’m distracted by the sight of him watching me with such intensity. He is so beautiful.
“It never came to that,” I continue. “He... he never got to hurt me that way. I smashed his laptop into his head before he managed to do anything.”
“You hit his head with a laptop.”
“Twice. Broke his nose with the second blow and ran away.” I shrug and run my finger over Roman’s eyebrow. “It still fucked up my head. I can’t control my reactions sometimes, but it had nothing to do with you.”
“Are you sure? I need you to be sure, Nina.”
“I’m sure.”
I hear steps approaching along with the faint clinging of plates and cutlery. It’s a perfect excuse, so I lower my head and kiss him. It was meant to be just a quick kiss, but the moment I feel his lips on mine all rational thoughts go flying, and in the next moment my hands are clutching him to me with all my might. There is this need to somehow get closer to him rising inside of me, which seems silly since I’m already sprawled all over his chest with my legs on either side of him.
There is a gasp from somewhere behind me. I break the kiss and look over my shoulder to find the girl from yesterday standing in the doorway with a platter of food in her hands, her mouth half open and eyes wide. I yelp and quickly grab the hem of my lacy nighty which had ridden up my back and tug it down over Roman’s hands that are currently clutching my butt. Hopefully, she’ll skip retelling seeing my black lacy thong to everyone in the kitchen.
“Pakhan, I’m... sorry, I didn’t know—”
“Just put it in the kitchen and leave,” Roman snaps from beneath me like he was mad at her for coming in, which doesn’t make sense. We’re doing all this for her sake anyway. Well, he is at least. As for me, I am not sure if I am pretending. And that scares the shit out of me.
I wait until the girl leaves, then look down at Roman. “I’ll just... go now,” I say, but I don’t make a move to get off him.
He just stares at me with narrowed eyes, still holding his hands on my butt. The skin on his chest is so warm under my palms, his lips so very close. I would only have to lean forward a little to taste them again. Would it be so bad if I stayed here with him instead? Yeah, it probably would. I make a move to get down from him and his hands disappear from my backside immediately.
“I need to go buy some clothes,” I say as I get down from the bed, grab a sandwich from the tray the maid left, and head toward the door. “Your snobby wife wouldn’t be caught dead walking around in one of my hoodies.”
“I’ll take you in the morning. Be ready at nine.”
I look back at him and see him lying sprawled in the bed, his hands crossed behind his head, which makes his already huge frame look even larger. No one should be that good-looking. And I missed the opportunity to check out his tattoos, again. Damn.
“Okay. Good night then,” I say and run out from the room.