And that love was eating me up inside.
“Dance for me, Sophia,” I mumbled into the softness of her stomach.
“What?”
“Strip for me.” I didn’t say it as an order. I needed her to want to strip for me. Reaching around her body, I smoothed my hands up her slender thighs and up and over her hips. “Give me something that’s just for me.”
Hooking her fingers under my chin, she studied my face. A tiny frown was marring her face. I don’t know what she saw, but it must have been something, because she reached down and pressed her lips to my forehead and stepped away.
“Where are you going?” I called out after her.
“Music.” She smiled over her shoulder. “I’m going to need music to dance for you, aren’t I?”
Ten seconds later, the soft, mellow tones of Barry White filled the air, and she was back in front of me. I couldn’t help it. I chuckled.
“Barry white? Really, Sophia?”
Pausing, she flashed me a look. “Is it wrong? I’ve never done a striptease for anyone before.”
There she went again, showing me how innocent she was even after all of these years. Under that hard shell, she was still the same girl I had fallen foolishly in love with.
“No.” I shook my head, spreading my arms out along the back of the sofa, I watched her as she began to move. Slowly at first, just a small sway like how we had danced at the club, but with every minute that passed, she grew in confidence.
“Come closer,” I ordered with a crook of my fingers. She slipped between my parted thighs. Her beautiful dress rumpled around her waist and bared her even more beautiful breasts for my eyes to feast on.
Reaching up, I unclasped her bra and watched open-mouthed as the lace fell down her arms and to the floor.
“Stunning.” I leaned back again, watching her move, and loving how her breasts bounced.
“Jesus, you are just stunning.” Slowly, like I wanted to eat her up, I let my eyes travel over her body. Perfection.
“What are these?” I let my hand drop to her stomach, where thin, silvery white lines marred her skin. I had seen them before, I realized with a start. I just hadn’t really given them any notice because they were a part of her, and everything to do with her was always perfect.
I traced one with the tip of my finger over her hip. “Like little road maps of where I should kiss you.”
“They are…” She froze, her hands slamming down over her stomach, knocking my hand away. “They are nothing,” she said in a rush. “Don’t look at them. They are disgusting.”
I caught both of her wrists and pulled her hands away. “Nothing on you is disgusting, Sophia.”
This time, when I traced those lines, it was with my lips. I mapped each one to memory with my tongue.
“They are stretch marks.”
It was my turn to freeze. My eyes swivelled up to hers. “Stretch marks?” I repeated like a complete moron. “Don’t women get them…” I couldn’t say the words.
Women got their stripes when they were pregnant.
Her eyes widened. “God, no Matteo. I just ate my feelings for a long time.” Self-consciously, she twisted her lips. “I put on a lot of weight after my parents’ deaths.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Well, I love them. I think they are the sexiest thing I have ever seen.”
Lips still on her stomach, I reached around her body, cupping her ass and drawing her onto my lap. My lips drifted upward, encompassing every inch of her skin, before narrowing on her breasts. There were those thin lines on them as well, but they didn’t take away from the beauty of her. If anything, they enhanced it. Kneading her ass, I ground her against me and lapped at her nipples, drawing each pink point into my mouth, not hard. The time for hardness was over.
At least for now.
Throwing her head back, Sophia moaned, and without thinking about it, I reached around the back of her head and pulled the pins from her hair so it fell like a curtain down her back.
“That’s better.” Tearing my mouth from her glistening nipples, I stared at her, just for a second, just so I could memorize how she looked right at that second.
