Page 30 of The Cost of Corruption
But that was before I’d fallen into Matteo’s arms.
Now, I had a feeling a whole new sensual world was about to open up—and swallow me whole.
Suddenly, his bed felt like a stage, and he had a front-row seat in the audience. I couldn’t help squirming under the weight of his gaze.
“I’ve never undressed in front of anyone before,” I confessed. “I’m afraid I’ll embarrass myself.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he assured me. “I want to see you. So take off your clothes.”
He made it sound so simple.
And I guess, in the end, it was.
Both my black pinafore and white tunic slipped over my head easily. I’d started to fold them neatly out of habit when Matteo stopped me with a dark laugh.
“Don’t worry about those,” he said. “Just toss them in the corner.”
“But they’ll wrinkle, and this is my only outfit.” The two other identical sets were currently hanging in my father’s house.
“We’ll find you other clothes.” His tone was firm. So, even though it went against years of tidiness that had been beaten into my head, I did as he said and let them drop on the floor.
“Good,” he said with a lopsided smile that sent a wave of awareness tingling over my exposed skin. “Now, take off the rest.”
The rest? But only my undergarments remained.
“I’d be naked,” I told him.
“That’s the point.”
He folded his hands in his lap, looking like a man who had been in this position plenty of times before—waiting for a woman to strip down and bare everything.
“But I was never completely naked in my room,” I explained. “I was always wearing something—my nightgown and underpants.”
Not to mention the blanket that I’d kept wrapped tight around me. Even all alone, I’d needed all those layers to hide my shame.
“Like you said—that was inyourroom,” he said far too casually. “This ismybedroom. And here you’ll show meeverything.”
Oh God, I really was in over my head, drowning in waters I was a fool to ever think I could tread.
I closed my eyes as I pulled my simple cotton bralette off with trembling hands. But shutting out the light didn’t keep me from feeling the cool air against my breasts. It was the change in temperature that made my nipples instantly harden, I tried to tell myself—not the excitement of the situation.
By the time I rolled the plain white panties down my thighs, my fingers were fully shaking.
So was the rest of me.
“Oh,fuck, Chastity,” Matteo’s growl rolled across the room. The sound was so raw, so intense, that my eyes couldn’t help but pop open again.
When I saw him, I made a primal sound of my own. A breathy moan that somehow managed to encapsulate ten years’ worth of pent-up desire.
And if you’d have seen him—no longer lounging back in the chair, but leaning forward, muscles coiled like a wild animal ready to pounce—you probably would have done the same.
“Don’t make me wait any longer,” he said through gritted teeth. “Show me what you did.”
And God help me, that’s exactly what I did.
As if possessed by the spirit of Jezebel herself, I pressed my hand between my slightly parted legs. My fingertips wereinstantly drenched in warm heat as they slid over my folds. Pressing between the outer lips, I found that achingly sweet spot that always called to me when thoughts of Matteo invaded my mind.
Usually, I had to close my eyes to envision him. But not this time.
