Paolo took it as a signal to stop and turned to face her. His hands came up to the buttons of her shirt.
Lauren drew back in surprise at his forwardness.
A smile twitched his lips. “I’m not rushing you, just dying to see how the baby is changing you...” He tugged the tails of her shirt free while Lauren bit her lip, unable to keep from grinning as he parted the edges of her blouse and looked down.
“There’s hardly anything there, but I’m ridiculously proud,” she confided, holding her shirt parted as Paolo unbuttoned her pants and lowered the zip.
His warm hands rolled back her fly to expose the pale swell of her abdomen, the subtle shape only discernible because she was naturally slender. He let his hands rest at her bare waist for a few moments, forehead tilted against hers. She could see a doting smile playing over his lips.
Fascinated, Lauren reached to trace the shape with her finger, seduced by their smooth texture.
He caught her hand and kissed her palm. “I’m glad you’re having my baby, la mia adorata.”
His quiet ferocity sent a cupid’s arrow of sweet joy through her. “Me, too,” she said in a voice thinned by deep emotion.
“I’m also intrigued by the lack of a bra.” His darkening eyes lowered to gaze on her chest as he lightly brushed the shirt back on her shoulders, exposing her bare breasts.
Stimulated by the tickling brush of fabric and his caressing touch, Lauren stood straighter and sucked in a startled breath, unconsciously lifting her breasts into prominence. The combination of cool air and hot focus from Paolo’s avid gaze made the orbs go tight, the nipples pinching sharply, contracting into thrusting points.
“All my bras got too small overnight,” she confided, losing her train of thought and shakily gasping for air as he traced the outsides of her breasts with light fingertips. The heaviness in her breasts increased. They seemed to fill and harden, nearly painful in their sensitivity to his light, light touch.
“Hurray for growing out of bras.” He came a half step closer and very, very gently enveloped her breasts in his hot hands, slowly closing them in firm cups that made her blood thicken into the soles of her feet.
She whimpered at the sensation of swirling pleasure spiraling from her middle into the hot ache between her thighs. His grip loosened. “Too much?”
She couldn’t speak, could only clutch at him as she swayed on her feet.
“You’re so beautiful, Lauren.” His hot breath caressed her neck while he slid his hands into her pants to begin easing them down her bottom.
She couldn’t help wriggling her cheeks into his sure hands.
He paused long enough to groan with approval and say, “I’m trying to hang on to control here, cara. Help me out.”
“I like it when you lose control,” she said, then bit her lips together.
He flashed her a look that was a little incredulous, a little wary, and very, very dangerous. A muscle pulsed in his jaw as he lowered to squat before her, drawing her pants down her legs without any increased urgency, but a fresh, very thick sexual tension imbuing his movements.
“We’re going to keep these on for a minute,” he said as he threaded her pants over her shoes, one hand steady on her hip to keep her balanced. “Because there’s something I need to tell you.” He threw her pants away and gazed at her nude limbs. The angle of her high heels contracted the lithe muscles of her thighs and calves, elongating her legs and making her feel strong even though she was nearly shaking with nervous arousal.#p#????#e#
“What?” Lauren prompted, voice a husky whisper deep in her throat.
“I.” He made her wait as he wound his gaze down to her polished toenails. One finger traced the cheeky strap around her ankle, then his gaze climbed up her shin and knee to the length of her thigh where he stared a long time. “Am a leg man. And yours are exquisite.” He followed the path with his hands, drifting his caressing touch up sensitive skin and twitching calves, smoothing the backs of her thighs to her backside so his long fingers teased the sensitive globes of her bottom through the silk of her underpants.
Lauren’s stomach flip-flopped, making her exhale through a tickling sensation that was in her nerves and muscles and blood. Wild sensations made her legs quiver and she shifted self-consciously.
Paolo slid one hand down to her ankle. “I have been stealing looks for years, cucciola mia. Today I can look and touch and kiss...” His knowing fingers found the sensitive skin at the back of her knee, making her reflexively shift her weight and retract her leg.