"I will undress you now, my love," he announced to let her know, his hand already going to her dress lace at the back.
"Do I have to be naked for the painting? What if someone sees it someday?" she voiced out her worry, feeling embarrassed about another person viewing her painting where she had nothing on.
She felt his breath against her neck as he replied to that question, "No one will see. It’s a painting meant for only me to view and to see. So don’t be shy about showing me your body, wife." He assured her as he loosened the lace with deliberate slowness that made her heart skipped a beat in anxiousness and slight anticipation.
Belle swallowed. "You’ve already seen my body," she pointed out.
He moved back to send her a dark smile. "And it was fine. I wish to see it captured someplace, especially since it’s not going to be forever that you will be this beautiful with pregnancy. I want to have something to look back on when our son is finally born, just for me."
Belle darted a glance to the door. "What if someone comes in when I’m naked?"
"I’ve locked the door and given orders for no one to disturb." He sent her a crooked smile, knowing she was just nervous about the whole thing and having to sit for him to paint. If only she knew how much he was dying to paint her. Though he could do it even without having to look at her, he wanted to have her before him so everything he painted would be so realistic.
"What about the window..."
"Too high for anyone to see from the streets."
Belle had to admit that he’d answered her most basic objections. She knew she should have other objections to sitting naked for hours, but she couldn’t remember them right now.
"And if I decide I don’t want to be painted like that?"
"Then we’ll wait until the day you are willing. I am not forcing you, my darling, but I have looked forward to this day for a while. It would be a disappointment, really. My heart will be broken," he said, touching a hand to his chest and giving her an innocent look, clearly trying to convince her.
Belle hesitated, her legs feeling like water, but at the same time, she knew that nothing would induce her to leave this room short of a fire. A very large fire, because she wanted to be painted by him, and to watch him do it.
To be honest, she had also looked forward to this day, only she hadn’t expected it to take place in such an open space, with the curtains pulled back and sunlight pouring in.
Furthermore, the strange dream she had woken up from seemed to have slightly disrupted her mind a bit, and she couldn’t help but keep drifting back to it. Having him paint her the way he wanted felt like the best way to distract herself from the lingering thoughts of that nightmare—a dream that had shaken her more than even being in the land of the dead ever had.
What could it mean? Why was her body like that? And the grave...
"Okay, help me take this off," Belle agreed, pushing the nightmare from her mind and raising her hands so he could help her remove the gown. With an eager look in his eyes, he stepped forward to assist her.
She wouldn’t let a simple nightmare, one that made absolutely no sense, ruin her day, she told herself.
Belle’s gown came off first, followed by her undergarments, like a complicated wrapping slowly peeling back to reveal soft, breathtaking beauty. One by one, each delicate layer slipped to the floor until at last, Rohan reached the final barrier: her drawers.
Though Belle tried to suppress the lingering weight of the nightmare, Rohan too was busy composing himself, trying to appear calm and controlled even as the sight of her undressing stole the breath from his lungs. His fingers moved with practiced movement, sliding over her hips and grazing the inside of her thighs as he eased the last of her clothing down her legs. He didn’t rush, wanting to savor every second of unveiling her.
His eyes dipped lower, to that part of her body he knew intimately, already warm, slick, and aching for him. Dewy and swollen with a need he would love to satisfy. Just the sight of it made his arousal throb beneath his clothes, hard and straining, his self-restraint barely holding on. But he reminded himself there was a purpose for this.
Belle hesitated for a moment, then dropped her arms and let them fall to her sides. There was no use hiding when he had already seen her more than once. It was only that she could never get used to standing bare before him, no matter how many times it happened, every time felt like the first for her. And her shyness was something she didn’t think she could ever completely stop feeling.
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