He peeled the silky knickers down, so slowly that she could imagine him unveiling his own works of art in a similar fashion.
‘Mm,’ he said. ‘Oh, you’re bare.’
‘Kind of compulsory in LA,’ she said. ‘Not really by choice.’
‘Let’s have a proper look, then.’ He tossed the briefs aside and made a dive for Jenna’s lower lips. She kept her eyes shut and her fists clenched, finding this mortifying in the extreme. If only it weren’t also so exciting.
‘Get those legs properly wide,’ he ordered, his voice harsh and thick. He pushed her thighs apart until they strained. She felt her lips split and expose the juicy pink folds to his eye. Her clit, plump and full to bursting, was warmed by his breath. How could he just look at it for so long?
‘I want to paint you like this,’ he said, his hands still holding her thighs wide. ‘I want to paint you inside and out.’
‘God, who’d want to look at that?’ she said with a hysterical little laugh.
‘Who wouldn’t?’ he said, quite reverently.
He moved his fingers to her outer lips and prised them further apart.
‘It’s gorgeous,’ he said. ‘I love how it’s all made for pleasure. You’ve got to give it to Mother Nature, haven’t you? A man mightn’t have thought to make this.’ His thumb drifted, very lightly, over her clitoris, causing her to jolt upwards.
‘You’d like a bit more of that, I take it?’
She still had her eyes shut, but she knew he was smiling.
He gave her inner thigh a gentle pat.
‘Don’t I get an answer? Open your eyes, Jen.’
Oh no, don’t make me look at you. It’s easier if I can pretend you’re making me do and feel these things.
‘Jen.’ His voice was stern now and, almost involuntarily, her eyelids flew open.
‘What?’ she said sulkily.
Obviously I want you to touch me there. Obviously! For fuck’s sake!
But she knew he was going to make her say it.
‘Do you want my fingers on your clit?’ he said, his eyes like hard, black buttons.
‘Yeah,’ she breathed.
‘Are you sure?’
The effort of keeping her eyes on him was making her face crumple. Her lips were wobbling. She thought she might even start to cry. This felt too huge for her emotions to deal with. It was worse than declaring love, it was worse than confessing to anything else. It was utterly soul-baring for her.
‘Sure,’ she whispered.
He nodded and, without taking his eyes from her, he began to rub her clitoris with the gentlest pressure at first. Somehow she couldn’t break their eye contact. It was as if he held it with a laser beam, keeping her utterly focused on him.
His touch grew firmer and she lay back and let it, giving herself up to him.
This is surrender, she thought foggily. Why does it feel better than victory?
Her body, thrumming all over, began to pool all its sensations at the pit of her stomach until she was aware of no other part of her but what was between her legs and its immediate area.
‘Do you want my fingers inside you?’ asked Leonardo, just at the point where everything was starting to turn molten inside her.
‘God, yes,’ she whimpered, not having to think about it any more.