Page 45 of Strip for Me

“First off, I’m John, and this is my wife, Mary,” he introduces her, and I nod.

“Do you love our daughter?” Mary asks me gently. I’m surprised it’s her that asked.

“Yes, and so do my friends. I have known them all for years, and they are like brothers to me. I know it must be a shock, but we will all spend the rest of our lives loving Ellie,” I say and mean every word. I keep eye contact with Mary until she nods.

“We love our daughter, and we know we haven’t been as supportive as we should have. I can’t say we are okay with this lifestyle you have all chosen, but we want to see our daughter happy. We want to see our grandchild happy,” John says, and I nod with a smile. Ellie is going to be happy that they are going to be in her life. I want my child to have her grandparents around.

“They will be,” I say.

“Please don’t tell Ellie about our conversation. I will call her now and set up a dinner with us all. I want to meet the men my daughter loves and see some baby scans,” Mary says. She looks a little like Ellie when she smiles at me, but she is far sterner than Ellie is. Ellie’s personality seems to be more on her dad’s side.

“Ok,” I say, not wanting to upset them. Ellie needs her parents to accept her life, she doesn’t need all the stress with the baby only weeks away now.

“Another thing,” John says, and I meet his eyes with a question.

“When Drew called us, and told us about your job and the pregnancy, he sounded,” John paused, “well, not right.”

“He threatened Ellie before you showed up. We aren’t letting him anywhere near her again,” I tell them firmly. Ellie may not realise it, but we are making sure someone is always with her. Even if it’s Todd’s sisters or us, we don’t want her alone when we know he isn’t going to give up on her.

“We liked Drew. He makes people like him and can trick people easily. Just be careful. He was obsessed with Ellie and wanted children. He won’t let it go that Ellie is having a baby with you and not him,” he warns me.

“He won’t touch Ellie,” I say. I don’t need to say more when he nods in understanding.

“We will see you soon, Andre,” John says as he gets up at the same time as Mary.

“Nice to meet you both,” I say, and they walk out together. That went a lot better than expected.

Thirty-Eight

TODD

"What are you doing in here?"I ask Ellie when she walks in the garage. Her hair is up in a bun, and she has a small, blue dress on that shows off her amazing body. Ellie looks content, considering all the problems her parents and ex-husband have been causing her recently. I know she’s stressed, but she doesn’t let it show, and it makes me wonder how strong she is. She just seems to accept that it’s difficult for them to understand how we all feel for each other. Ellie smiles as she comes over, sliding her hand across the Bentley in here. This car has taken me ages to get right, as it had so many problems, but there is no way I’m giving up on it.

It’s a real beauty, like someone else in this room.

"I wanted to see you," she says, like she needs an explanation for finding me.She doesn’t.

"Well, you are always welcome," I say, and she grins. I wipe my hands on a rag before walking over to her. She smiles up at me as I place my hand behind her neck and pull her into a deep kiss.

"Ellie," I say moving away. Ellie tastes so nice, like everything sweet and amazing at the same time.

"Todd," she replies, her tone breathless. The first time we were together is stuck in my mind, on repeat.It was amazing being with her like that, loving her like that.

“I saw this when I first moved in,” she says, picking up my sketch book.

“I draw the cars when I’ve finished them. I’m not good, but I like to do it,” I say as she opens the book. I watch her nervously as she looks through the images.

“They’re really good, Todd, and there’s so many. I didn’t realise you had done this many cars up,” she says, looking around the garage. I only have the one at the moment, but there’s a local auction coming up in York, and I’m going to pick something up to fix there.

“I like to do it,” I say, and she nods, putting the book back down.

"Todd, can you dance for me?" she says and blushes when I look down at her. I’m surprised she asked, but there is no one else I would love to dance for.

"Come here," I say and lift her onto the car bonnet. She giggles and holds onto her bump, which is getting bigger by the day. I can’t wait to meet our little girl. I know I’m not her dad, but I won’t walk away from her.That’s never going to happen. I’ve always wanted children, and I will protect her the best I can.

"Stay there," I say, thinking of a sexy song to play while I do this dance for her. There are so many I could choose from. I flick through my iPhone and choose “Pour it Up”by Rihannaand plug it into the wireless speakers we have. I wait until the music gets to the bit I need and then start moving. Most dances are easy to move your hips to and make it look attractive. It’s not exactly hard to do, and I move my body, knowing how I want it to be and her eyes widen. I lock my eyes with hers, knowing this is only about her and slowly lift my white shirt up. When I pull it off over my head, I throw it at her, and she catches it with agiggle. Stripping was always a way to pay the bills for me. Now, I just do it because I wouldn’t know what to do without it. I don’t want to strip forever, and I make a fortune selling the cars I do up now. The last few years of this are paying off now because I have clients who will pay for the cars I do up because of my track record.

I move closer as I undo the buttons on my jeans and Ellie shocks me, as she slides off the car and stops in front of me.

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