Page 36 of Dream Girl Drama

“Because I have a specific top I like to wear for good luck, but I forgot to pack it last time I was in Connecticut,” she said, entering the space. Hesitating. Taking a deep breath. Then stripping off her pink Gauthier jersey, slowly, so slowly, savoring the fact that Sig was watching her disrobe from the entrance of the closet, probably shocked, but unable to look away. Heard his hands smack and brace on the sides of the frame. The creak of wood as the pink material dropped to the floor. His hitched groan. “It’s a black-and-white pattern, has long sleeves and this high, ruffled neck. Silk.” She looked back at him over her shoulder, her knees turning to jelly at his expression—the embodiment of pure hunger. Yearning. The same kind she felt, without cease. “I’ve always played the harp best when I’m naked. And that blouse makes me feel like I’m wearing nothing at all.”

His chest rose and plummeted, his words tangling up in one another. “When and... where did you play the harp naked?”

“All the time.” Hanging on to her courage, she removed a forest-green button-down from her rack of clothes, examined it, and hung it back up. “When I used to have one in my bedroom.”

“The harp is in the parlor at your other house,” he grated.

“We have three harps.”

He scrutinized her, jaw grinding, very visibly trying to keep his thoughts on track. “Do you miss having access to one at all times, the way you did when you lived with Sofia?”

Chloe had just taken a pair of cigarette pants off their hanger with the use of unsteady fingers, but she paused to breathe in and out, consider the question. “Yes, I miss having a harp with me at all times. But I like my freedom in Boston more.”

The trench between his brows remained. “Glad to hear it.”

Sometimes she could tell that Sig was recording and cataloging things inside of his head, but she never knew when, where, or how he would unearth them for future use. For instance, a month ago she’d tripped on an uneven floorboard in the hallway outside of her apartment. Sig had wordlessly caught her by the back of her sweater before she could fall down, setting her back upright and going about his business carrying groceries inside. But a couple of days later, she’d left for barre class and found him on his hands and knees fixing the floorboard, while the shamefaced super stood nearby.

She breathed her way through the seemingly endless round of warm shivers, the delight of having his eyes on her nearly bare back. “What do you think I should wear, since I don’t have my lucky blouse?”

“You look amazing in everything, Chloe.”

“You don’t have to sound so irritated about it.”

He made a sharp sound. “Irritated doesn’t begin to cover it.”

“Explain what you mean.”

“The fact that other men get to see you look so beautiful...”

She tried to hold her breath, but couldn’t. “Keep going.”

His explanation came out in a gruff rush. “I don’t think it would piss me off half as much if I was the one who knew what you looked like without clothes on.”

Chloe closed her eyes and let the rush of exhilaration travel from the crown of her head, down to her curled toes. She wasn’t supposed to enjoy Sig’s jealousy, right? How many articles and cautionary Reddit tales had she consumed about male behaviors that constituted red flags?

So many.

When she stopped to think about how involved Sig was in every aspect of her life, she knew the boundaries were blurred enough to be nonexistent. Yet shelovedhim crossing those lines. His possessiveness turned her on. In fact, shecravedthose too-brief glimpses of it, because she could never feel caged or crowded by Sig. Not the man who’d shown her how to spread her wings. How to navigate the city, buy food for herself, make online payments (when she remembered).

As much as he guarded her like the crown jewels, he supported her independence.

It was only occasionally she wanted to be pinned down and told she belonged to him.

Okay, fine. She wanted that constantly.

Obviously he wanted that, too, so why couldn’t they give in? Just once.

“Should I keep stripping so you can find out?”

His breath rasped in and out. “Yes. God help me.”

Chloe held up the garment in question, even though her arm was shaking. “I’ll probably wear these with a simple white button-down. Since I’m going for professional.”

Sig nodded. She turned briefly to watch a line snap in his cheek. “Try it all on.”

The small muscles of Chloe’s sex drew in tight on themselves. “Okay,” she murmured, undoing the front snap of her black bra. Exposing her breasts to the cool air of her closet, watching excitement turn her nipples to hard pearls as she drew the straps down her arms. Off.

She didn’t turn around. She was too afraid his intensity would cause her to combust.

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