Charade

After Sofia and Angelo finished with their intimate moment he filled a bath for them. Sofia was still shy about him seeing her fully naked even though he'd already seen her in lingerie so he assured her there would be lots of bubbles and he'd close his eyes when he held the towel for her after. They sat in the tub and just made plenty of jokes again. They talked to each other with ease and the conversation flowed as if they known each other for years. Somehow they'd go down a rabbit hole of conversation to where they were talking about deep subjects.

They told funny stories about their childhoods and this led to them asking each other questions about their parents and siblings. Angelo learned more about how Sofia grew up and vice versa. Sofia was beginning to realize they were more alike then she thought. Angelo struck her as someone who was lucky enough to have never struggled financially, but after hearing about his life growing up she realized they both had a lot of pressure to be perfect growing up. She asked if she could wash his hair and being unable to say no to her he let her. She made funny hair styles with the soap and kissed his cheeks telling him how funny he looked.

It was odd how quickly she wanted to be affectionate with him. She always assumed men were only like Angelo in her black and white movies and in real life would only disappoint her. Angelo, however, had been nothing but sweet to her since she met him. Now that she realized even in an activity like spanking he could make her feel completely comfortable and safe, she found herself caring less about being vulnerable around her. She just met him, but already he'd seen her cry, heard what she most scared to share about her personal life, and had seen her even physically exposed and not once did he make her feel judged or insecure.

Everything she found embarrassing, he assured her wasn't worth being embarrassed over. She'd never felt so wanted before. She didn't know why he had such kind words for someone like her, but never the less she was swooning over him and found herself wanting to express it constantly. Angelo got out first, unsurprised Sofia looked away politely. He quickly went to his room and changed into some sweats and a shirt before returning to Sofia's room and going into her closet.

He grabbed searched around for some pajamas and found a drawer that was filled with lingerie. He picked up one of the more dainty pieces of fabric and smirked, but forced himself to snap out of it not wanting to keep Sofia waiting long. He ended up finding a pair of tiny satin shorts that had a matching cami folded with it, although he just noticed it had spaghetti straps. He walked back into the room to see Sofia with one leg crossed over the other and in the air as she idly rubbed soap on it.

"Well I'm glad I grabbed something to show off those legs for days", he said startling and causing her to jump in the water a little.

It was interesting to him how she kept appearing different in every new scenario he saw her in. She was put together so naturally with her long flowing hair in her face when he opened that car door to her sleeping when she arrived at his place. Then she looked so glamorous and sexy when she arrived at the pack meeting yesterday. Now she was glowing as wet water laid on her skin and soap was covering just to her cleavage. Her hair was tied up messily with loose wavy strands sticking to her face as she blinked at him with her pretty eyelashes that had gotten wet. She continued to look up at him equally mesmerized by him as he returned with his hair still wet.

Finally he remembered what he was supposed to be doing and held up the pajamas.

"Am I good at picking get ups little darling?", he said adopting his western accent again.

"Oh I see my cowboy is back.", she said with a smile as she played with the water.

"The accents never gonna stop coming back if you keep calling me yours when I do it", he said with eyes looking her up and down as she made the soap move around her.

"Mine." , she said in a teasing voice with a sparkle in her eye.

For some reason her words caused him to get a lump in his throat, but he didn't want to look too phased. He grabbed a towel and opened for her before looking a way like he promised.

"Alright little lady git!", he said in the accent again.

She giggled and then he heard her stand up. He the felt her walk into his chest and with a hand on both ends of the towel he wrapped his arms around her.

"You're warm.", she said in a mumble against his chest, letting herself stay like that for a moment before grabbing the ends of the towel and stepping away.

"Okay, I'm going to change", she said and he took his cue to wait outside the bathroom.

When she finished they headed downstairs to the kitchen since they both hadn't eaten. Angelo usually gave his chef the weekend off as he used to always be out on weekends anyways, but Sofia told him it was no problem and she could cook for him. He sat on a barstool behind the counter, with his elbows the table and his chin in his palm as he watched her walk all over the large kitchen. He'd tell her where certain foods items and seasonings were, but other than that she insisted that she wanted to do it herself. She wanted to make a pasta and when Angelo told her he'd get the noodles that were in a top cabinet she immediately said no and that she had it and wanted him to relax.

He watched with amusement and slight anxiousness as she pushed her body up on one of the counters to get on top of it. He suddenly was glad at his pajama choice as she unknowingly flashed her cute little cheeks at him before getting on her knees on the counter to reach the noodles. She then hopped down with a huff and went into chef mode. He was fascinated as she moved with speed putting everything together. She finally finished and leaned over the bar stool counter and placed the plate of pasta in front of him. He was distracted by her cleavage that showed in this position before he realized she was putting some of it on a fork for him.

"Taste.", she simply said holding the fork in front of his mouth.

She had no idea how sexy it was hearing her say that and how his mind suddenly went in the gutter. She started at him expectantly and he finally opened his mouth, trying it. His eyes closed and he moaned because it was so delicious. She dropped the fork and jumped up and down delighted by his reaction.

"Is it really that good or are you just being nice?", she asked squinting her eyes suspiciously.

"Are you kidding me?", he said seriously grabbing her arm that she'd placed on the table, "I think goddess divine really is an accurate nickname for you. Where'd did you learn to cook like this?!"

She smiled, but felt a little pang in her heart at the question.

"My brother, we used to cook together all the time and we'd compete to see who could outdo the other.", she said with a gentle smile, but he could tell there was pain behind it.

She forced herself to continue, "we had a lot of great times before he started self medicating. I've missed him a lot since he passed."

His heart ached seeing the hurt in her eyes."Oh Sofia, I can't imagine. It must be so bittersweet to do the things you loved to do with him huh", he said squeezing the arm he was holding a little.

"Yeah", she said in a soft voice and her eyes starting to slightly water before she tried to blink it away.

"Hey, come here", He said gesturing her to come around the table.

She walked around and he lifted her up and placed her on his lap.

She felt oddly safe when he placed his strong arms around her and suddenly couldn't hold back her emotions. Tears started to fall down her face and he rubbed her back.

"Tell me what you're thinking about, darling. You don't have to, but you might feel better.", he whispered as he wiped some of the tears falling from her eyes.

With a sniffle she surprised herself by saying what she felt.

"He just deserved so much more than what this world gave him, you know", she said sitting up and continuing despite feeling tired.

"I think I just feel emotional about it right now because I actually feel.... happy. It was easy to make sacrifices before because I felt like I didn't really deserve happiness anyways. Like he was the one who deserved it and it wasn't fair if I got it and he never got to. I don't know if that makes any sense.", she finally looked up at him with puffy eyes.

"Do you still feel that way?", he said tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I don't know", she said looking away again.

"Look at me, Sofia", he said and she forced herself to oblige.

"You both deserved happiness. It's completely valid for you to feel all these emotions. Because it's not fair that happened to him and you're right he did deserve better. I'm not sure if you realize this, but you deserved better than making sacrifices for everyone else. And you DESERVE to be happy. I wish I could have met your brother, but I have this feeling he'd want you to be happy too", he finished looking deeply into her eyes.

"Are you sure your doctorate wasn't in psychology?", she said with a light laugh while sniffling.

"Nope, just been to a lot of therapy", he said handing her a napkin, "and you know one of the best things I learned?"

"What?", she said in a weak voice.

"Pushing down your emotions is like trying to push down and inflatable beach ball under water. The more you try to push it down the harder it's going to come back up on its own. And I can tell you're trying to hold back and I want you to know you don't have to do that with me. I'm here for all of you, not just the put together parts."

She swallowed and tried to find her strength to get a whole sentence together, "I really appreciate you so much Angelo. It's crazy because I've cried more in these past days then I have all year."

"It's because you're feeling guilt about letting yourself be happy, but you don't have too. And I'll keep reminding you what you're worthy of every day", he said giving her a squeeze.

"You're so good to me", she said softly before clearing her throat, "but this foods meant to be eaten warm so let's eat!", she said hopping down and going to get her plate.