Page 319 of Niccolo

Those walls came tumbling down.

I felt as vulnerable as a newborn baby deer…

And I started to cry.

Not bawling or sobbing –

Just quiet tears spilling from the outside corners of my eyes and down the sides of my face.

Niccolo immediately stopped moving and stared at me in alarm.

“Are you alright?” he asked, a note of fear in his voice.

I smiled at him through my tears –

A genuine smile –

And noddedyes.

“Why are you crying?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered. “But they’re good tears.”

Not happy tears, exactly…

But good ones.

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Niccolo

We made love for an hour.

And when I say ‘made love,’ that’s what it was:

Tender.

All-consuming.

Far more than just sex…

An almost spiritual connection, deeper than any I’d ever felt before.

Sofia came over and over… plateaus of pleasure that continued for minutes at a time, then slowly built to ones of greater intensity.

When her head wasn’t tilted back, her eyes closed and mouth open in the throes of ecstasy, she was staring deep into my eyes…

As I continued to tell herI love you,over and over.

She didn’t say it back…

But I could see it in her gaze.

Her eyes expressed what words could not.

Finally, I couldn’t hold back anymore –

I didn’twantto hold back anymore –

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