The dark-haired girl couldn't help smiling when she saw that familiar look light up his intense blue eyes - the look that always made her smile - the unspoken thought: 'You're beautiful...you're mine'. It was a look that stirred her to her soul, as it did without fail, each single time she undressed for him, and took her seat at his ornate, highly-polished table. She warmed to feel the intensity of his male gaze - the man's obvious pleasure in having her sitting with such marvelous poise, half-naked, at his table.
By now she moved without thinking, instinctively taking up the pose he had specified: shoulders back, chin up, lithe body held perfectly erect. Her painted lips tightened into a single, unsmiling line, chin high, almost insolent. Dark eyes that looked out upon the world with superior disdain, capturing once more the regal bearing that had so struck him to find in one so young when he first spied her sitting alone, sampling the coffee at that little cafe on the rue d'Angles, while an overly solicitous waiter hovered nearby.
Now, the quiet thrill rippled through her, caused her to twitch, squirming in growing excitement. Straightening imperceptibly, Nathalie drew back her bare shoulders, deepening the curve of her arched spine, preening as if to offer the man her proudly naked breasts. She might have been some ancient Egyptian goddess - small, taut breasts brazenly exposed, left on open display; sitting at a rich man's elegantly set table with such a stately demeanor, aloof, with that air of supreme unconcern, that she alone, of all the women he knew, managed to carry off.
***
Their ritual was by now a familiar one. The double doors would close with a hushed click behind the retreating servants, leaving the two of them alone. He would smile; politely nod to her to undress. The first time, Nathalie was taken aback by the odd request. Was he serious? 'Perfectly so,' he assured her, studying her with those frank, searching blue eyes. So, with a shrug, she did it. Did she ever really have a choice? His request was, after all, a modest one: to show him privately no more than that which she so publicly exposed when prancing along the beach at St. Tropez. Nathalie often wondered about her wealthy patron; was this nothing more than some boyish whim on his part, one she was expected to indulge without comment? Perhaps some long repressed fantasy? By now, she no longer gave it much thought.