The Body #4: Nico and Cosi

Chapter 4 (Cosi): Learning About Each Other

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA 

Although I'd been preparing my entire life to be married, the actual reality of it was far different than what I'd been expecting. As Body girls, our mothers trained us to accept everything with a smile, to be perfect wives who met every last need of our husbands. If they were grumpy, we smiled. If they didn't like the dinner we served, we never made it again. Basically, if they wanted something, we lived to serve them in whatever capacity they indicated.

Nico clearly hadn't gotten that memo. 

I figured that out on our wedding night when he just held me all night long. After I'd taken off my lacy panties, I'd gotten into bed, blushing as he followed and pulled me to him. He lay on his back, and he rolled me to his side, and I could feel it -- hard and thick and long.

"I promise, this is as far as it will go tonight," he reassured me, his voice a bit rougher than usual.

"But..."

Really, I needed to stop blushing so easily.

His head turned toward me and his rough hand gently smoothed my hair back from my face. I was glad I'd taken down my hair in the car ride to Nico's house. He toyed with it before he spoke.

"Costanza, I will never hurt you. I won't push you for something I don't think you're ready for, either.

"But you're...you know." Hard as a rock against my thigh. Nico had arranged my body against his, and he'd pulled my thigh right next to his...erection. Oh, there. I'd said it. I think my whole body went hot at my boldness.

Darn that blush.

He picked up my hand and pressed a kiss to my palm.

"Did you like it when I kissed you earlier?"

"Yes," I said, and I couldn't help squirming against him a little because I had liked it so, so much, and it made me feel all sorts of good, shivery things.

"I really liked kissing you, too. You're so soft, Costanza. I'm going to be like this around you a lot but don't think it means I'm about to jump you. I can take it slow."

"I don't want you to get mad at me for not being a good wife," I whispered against his chest. Feeling a little bit brave, I placed my hand on that scarred and tattooed chest.

"That has nothing to do with you being a good wife or not. Yeah, I like it when you touch me, but that's enough for me for now," he said. "You can put your hands or your lips on me anywhere you want, any time you want and I'll be happy. And now you just learned something about me."

I couldn't help smiling. He'd just given me full access to his body and that was a powerful feeling.

"I like being next to you like this," I offered since he was being so honest. "It's new, so I'm not used to it yet, but I'd like to be," I finished in a rapid burst.

He trailed his fingertips down my arm so lightly that I shivered. "Is that a good shiver?" he asked.

"Oh, yes," I assured him. "You touch me so softly. I like that."

"Costanza, you're the only one I'm soft with, you're the only one I'll ever be gentle with, and that's because you're mine. I want to know everything about you and guard it like a secret, things only I'll know about you. The men I work with constantly fuck with me because I won't discuss you. They don't know why I won't talk about you and the answer is because you're not up for discussion with anyone."

"You don't talk about me?"

"No. All they know is I was getting married to a woman named Cosi this weekend."

"They don't ask questions about me?"

"They ask about you all the time, but I'm not sharing anything that's mine with them. At most I tell them you're good and then I change the subject."

"Are you embarrassed of me?"

"Not at all. You're a wife that any man would be proud of, Costanza, and I know you deserved a better man than a Body thug --"

That made me sit up in anger and I pointed a finger at him. 

"Don't you dare say that, Nico. You're wonderful and sweet and kind. You're so good to me I can't even believe how lucky I am to have you as a husband. And you're not a thug."

"Do you have a temper, Costanza?" There was a slight hint of amusement in his voice.

"I...no. Not really." I thought of the few times I'd been angry at Desti, and even then I wasn't mad for long, only until she apologized, which was always right away. "Only if someone says something bad about my family."

"And now I'm your family."

"Yes," I said definitively. 

It struck me that with our marriage, he now took precedence over Mama and Papa and Desti. Nico made a sound of satisfaction at my answer, then his arms pulled me back down, and once again he fitted me to him.

"I like your honesty," he told me. "You're so open and sweet about things."

Inside, I froze a bit at that, thinking about the secret life I had, a life I wasn't willing to give up for anyone, not even Nico, a life I kept hidden from everyone. I rationalized it by saying that Nico would never tell me about his work for the Body, so I shouldn't have to tell him about my work for the Body. 

All of us girls felt that we were working for the Body, unsanctioned though our work was, as we investigated the ring we'd discovered earlier in the year. It was dangerous, sometimes dirty work, but all of us wanted to see this through, to rid the Body of this poison ourselves. To have something that a mere bunch of girls accomplished, something we could point to and say we have abilities to make the world safer. We can make contributions. We can bring about justice and right terrible wrongs. We could stop something horrible, something that the men in the LaForte Body never even noticed because they overlooked women, just like the men did in all of the other Bodies.

We six knew what we were capable of collectively. So far, we'd managed to start taking apart a trafficking ring, and we'd also spread rumors and innuendo about Lucio Feroce, ensuring he became someone no woman felt safe being around. He became a man to be avoided because he'd hurt Ginevra. We were not women you could pat on the head and dismiss; we were women who would surprise you if you tried to treat us like children.

I knew I was keeping secrets, but I couldn't tell Nico what I was capable of, of the training I'd had the last five years, about what the girls and I were involved in. We'd sworn a blood oath that we would never break. Very simply, I couldn't and wouldn't betray my five closest friends. I could be loyal to multiple people; it didn't mean I was disloyal to Nico.

At the time, though, I didn't realize Nico was keeping secrets from me. Big ones, maybe bigger than mine, and more than just his normal work that no Body man would share with his wife. 

But these secrets we both kept ended up being our downfall. Secrets have a way of doing that. But that time was years away. For now, Nico and I were learning about each other.

Learning to love each other.