Free Caress Part Two (Arcadia) by Josie Litton

was an impressive
dame. The word, popping into my head suddenly, made me grin. Its fifties’ vibe suited
her, especially when she was wearing nothing but a red-and-white polka dotted
apron.
    Not going there. Not now at least.
    I’d called for the car while she was in the ladies room. I
didn’t think she’d take advantage of the privacy there to give herself a little
relief from the off-the-charts sexual tension exploding between us, at least I
hoped not. I wanted her as hungry and on edge as I was. More so would have been
better but I didn’t think that was possible, not given how I was feeling.
    Like someone had shoved a steel rod down my dick. Yeah, that
uncomfortable not to mention unsettling.
    Emma had an uncanny ability to knock me off balance. I still
couldn’t believe that I’d opened up to her about my family the way that I had.
I’d never done that before with anyone.
    I’d even come straight out and said that Adam would have
been my father’s heir if the two of them had ever gotten to know each other.
I’d lived with that reality for seven years and never felt any need to mention
it to anyone, until now. Until her.
    What the hell was she doing to me?
    At the moment, she was sitting in the backseat of the town
car, so close that all I had to do was reach out and she’d be in my arms. I
would have liked nothing better but if I touched her, my plan for the rest of
the day would go up in smoke.
    I had no doubt that Miss Whittaker was horny. I could
practically smell her arousal, or at least I imagined that I could. She had to
expect that we were heading back to the apartment. But I had other ideas.
    Starting with righting the balance between us. I was the
guy. Hell, by most estimates, I was a flat-out alpha male used to being in
charge.
    She was a woman—which is not to say that I didn’t totally
respect her as a complete equal in every sense. Except that she was also a
novice when it came to sex, albeit one with a hell of a lot of natural talent.
Even so, no way was she getting the better of me.
    Sure, I could take her back to the apartment and fuck her
senseless. I’d probably put myself in a coma doing so but that was a small
price to pay. The only problem was that she’d win—again. And that meant that
she’d go right on thinking that all there was between us with sex.
    Casual, no-strings, hasta la vista sex.
    The kind I’d always liked and suddenly couldn’t stand.
    So instead I had other intentions.
    “Where are we going?” Emma asked when the town car, instead
of turning north in the direction of the Arcadia, turned south.
     “It’s a surprise.”
    “Oh, god, another one?”
    There was a definite lack of enthusiasm in her tone. Still,
I refused to be discouraged.
    “You’re going to love this, I promise.”
    “It doesn’t involve more ice cream, does it? I mean, that
was great but I honestly can’t eat another bite.”
    I thought of what was in store for her and grinned. “You’ll
change your mind.”
    She looked alarmed but she didn’t say another word until we
were on the Brooklyn Bridge. Then it was her turn to surprise me.
    “Did you know that Senator Prentice kept a suite at the
Plaza the whole time he was seeing Margo?” she asked suddenly.
    That was what she’d been thinking about while we were
at the hotel? I hoped to hell not.
    “No, I didn’t.” I didn’t care either. Sure, I was sorry
about what had happened to the actress, a life wasted and all that. But it was
ancient history so far as I was concerned. As long as nothing about it intruded
into the present.
    “I suppose that’s because it was the 1950s,” Emma went on.
“People felt compelled to be more discrete back then.”
    I could have shrugged and left it at that. But what I lacked
in curiosity about the late senator, I more than made up for in wanting to
understand the tantalizing woman who had hurtled into my life. If my instincts
were right, she couldn’t possibly have as rosy a view of that bygone