Free Experiment In Love by Rita Clay Estrada Page B

neck. The day was hot and muggy. Los Angeles was wrapped in smog and the fumes burned her nostrils and throat. She spent the morning looking at apartments, most of which weren’t worth a tenth of what she had been paying. The few she liked had rents so high that she didn’t even want to think about it.
    She thought of the offer Kurt had reiterated only last night and without warning, her face bloomed a becoming pink with the feelings and thoughts that followed. He had woken early and left while it was still dark, giving her a long kiss before regretfully pulling away. He had been so wonderful, so warm, and so tender to a novice. She grinned to herself. He had a rich, warm sense of humor and it had shone in the dark as they lay in bed, curled one against the other, and told funny stories about their childhoods and the first loves of their lives before finally falling asleep. He had promised to see her this evening....
     
    ***
     
    The Newstime Tower loomed in front of her and she parked her slightly battered moped in the lot across the street. She might as well splurge and take Gina out for a hot dog. The rest of the day didn’t promise to be any brighter than the morning had been. Besides, it was noon and she had to eat sometime.
    The marble, plant-decorated lobby was filled with secretaries and reporters, each seemingly carrying out some important job or getting ready to leave for lunch, assignments or both.
    “Gina!” she called and the tall lovely girl standing by the elevator turned toward her, a smile shining on her face.
    “Victoria! What a surprise! What are you doing here?”
    ‘I’ve been apartment hunting and I’m at the end of my rope. I thought I’d take pity on you and offer you lunch at Hal’s.” Her eyes skittered back to the group Gina had been with, seeing one young man whose eyes hadn’t left her friend’s figure. “But I see you’ve already made other plans,” she teased.
    Gina colored. “Well, why don’t you join us?” She waved the man over. “Hank, I’d like you to meet my best friend, Victoria Branden Brown. She freelances and writes fiction. Vicky, Jim Henry.”
    Victoria stuck out her hand. “Hi, Jim. I bet with a name like yours you’re always getting double mail,” she teased and he laughed easily.
    “I’m afraid so. Either way, Jim Henry or Henry Jim,” he admitted. “Are you joining us for lunch?”
    “Miss Brown doesn’t know it, but plans have already been made for her,” a deep nerve-tingling voice spoke from behind her.
    Victoria didn’t have to turn around to know who it was, but she was mesmerized by the look on her friend’s face. It was sheer, unadulterated shock.
    She hadn’t expected to see Kurt until that evening when, she was sure they would resume their discussion of his townhouse. He had let the subject drop too easily, and she knew he had more to say. Her skin flushed with the other, more intimate thoughts that traveled on the heels of that one and the bottom of her stomach dropped with the heaviness of feelings. The thought of him holding her close to the lean length of his firm, strong body quickened her pulse. The thought of his head bending over her breast as his rasping breath in his throat and echoing through her body from their lovemaking pulsed through her abdomen.
    She turned slowly. “Hi, Kurt. What are you doing here?” She tried not to devour him with her eyes, but it was impossible, just as it seemed for him.
    Gina’s voice sounded squeaky. “You know Mr. Morgan, Victoria?”
    Confusion ran across Vicky’s face before a heavy, doomed feeling settled deep in the pit of her stomach. “Morgan?” she whispered. “Kurt Morgan of Newstime magazine? As in ‘President’?”
    His dark eyes silently tried to reason with her. “The same.” He glanced at Gina, then Jim. “If you’ll excuse us, I think I have some explaining to do.”
    She ignored the heavy weight in her stomach and looked him straight in the eye as if he were a piece