Free Total Package by Cait London

thinking.”
    “About the dance?” she lied to divert him. “I was thinking that social hours and dances are a waste of time. I can’t dance anyway. Never learned. I’m kind of a freestyle girl. I do really well at aborigine celebrations.”
    “Socializing and dancing are about getting to know each other. That takes time.”
    “I’ve never had a lot of time. Too busy.”
    “Make it.”
    “Why?”
    With a brief smile that didn’t reach his eyes, Danya released her ankles and stood, clearing away the table. “Ellie has your measurements. You’re to stop at her home late this afternoon for a fitting. I’ll meet you here and we’ll go to the resort together.”
    “But I could meet you there.”
    “I will take you—that’s how it works, Sidney. The man escorts the woman. You are the woman, and I am that man.”
    He seemed to be setting rules for her and that nettled. “Not if I have to be all coy and frilly.”
    Danya leveled a look at her. “Have I asked you to do that?”
    “Just getting everything straight between us, guy. And by the way, I won’t embarrass you by hanging all over you like some women do.”
    “If we go as a couple, there would have to be a certain amount of touching, don’t you agree?”
    “Just enough to get by, for looks,” Sidney agreed and wondered how close and tight she could hold him to get a really good impression of that great body.

Four

    “I

can’t wear these,” Sidney said that evening as she looked at the delicate chandelier earrings resting in Danya’s big callused palm. They were lovely, a circular shape shimmering with garnets and tiny fragile slices of gold dangling from them.
    “They were my mother’s. I would be honored.”
    “Well, that’s just the point. These aren’t cheap and what’s more they are sentimental pieces. Your wife wore them, didn’t she?”
    “My wife preferred more modern jewelry.”
    Sidney ached to try the intricately fashioned earrings, just once, to see how she looked. Ellie’s creation, a long, basic black gown moved sensuously along Sidney’s body and she felt like a different person. “Oh. Still. I can’t wear them. What if I would lose one?”
    “You won’t. It would please me, Sid.”
    “Well, okay. You’re suffering enough, acting as my date. I feel exposed in this dress.”
    Danya bent to carefully insert the earrings into her earlobes, then leaned back to study the effect. His fingertip flicked one of the earrings and he grinned. “Beautiful.”
    He bent to give her a brief kiss that shocked her, then shrugged, dismissing the intimacy. “It is an occasion, is it not? You and I on a date? This is my first one in a long time.”
    “I…I’ve never had one. Sometimes Dad and Stretch and Junior and I go together.”
    “I hope I’ll do.”
    Sidney was still dealing with that brief hard kiss when Danya ran his fingertip over the tiny shoulder straps and downward to trace the square tight bodice that lifted her breasts into curves. “You are lovely, Sid. Why fight it?”
    “This is just so much of a waste of time and energy. I do good work. They’ve already said so. I don’t know why I have to go through this agony.”
    Danya was staring down to her breasts and when his eyes lifted to meet hers, they were dark and primitive and shook something deep within her. “There’s one more thing.”
    He walked to the refrigerator and removed a plastic box, placing it on the table.
    Danya was beautiful, tall and in a white shirt, tie and a dark fitted suit; he could have been a male model posing for an exclusive clothing ad. He looked sleek and dangerous and experienced—very experienced and gorgeous.
    As he walked toward her, the fragile orchid corsage in his hand, Sidney’s heart started that strange flip-flopping again. She held her breath while he carefully bent to insert his fingers into her bodice and pinned the corsage. Because everything was too quiet and still—except within her shaking emotions—Sidney tried