Caress Part Two (Arcadia) (8 page)

I’d walked into rooms before with a beautiful woman on my
arm. In fact, I’d made something of a habit of it. But I’d never come close to
experiencing the fierce, protective sense of pride that enveloped me as Emma
and I stepped into the four-story grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
on Park Avenue.

‘Stunning’ didn’t get close to how beautiful she was. If I
had been stunned, I wouldn’t have been able to feel anything. Instead, looking
at her made me hurt. My heart felt like it was in a vise while my cock and
balls… I really didn’t want to think about them but she made it damn hard not
to, in every sense.

The first time I saw her in the shimmering blue silk gown
that matched her eyes and hugged its way down her delectable body, I came close
to telling her to take it off. First, because I wanted to fuck her. And second
because I sure as hell didn’t want any other man to see her in it.

I’d relented, giving up on the second and putting the first
on temporary hold because she was so obviously nervous about everything to do
with the gala. Besides, I was the one who had come up with the bright idea of
raiding Margo’s dressing room in the first place.

“Vintage is all the rage,” I’d said in a bid to convince her.
 “And you wearing one of Margo’s gowns will help stir up interest in the
apartment.”

Not that there was any need for that. Yuri would trample
over anyone who tried to take it from him and even if he didn’t, people were
always lined up to buy into the Arcadia.

Still, the gown got us past the hurtle of her confessing
that she didn’t have anything to wear. Coming from another woman that would
have been an invitation for me to take her shopping. But this was proud, prickly
Emma. I winced at the thought of her reaction if I’d offered to do any such
thing.

Instead, I saved my energy to insist that she wear the
diamond-and-sapphire necklace and earrings from Margo’s jewelry collection. A
quick call to the estate lawyer and another to the insurance company took care
of the necessary paperwork.

As I assured her of that, I didn’t mention that I’d arranged
to purchase the set. I wanted her to have them permanently but I had to take
that one step at a time.

“Have I told you how beautiful you are?” I asked as I put my
hand over hers where it rested in the crook of my arm.

I still couldn’t believe that she’d agreed to come as
readily as she had. I had a whole argument prepared for why she should and if
that failed, I wouldn’t have been above pleading. Under no circumstances was I
going to let her go on feeling that she had anything in the least to be ashamed
of.

She turned her head and the full impact of that guileless
blue gaze hit me. The opulent ballroom, and the glittering men and women drawn
from the city’s elite who filled it all faded to insignificance. Nothing
mattered except the exquisite woman at my side.

The courage she showed in being there was humbling. But even
more so, I knew that in walking into that room, she was putting her trust in me,
if only for this moment, in this siutation. I wanted desperately to be worthy
of it.

Softly, she said, “Only several dozen times. You’re spoiling
me.”

“I want to,” I murmured. “If you’d let me.”

She frowned and started to reply but before she could, we
were interrupted.

“You made it!” Caroline exclaimed.

My sister was her usual gorgeous, irrepressible self. She
beamed a smile and wasted no time showing us to the table that I’d bought for
the charity event.

The guy she’d come with was waiting for her there. He looked
vaguely familiar. When she introduced him, she mentioned that he worked for one
of the big investment banks.

I gave him the once over and immediately wrote him off. He
was good looking, undoubtedly intelligent, and obviously fascinated by Caro.
But if that was all he had going for him, my sister would shrug him off without
a second thought.

She needed a challenge, among other things, the same as I
did. I’d found mine. Now all I had to do was figure out how to keep her.

Adam and his wife were already seated. My half-brother stood
as I introduced Emma. For a guy who liked to swing a big crane, he cleaned up
well. We looked enough alike to be taken for full siblings except Adam was
prettier than me, or so I liked to tell him. He’d done some modeling to help
pay for college and was still living that down.

“Very nice to meet you,” he said, his quick, assessing gaze
taking Emma in. He shot me a glance that spoke volumes starting with “You have
better taste than I gave you credit for” and going all the way to “Don’t screw
this up.”

Beside him, his wife smiled. Imogene was half-French,
half-West Indian, scary smart, and one of the nicest people I’d ever met.

“What a marvelous gown,” she said, looking at Emma with
frank admiration. “It’s a Pierre Balmain, mid-1950s, right?”

“That is right,” Emma replied as she took the chair I held
out for her. “How did you know?”

“I adore vintage clothes. However did you come by it?”

As they chatted, I breathed a quick sigh of relief. So far
so good. But the tough part was still ahead.

First though, I had the pleasure of watching Emma
interacting with members of my family. Jared and his date arrived and settled
in. Conversation around the table flowed easily with good humor and laughter. Adam
liked to joke that whichever table the Phelpses were at was always the cool
table. He wasn’t far wrong.

Only my mother was missing, which was probably just as well.
She would have realized in a heartbeat that Emma was outside my usual choice of
companions. As it was, perhaps by the time she got back from London I’d be
better positioned to deal with her inevitable curiosity.

My family could be exasperating and intrusive but I loved
and trusted them all. Seeing them wrap Emma in their collective approval made
me as proud of them as I was of her.

Before the appetizers were completed, a steady stream of men
and women began coming by to pay their respects. I didn’t kid myself, at heart these
people were sharks, ever alert to any change in their environment that could
signal opportunity or danger. Inevitably, some of them had recognized Emma. The
ripple of whispers traveling around the room clued in everyone else.

Generally, I tolerated the socializing requirements of my
job with as good grace as I could muster. But under the present circumstances,
I was positively congenial. I introduced Emma to each and every person who came
by, making sure that my body language and tone communicated that she and I were
very much together.

I had to hand it to my peeps, they didn’t need to have it
spelled out for them. Smiles flashed, voices purred, light banter was
exchanged. No one could have been more graciously received than the lady at my
side.

“Having fun?” I asked her during a brief interlude when we
were able to enjoy the lavish meal and engage in a little private conversation.

“I am,” she said with a wry smile. “Your effect on people is
remarkable.”

I lapped up the praise while trying not to let on what it meant
to me. With a shrug, I said, “Don’t give me too much credit. You’re a gorgeous,
fascinating woman. People just needed to see you in a different light, that’s
all.”

“Your light, a reflection of you.”

Uh-oh, that wasn’t good. “Think of it as a starting point,”
I said quickly. “As they get to know you better, they’ll appreciate you for
yourself.”

She touched my arm and the sensation radiated all through
me. Softly, she said, “It’s not that I’m ungrateful. On the contrary, you’ve
worked a miracle.”

I could have said something really sappy like “You’re the
miracle” but I restrained myself. Barely.

Instead, I kissed her. Right there at the table, my hand
cupping the nape of her neck, I drew her to me. I desperately needed to fuck
her and I couldn’t, not then and there. So I did the next best thing. My mouth
claimed hers, my tongue thrusting deep, twining with hers. I was drunk on the
taste and scent of the woman I couldn’t get enough of.

When I finally broke away, we were both gasping. Everyone
else at the table was carefully looking anywhere but at us. Well aware of how
close I’d come to losing all control, I said, “Let’s dance.”

Emma in my arms, the two of us moving to the music, calmed
me somewhat. But her bare shoulders and the swell of her breasts left exposed
by the low, strapless neckline were a major distraction, not to mention the
soft, enticing feel of her body pressed against mine. Despite all that, I was
determined to keep my head in the game, reminding myself where we were and why
we were there.

Except I couldn’t. Visions of her naked, spread out on our
bed, her nipples hard and her pussy glistening with her arousal, danced in my
head. We were in the Waldorf frigging Astoria, for god’s sake. There had to be
more than a thousand beds right above our heads. Not to mention a vast
assortment of other horizontal surfaces. A quick swipe of my credit card and
we’d have exactly what we needed.

“Let’s get a room,” I murmured.

She leaned her head back a little and stared at me. “You’re
kidding, right?”

I angled my hips, pressing my erection against her. “Does it
feel like I’m kidding?”

Her eyes dilated, the lids suddenly heavy. When she rubbed
along my length, I groaned.

“No,” she murmured, “it doesn’t. But they haven’t served
dessert yet and besides, what would your family think?”

“Trust me, sweetheart, they’ll understand.”

I truly believed that which just goes to show what a naïve
fuck I was because right then, at that exact moment, Adam appeared at my side.

“You don’t mind if I cut in, do you bro’?” he asked with a
grin that said he knew exactly the state I was in.

Before I could tell him to go to hell, Emma was in his
arms—at a proper distance, I was glad to see—and I was left standing there,
silently cursing him.

It didn’t stop there. After Adam had his dance, Jared had to
have his. Emma cast me an apologetic smile over his shoulder but she looked too
damn happy for me to haul her away.

My dear bros were perfectly capable of keeping up the
torture for hours. Obviously, I couldn’t trust her anywhere near them. Finally,
after what felt like an eternity, I had her in my arms again.

Bending my head, I swiped the tip of my tongue along the
shell of her ear, and murmured, “Let’s go home.”

We made it back to the Arcadia without giving Isaac any
reason to run off the road, if just barely. As we stumbled into the elevator
clinging to each other, I said, “This is insane. I’ve never felt this way about
any woman. You’ve bewitched me.”

“You’ve got it the wrong way around,” she murmured as her
teeth raked along my jaw. “The magic is all yours.”

Her hands went to my belt and tugged. She had it loose
before I barely realized what was happening.

Elevator sex! Oh, hell, yes. Emma on her knees, my cock in
her mouth, I was so frigging up for that.

Or I would have been if this had still been the 1950s, that
golden age when security cameras were just a far-off gleam in the eye of J.
Edgar Hoover wannabes.

“Wait,” I gasped.

Her cheeks were flushed, her glorious breasts rising and
falling above the shimmering blue silk. She looked at me like I was out of my
mind, which wasn’t far from the truth.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because there are a couple of guys downstairs in the
security office right now who are about to fall off their chairs.”

She let out an adorable little yelp. In an instant, she was
on the other side of the elevator, as far away from me as she could get.

“Oh, my heavens,” she murmured.

I glanced up in the general direction of where the camera
was likely to be and grinned. “Sorry, boys,” I mouthed.

I was fumbling for the key to the apartment as we stepped
out into the mirrored foyer but I never got to it. As soon as the elevator
doors closed behind us, Emma slipped to her knees in front of me.

My heart stopped before starting up again triple time. I’d been
waiting for this, wanting it but I hadn’t realized how much she was, too. The
look in her eyes…curious, eager, eternally female robbed me of breath. She was
as greedy as I was, lusting for me.

I was a goner.

In the mirrors to the side, I could see us both, Emma
kneeling before me, her luscious breasts swelling above the blue silk gown,
soft tendrils of honey blond hair falling over the nape of her neck, and myself,
a dark presence above her, still fully dressed but with my trousers open and my
cock jutting out. A barbarian in evening dress, demanding his due.

I was hard already and I got even more so the moment she
touched me. Her fingers were soft and warm, stroking me just the way she
already knew that I liked, along my shaft, circling my crest. I bit back a
groan when she leaned forward and followed the same path with the tip of her
tongue.

“Damn, sweetheart,” I moaned and cupped my hands around her
head, drawing her closer.

She obliged at once, her soft, full lips closing around me.
She was a little tentative at first, which to my surprise I liked, but she was
definitely game. Holding my shaft with both hands, she sucked my tip, first
gently then more urgently.

Her touch felt like a lightning bolt straight up my spine. My
pre-cum gushed and I was helpless to stop it. She swirled her tongue around my
crest, lapping up every drop, all the while gazing up at me with those huge
blue eyes filled with carnal appreciation.

She looked beyond beautiful, sexy as hell, feminine,
powerful, and so desirable that my whole body throbbed with need for her. What
she lacked in practiced skill, she more than made up for in enthusiasm and
attention to detail.

Quick flicks of her tongue followed by long laps against the
sensitive underside of my crest turned my blood molten. When her fist closed
around my shaft and began pumping in time to the suction of her mouth, I had to
lock my knees in order to stay upright.

My hands tightened in her hair even as I fought the urge to
take over. She was setting the pace and holy, shit, it was great. I didn’t want
to do anything to discourage, let alone alarm her. I just wanted to—

Oh, fuck! She sucked harder as her hand pumped my shaft, slick
with my pre-cum. Her mouth was so hot, so wet, drawing me deeper. My balls were
so goddamn tight. I could have sworn that there were shooting stars around the
edge of my vision.

“Emma,” I managed to gasp, “I’m going to come. If you don’t
want—”

It was the last even semi-coherent thought I had before she
made it crystal clear exactly what she did want. Her palm cupped my balls, one
finger stroking my seam, and that tongue—

The orgasm that ripped through me had been gathering for
hours. It clenched every muscle in my body and reverberated through every bone.
Hell, the whole building felt as though it was shaking.

In the midst of it, I saw us reflected in the mirrors, Emma
in a pool of blue silk at my feet, my cock in her astounding mouth, and myself,
captured, held, milked, and deeply, humbly, profoundly grateful to her for it.

When she’d had all of me, she sat back and licked the
corners of her mouth as I stared at her, dazed and fascinated.

Our eyes met. She smiled a little shyly and murmured, “I
hope that was all right?”

The fact that she could possibly have any doubt was the
biggest surprise in a night full of them. I only just managed to control myself
and lift her to her feet.

 “You are the most amazing, exquisite, sensual woman I’ve
ever known,” I said fervently. “Now come to bed so I can show you how much I
appreciate what you just did.”

A soft blush crept over her cheeks. Her hand gently stroked
my face. I bent into her touch, luxuriating in it. How could I feel at once
still so intensely aroused and so at peace? That was the mystery of the woman,
one I wanted to spend the rest of my life solving.

But first what I wanted most was to bury my face between her
soft, sleek thighs and drive her mad with pleasure.