Read Online Caress Part Three (Arcadia Book 3) by Josie Litton - Free Book Online

could possess, I was
about to hurtle my cell into the nearest wall when the doors at the front of
the apartment opened. The object of all my frustration and concern walked in.

Chapter Ten
     

Emma
     
    “Where have you been?” Lucas demanded. He was standing in
the center of the living room. His suit jacket hung open, exposing the hard
expanse of his chest beneath the crisp white business shirt and a tie that must
have been tugged on multiple times. His dark, thick hair was mussed, as though
he’d been running his hands through it.
    But it was the look in his eyes that made my breath catch. The
scorching mix of fury and fear radiating from him shocked me. Before its
impact, I felt stripped bare. How could I possibly hope to hide anything from
him?
    Somehow, I had to find away. If I didn’t, he would walk into
deadly danger. Hell, being Lucas, he’d run.
    Turning to shut the doors behind me, I tried to compose
myself. When I looked back at him, he had calmed somewhat but his gaze was
still intense.
    Deliberately keeping my voice low, I said, “I had lunch with
Caroline and Imogene, remember?”
    “You should have been back here long before now,” he
snapped. “Why weren’t you?”
    My back stiffened. I’d understood virtually from the moment
we met that Lucas was a true alpha male. While I didn’t doubt for a moment that
he genuinely respected women as fully competent, equal human beings, he was
unapologetically driven to command and protect. To my great surprise, a part of
me responded to that. Powerfully.
    And another part didn’t. Firmly, I said, “What could
possibly make you think that I should account to you for every moment of my
time?”
    I held my ground as he advanced toward me from across the
room, but only barely. The quiver that started low down in my belly spread
quickly. I could feel my nipples hardening even as my breath became shallower
and more urgent.
    Close enough to touch me, he stopped. His hands rested on
his lean hips, pushing the suit jacket further apart. Glancing down, I couldn’t
help seeing that, like me, he was becoming aroused.
    “Something spooked you yesterday,” he said. His tone was
unrelenting. He wasn’t giving an inch. On the contrary, by all evidence, he
intended for us to have it out there and then.
    “You wouldn’t tell me what it was,” he continued, “and now
you disappear for several hours. I couldn’t even reach you. How do you think that
makes me feel?”
    For a moment, I was at a loss for words. The flip side of
being so unused to anyone caring about me was that I had no practice in being
responsible to another person. But I couldn’t pretend not to see his point of
view.
    “I’m sorry you were worried,” I said sincerely. “I turned my
phone off before lunch. I’ll have to remember to keep it on.”
    My regret was real but the rest wasn’t. If my father was
serious about my going with him, I didn’t imagine for a moment that I’d be
allowed to keep my cell phone. Later, once I’d gained his trust and learned
where he’d moved the money that he’d come back for, I’d find a way to get in
touch with the authorities. Whether Lucas would still want to talk to me at
that point remained to be seen.
    I hated lying to him even more than I hated him not
realizing that I was doing so. The fear that I might be as skilled at deception
as my father was made me feel ill.
    Despite the tightness in my throat, I couldn’t look away
from him. The taut set of his mouth and the jagged pulse that had leaped to
life in his jaw suggested a measure of concern far beyond any I could account
for.
    Without really thinking through what I was inviting, I said,
“You weren’t so tense this morning.”
    A snort of disbelief escaped him. Bluntly, he said, “I’ve
got news for you, baby. No guy can manage to be tense that soon after coming as
many times as I did in you last night. Or have you forgotten about that?”
    My cheeks flamed. After the kitchen, after the