The Sweet Caress by Roberta Latow Page A

sheriff hadn’t seen until now. She realised that Jessica had cleverly hidden the power of her personality until she was ready for people to know her for what she truly was. The resident of Rose Cottage was in total control of her life. Bridget felt proud to call her her friend but had no doubt that one day Jessica’s past would come back for her. When it did, Bridget would be there for her.
    The sheriff, like everyone else in town, waited to see how Jessica Johnson was going to change her lifestyle now that she had her money. They waited in vain. Except for depositing all her money in an account at Jamie Dunwoody’s bank, going on a shopping spree for clothes at the arcade, opening an account with a Wall Street stock brokering house, buying a case of champagne from Terry Brothers, the best of the local vintners, and a Christmas tree, her life went on as before.
    Jessica kept her jobs, including filling in at Wiggin’s Tavern – the Christmas season was on and she wouldn’t let them down. She worked overtime at the Atwood Arcade which was frantically busy, and started work with Tom Salinger. She did, however, give two weeks’ notice to the supermarket because they had a waiting list of job hunterswho needed the money more than she did now.
    What she did not do was join the country club. Nor did she accept any of the invitations sent to her by the more affluent and academic members of the community, or even the Christmas Eve invitation from Jamie, Bridget, and Cissie.
    The college was about to break up for the Christmas holidays and the town seemed to be buzzing with people making ready to travel. Parties were going on everywhere. The Christmas decorations, evergreen and holly, red satin ribbons, silver balls and tinsel, and the snow on the ground added to the festive atmosphere and made for a picture postcard Christmas in New England. Jessica had never seen it before and she revelled in it.
    She and Luke had seen each other a few times since the dinner at the dean’s house. The attraction between them had not ebbed. He took her to small, intimate restaurants outside town where they dined in front of log fires and talked about anything and everything except themselves. Then they usually went home to his house and made love.
    With each sexual encounter they went that little bit further to find more imaginative ways to feed their craving for erotic fulfilment. They were at that point in their sex lives where the ego dies and the pure pleasure of sex takes over. They were on a high engendered by great sex but they were still cautious in their affection and love for each other. His bad marriage and Jessica’s disappointments in love demanded circumspection. But slowly, almost imperceptibly, Luke’s courtship of Jessica was winning her over. He knew it, she didn’t. All Jessica knew was that they were good together, a free and independent man and woman having the best of times, and she was happier than she had ever expected to be again.
    Luke and Tom Salinger were due to join her at Rose Cottage for Christmas dinner on Christmas night. The more she saw Tom, the more she liked him. He had a sparklingintelligence, too esoteric for most but which Jessica seemed able to relate to. As a scholar he was respected and admired for his accomplishments as a serious Chinese historian, as a man his private life was whispered about throughout the college.
    Most rumours about Tom derived from a book he had written,
Depraved Love
, that had made the New York Times bestseller list and remained there for twenty-two weeks. Translated into several languages, it was considered the definitive work on sexuality. Its premise was that sexuality in its purest and varied forms was all. He believed in and lived the loveless fuck.
    On Jessica’s second meeting with Tom he gave her a copy of his book with the comment, ‘Because I have such little time to woo a lady to bed, whenever I am interested in her I have only to give her a copy of my book and