Gateway to Heaven (17 page)

“
Hi, sunshine,” Christian greeted with a small smile after taking in her appearance appreciatively. He reached up and rubbed a curl between his fingers in what was becoming a familiar gesture. Megan smiled, taking in his casual, sexy jeans and untucked white T-shirt, this time with a logo that merely read
Purple
.

“
What’s so funny?” Christian asked as they took the elevator down to the garage.

“
Your T-shirts. I keep meaning to ask you what they mean, but I never get around to it.”

He glanced down in surprise, not even remembering what he’d pulled on after he’d showered. “Oh.
Purple
is this really cool art periodical that gets published in Paris. It’s got all the latest trends in painting, music, sculpture, and writing. About a year ago, I discovered that they even have a little store with some great stuff in it from up and coming Parisian artists. You’d really like it,” Christian said as he opened the passenger door for her.

“
You mean all of your T-shirts are names of places you’ve been?” Megan asked a few minutes later as they drove out of the parking garage.

“
Some of them, I guess,” Christian said as he expertly maneuvered his car up the garage ramp. He drove a sleek sedan, a luxurious car that strangely suited him perfectly.

Seth was supposed to meet them at the valet park on Walton Street. When he wasn’t there, the valet service eventually shooed them off. Christian called Seth’s cell phone and left a message that they would meet him in the lobby of the Four Seasons. Seth wasn’t there either, though, so Christian said they should just go up to his suite. Megan thought she heard Christian mumble under his breath. “Probably out cold. Doubt he slept a wink last night.”

“
What about the one that said
Heaven’s Gate
?” Megan wondered idly when they got on the elevator.

His brow crinkled in consternation until he recalled her comment about his T-shirts. “
Heaven’s Gate
? Oh, I got that shirt at some cheesy tourist shop in L.A. I don’t know what it referred to exactly, but it got my imagination going. I mean it would be different for everyone, wouldn’t it?”

“
What?” Megan wondered, confused by his meaning. They got off the elevator and she followed Christian down the hallway to the end penthouse suite.

“
The gateway to heaven,” he said with a shrug. “It would be different in everyone’s mind. For one person, it might be a place, for another person, it might be an experience, and for another, it might be another person.
Heaven’s Gate
—sort of like, whatever the initiatory experience would be to get entrance to your own personal nirvana.”

Megan was watching him thoughtfully when he glanced over at her and grinned. Her heart squeezed in her chest.

“
Didn’t know I thought about so many deep and useless things, did you?” he whispered with amusement, his eyes sparkling. He leaned down close to her. They’d reached Seth’s door and he knocked, his gaze still locked on her.

She shook her head. “Sometimes, it seems like I’ll never know all of you.”

“
You know what counts, Megan,” he whispered.

Her pulse began to throb at her throat when she saw the way his blue eyes had fixed hungrily on her mouth. He leaned subtly closer. Her body mirrored his movement, swaying into him, her neck craning up while his stretched down to her. His lips felt firm and warm when they brushed against hers softly…slowly, as though he were memorizing every sensation of her.

It was a non-threatening, questing kiss. She loved it, but she found herself craving more…more of the taste of Christian, more of his long, hard body pressed against her, more of his boundless passion. She put her hands on his shoulders and slid her tongue along the seam of his lips. He groaned and reached for her, pulling her tightly against his body. He tasted delicious.

How could a man taste so
good
? She wondered dazedly as she went up on her tiptoes and craned up for more of him.

As he deepened their kiss Megan vaguely became aware that she heard something other than the hushed silence of the plush hotel corridor. Sounds of passion entered their awareness: the rhythmic rocking of a headboard against the wall, a rough groan of intense arousal, a feminine cry segueing into a pleading chant.

They stilled against each other’s lips as they realized what they were hearing. Megan opened her eyes and realized that Christian was watching her.

His stare on her burned.

For a few erotic seconds, their kiss deepened, becoming wild and hungry before Megan moaned softly and broke it off.

“
Christian, come away,” she whispered anxiously. He peeled his gaze off her and banged loudly on the door.

“
Meet us in the lobby, you two. And hurry it up, will you?” he yelled jokingly. Megan was horrified, but Christian only laughed when he heard a slight pause in Seth and Sarah’s lovemaking, followed by an even lustier resumption.

* * * *

Christian was so caught up in his own amusement and the sense of happiness that he felt for his two friends, he didn’t realize how distracted Megan was until they found a plush, private couch to sit on that faced an impressionist painting and a table with two fresh flower arrangements set in large, Chinese porcelain vases.

“
What’s wrong?” he asked when he realized Megan was avoiding eye contact with him. Suddenly he froze.

God, he was such a jerk. Maybe hearing Seth and Sarah make love had frightened Megan in some way. But she shook her head distractedly and Christian realized she was just flustered, not seriously upset.

“
It’s just…embarrassing,” she murmured.

Christian reached into the glorious loose waves of her hair and rubbed her neck, wanting to soothe her…
needing
to touch her.

“
Don’t be embarrassed. Making love is completely natural and in Seth and Sarah’s case, beautiful too, because they’re so much in love and they’ve waited for so long.”

She met his gaze fleetingly, than glanced away. Something about her furtiveness made him re-interpret her reaction. His fingers stilled in their soothing stroking motions, then resumed after a moment.

“
Did you mean that it was embarrassing because you got turned on when you heard them making love at the same time we were kissing?” he asked in a hushed, intimate tone.

“
No,” Megan denied immediately. Color flooded her cheeks once again. When she spoke, Christian had to lean over to catch her mumbled words. “I mean, yes, but I wasn’t…aroused thinking about Seth and Sarah. I was hearing them…but I was thinking about…us.”

Christian swallowed to try and still the heartbeat that suddenly pounded in his ears. “You were thinking about us making love?” he asked with a calmness he was far from feeling. Megan gave a small nod and Christian felt her hair gliding across his hand in every cell of his being.

He wanted to take her in his arms and hold her; he wanted to drive her back to his loft this very second and lose himself in her for the rest of the night. Hell, he wanted to forgo the car ride home and take her upstairs to a hotel room, lay her down naked on a soft bed and proceed to familiarize himself with every delectable inch of her silky skin using his fingertips and his tongue.

But of course he did none of those things. Instead, he kissed her temple and murmured next to her ear, “Thank you.”

Her discomfort disappeared, replaced by curiosity. “For what?”

“
For your honesty.”

Her eyes searched his for any traces of that he might be laughing at her. What she saw seemed to reassure her. “It’s not the first time I’ve thought about it,” she whispered.

His quirked his right eyebrow. “No?”

“
No.”

“
Well that makes two of us.” He pressed his forehead against hers. He began stroking the back of her skull. Megan moaned softly.

“
When you think about us making love, what are we doing?” he coaxed.

Her eyes fluttered open and then closed again as he continued his scalp massage. “Making love. I told you.”

“
There are lots of ways to make love, Megan. Every time I kiss or touch you, I’m making love to you.”

“
Oh…I see.”

“
But I’m still in the dark. So tell me what
you
think about,” he said as he pulled her closer on the couch.

She smiled and buried her face in his neck. He held her. He loved the way she felt in his arms—so soft…so sweet.

“
Has anyone ever told you that you have a really dirty mind, Christian?”

He chuckled. she pressed closer to his chest, as if she liked the sound.

“
When it comes to
you
? Crazy? Yeah. Besotted? You bet. Horny? No need to belabor the obvious. But
dirty
? Do I really have to be defined that way?” he asked with mock hurt.

“
Poor baby,” she chuckled into his chest.

He smiled wider. He experienced a yearning to stay here with Megan all night, contentedly holding her and absorbing her laughter.

“
I’m not very experienced about sex,” she murmured.

“
I figured.”

“
It’s that obvious?” she murmured.

He shrugged. He’d rather she looked at him while they talked about this, but he knew she was doing what felt the safest for her. “What difference does it make? I like everything about you.”

She lifted her head and met his gaze. “You do?”

He nodded slowly. “I only stayed away for all those days because I was trying to figure it all out about you.”

“
And did you…figure anything out, I mean?”

“
I definitely figured out that it wasn’t one or two things I liked about you. It’s pretty much every damn thing.”

Her small smile entranced him. “Oh…well in that case, I only brought up my inexperience because my fantasies about making love might not be very…you know, sophisticated.”

Christian scowled. He wanted to tell her that he could care less about sophistication, but he didn’t want to interrupt her because she seemed to be on an honesty roll. He told himself that his interest in what she said was purely clinical. After all, her sexual fantasies would automatically give him a clue how she felt safest with a man, as well as what types of situations or actions might conversely cause anxiety.

It was crucial information if they should ever make love.

But he also admitted it was also one of the most erotic, singular experiences he’d ever had in his life to listen to this shy, unique woman conquer her fears with desire and speak to him so bravely and openly.

He watched her bite her full, dark pink lower lip nervously. He suspected he might be panting. He hoped Megan didn’t notice.

“
I’m sure it won’t be that exciting to you,” she said hesitantly.

Trust me, I’ll think it’s exciting.

“
I want to know what
you
think is exciting,” he said out loud.

“
I-I think of you touching and kissing my breasts,” she whispered shakily.

Christian nodded reassuringly.

“…
and…and uh…sucking on them, too. I liked that.”

He grunted with profound agreement.

“
I think of your weight on top of me, having you inside of me…”

“
Uh huh,” Christian encouraged when she trailed off, hanging on her every syllable.

“
Filling me up,” Megan finished.

“
Okay,” Christian scraped out after a tension-filled pause.

“
And you’re sort of, whispering to me, talking to me while you’re…moving inside of me.” She misunderstood his glazed expression and thought he hadn’t understood. “Like you do sometimes when you kiss me, when you tell me how I feel to you, when you say what you’d like to be doing to me.”

“
You like it when I talk to you that way?”

“
I
love
it,” she blurted out.

“
Christ, Megan—”

“
What the hell kept you two so long?” Seth interrupted drolly.

Christian gave a low growl of profound frustration when Megan started and stood up abruptly. He leaned over and rested his forehead in his palm, vaguely aware of the three others greeting one another. He pulled his keys from the front pocket of his jeans and asked Megan to show everyone to the car.

“
Pick me up at the valet in a few minutes,” he directed her when Megan took the keys.

“
Why aren’t you coming?” Megan asked, confused.

Seth laughed. “Come on, Megan. He’ll be good as new in a minute or two.”

“
Serves you right, too, for interrupting us earlier,” Seth said in a low voice when Sarah and Megan began to walk away through the lobby. When Christian scowled at him, Seth added with malicious amusement, “Just think really
cold
thoughts, Chris.”