Gateway to Heaven (25 page)

Her mouth fell open in shock. “I slapped you. I said you were manipulative and…sneaky,” she reminded him.

“
Christ
.” He swept back his tousled hair with restless fingers. His eyes blazed when he looked at her again. “I was mad in the beginning, that’s true. But deep down, I knew that you were running scared. I even understood why. I got it.”

“
So what’s wrong?” she asked with mounting uneasiness.

“
What’s wrong?” he asked, incredulous that she would ask such a question when the answer was so obvious. “What’s wrong is that I
got
it. I
understood
why you were so upset. But I didn’t pause and listen. I didn’t listen to my better nature. What’s
wrong
is that I made love to you for the first time in anger…on a couch… I hadn’t even taken a shower, for God’s sake,” He paused for a moment, seeming to choke on his words. “I knew what the consequences were, and I just went ahead anyway. Heaven forbid that anyone else’s needs should stop me when I was fully cocked and loaded and ready to go.”

For a few seconds, Megan just stared at him in amazement. But when understanding dawned, her disbelief turned to anger.

“
Don’t you
dare
, Christian Lasher.” His eyes widened slightly when he heard the low fury vibrating her voice.

Tears flooded her eyes, but she’d never been so angry in her life. When she saw his confusion, her anger only amplified. She pointed at him accusingly.

“
Don’t you
dare
put down last night. It was special and rare. Maybe you’re thinking I’m not much of an expert, but I can only tell you how I feel. If you’re even concerned about that at this point, instead of being wrapped up in some fantasy of how you
think
I should feel.”

He looked slain.

“
How…how
do
you feel?” he asked slowly after a moment.

He sat up straighter, his gaze narrowing on her. Megan noticed the subtle shift in him and she paused in the midst of her tirade. She became aware that he was suddenly listening with focused attention. It made her voice soften, but her shoulders were still held back stiffly.

“
You made me feel like a very desirable woman. It was what I needed. It was what I needed more than anything.”

“
I wasn’t gentle with you.”

“
You were
perfect
with me.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke. Both of them were both seeing memories of their lovemaking in the other’s eyes.

“
I could have hurt you,” he ground out, raw emotion vibrating his voice.

“
But you didn’t, Christian. Not until you walked out the door after I’d just experienced the most…” Megan’s voice dropped suddenly as shyness overwhelmed her.

He was on the edge of the couch now. “The most what?”

Megan gave a helpless shrug and several tears spilled down her cheek. “The most everything. You made me come alive. Maybe you think it should have been another way. I don’t know about any of that. But the way you loved me was honest, and passionate, and…so good.” Her voice broke. “Maybe caution was what was called for, but it’s not what I
needed
. I needed just what you gave me. All of yourself.
No
half-measures. You burned me until I was clean and whole again.”

He made a ragged sound.

One second, they were feet apart, and the next, she was in his arms.

He held her face with one hand and sipped the tears from her cheeks. He kissed her eyelids, and her forehead, and her nose with passionate tenderness. When Megan opened her eyes she saw that his eyes were blazing, but moist with emotion.

“
I’ve been feeling guilty.”

“
I know.”

Her fingertips traced his sleek goatee. “Maybe…” She paused for a second uncertainly. Christian watched in rapt fascination as her tongue anxiously licked at the full lower lip that he’d begun to picture regularly in his fantasies. “Maybe if we did it again, you would know that everything is okay.”

The smile that ghosted his mouth made desire snake through her all the way from her throat to the juncture of her thighs.

“
How is it that you keep seducing me with so much finesse, honey, when you’re supposed to be the inexperienced one?”

“
I wasn’t… I didn’t…”

He grinned crookedly and ducked his head to kiss her softly, then with increasing desire. Megan’s head swam under the influence of his familiar, intoxicating scent and taste. She didn’t like to think about how just this morning, she’d wondered if she’d ever taste him again. The memory made her savor him. She slicked her tongue along his straight, white teeth. She sought deeply in his mouth, curious about what lay just behind her tongue’s reach. He moaned and she swallowed, making his desire her own.

He spread his large hands, his pinky finger sunk into her waist, his middle fingers studied the structure of her ribcage and his thumbs caressed the swells of the lower curve of her breasts.

“
I love how you’re made” he said gruffly while his lips molded hers. “You’re so small, I feel like I’m holding your heart in my hands.”

“
You are,” she whispered. “You are.”

“
Megan,” he muttered with feeling. He took her hand. She followed him down the hallway.

“
I’ll have to take your word for it that you really did like making love on the couch last night. But for my part, I require a bed to make as free with you as I plan.” His eyes sparked with both amusement and desire as he looked back at her. “Not that my bed is likely to be big enough either.”

Megan smiled at his sexy playfulness, but a flicker of concern shadowed her features. “You did like it on the couch, didn’t you?”

He rolled his eyes in amused exasperation. “Haven’t you been listening? If I liked it any more than I did, I probably would have had to add starving you to death to my list of crimes.”

“
What does starving me have to do with it?”

He continued leading her down a short, dark hallway. Despite the dimness, Megan saw heat crowd the humor out of his blue eyes.

“
Because I was sorely at risk of keeping you on that couch and making love to you until we were both too exhausted, or dehydrated, or starved to move.”

“
Really?” Megan murmured with prurient interest. As he guided her into his bedroom, she smiled. “That
would
have been rather poor planning on our part.”

Christian glanced back over his large bedroom, which Megan noticed was decorated with the same clean lines and Asian influence that was evidenced in the living room. “Do you think I should bring in an emergency supply of food and water?”

“
Uh uh,” Megan murmured distractedly. She was focused on unbuttoning the soft blue shirt he wore. She felt his indrawn breath when she raked her fingers over his exposed chest. “I love death by chocolate. I can just imagine how much I’m going to love death by Christian Lasher.”

He looked vaguely surprised and very aroused. “I believe you’re becoming a bit wanton,” he drawled.

Megan flushed, pleased and embarrassed at once. There was little doubt which feeling won out, though, when she leaned forward and touched her tongue to the coppery disc of Christian’s nipple. Air rushed past his lips audibly. Megan teased him with her tongue, than applied suction.

Christian watched her with naked desire through the slits of his eyelids. Megan’s full, succulent lips had long driven him to distraction. Watching them thus engaged with his appreciative nipple was an image and sensation that brought him to full, leaden arousal almost instantly. He remained still, however, even when she leaned back and examined him.

“
They’re like mine?” she asked in wonderment.

Christian exhaled slowly, trying to still an almost overwhelming desire to strip her bare and slide inside her immediately. Maybe it would be best to get this pounding pressure out of his system once and for all, so that they could enjoy each other with a least a measure of lucidity. He shook his head slightly to clear his lust driven thoughts. Why didn’t he have an ounce of restraint when it came to Megan?

“
Yours are a lot more beautiful than mine,” he replied gruffly. “If you’re asking if it feels sweet as hell when you touch me there, though, the answer is yes.”

“
Oh.”

“
Megan?”

“
Yes?” Her eyes were lambent when they met his.

“
You know that I’m crazy about you, don’t you?”

Her full lower lip fell away from its mate. “I was sort of hoping that you were,” she finally said faintly. He traced the expanding, delicate pink flush on her cheek with his thumb. He leaned down and kissed the smooth skin reverently.

“
I never knew blushing could be sexy until I met you.”

She rolled her eyes and blushed more. He laughed and reached for her top, gently lifting it over her head. He felt like he was unwrapping an exquisite gift. He shrugged out of his own shirt, his eyes glued to the image of her breasts in a white, lacy bra. He began to unbutton his jeans, but he was distracted.

“
Take off your bra.
Please
,” he added when he realized how unintentionally rough his voice had gone with arousal.

She reached around and unhooked the clasp and let the bra fall heedlessly to the floor. They both went completely still as Christian’s gaze fastened on her as hungrily. Her breasts were pale and full and erotically vulnerable in their nakedness. Christian couldn’t understand how her flesh could inspire such a paradoxical urge for tenderness and animal lust in him. The hand at his fly pressed at the worsening ache of his erection.

“
Your skirt?” he managed to get out of a constricted throat.

She fumbled with the buttons and zipper at the back of her skirt and let it join her bra on the floor. Before Christian requested it, she pushed her panties down her hips and shimmied out of them. She stepped daintily out of her slide-on sandals and out of her skirt at the same time. When she started to reach for Christian’s jeans to help him undress, since he seemed temporarily frozen, he backed away from her a step. He craned his neck over and kissed her on the mouth.

“
Go lay down on the bed.”

His eyes ate up the sight of her as she walked in front of him. Her waist was small and the line of her spine was elegant. His eyes narrowed when he saw two adorable dimples at her lower back. The feminine curve of her hips and the rounded, firm flesh of her bottom was enough to make Christian’s fists clench in barely restrained anticipation.

He reclined next to her on the bed and immediately began to ravish the fragrant skin at her neck with his lips. Her scent filled his nose, making him drunk with longing.

He groaned when her fingertips skimmed across his shoulders and back. Her light touch sent a convulsion of pleasure through him. When he felt her mouth move feverishly against his temple, he gave a low groan and rolled on top of her. He sipped at her earlobe—a rare delicacy—and savored the sensation of her pearl earrings between his lips and tongue.

“
I’ve wanted to do that for so long,” he whispered in her ear. He caressed her bare arms, soothing her when she shivered.

Her hands moved to the top of his jeans, but he stilled her by placing his hand over hers. “Aren’t you going to get undressed?” she asked, sounding a little desperate.

“
Yes. After I do this.”

“
Do what?” Megan asked shakily.

“
Taste every inch of your skin,” Christian muttered into her ear with lazy desire.

“
Oh.” She trembled again beneath him as he kissed her. “I…I never knew my ear was quite so…sensitive.”

He smiled and transferred his attention to her neck. He sought out every erogenous zone on her body. His fingertips, lips and the tip of his tongue were his instruments, but Megan’s catchy sighs and whimpers of pleasure were his guide. He patiently mapped out all her erogenous zones—the patch of skin on the underside her elbow joint, the sides of her ribs, the sublime curve of her hip. He thought she’d hesitate when he told her to turn over, but she followed his order with an alacrity that stunned him.

Pleased him.

He charted that new, glorious territory, burying his nose in her silky, fragrant skin, relishing her low moans. By the time he gently spread her thighs, he could hear her soft, uneven pants.

“
It’s okay. I only want you to feel good. Do you trust me?” he asked her raggedly.

“
Yes.”

He lowered his head and coated his lips in her essence. He closed his eyes and groaned. It was like he’d waited for the taste of her forever. He had never experienced anything so sweet—suddenly knew all the way to the core of his bones that he never would again.

God didn’t grant miracles twice.

A while later he lifted his head, dazed by the sound of her desperate moans. How much time had passed?

He’d been drowning in her.