by Lisa Plumley
“How does this feel to you, Meg? How does it—God, I can scarcely speak…what do you feel now, right now?”
He caressed her, and her nipple puckered against his hand. Beset with longing, Megan swayed against the rail behind her, all her attention focused on the sweetness rushing through her. Finally, she blinked and managed to formulate an answer.
“You—you wasted your last question to ask me how I feel when you touch me?”
Gabriel nodded, intensely serious.
“I feel….” Her breath escaped her on a ragged sigh. “I feel as though I could touch the stars, as though I have such wondrous, soaring strength right now that I could pluck one from the sky and hold it in my hand. And I feel—” She paused, licked her lips. “—I feel as though I want to take you with me when I do it.”
I feel loved, she thought, and found herself too afraid to say the words.
His smile was a gift, a promise…a delight. “I don’t need stars to fill my hands,” Gabriel murmured, tightening his arm around her waist. Gently, he rubbed his thumb over her beaded nipple, drawing new shivers from her. “I’m already holding everything I want in the world.”
The husky truth in his voice brought a prickle of tears to her eyes—and, along with them, a smile. “You have a romantic soul inside you, Gabriel Winter. Who would have guessed it, with all this roughness outside to hide it?”
She ran her hands along his arms, moving upward over his crumpled shirt and the corded muscles beneath, then touched his shoulders. Bravely, Megan lowered her hands as Gabriel had done. Heat filled her palms. His naked chest rose on an indrawn breath, making his scattering of dark hairs tickle her fingers. She gave a delighted laugh and smoothed the swirls beneath her thumbs.
She looked into his face and saw that his gaze was fastened on her hands. Through half-shuttered lids, he watched her stroke him. Megan’s stomach pitched with excitement when she recognized what his expression meant.
He desired her. Wanted her to touch him.
Maybe even as much as she wanted him to touch her in return.
“I’m not so rough,” he said, forming slow, squeezing circles over her breast as he spoke. “At least not all over.”
“You’re not?” Puzzled—and intrigued—Megan cocked her head and examined the hard body at her fingertips. Experimentally, she pushed her finger at the wall of his chest. “You seem as though you are to me.”
His midnight smile returned. “You haven’t discovered all of me yet.”
As though in demonstration, he briefly withdrew his hands from her. Grasping the gaping edges of his shirt, Gabriel gave it a mighty yank. Buttons popped and flew, scattering over the balcony’s stone floor. Moments later, his shirt hung open at his sides, stirring in the breeze that washed over them both. He stood before her with his chest bared.
She stared in wonder. Having touched him, having felt him, Megan was no stranger to the angles and form of Gabriel’s body. But this…this was different, somehow. Intimate and exciting. With a question in her eyes, she looked up at him.
“Suddenly, I find myself keenly interested in exploring,” she said, smiling over her own boldness. It was as though her entire sense of propriety had deserted her upon bestowing her knight with his well-earned boon, and now she had nothing left save curiosity, and need. “Can I…touch you?”
“God, yes.”
He moved closer again. Their bodies touched, chest to chest, as Gabriel pulled her into another kiss. More kisses followed, each one more fervent than the last. Gasping, Megan threw herself into the circle of his arms, all-but climbing his trouser-clad legs in an effort to come nearer and nearer still. Gabriel filled her senses, setting her body awhirl with new sensitivity and potent new possibilities.
Her nipples puckered, seeking the feel of his hand again. Unerringly, Gabriel knew. He cupped both breasts in his hands, groaning his pleasure at the caress, and stroked her through the thin layer of calico separating her skin from his. Megan ached to have it removed. If she’d worn anything more, if her underclothes had been dry and clean enough to wear, she’d surely have swooned in his arms.
As it was, her whole body heated beneath her dress. Her skin tingled with awareness of the good feelings washing through her, as though the sun had risen someplace near her knees and its golden light still flowed over her skin. Gabriel lowered his head to her neck, moved aside her partly opened dress to kiss the slope of her breast, and the heat inside her burned. Dimly, she felt him nudge more buttons through their buttonholes, felt the night air cool her newly exposed skin. With a movement of his lips as tender as a whisper, Gabriel kissed her naked breast.
Helplessly, Megan arched against him. She wanted more of this, more of his mouth on her skin and his arms holding her tightly. Instantly, she had all she’d hoped for, and more. His tongue stroked her, urging first one nipple into an aching crest, and then the other. His moan vibrated against her, thrilling her anew. This was what it meant to be cherished and desired.
This was what it felt like to be loved.
“Ohhhh, Gabriel.” Blindly, she raised her face to the sky and clutched his head to her, burying her fingers in the thick waves of his hair. “Ohhh, that feels wonderful.”
His loving went on and on, his hands stroking and shaping her, his mouth creating an ever-increasing desire inside her. Hungry to feel him, too, Megan slipped her fingers inside his opened shirt and ran her hands over his back, across his chest, past the tight-ridged muscles of his belly. Her thumbs brushed his gun belt, then moved on to the coarse twill fabric of his trousers’ waistband.
With a sudden groan, Gabriel stopped her explorations. He swung her into his arms, and Megan squealed in surprise. He looked down, smiling, and silenced her with a kiss.
“I might have known you’d not let anything interfere with what you want,” he told her, looking perversely pleased at the notion. “You’re as bold as I’d imagined, sugar. But this—” His nod encompassed the balcony around them and the pueblo sleeping below them. “—this will not do for all I have in mind for you.”
She trembled at the promise in his voice, even as he turned. Still holding her effortlessly in his arms, Gabriel strode between the opened balcony doors and into the warm luxury of their room.
There, the fire’s embers lent the furnishings a ruby-gold glow, combining with the low lamplight to give everything a magical, gilded gleam. The four-poster bed waited to hug them into its snowy coverlet and piled lacy pillows. The Chinese screen stood ready to capture their castoff clothes atop its vividly painted panels. Gabriel carried her past it, walked beyond the washstand where the stacked bars of coconut soap perfumed the air with their subtle fragrance, and settled her finally on the edge of the bed.
Feet curling against the foot board, Megan reluctantly left his arms. She watched him step away and unfasten his gun belt, transfixed by the motions of his strong, agile hands. Those hands had touched her, caressed her bare skin and brought about the kind of pleasure she’d never known existed. Who knew what new magic remained to be seen and tasted and felt between the two of them this night?
At the thought, renewed anticipation rushed through her. Feeling shivery and uncertain and eager, Megan watched him cast aside his gun belt, her attention momentarily caught by the contrast of its weathered leather and weapons against the delicate pink chintz of the chair he laid them across. The combination seemed as unlikely as she and Gabriel were together, their dealings with each other sweet and rugged by turns.
But in the end, undeniably complimentary.
When she looked up, he’d stripped off his shirt, as well. It fell from his hand in a mass of rumpled white and landed atop his gun belt, partly hiding it from view. With a wink, Gabriel closed the doors to the balcony, sealing them in a shared silence disturbed only by the tick of the mantel clock and the occasional falling ember.
He moved closer, his stride filled with lean masculine grace. The lamplight cast a golden gleam over his shoulders and upper body, lending his har
d-angled features a new shadowy mystery—and a new, fascinating intensity. His gaze lowered from her face to her bosom, then swept clear to Megan’s bare toes.
“We’re no longer equal,” he said, punctuating his observation with a kiss. He wrapped his arm around her waist—his height a perfect match to hers, thanks to the tall bedstead—and dropped his gaze meaningfully to the neckline of her dress. “But I’d be happy to make it so.”
He lifted the long hair that had slipped forward over her shoulders, sweeping it into a heavy mass at her back. His fingers brushed over her shoulders, skimmed past her collarbones, then found her remaining dress buttons.
“Yes,” Megan whispered, arching nearer in his arms.
With a slow, knowing smile, he began unbuttoning. Beneath the unabashed desire in Gabriel’s eyes, she knew no fear or modesty. No hesitation. Captured within the charm of his smile, she felt like the most alluring of temptresses. As though in proof of it, Megan joined her fingers in the task with his, eager to be bared before him…and to feel their bodies meet once more, skin against skin.
Her dress eased downward, revealing her naked shoulders. Breath held, she grasped the loosened fabric just above her bosom, watching as Gabriel lowered his head. His kiss touched her shoulder, then her neck, then her other shoulder in its turn. His hair whisked across her chest, creating uncountable tiny caresses. Never would she have expected a man so powerful as Gabriel to have hair so soft.
Nor would she have expected a touch so gentle.
His hand lifted to her wrists, his thumb rubbing carefully over the delicate skin beneath her forearm. With a murmured request, he raised her arm and pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrist, then continued his kisses upward toward her shoulder. His tongue teased the crease of her elbow, sending a delightful shiver through her.
Megan sighed in wonder, happy to release the first half of her dress from her suddenly languid grasp. The fabric pooled around the hand she kept splayed over her bosom, only barely shielding her from Gabriel’s view. Seemingly without a care for those calico folds, he took his time in reaching her neck, then nuzzled her there.
“Ahhh, Meg,” he said, raising his face toward her. “You feel so soft, so…so good.”
He clasped her hand and threaded their fingers together, stroking his thumb over the back of her hand. His breath came quickly, in marked contrast to the patience he showed her. His cheeks looked flushed, his eyes glittery with finely restrained emotion. Somehow, Megan sensed there was more to the loving he’d shown her, and wondered at his lingering now.
“Then why did you stop?” she asked. “Why, when you feel so good to me, too? When we feel so wonderful together?”
“Not stopping. Savoring.”
The word emerged on the end of a growl, leavened with a wicked lift of his eyebrows and a sudden flash of his smile.
“I don’t want to rush you,” he said.
Frustration filled her. “Oh, blast it, Gabriel!”
One-handed, Megan groped for him, skimmed her hand quickly down his torso. His abdomen contracted when she whisked her fingers past, then hooked them into his waistband and tugged him nearer. With a jerk of surprise, he came.
“Rush me, rush me, rush me,” she cried breathlessly, leaning backward to send them both toppling onto the billowing coverlet. Gabriel’s body fell over hers, his mouth seeking and finding her lips even amidst their descent. He kissed her hard and deep, his mouth devouring…his tongue making her dizzy with need.
Between kisses, Megan clasped his head in her hands and stared intently into his eyes. “I’ve waited a lifetime for you. I’ll not have you making me wait any longer.”
His smile gladdened her heart. “Everything I have is yours,” Gabriel said, “if you’ll have it. And me.”
“Gladly,” she whispered, forcing the word past her suddenly constricted throat. “Gladly. Oh, Gabriel, I’m yours, too.”
“Almost.”
With a loving gesture so carefully made she felt sure she would remember it forever, Gabriel tipped up her chin and kissed her. Megan felt her hair spill across the bed beneath them, felt his hands claim her waist, her hips. Fervently, she kissed him back with all the love nestled in her heart, determined to give him all she could.
Heat flooded through her at his touch, even more wondrously than before. With murmured words of beauty and love, Gabriel clasped her to him and kissed her again, then edged his face lower to lavish more kisses, more caresses, on her neck, her breasts, and lower still. Her dress vanished in a hazy lift of her hips. His fingers stroked the sunlight more deeply into her calves, her thighs, her belly.
It felt beautiful. She felt beautiful. Lifted by his praise and his stroking, tortured by his slow, seductive movements, Megan whimpered and raised herself higher. Their bodies met, touching bosom to chest, thigh to thigh. Still, it wasn’t enough. She reached with her hands, and found the barrier that still divided them.
His heavy twill pants needed to be gone. Determined and needful, she grasped Gabriel’s waistband and struggled to undo the buttons.
“Not fair,” Megan gasped, unable to keep the edge of a smile from her face. “You have more clothes on than I do.”
Smiling back, Gabriel made a fond tsk-tsk sound and joined his hands with hers. “Always a challenger, aren’t you?” he teased between panted breaths. “It takes a strong man to keep up with a woman like that.”
“It takes a special man.” Drat those buttons! What kind of rascally seamstress would rivet them into the pants? Leaving them to his more-experienced hands, Megan pressed a kiss to his shoulder instead. “It takes you, Gabriel. You’re all I want.”
His pants ripped open in the blink of an eye. He shed them just as quickly. Within moments, he stood naked before her at the foot of the bed…waiting, she sensed.
But for what?
Eagerly, Megan pushed herself upward, amazed at how free she felt at being bared completely before him. Shoving her tangled hair from her face, she raised her head to discover what kept him from joining her again.
Her heart fairly stopped at the sight that greeted her. From the top of his dark head to his bare toes against the floorboards, Gabriel was every bit as naked as she—and twice as brash in displaying it. With unequivocal male pride, he stood before her in the lamplight, awaiting her reaction.
Chapter Twenty
“Do you still want me now?” Gabriel asked, feeling his voice turn huskier as he looked at her. Lord, but he’d never seen a woman look more desirable than Megan did now—had never wanted a woman as much as he wanted her. But first he had to be sure. “I don’t want to scare you, Meg. I know you might be—”
“Oh, my!” she breathed, looking at him through dark-fringed lashes. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I…oh, my!”
The intensely curious expression on her face told him Megan felt anything but scared. Her eyes widened. With an obvious effort that it gratified him to see, she clamped shut her gaping jaw and reached for him.
Gabriel steeled himself for her touch. He fisted his hands at his sides, calling on every bit of self-restraint he’d ever learned, lest he see fear in her face—instead of the rapt interest she showed him now.
“I’ve never—I mean…oh, Gabriel. You’re beautiful. So strong and sleek.” Her fingers hovered near his hipbones, but her gaze never left his groin. “Can I…touch you? Would it hurt you, or—”
He couldn’t help the groan that escaped him at her innocently voiced question. At the sound she looked up, her face prettier than starlight in the glow of the lamp.
“Touch me anywhere you want,” he managed to say, feeling himself grow fuller at the thought. “I hope you’ll grant me the same privilege.”
“Oh, yes!”
Her enthusiastic reply stood at odds with the tentative reach of her hand. Gabriel watched her slender fingers move closer, nearing the part of him that wanted her touch the most. With a silken slide of skin against skin, Megan sheathed him in her fist. His body leapt and pulsed in respo
nse, shivering beneath an onslaught of unbelievable pleasure.
This must be how it felt to be touched with love, a shattered part of him realized. This must be how it felt to be desired and needed with no reservations…no secrets.
It was incredible.
Megan’s warm breath swept over his aroused flesh, stealing his thoughts. All that remained were feelings—feelings of tenderness and heat, melded with lust and an inexplicable sense of protectiveness toward the woman who caressed him so carefully. So sweetly. Gabriel closed his eyes and moaned, overcome with a need to end this torture now and possess her at last…and with an equal, awesome need to feel her stroke him forever.
“Mmmm, Meg. My God, that feels good.”
“To me, too,” she murmured. “You feel like strength inside velvety softness. So wonderful.”
Gently, Megan curved her thumb over the head of his shaft. He felt her touch the slippery moist heat gathered there, and then slide that drop of wetness slowly over his skin.
“I feel your heartbeat,” she whispered, closing her hand around him again. “It’s as though our bodies are joined, right here. As though I can simply touch you, and we’re one.”
“We can be. If you want to.”
“I—I do!” Biting her lip, she nodded her assent. “I know you must think I’m the worst kind of wanton, Gabriel, but I swear—”
“No. No, you’re the most wonderful kind of wanton,” he teased, pulsing anew beneath her caress. “You’re mine.”
Shyly, Megan peeked up at him, never stopping the motion of her fingers that was driving him wild. “I love the sound of that.”
I love you, he thought, but knew there would be a better time to tell her so. How would she believe such words of love were true, when said in the midst of a pleasure that turned him lack-witted with needfulness?
“So do I,” Gabriel said instead. But he could bear her innocent fondling no longer. Reluctantly, he eased Megan’s fingers away, and pulled her into his arms instead.