Gateway to Heaven (3 page)

“
Let me push, let me,” Emily exclaimed once they’d gotten on the elevator. Christian handled her like a seasoned pro, shifting his hand to support the little girl’s upper body when she flung herself forward to punch the elevator button. Afterwards, Emily used the same chubby finger that she’d used to push the button to test out the texture of Christian’s goatee.

“
Emily, you are such a flirt,” Megan admonished with a roll of her eyes. Still, the honest part of her had to admit that she was a little envious of the privileged position her niece had. When the elevator door opened, Megan put out her arms. “Thank you. I can take her from here.”

Christian walked off the elevator, giving her a quizzical look when she held the elevator door. “Which way to your place?”

“
That one,” Emily answered enthusiastically as she pointed to a door down the hallway.

Megan tried to remember if her condominium was reasonably clean as she unlocked the front door. She breathed a sigh of relief when she glanced around. Not perfect, but presentable.

“
I like your place,” Christian complimented as he surveyed the open floor plan of the loft, the floor to ceiling east-facing windows, the inexpensive, but carefully chosen furniture and decorations. Megan wasn’t rich, by any means, but she was proud of the homey comfort of her condominium. He bent his long legs at the knee and set the duffle bag down on an entryway bench, then transferred Emily to his other hip before he began an unhurried inspection of her home.

“
Thanks,” she murmured. She got the impression that nothing was left unobserved by him. She watched as he walked slowly through her living room, presumably on his way to look at the view of her floor-to-ceiling windows. He paused to glance at her book and music collection. He took considerably more time to study a rare bronze figurine that Megan had kept for herself instead of selling. It was of a young Asian woman looking upward, her expression rapt with sensual gratification.

Megan swallowed with difficulty when she saw one long finger gently touch the cool metal surface of the woman’s upturned lips.

“
Yours?” he asked, his back still to her.

When she didn’t immediately answer, Christian’s head swung around. A lock of untamed hair fell over his brow. Megan gave a strained smile and nodded.

“
She looks like she’s looking up at her lover. Is she?”

Megan made a startled sound at the unexpected question. Suddenly she laughed. “I guess you could say that.”

His dark eyebrow quirked up in a query but otherwise his face was marble-like, impassive. His silence seemed to demand an answer.

“
That’s my good friend Tina, who is a bona fide sun worshipper. She’s downright hedonistic when it comes to sunbathing. Her face was turned up toward the sun when I photographed her for the sculpture,” Megan finished with a shrug. Her explanation sounded lame, nowhere near as erotic as Christian’s question…or the manner in which he’d asked it.

“
You don’t like it when people take notice of your artwork. Still Father Gregory wasn’t exaggerating. You
are
very talented,” he commented as he glanced out the windows.

Megan moved restlessly. His shrewd observation about her reaction to praise hit a little too close to home. She floundered to find a safer topic.

“
The view is good, isn’t it? It’s what sold me on the unit. It’s funny isn’t it, how the working class, industrial neighborhood we grew up in has been transformed into such a desirable place to live?”

“
Umm,” Christian agreed absentmindedly as he examined the spectacular view of Chicago’s skyline. “Quite a few more BMWs than there are Fords parked along Adams and Monroe Street these days. I have to admit, I miss the way it was. I can’t believe they closed down that old roller rink on Ogden.”

“
The Silver Flame?” Megan asked. He turned, his gaze fixed on her smile. “I had my first date at the Silver Flame.”

Christian walked back to where she stood. “Oh yeah? Well, I kissed my first girl at the Rialto on Jackson, and they closed that down, too. How old were you?”

Megan blinked at the unexpected question. Embarrassment flooded her, a remnant of her parents’ extremely strict prohibitions regarding dating. “Uh…fifteen, maybe? It wasn’t an ‘official’ date. My parents wouldn’t have allowed it then, I’m sure.” She glanced away self-consciously. In truth, her parents had never allowed Megan to date. “How old were you?”

“
At the Rialto, you mean?” He was standing only feet from her now. Megan nodded, once again caught in the spell of his magnetic blue eyes.

“
Eleven.”

“
Eleven
,” Megan exclaimed in disbelief. She couldn’t help but smile, though, when he raised his eyebrows in mock lechery. Emily giggled at his silly faces and batted her fingers at his dark brows. “You must have been a very charming eleven-year-old,” Megan conceded with dubious amusement.

He shrugged. “Tammy Dupree thought so. Who am I to argue? I set the romantic mood with chilled Coca-Cola and Milk Duds for an appetizer, than went in for the kill during the second scariest part of the movie. Not the first scream scene, because that was reserved for nonchalantly putting my arm around—”

“
Tammy Dupree, otherwise know as your
vic
tim
,” Megan finished for him with a censorious expression that couldn’t hide her smile “I feel sorry for that poor little girl. Eleven years old, indeed.”

“
Tammy wasn’t eleven. What do you take me for? She was almost thirteen. An older woman.”

“
Your seduction sounds suspiciously sophisticated for an eleven-year-old.”

“
Tammy never complained,” Christian deadpanned. But he could only hold the expression for a second before he grinned hugely.

Megan laughed in earnest. His grin seemed to falter at the sound.

Emily protested loudly when he gently set her on her feet.

“
I should be going.”

Megan took a step forward in unconscious protest at the obvious alteration in his mood. One second, he had been laughing, silly, charming and the next, he was making a polite but cool exit. When she realized that she couldn’t prevent him—a practical stranger—from doing whatever he wished, Megan hurried toward the door to say goodbye.

“
Thank you for carrying the bag and Emily. They were really heavy. I don’t think I would have made it without—”

Christian turned around and lowered his face close to hers.

“
Why didn’t your husband help you?”

“
My husband?” Megan asked thickly. His eyes were like twin lasers. She was momentarily too stunned to speak. Any possibility of being able to utter coherent speech was squashed out of her when Christian slowly lowered his head even nearer to her upturned face.

“
Aunt Meg, can I have a juice box?”

Christian’s eyes flashed. “
Aunt
Meg?” he repeated Emily’s question.

Megan blinked once. Twice. Why had he sounded so stunned?

“
Uh…okay, Em. In a second. Say goodbye to Christian first.”

Christian didn’t miss a beat when the rambunctious little girl ran into his arms. He lifted her up high above his head until she was shrieking with excitement.

“
It was nice meeting you, Emily. I’ll see you sometime soon, okay?”

“
When?” Emily asked enthusiastically. “Tomorrow?”

Christian swung her around once before he lowered her to the floor. Megan noticed with bewilderment that his expression easily matched the carefree happiness in Emily’s face. His moods shifted so quickly that Megan felt disoriented.

“
Maybe. That’ll be up to your aunt. Now I’ll bet that you’re big enough to get a juice box out of the fridge yourself, aren’t you?” His eyes swung to Megan’s for confirmation and Megan gave a tense nod. Emily scampered off toward the kitchen.

Megan swallowed uncomfortably when Christian raised himself to his full height. She tried to read his expression, but it was impenetrable once again.

“
Thank you again. I hope that…”

Her inane words stilled in her throat when she realized he was coming toward her. His gait was predatory, his eyes were a barely banked flame. A muffled sound of uncertain surprise rose in her throat and she slowly began to back away from him until she bumped up against the wall behind her. He didn’t still his forward motion until she was trapped between the wall against her back and the almost equally hard wall of his body at her front. He placed his hands on the wall next to her head. His thumbs gently levered her face upward.

“
You could have let me know, Megan,” he admonished in a low, gruff voice.

“
Know
what
?” Unlike her breath, which was caught painfully in her lungs, Christian’s exhalation softly fanned her face, fragrant and warm.

“
That you weren’t married. That Mr. SUV wasn’t your husband.”

The air finally released from her aching lungs as understanding dawned. “That’s Terry, my sister Hilary’s husband…Emily’s father. Emily’s been staying with me a lot while Hilary is at a sales conference.”

Christian nodded. His voice had sounded matter-of-fact, conversational, but the way he pressed his hips gently into the softness of her flesh felt anything but run of the mill. The tiny part of her that was still capable of rational thought wondered why she didn’t feel alarmed. He felt hard against her, very male…indescribably good.

“
Do you know I’m going to be thirty-four years old in a few months and I’ve never once in my life been with a married woman…at least never intentionally. Maybe it’s because of my Catholic upbringing or maybe it’s just because the hassle was never worth it, but I’ve never broken that code. I’ve never even been tempted. Until just now.”

The sight of his lowering mouth mesmerized Megan. “But I’m not married,” she mumbled almost incoherently.

“
Exactly,” he murmured.

“
Uh…Christian, what are you doing?” Megan asked throatily when his lips were almost touching hers and their breaths were mingling intimately.

She saw his dark eyebrows go up at her question, but otherwise there was no sign of hesitation or retreat. His gaze never left her lips.

“
Given the fact that I was about to go against my personal code of ethics and kiss the living hell out of you when I thought you were married, do you really believe I’d leave without at least tasting you now that I know you’re single?”

Then he lowered his head and did just that.

Chapter 2

After a few seconds, desire burned away Megan’s shock. Christian obviously knew what he was doing when it came to kissing. He must have put in a lot of practice since Tammy Dupree.

His mouth was gentle, firm…very persuasive. He used it to fully discover the shape and nuances of her lips. He sipped, he nibbled, he sucked at his leisure. His mouth slanted unevenly over hers, sandwiching and caressing first her upper lip and then her lower lip. A cry caught in Megan’s throat when he bit with exquisite care and dragged his white teeth over the sensitive skin of her lower lip, prying her…

“
Open,” he said.

“
What?” she murmured dazedly.

He took very ungentlemanlike advantage when her lips parted to form the question. His tongue entered her mouth, a sleek, sensual intruder. The kiss became hot, insistent.

“
God, you…taste so…
good
,” he mumbled, sounding a little incredulous as he plucked at her lower lip. He took her mouth again with his tongue. His hands swept gently down her body, lingering against the sides of her breasts before he skimmed the circumference of her waist, finally settling on her hips. He gave a low groan when he brought her closer against him, and Megan instinctively understood why. Their fit—the way her body cradled his obvious arousal—was…delicious, somehow.

She shyly touched her tongue to his, then played and dueled more boldly. She liked the way his breath caught at her action, the way he pressed her almost desperately against the hard angles of his body. Of their own accord, her hands came up to tangle in the soft hair at his nape, to lightly detail the muscles of his neck and shoulders. He felt so wonderful to her seeking fingers, so different from her, so hard and male.

She felt his arousal when he pressed tight against her belly, but she wasn’t offended or afraid. A hazy fog of sensuality encapsulated her. For a brief, magical moment she knew only the taste of Christian, the feel of him…and the mandate to experience more.

She gave a tiny cry of protest when his mouth left hers. Her eyelids fluttered open. Christian watched her with an unwavering focus. His facial muscles were rigid as his eyes detailed her face.

“
Emily is calling you.”

Reality returned sluggishly at first, then with a resounding crash.

When Megan started against him and began to abruptly pull away, Christian wouldn’t allow it. He held her while he dipped his head once more and dropped a controlled but hungry kiss on her mouth before freeing her. Megan noticed the slow grin that crept across his handsome face before she hurried to the kitchen.