Lawman (38 page)

"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 response, 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.

She came willingly, letting her legs and
feet dangle against the bedstead while she wrapped her arms around
his middle and hugged him. The feel of her bare breasts against his
chest, of her thighs snugged close between his and her belly
pressed against his shaft, was nearly Gabriel's undoing.

He buried his hands in the glorious length
of Megan's dark hair, tilted her face up to meet him. Their kiss
swept him to a place where only sensation existed. Tongue-sweet and
unbelievably erotic, it was a joining he craved—and a homecoming he
hadn't realized he needed. Humbled by the depth of feeling Megan
aroused in him, Gabriel drew her even closer and deepened their
kiss.

Her feminine cries, her little moans of
pleasure, all combined to make him want her still more. She felt
perfectly right in his arms...tasted wonderfully delicious on his
lips. Shaking with need, Gabriel whispered words of love and
praise, wanting to share all his good feelings with her...wanting
them to go on and on.

"Oh, Gabriel!" Megan arched her neck,
letting her hair spill in a silky tumble over his arm, and trembled
against him. "I feel...I feel so marvelous and aching, all at
once."

"It's all right," he murmured, lowering his
head to the lush curves of her breasts once more. "I feel the
same."

He kissed her slowly, tongued her sweet pink
nipples and drew their velvety softness into his mouth. Megan's
throaty cries urged him on, made him yearn to lengthen their
pleasure for her sake.

The moments slid past, filled with the heat
of their bodies pushed close together, with the erotic sounds of
her whimpers and the luxurious feel of her nipples budding against
his tongue as he sucked her. There never could be enough of this.
Never could be enough loving between them. Gabriel savored it all,
fighting against his growing need to claim her. For Megan, he could
go slowly. For Megan, he could shape a love that would last.

Blood soared through his veins, urgent and
hot. Megan gasped beneath him, clutching his arms to pull him onto
the bed. Her legs twisted beneath him, moving as she pressed her
thighs together in a rhythm as old as time. The knowledge that she
needed him, desired him, as much as he did her, weakened his knees
and unwound the last of Gabriel's patience.

With one swift movement, he lifted Megan in
his arms and settled her onto the bed. He wasted no time in
following, fairly vaulting onto the lofty four-poster's mattress
beside her.

Looking half-giddy, she smiled. Likely, It
was over his exuberance, Gabriel thought, and didn't care. Instead,
he returned her gleeful expression and then kissed her.

"You look beautiful," he said, and meant it
from the depths of his soul. "More beautiful than I'd ever imagined
could be true."

She squeezed him close, and spoke against
his shoulder. "That's because I feel beautiful. You make me feel
that way."

His heart turned over, making room for a
sense of indescribable tenderness. Gabriel spread her hair over the
coverlet, then paused to enjoy the contrast of rich brown against
unspoiled white. He delighted in her tremulous smile. He took in
the wondrous curves and hollows of her naked body, seeing them
first with his eyes...and then with his hands. He touched each part
of her. He kissed each freckle on her smooth skin, proclaiming them
all delicious, and adorable.

Megan laughed softly, holding his head in
her hands. It was as though they were made to be together, in every
way. As though time stood still for the two of them this night, and
an eternity of love endured, just waiting to be sampled.

Breath held, Gabriel smoothed his hands over
her breasts, her belly, and lower to the darkened curls that
shielded her woman's mound. Delicately, he urged her thighs wider,
then cupped her in his palm.

She quaked at his touch, thrusting upward
against his hand. Megan gazed at him while he stroked her, watching
him through eyes gone wide with wonder.

In their depths, he glimpsed trust.
Need.

Love.

And he was lost.

"Ahhhh, Meg," Gabriel gasped. "Mmmm, you
feel good."

Her incoherent cries urged him onward.
Savage with need, he made himself gentle his hands, made himself go
slowly...so slowly. His fingers danced and teased over her slick
heat, calling forth a secret, shivering response. Again and again
he fondled her, pleasured her, readied her for the new lovemaking
they'd soon share.

"Ooooh, Gabriel! I feel...oh, my!" Her words
melted into a moan, and beneath his hands, she trembled sweetly.
With instinctive thrusts, Megan rose to meet his stroking
fingers.

An answering excitement surged through him.
Loving the feel of her, Gabriel teased and explored. He bent to
bring his mouth to hers, pressed a tender, faint bite to her
shoulder, drank in her cries and moans. New tremors shook her. They
brought an answering response in him. Never had he known pleasuring
a woman could bring such intense satisfaction for him as well.

Never...until now.

"Oooh, oooh!" Still moaning, she reached for
him.

He gathered her close with one arm, and went
on loving her. Soon—too soon—he felt Megan shudder as fulfillment
gripped her. With a fierce sense of love and pride, Gabriel eased
her back against the coverlet, safe in his arms. Christ, but he
yearned to possess her.

No. For her sake, he would go slowly.

He rose on his elbows, then kissed her
forehead. Her lips parted...he kissed them, as well. At the first
gentle touch of her tongue against his, renewed, undeniable need
rose within him.

"I thought I could wait," Gabriel said, the
tempo of his stroking increasing as he touched her arms, her belly,
her thighs. "I can't. I can't."

His shaft nudged at the heat he'd coaxed
from her, and all his senses clamored for the pleasure to come. He
made himself stop, brushed back the hair from her face, and said,
"With you, I can't wait any longer."

Above her flushed cheeks, Megan's eyes
fluttered open. "You mean there's more?"

"Oh, yes."

Her open-mouthed expression made him smile.
The eagerness in her eyes left him twice as needing...twice as
urgent.