Chapter Twenty-one
Play well with others.
~ from “Firefighting 101” ~
When Gabe had made his initial plan, he’d decided that if things went well and he ended up being lucky enough to get naked with Megan again at some point in the future, he’d go slow. He’d savor every inch of her beautiful body and focus on bringing her right to the edge of ecstasy and then over so many times that she wouldn’t be able to keep denying their connection.
But he hadn’t counted on their combined desperation to be with each other.
Gabe picked up the condom wrapper he’d dropped on the blanket and before he could rip it open, Megan was leaning up to grab it in her teeth and pull it open. She caught it before it fell onto her chest and then she was reaching down to his throbbing erection and sliding it over him, the arousing touch of her slender fingers causing him to grit his teeth to keep from exploding right then and there in her hands.
And then her hands were in his hair and she was pulling his mouth down to hers at the exact moment that she wrapped her legs around his waist and took him inside. He swallowed her gasp of pleasure and gripped her hips in his hands to drive deeper, harder.
A big man, Gabe had always been careful to make sure he didn’t hurt his lovers. But as her inner muscles clenched against his shaft, the pleasure of being with her again was so intense he couldn’t hold onto a single thought, couldn’t do anything but give into the intensity of his desire for the woman writhing and crying out beneath him.
She arched into him and he leaned down to capture one of her nipples between his lips, sucking hard, loving the sweet taste of her skin against his tongue. The fireworks were still going on above them as she came apart beneath him, her pelvis grinding against his as she rode out her orgasm, her hands in his hair holding him over her breasts.
He didn’t have a chance of holding back, of holding on a single second longer, not when her strong muscles were milking him for everything he was worth. Lifting his head from her breasts, he shifted his weight to his knees, grabbed her ankles and lifted them up to his shoulders.
He had to get deeper, had to touch every part of her.
Her hands went to his forearms so that she could hold tight as he drove higher, harder into her.
“Oh, God,” she whispered as her eyes fluttered closed. “That feels so good. So, so good.” Her head was falling back, her hands moving to her own breasts to fondle them as she took everything he was giving her and begged, “More, Gabe. Please.”
He hadn’t thought anything could drive him higher, but the sound of her sweet voice begging him like that, watching her touch herself while he loved her, did crazy things to his insides.
“Sweetheart,” he groaned as the fierce physicality of their lovemaking gave way to emotions just as fierce inside of him. “Don’t make me go here alone.”
But even as her eyes opened and held his, even as her mouth opened on a silent scream of pleasure as she shattered again, even as his own body followed her down that path of perfect destruction, Gabe knew he hadn’t just been asking her to come with him.
No, what he was asking for was so much bigger than just sex, more than just the best orgasm he’d ever had.
Gabe didn’t want to claim Megan’s body alone. He wanted her heart, wanted to know—to love—every part of her.
Because with every moment they spent together, he was realizing more and more just what a daredevil she really was. She loved heights, and hadn’t blinked twice at having wild monkey sex out in the open on his roof.
How long had his beautiful thrill seeker been pushing away the truth of who she really was? Since her husband’s death?
Or even before that?
* * *
Megan couldn’t do anything more than cling to Gabe and bury her face against his broad shoulder. She could barely breathe, so how could she possibly pull her thoughts together to examine what had just happened between them?
He was holding her just as tightly as he shifted them so that his body, instead of the pillows, was cushioning her. She loved feeling him all around her, inside of her, knew she’d never get enough of him, even if she lived to be a hundred.
The shock of that thought—of the future she’d sworn she wouldn’t have with him—had her blinking her eyes open, trying to clear the fog of temporarily sated lust from them.
Oh my God, she’d just had sex on the roof.
The roof!
She hadn’t wanted to think too long and hard about just how risky what they were doing was. Not if that thinking would have gotten in the way of Gabe’s kiss. But now, as she looked up at the buildings that surrounded his, she knew the probability was fairly high that someone might have seen them.
She yanked the blanket over her hips and breasts even as something inside of her buzzed a teensy bit in an exhibitionist thrill.
Gabe ran his hand over the curve of her bottom beneath the blanket. “Do you think we made anyone’s New Year’s?”
She wanted to be shocked by him, by the cavalier way that he was acknowledging they might have been spotted. “I hope not!”
But even as she spoke in her primmest voice, Megan couldn’t deny the tingle down low in her belly from thinking of another couple setting out to watch the fireworks...and seeing them making love instead. Those were the kinds of thoughts she only ever let herself have in the secrecy of her most private, kinky fantasies.
Worse still, she couldn’t even blame him for what had happened. Not when she was the one who had ripped off her clothes in plain sight of the other buildings and rooftops and then yelled at him to hurry and take his off, too.
His chuckle was warm, full of the heat that hadn’t dissipated between them. “I’m just teasing you, sweetheart. The nearest building taller than this is far enough away that someone would have needed a great pair of binoculars to see us up here.” He tipped his finger beneath her chin. “You say Summer is the only risk-taker in the family, but that isn’t true.”
Making love with Gabe was incredibly intimate. But the way he was talking to her, as if he knew the secrets of her soul, felt even deeper. She felt like he was seeing in too deeply, past all the walls she’d worked so hard to build to keep herself—and her precious daughter—safe.
She shivered and he immediately picked her up, blanket and all.
“Time to get you warm again.”
Megan knew she should just say thank you for the fireworks—even though the only ones she’d been able to pay any attention to tonight were the ones that combusted between them—and tell him she had to go home, but she’d already broken her latest vow to stay away from him. And she’d been working really hard since Summer had left. She was so tired.
And it felt so good to let him hold her like this, just for a few more seconds.
Gabe ran kisses over her hair, across her forehead, over her cheek, and she had to turn in for one on her lips. When they were halfway down the stairs to his apartment, he stopped and concentrated on kissing the remaining oxygen from her lungs.
“Happy New Year.”
She had to run her tongue across his gorgeous lower lip before saying, “Happy New Year.”
Megan expected him to carry her into his bedroom, but he didn’t stop at the huge king bed covered in a beautiful blue and brown quilt. Instead, he moved into the bathroom.
“How about a bath to start off the new year?”
The sinfully delicious thought of being naked, slipping and sliding against Gabe in his whirlpool tub, was almost enough to make her consider it. Still, she hadn’t been able to get in a bathtub since the fire. “Why don’t we shower instead?”
She turned her head up to kiss him, but smart man, even though he indulged her, it was clear that he saw right through her distraction. “I want to take a bath with you, Megan.”
Oh my. She took a deep breath to try to steady herself. “I guess I can try.”
He brushed a lock of hair from her eyes, once again seeing more deeply than she wanted him to. “Is it because that’s where I found you? In the bathtub?”
If she had been stronger, if she had felt less safe cradled in Gabe’s strong arms, if he were anyone else, she might have tried to deny it.
But how could she lie to this man?
“I thought we were going to die in there. In the bathtub.”
“I never would have let that happen.”
She couldn’t stop herself from saying the one question that had played over and over in her head for the past two months. “But what if you hadn’t come in time?”
“No what-ifs.” He took one of her hands and laid it over his heart. “Not tonight.” He leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “Don’t let the fire take any more from you than it already has, sweetheart.”
But didn’t he see that she felt caught in an endless loop of what-ifs? Not just about the fire, but about the two of them, about Summer and her future, and—
She scrunched her eyes up tight, hating those what-ifs, every last one of them. “You know what?”
“Tell me, Megan.”
She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. “It’s a new year. Time for a new start. To wash the past clean.”
She was old enough, wise enough, to know she couldn’t change who she was, the way her brain and heart were wired, in one short night. But she could take a baby step toward pushing the weight of all those fears off her shoulders.
Especially if the step involved getting into the bathtub with a man whose eyes were promising her such incredible pleasure.
“Run the bath, Gabe.”
He continued to hold tightly to her with one hand while he reached for the taps with the other. While the tub was filling with warm water, Megan turned to stare in wonder at the man holding her on his lap and had to reach up to run her fingertips over the slightly raised scar on his forehead.
“I wish you hadn’t been hurt.” His eyes closed for a moment as she feathered her fingers over his forehead.
“That day in the hospital—” He looked at her, the depth of emotion in his eyes shaking her, all the way through to her core. “I’m sorry I was such a jerk.” He reached for her hand, pulled it to his lips, and pressed a soft kiss into her palm. “That moment when you walked in and I saw you without all the smoke, without the flames, I knew you were special.”
“You nearly died saving us,” she said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. “You had the right to behave however you wanted.”
He shook his head. “I was stunned by how strong my feelings for you already were. But that was no excuse for my behavior.”
Megan had warmed up in his house, but now that he was talking about feelings and fear, she felt herself go cold again, shivering at all the things she didn’t want to face. Not yet, anyway.
Knowing he must be able to see how uncomfortable their conversation was making her, she could feel Gabe shift gears as he lifted her palm to his mouth again and nipped gently at the sensitive flesh. “I didn’t take the time to undress you properly up there,” he said as he began to peel back the blanket.
“I’d say you did just fine,” she murmured as she leaned forward to press a kiss to the top of his sinfully gorgeous chest. She was half relieved at the way he was letting her stay out of the deep end of emotion, but, strangely, half disappointed, too.
“Only fine?” His voice was husky as he curved his palm around her breast and skimmed over the tip of one nipple with his thumb. The same thumb she’d been sucking and biting up on the roof.
“Mmm,” was all she could manage by way of a response, and then he was pushing the blanket all the way off and stepping into the tub with her in his arms.
Nothing had ever felt so romantic, so sexy, as this shared bath. They’d done exciting and risky outside beneath the fireworks, but as she sank into the warm water and rested her back and head against Gabe’s chest, she sighed at the pleasure of getting to fulfill all the sides of her desires in one sweet night.
He cupped his hands so they filled with water and poured them over her skin, wetting every inch of her body, even her hair. It felt so luxurious to be pampered like this, felt like more than just sex, more than just need.
He’d just had her, and had to know he didn’t need to do all this to have her again. But he was doing it anyway.
She had to nuzzle into his bicep, had to press a kiss against it as he moved to pick up the soap.
“Trying to distract me, sweetheart?”
“No,” she replied honestly. “I just had to kiss you.”
Using her hair wrapped around his fist, he gently but firmly turned her face to his and captured her lips in a shockingly sweet kiss.
It was a long while before he let her up for air.
“Same here.”
The soap had slipped from his fingers during the kiss and he had to search for it under the water, his hands moving along the outside of her hips.
“It’s not here.” He moved his feet at the bottom of the tub searching for the soap. “Not here, either.”
“I think I know where it is.”
His eyes were on her mouth as he asked, “Where?”
She picked up one of his hands and put it on her stomach. “You’re getting closer.” He slid down only a little bit, teasing her. “Almost there.”
She held her breath as he shifted his hand over her curls, and then he was cupping her sex, his broad palm covering every inch of her slick heat, and her breath was coming out in a rush of pleasure as she tilted her head back against his shoulder.
There was no stopping her hips from pushing into his fingers, and thank God, she knew he was done teasing her when two thick fingers spread her tender flesh and his other hand moved to concentrate on her *oris.
His tongue and then his teeth found her earlobe and despite the warm water, despite the heat of his body behind her, she was wracked with shivers.
“You’re so beautiful, sweetheart. So damn beautiful.” His tongue licked out just at that sensitive spot beneath her earlobe a split second before he urged her, “Come for me. I need to see it. Need to feel it.”
But she was already there, already panting and bucking into his hands as the tremors inside her belly turned into a full-fledged, unstoppable earthquake.
“Gabe!”
He helped her ride out her climax, never letting up for one single second with both his hands, and when she finally came back to earth in the bathtub, she realized just how big, how hard he was against her lower back.
Fortunately, he was well prepared as she spotted a condom wrapper on top of the blanket. Not caring at all that he’d known what a sure thing she was going to be tonight, she leaned over the tub to pick it up. She ripped it open—with her hands this time, instead of her teeth, although that had been fun and more than a little crazy—and he silently lifted her hips up out of the water so that she could slide it onto his gloriously erect shaft.
“I know we agreed no what-ifs tonight, but I can’t help but wonder, what if—” She paused, licked her lips. “—you helped me live out a fantasy?”
She suddenly wanted a chance to reclaim not just the bathtub, but also her hope for the future, rather than always going forward holding onto fear.
His hands moved over her thighs, her kneecaps in the water. “What kind of fantasy?” The raw tenor of his words nearly had her giving up the fantasy and climbing onto his lap, instead.
“I’ve never taken a bath with a man before tonight.”
“Good.”
She had to smile at his jealous pleasure over being her first. She was glad, too, glad that she could experience these fantasies for the first time with Gabe.
“But sometimes when I’m alone and I’m—” She paused on the words she wasn’t used to speaking aloud.
“Touching yourself?”
She nodded. “Sometimes I like to think about being in a tub like this and having my—”
She bit her lip again and he growled, “If you don’t stop doing that, I’m not sure we’re going to get to your fantasy.”
Her eyes wide, she let her lip go. “Oh.” She almost bit her lip again and caught herself at the last second. “Okay.”
“Megan.” She heard the sensual warning in his voice, which was quickly backed up when he said, “What’s your fantasy?”
But she’d already figured out she’d never be able to put voice to it. Instead, she’d have to show him.
With as much grace as she could manage considering how aroused she was, and how nervous at the same time, she moved her limbs beneath the water so that she wasn’t facing Gabe anymore. Looking at him over her shoulder, she slowly lifted up onto her hands and knees.
“This,” she said in a whisper that was almost swallowed up by the sound of water moving in the tub. “This is my fantasy.”
His groan ricocheted off the tiled walls, and then, thank God, he was moving too, and cupping her bottom in his big hands. But even though she was playing it as risky as she ever had with a lover, she was shocked when he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to first one cheek and then the other. Slowly, he moved his mouth up from her lower back to what felt like each vertebra along her spine, until he was biting at the curve of her shoulder.
“Is this it, Megan? Is this your fantasy?”
She couldn’t speak, could only nod and hold on tight to the edge of the tub as she pushed her bottom into the curve of his hips. Water splashed all around them as he thrust into her from behind and this time when she lost hold of her sanity, he was right there with her, pounding into her so hard, so deep as he came that she didn’t know where he left off and she began.
With one of his big hands on her breasts, the other between her legs, and his teeth and tongue on her neck, Megan completely shattered in Gabe’s arms.