Meant for Each Other

by Ginna Gray

  “Perhaps you will soon.”

  Sooner than you might like. Leah knew if she couldn’t somehow head Julia off, tomorrow her stepmother would swoop down on Mike in a rage, uncaring of what she revealed or who she hurt.

  She pressed her lips together and closed her eyes. It was time to stop stalling. She had to prepare him. She simply couldn’t let him find out the truth that way. She loved him too much.

  Drawing a deep breath, Leah screwed up her courage. “Mike...”

  He turned her within his embrace, and she found herself looking up into eyes that burned with passion and deep emotion.

  “Mike, I... there’s something—”

  “Shh. Whatever it is, it can wait. This can’t.”

  She had only an instant before his mouth covered hers, possessive, hungry. Despair and longing warred within Leah, but the battle was brief. The need was too great.

  A moan rolled from her throat. Later. She would tell him later, she vowed. Right now, she needed this. She needed him.

  Going up on tiptoe, Leah locked her arms around Mike’s neck and pressed closer, returning the kiss with a raw hunger that matched his.

  Her fervor seemed to catch him off guard, but only for an instant. With a growl, Mike tightened his arms around her and widened his stance. With one hand, he cupped her bottom and pressed her hips fully against his arousal. Desire shuddered through Leah, hot, clawing.

  The kiss packed a punch that sent them both spinning out of control. They clutched each other, unable to get close enough, to touch enough. Small sounds of frustration and want escaped them.

  Without warning, Mike grasped Leah’s shoulders and broke off the kiss. “No,” he gasped. “No.”

  Leah moaned and instinctively tried to return to his embrace, but he held her at arm’s length.

  “Wait. We can’t do this.”

  “Mike, please.”

  “No. We have to stop. Now, while I still can.”

  Hurt swelled inside Leah. Her heart beat like a drumroll and her breathing was harsh and ragged. Tears stung her eyes. “You don’t...you don’t want me?”

  “Don’t want you! Honey, I want you so much I’m in agony. But I promised you I wasn’t going to seduce you. I intend to keep that promise even if it kills me.” His mouth twisted. “And believe me, it just might. Look, I’m sorry. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have let things go this far.”

  Hurt gave way to soaring happiness. Leah looked up at him with shining eyes. “Mike, it’s all right. Really.”

  “No, it’s not all right. I don’t break my word. When I—Leah, you’re not helping,” he scolded when she tried to wriggle back into his arms. “Stop that.”

  “Mike, darling, you don’t understand.” She reached up and framed his face between her palms. “I want you to make love to me. Now. Tonight.”

  He sucked in a sharp breath, and Leah saw his pupils widen. The decision had not been a conscious one; the words had just come tumbling out, but the instant she spoke she knew that this was what she wanted. She loved Mike, and she wanted to make love with him, if only this once. In all probability, after tonight she would never have another chance.

  “Leah, sweetheart, are you sure? I don’t want to rush you. I’ve waited this long. I can wa—”

  She placed her fingertips over his mouth. “Shh. Stop worrying.” She gave him a warm look, all the love she felt shining in her eyes. If a tender sadness marked her smile he did not seem to notice. “I’m absolutely certain. More certain than I’ve ever been of anything in my life.”

  For an instant Mike closed his eyes, as though giving thanks, and Leah felt a tremor ripple through him. When he looked at her again his eyes sizzled with emotion. Placing his hand over hers on his cheek, he turned his head and pressed a warm kiss against her palm.

  Heat speared down her arm and through her body, all the way to the core of her womanhood. Leah’s knees threatened to buckle. The simple caress was the most erotic thing she had ever experienced. Emotion swamped her. Moisture glittered in her eyes, tears of joy, of love, of need. Of wrenching hopelessness.

  “Oh, Mike.” Her voice quavered, and a fine tremor shook her hand as her fingertips traced his mouth. “Love me. Love me now. Please, my darling.”

  Mike needed no more invitation than that. He swung her up into his arms and headed for the stairs. Curling her arms around him, Leah laid her head on his shoulder and pressed her face against the side of his neck.

  What she was doing was wrong. She knew that, accepted it. But, dear heaven, she loved him so. If she was going to lose him, surely she deserved this one night. One night of closeness and love to hold in her heart. A memory that, in the lonely years to come, she could take out and relive now and then. It would likely be all she would ever have.

  She would tell him the truth afterward, but for now she would take what happiness she could, while she could.

  That she would pay for the decision later, and pay dearly, Leah had no doubt. So be it. For this one, shining night, she would love and be loved by the only man who had every truly captured her heart.

  At the top of the stairs Mike turned right on the landing and carried her into his bedroom. A lamp burned low on a bedside table. Without breaking stride, he crossed the navy carpet to the king-size bed. There he stopped and looked into her eyes. His own were blazing in a face that was flushed and dark with passion.

  “Are you sure, Leah? If we do this, it’s going to change everything between us. You know that, don’t you?”

  Oh, my dearest darling, everything between us is about to change anyway, whether or not we become lovers, she thought sadly. “Yes, I know,” she whispered. She cupped the side of his face with one hand and smiled tenderly. “And I’m sure. I’m very sure.”

  He searched her eyes, her face. Leah trembled, but she met his gaze squarely, and after a moment he dipped his head and covered her mouth with his.

  A low sound purred from her throat—part relief, part joy, part delicious anticipation. Eagerly, sinking her fingertips into his hair, she clasped his head with both hands and abandoned herself to his caress.

  This was no gentle kiss, no sweet supplication. It was firm, almost rough, full of hunger and need too long unanswered, emotions too deeply felt for words. Each gave, each took, and still it wasn’t enough, would never be enough. With every touch, every soft gasp, every moan, they demanded more.

  The mattress depressed under Mike’s knee, and a moment later she felt its softness against her back, then the wonderful warmth and hardness of his body settling over her.

  His mouth left hers, trailing nibbling kisses over her cheek, the side of her neck. “I feel as though I’ve waited forever for you,” he murmured.

  Leah smiled and slid her palms over his back, exploring the broad muscles that banded it, absorbing the feel and warmth of him through the thin cotton shirt. “I know, my love,” she whispered. “I feel the same.”

  Turning her head, she strung kisses along his jaw, then nipped the firm flesh. Mike grunted. In retaliation he traced the swirls in her ear with the tip of his tongue, filling the shell with the hot moistness of his breath. Leah shivered and felt him smile.

  He tried to slip his hand beneath the coat of her trim teal suit, but the garment was too formfitting around the rib cage to allow access. He rolled to one side and raised up on one elbow.

  Shaking with eagerness, Leah clumsily started to snatch at the buttons that ran down the front of the jacket, but Mike put his hand over hers and stopped her. “No. Let me.” His gazed locked with hers. “I want to see you,” he murmured in a voice so hot it raised goose bumps along her spine. “All of you.”

  Leah felt the same about him, but his words, his sizzling stare, made her so limp with desire she couldn’t seem to raise her hands to the buttons on his shirt. Instead, she lay still, trembling with anticipation.

  With tormenting slowness, he slipped the top button free, then the second. “Lovely,” he whispered as he pushed apart the lapels to rev
eal a wedge of creamy skin and a lacy teal bra. He bent his head and kissed the swells of pearly flesh that rose above the delicate garment.

  Leah made a restive move. “Mike, please.”

  Smiling, he raised his head. “Please what, my love?” “I...I...” She groped for an answer, but she couldn’t think. She could only twist and pant and struggle to absorb the thrilling sensations that battered her.

  The third button slipped free, and Mike spread the lapels wider, gazing his fill. The long stare seemed to sear her skin. He was setting her on fire with just a look. Breathing hard, Leah turned her head from side to side on the pillow.

  “Hurry, darling. Please. Hurry.”

  “Oh, no. I’ve waited too long for this night to rush things. I want to savor every beautiful inch of you. Kiss every inch of you.” To demonstrate, he bent his head and kissed her shoulder, her collarbone, then returned once again to the tops of her breasts, drawing a moan from her.

  “Do you like that, love?”

  “I...”

  “Hmm? Do you?”

  “Y-yes.”

  He traced his tongue along the top edge of her bra, leaving a moist trail of fire on her skin.

  “And that?”

  “Yes. Yes.”

  Again he nuzzled his face against the pillowy flesh. She clutched his shoulders, his head, her body shifting restlessly beneath him. When his tongue stabbed into the cleavage between her breasts she cried put. “Mike! Oh. Oh!”

  “You like that, too, hmm?”

  “Yes. Yes!”

  He dipped his head lower and gently blew on her right nipple through the fragile teal lace. She sucked in a sharp breath, and clutched his shoulders tighter, digging her fingers into his flesh, urging him closer.

  A wickedly sensual chuckle rumbled from Mike. As he dealt with the fourth and final button he complied with her unspoken desire, closing his mouth over her nipple and suckling her through the lace with a slow, devastating rhythm that seemed to tug at her womb.

  Leah’s back arched off the mattress and a keening wail tore from her throat. The pleasure was so intense she couldn’t think, couldn’t speak. She thrashed and moaned and clawed, but Mike showed no mercy, dealing the same sweet torture to her other breast.

  Driven by instinct more than conscious thought, Leah worked one hand between them and fumbled at the buttons on Mike’s shirt. When one refused to give, in frustration she tore it off, then gave the shirt a yank that popped the others off and sent them flying.

  “Easy, love,” Mike murmured.

  But she didn’t hear him. Even if she had, she could not have stopped. Driven by a raging passion she’d never before experienced, she yanked his shirt free of his trousers, spread the front edges and plunged her hands underneath.

  Her fingers curled into the rough hair on his chest, raced over warm flesh, testing firm pectoral muscles, broad shoulders, a wide rib cage. With the pad of her forefinger, she rubbed the tiny nipple she found buried in the thatch of hair.

  Mike grunted and jerked. “Ah, sweetheart. Sweetheart,” he groaned, now as helplessly lost as she.

  Leah’s arms circled his torso and her fingers danced over shoulder blades, down his spine, exploring each tiny knob. When she encountered the waistband of his trousers she made a frustrated sound very near a growl, jerked her hands back around to his front and began to snatch at the buckle on his belt.

  Mike’s plans for a slow, leisurely lovemaking vanished, consumed in the raging fire of passion that burned out of control. Caught up in her urgency, he turned his attention to the zipper on her skirt.

  After that there was no more teasing foreplay, no more words. They rolled together on the bed, mindless to everything but each other, gasping and kissing, as frantic hands snatched and groped to deal with hooks and buttons and zippers.

  The power and intensity overwhelmed Leah. She had expected pleasure. She hadn’t known she would drown in it, that it would permeate every cell of her body until it bordered on pain. Until she trembled with it.

  Until now she had thought she understood what it was to need, to want. She had been wrong. So wrong. This dark urgency that consumed her drove her to the brink of insanity. Her love for Mike, her desire for him, was so unrelenting and powerful that if it was not fulfilled soon she felt she would surely shatter into a million pieces.

  Within moments Leah’s suit and bra lay on the floor in a crumpled heap, along with Mike’s shirt. When her undergarments became an obstacle, Mike’s thin supply of patience ran out. With an oath, he jerked to his knees. Quickly, he hooked his fingers under the waistband of both her panty hose and the tiny teal bikini panties and peeled both down her body. He tossed the items over his shoulder and froze.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said in a gritty voice. Like a man mesmerized, he ran his gaze slowly over her, from the top of her head all the way to her toes. Then he bent over and kissed her belly, slowly, almost reverently.

  Leah’s heart did a slow roll in her chest.

  Without a word, he rose to stand beside the bed and strip out of his remaining clothes, his gaze holding hers all the while.

  Leah was a doctor; the male body held no mystery for her. Yet when Mike stepped out of his trousers and Jockey shorts, the sight of him made her mouth go dry. He was magnificent—leanly muscled and rangy, with broad shoulders and narrow hips, his manhood fully aroused.

  The sight sent a frisson of fear fluttering through her.

  Then the bed dipped under his weight. As his body settled onto hers Leah enfolded him in her arms, and the flash of anxiety passed. Now nothing else existed; nothing else mattered but this.

  When her legs parted for him, Mike raised up on his arms and looked deep into her eyes. “I love you, Leah,” he whispered as he made them one. “I love you.”

  The declaration jolted Leah, and for an instant she experienced the twin sensations of joy and guilt. Then the loving began, and the feelings faded like smoke in the wind, and there was only pleasure. Exquisite, intense, consuming pleasure.

  Thrilling sensations buffeted them like ships on a stormtossed sea, drove them with merciless insistence as their bodies undulated together to the ancient rhythm. Wrapping her arms and legs around Mike, Leah welcomed each powerful thrust, met it with an intensity that matched his, her body arching like a bow.

  The pleasure built and so did the urgency, sending them, panting and straining toward the ultimate pleasure. They clasped each other close, their bodies on fire, quivering and flushed as the need clawed at them.

  Together they reached the zenith. Release came in a rush, an explosion of ecstasy that rocked them to their souls and wrung cries of triumph and rapture from them both.

  For a long time neither moved. In delicious, boneless lassitude, they clung to each other and basked in the afterglow. But all too soon hearts slowed and breathing returned to normal, and reality, and memory, returned.

  Lying beneath Mike, Leah ran her hands absently across his sweat-slicked back and gazed over his shoulder at the fuzzy circle of light cast on the ceiling by the bedside lamp. She pressed her lips together and closed her eyes. Dear Lord, what had she done?

  “Mike...”

  “Mmm?”

  Stirring, he drew a deep breath, then raised up on his forearms. His face had that relaxed, sleepy-eyed look that came from making love, and his hair was mussed, the dark strands sticking up in all directions. That had been her doing, she realized, blushing a bit as she recalled the abandoned way she had stabbed her fingers through his hair and clutched it.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi.” Her throat was tight and achy with emotion. A quavery whisper was all she could manage.

  He smiled down at her with so much love and tenderness Leah could have wept.

  Some of what she was feeling must have shown in her face. Instantly his expression became concerned.

  “Are you all right? Did I hurt you?”

  “Oh, darling, no. Of course not.” When he continued to frown she framed
his face with her hands. “Will you stop worrying. I’m fine. Really. I’m not made of glass, you know. Mike, what we just shared was the most beautiful thing I’ve every experienced. I feel terrific.” Physically, at least, she added silently.

  His face cleared and his gentle smile returned. “Good. I’m glad. Because I feel the same.”

  “Mike, I...” She stared up at him, painfully aware of what she had to do. She couldn’t have this discussion lying intimately with him like this. She needed to put some space between them, let their heads clear before she dropped her bombshell.

  She shifted. “Mike, could I get up, please?”

  “Sure,” he said in a cautious voice, rolling to one side. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to crush you.”

  “You didn’t. I just needed to sit up, that’s all.” Feeling self-conscious and awkward, she swung her feet to the floor and bent over to retrieve her clothes, painfully aware of his gaze on her back.

  “Hey, you’re not planning on leaving, are you?”

  Leah twisted around on the bed, clutching her clothes to her breasts. “No...not yet.” She felt vulnerable, and she had simply wanted the meager protection of clothes when she confessed. “It’s just that, well...I think we should talk.”

  “Okay.”

  He moved so fast she had no chance to escape. In a blink he reached out and hauled her back into his arms. Leah found herself on her back again, looking up into Mike’s jubilant face, which was nose to nose with hers.

  “But I don’t want to hear any confession or any doubts. We love each other and that’s all that’s important. Whatever else is bothering you, we’ll handle later.” A sensual smile tilted his mouth and his eyes darkened as they focused on her mouth. “Right now, I have more interesting things in mind.”

  “Mike, wait. It’s not that simple. You have to listen to me.”

  “Later,” he murmured, and cut off any further protest with a kiss.

  Leah tried to resist, but she never stood a chance. Mike’s lips were warm and persuasive. With his scent all around her and the feel of his naked body pressing so intimately against hers, her head began to swim, and her defenses crumbled. Sighing, she wrapped her arms around him.