His Christmas Virgin

by Carole Mortimer

  But she was completely aware of Jonas, every step of the way, as he followed behind her up that metal staircase…

  Whatever he had been expecting Mac’s studio to look like, after the warmth and colour of the living area below, it certainly wasn’t the starkness of the pale cream colour-wash on the three bare brick walls. Or the fourth wall that faced towards the river completely glass, the ceiling also made up of glass panels, and revealing the clear star-lit sky overhead. The only furniture in the room was an old and faded chaise against one wall and a daybed beside another.

  Mac’s easel was set up near the huge glass window, and she strolled across the room to lightly lay a cover over the painting she was currently working on. ‘I never allow people to see my work before it’s completed,’ she explained ruefully at Jonas’s questioning look.

  The surroundings weren’t quite ‘starving in a garret’, but the studio was much more basic than Jonas had been expecting after the vividness of colours on the floor below. ‘You prefer not to have any outside distractions when you’re working,’ he realised softly.

  Mac turned to him with wide eyes. ‘No…’

  She hadn’t expected him to have that insight, Jonas realised, wondering if anyone else had ever really understood how and why she worked in the surroundings she did. Surroundings that were unique in the way Mac had converted this warehouse to her own individual needs.

  Another reason she refused to sell the warehouse to Buchanan Construction. The main reason probably; most of Mac’s emotional links to her grandfather would be inside her rather than consisting of bricks and mortar.

  This last realisation put Jonas in an untenable position.

  Had she done that deliberately?

  His mouth thinned as he turned to look at Mac. ‘You brought me up here for a purpose.’

  Mac briefly thought of denying it, and then thought better of it as she recognised the steely glitter in Jonas’s eyes. ‘I’m not sure I could work anywhere else,’ she answered truthfully.

  ‘Have you ever tried?’ he gritted.

  ‘No. But—’ She moved her shoulders in an uncomfortable shrug. ‘I just thought it might help if you understood I’m not just being bloody-minded by refusing to sell my home and my studio to you.’

  ‘You thought by showing me this that I would back off,’ Jonas guessed. ‘I don’t enjoy being manipulated, Mac,’ he said coolly.

  She frowned. ‘I wasn’t—’

  ‘Yes, you were, damn you!’ he burst out, suddenly explosive in his anger, taking the two long strides that brought him to within touching distance of her. ‘This is just an artist’s studio, Mac. It could be replicated just about anywhere.’

  She shook her head. ‘You’re wrong. I’ve lived and worked here for the past five years—’

  ‘And once this place has been knocked down you’ll live and work somewhere else for a lot longer than that!’ he said grimly.

  ‘I told you, that isn’t going to happen—’ Her protest was cut short as Jonas reached out to pull her into his arms before lowering his head and grinding his mouth fiercely down onto hers.

  It was a kiss of punishment rather than gentleness, anger rather than passion, Jonas’s arms like steel bands about her waist as he held her tightly against him, pressing her to his muscled body, making Mac completely aware of the pulsing hardness of his thighs.

  She stood on tiptoe as her hands moved up his chest to his shoulders, and then into the dark thickness of the hair at his nape, her mouth slanting, lips parting beneath his as she returned the heat of that kiss.

  Jonas was aware of his shift in mood as the angry need to punish her faded and passion and desire took over, groaning low in his throat as he began to sip and taste the softness of Mac’s lips, his tongue stroking those lips as he tested their sweetness before moving deeper into the hot and welcoming warmth of Mac’s mouth.

  He could feel her delicacy beneath the restless caress of his hands down the length of her spine before he cupped her bottom to pull her up and into him, the soft and welcoming well between her thighs both an agony and an ecstasy as his arousal fitted perfectly against her.

  He dragged his mouth from hers to breathe deeply against her creamy cheek. ‘Wrap your legs around me,’ he encouraged fiercely.

  ‘I don’t—’

  ‘I promise I’ll lift and support you, Mac,’ he looked up to encourage hotly. ‘I just need you to wrap your legs around me,’ he exhorted her gruffly before burying his lips against the side of her neck.

  Jonas’s tongue was a fiery torment against Mac’s skin, a rasping, arousing torment that made her feel weak and wanting even as she did as he asked. As promised, Jonas’s hands beneath her bottom easily lifted and supported her as she raised up to curve her legs about him and instantly felt the press of his arousal against the centre of her parted thighs.

  Her thin leggings and brief panties were no barrier to that firm and pulsating flesh as it pressed against her. Mac felt herself swell there, becoming damp, wet, so hot and aching as Jonas’s mouth claimed hers once again.

  She was barely aware of him carrying her across the room to press her against the wall, Mac only realising he had done so as the coldness of the brick against her back became a sharp counterpoint to the heated arousal of her breasts and thighs.

  His arousal was more penetrating now, pressing into that welcoming well as Jonas moved against her rhythmically, each thrust of his body matched by the penetration of his tongue into the heated inferno of her mouth, so that Mac felt him everywhere.

  Jonas wrenched his mouth from hers, breathing hard as he looked down at her with fiercely dark eyes. ‘I’m going to pleasure you, Mac,’ he promised gruffly as he carried her over to lay her down on the chaise. ‘I’m going to make love to you until you beg me to stop,’ he vowed as he knelt on the floor beside the chaise.

  He pushed her shirt out of the way and took off her boots, then peeled away her leggings and panties before moving up to kneel between her parted thighs. ‘You’re so beautiful here, Mac,’ he murmured throatily as he looked down at her hungrily. He reached out to touch her naked thighs, fingers gentle as he parted her ebony curls.

  Mac moaned as she felt Jonas’s fingers move against her in a light caress, heat coursing through her body as that pressure increased, that moan turning to a breathless keening as she felt a burning, aching pressure building inside her, demanding, wanting, needing—

  ‘Jonas!’ she cried out at the first intimate touch of his mouth against her, the moistness of his tongue a soft caress against her tender and aching skin.

  Her hands moved restlessly, fingers threading into Jonas’s hair with the intention of stopping that unbearable torment, but instead finding her fingers tightening her hold as she pressed him closer still, arching into him as she felt the probe of his fingers against her entrance, so close, so very close, and yet circling just out of reach.

  ‘Yes, Jonas!’ Mac groaned her torment as she pressed urgently against those tormenting fingers. ‘Please…!’

  God, how Jonas needed this, wanted this; the taste of Mac in his mouth and the feel of how hot and ready she was beneath his caressing hands.

  He entered her slowly as he continued to use his tongue to flicker against her. His fingers began to thrust, slowly, gently to the rhythm of Mac’s low encouraging groans as she moved urgently until her muscles tightened and she climaxed in long and beautiful spasms that caused her to cry out in mindless pleasure.

  Mac had never felt anything like this in her life before, the pleasure so incredible it bordered on pain. Wave after wave of heat coursing, singing through her body as Jonas continued the relentless pressure of his lips and tongue until he had extracted every last vestige of her climax.

  It seemed minutes, hours later, that Mac finally collapsed weakly back onto the chaise, her breath a choking sob, her body so alive to his every touch, so tinglingly aware, that she almost couldn’t bear it.

  Almost…

  Jonas began to kiss
his way up the flatness of her belly, unbuttoning her shirt to expose her naked breasts to the ministrations of the heat of his mouth, first one breast and then the other, the rasp of his jeans against her inner thighs as he lay half across her an added torment to her roused and sensitive body.

  His hair looked so dark against the whiteness of her skin as Mac looked down at him, his lips fastened about one nipple as his fingers caressed its twin.

  Incredibly Mac felt her pleasure rising again. More intense this time, deeper. Every touch, every caress causing her body to quiver in awareness. ‘I want to touch you, too, Jonas.’ She moved until she was sitting up slightly. ‘I need to touch you,’ she added achingly as he looked up at her, his eyes dark and heavy with arousal.

  Jonas studied her searchingly; her eyes were fever bright, her cheeks flushed, her lips…He had never seen anything as sensual as Mac’s pouting, full lips, could feel himself hardening to steel as he easily imagined those lips about him and her hair falling silkily across his hips and thighs as she pleasured him.

  The image was so clear, so urgent, that Jonas offered no resistance as she sat up fully to push him down onto the chaise beneath her before unbuttoning and unzipping his jeans to slide them and his boxers far enough down his thighs to fully expose his hard and jutting erection. He groaned low in his throat as he saw the way Mac looked at him so hungrily before she reached out tentatively and wrapped her fingers about him.

  She loved caressing him and learning what gave Jonas the most pleasure as her hand began to move up and down.

  Jonas’s hands clenched at his sides as that pleasure held him as tightly in its grip as Mac did. His focus became fixed on the expression on her face as she continued to touch him. The fascination. The pleasure. Then the eroticism of seeing the moist tip of her tongue moving over her lips before she slowly lowered her head towards him, before she finally took him into her mouth.

  Jonas’s back arched as he thrust up into that heat, the past week or so of wanting this woman, making love to her so far but never taking her, making it impossible for him to temper his own response. That response spiralled out of control as she took him deeper into her mouth before slowly drawing back. Then repeating it all over again. Setting a rhythm, a tormenting, heated rhythm that Jonas had no will or desire to resist.

  Jonas became lost in that bombardment of sensations, breathing hard, and then not breathing at all when he felt his exquisite release in mindless, beautiful pleasure.

  Chapter Eleven

  MAC could feel and hear Jonas breathing raggedly beside her as her head lay against his chest. Jonas’s arms were wrapped tightly about her as the two of them lay side by side on the chaise. Her thoughts were racing as she wondered what happened now. Now that Jonas knew her—and her body—more intimately than anyone else ever had. Now that she knew Jonas’s body more intimately than she had any other man’s…

  That she had been able to give him the same pleasure he had given her filled her with an immense feeling of satisfaction. But it was a satisfaction tempered by uncertainty. By the knowledge that her emotions, while she didn’t want to look at them too deeply here and now, were most definitely involved. And she had no idea whether or not she would ever see Jonas again after tonight…

  Neither of them had spoken as they’d adjusted their clothing into some semblance of order before they lay down together on the chaise. Mac knew her own silence was because she felt a somewhat gauche awkwardness following the intensity of their lovemaking. But she had absolutely no idea what Jonas was thinking or feeling as he lay so silently beside her.

  ‘This is usually the awkward part.’ Jonas’s chest rumbled beneath Mac’s ear as he finally spoke.

  Mac could feel the rapid beat of her own heart. The plummeting beat of her heart. Surely this could only be awkward if Jonas didn’t intend seeing her again?

  ‘Extracting oneself without embarrassment, you mean?’ she guessed huskily.

  ‘Something like that.’

  He hadn’t intended things to go as far between them as they had. He had wanted to make love to Mac, to give her pleasure. But he hadn’t expected to receive that same pleasure back, or for that pleasure to be given so completely. So beautifully. So erotically he had been unable to stop himself from climaxing.

  There had been many women in Jonas’s life the last fifteen years. Or, rather, in his bed; he didn’t allow any woman to actually be a part of his life.

  In the past those relationships had always been based on Jonas’s need for physical release, and the woman’s need for a bed partner who was wealthy enough to treat them out of bed in the way they enjoyed, to be wined and dined and bought the odd piece of expensive jewellery. As far as Jonas was concerned, it had been a fair exchange of needs. Almost as cut and dried as a business proposition, in fact. Something he could definitely relate to.

  He didn’t understand this relationship with Mac at all…

  In fact, Jonas shied away from even calling it that.

  That they had met at all had been purely accidental, a business necessity. Their meetings since had, for the main part, been just as incidental. Oh, Jonas had known it was her exhibition he was attending, and after their unsatisfactory conversation a few days earlier he had enjoyed seeing her discomfort when he’d arrived at the gallery with Amy.

  But the number of times the two of them had met since weren’t so easily explained away.

  His desire to see her again after tonight was even less so…

  It would be insanity on his part to ask to see her again. A complication he didn’t need in his life; Mac was nothing at all like any of the women he had known in the past. Jonas doubted he would be able to extricate himself from a relationship with her as easily as he had with those other women.

  No, he couldn’t see Mac McGuire again.

  Not couldn’t, wouldn’t!

  He had told Mac more about himself in the time he had known her than he had ever confided in anyone. Even Joel Baxter, who had become a good friend the past twelve years. He had allowed Mac to get below his defences, Jonas realised. To reach him, know him, better than anyone else ever had.

  Sex was one thing, but it was definitely time to sever the unwitting friendship that had been developing between them.

  Mac looked up just in time to see the grimness of his expression. And to guess the reason for it. Well, she might have been stupid enough to lose her heart to Jonas Buchanan, but that didn’t mean she had lost her pride too!

  ‘You needn’t look so worried, Jonas,’ she assured him dryly as she pulled out of his arms to stand up. Luckily her shirt was thigh length, long enough to hide her nakedness beneath. ‘This evening was—different. But I’m in no hurry to repeat the experience.’

  Jonas scowled darkly as he sat up and smoothed the untidy thickness of his hair back from his face. Hair that had felt silky and soft beneath Mac’s fingers only minutes ago!

  ‘Are you trying to tell me you didn’t enjoy it?’ he growled incredulously.

  Mac raised a cool eyebrow. ‘That would be rather silly of me, wouldn’t it? No, Jonas,’ she added firmly, chin raised. ‘I’m not saying that at all. Only that while this evening was—pleasant, sexual gratification is no reason for the two of us to see each other again after tonight.’

  It was exactly the same conclusion that Jonas had come to only minutes ago, but hearing her echo that conclusion so emotionlessly irritated the hell out of him. Mac thought the evening had been pleasant! Damn it, he had never, ever lost it in the way he had with her tonight. Had never allowed himself to lose control in the way he had earlier when Mac took him into her mouth.

  Jonas could still feel that pleasure. The most gutwrenching, soul-deep pleasure that he had ever known. He knew the memory of it was going to haunt his days and fill his nights for longer than he cared to think about.

  He stood up, eyes glittering angrily. ‘In other words, you’ve had your fun, and thanks for the experience?’

  She eyed him mildly. ‘You seem
angry, Jonas. Isn’t this what you wanted?’

  Yes, damn it, of course it was what he wanted!

  Jonas had wanted to be able to extricate himself from this situation with as little unpleasantness between them as possible. Except he had discovered it was something else entirely for Mac to want to do the same thing!

  ‘Whatever,’ he snapped coldly. ‘I suggest—what the hell was that?’ He scowled darkly as he heard a loud crashing noise coming from outside.

  Mac looked totally bewildered. ‘I have no idea…’

  Jonas strode quickly over to the window that faced over the river, looking out into the darkness. He couldn’t actually see anything, or anyone, and his car was still parked in the street below, but he was pretty sure that crashing noise had been the sound of glass breaking.

  He turned quickly, his expression grim as he hurried over to the spiral staircase. ‘I think your intruder is back!’

  Mac had been rooted to the spot, shocked into immobility by the loud sound. But she moved now, hurrying over to stand at the top of the staircase and look down at Jonas as he reached the bottom step. ‘You can’t go out there alone, Jonas—’

  He paused to look up at her. ‘Of course I’m going out there,’ he said.

  ‘You can’t.’ Mac shook her head worriedly. ‘What if they have a knife? Or—or a gun—’

  ‘You’ve been watching too much television, Mac,’ he said gently.

  ‘There was a stabbing in this area only a couple of weeks ago,’ she protested.

  ‘Reportedly rival gangs sorting out the pecking order,’ he reassured her.

  ‘Yes, but—’

  ‘Just put some clothes on and call the police, and then wait inside until I come back and give the all-clear,’ Jonas told her grimly.

  ‘But—’

  ‘You are not to come outside, Mac,’ he instructed firmly. ‘Do you understand?’

  Mac felt her cheeks warm with displeasure, both with Jonas’s high-handed attitude and the reminder that she still didn’t have all her clothes on. ‘I’m not stupid, Jonas. Neither do I intend just cowering in here while you go outside and face goodness knows what!’