Reading Online Novel

Under the Millionaire's Mistletoe(25)



For now, he was her husband. And she wanted him. Needed him. Hard and deep within her. For now.

"Condom?" Please, please let him have one because heaven knew what she'd do if he didn't.

He nodded, pulling a foil square from his pocket as she reached for his  zipper and freed the straining length of him. Waiting just long enough  for him to cover himself, she slid down onto the length of him, bringing  him home, shuddering with pleasure as he stretched and filled her.

His gaze locked with hers, intent and powerful, as she rocked against  him, with him, over him. Passion turned his eyes storm-dark. Her fingers  dug into his shoulders as his hands gripped her hips and they found a  building rhythm of their own. Clamoring need and desperate desire drove  them higher and faster till sensation, the effervescence of champagne  bubbles, filled and overwhelmed her. She cried her arching completion  moments before he drove his release home.

Meg fell forward, resting her head on the top of his and he snaked his  arms around her waist and held her to him, his ear to her thudding  heart. When he'd promised to make her forget her sorrows, she hadn't  realized he'd make her forget her very self. That in his arms she would  forget her inhibitions and become the woman she imagined she saw in his  eyes.

The silence and stillness of the room stole over them as her heartbeat slowed and her gasping breath eased.                       
       
           



       

What now? Too soon the taunting inner voice asked. What now, indeed. She  had no idea, no answer. Her mind still reeled from the power and  passion of their lovemaking. She pulled away from Luke, and his clasp  loosened. She slipped her arms back into the sleeves of her dress. He  helped ease the fabric up over her shoulders, planting a kiss between  her breasts the moment before the spot was covered. She eased out of his  lap and Luke stood, too.

Not meeting his gaze, she turned and searched for her panties. She bent  to pick them up, but they were snatched out of her reach before she  touched them. He slipped them into his pocket.

Wordlessly, they walked to the library door. She reached for the handle,  but he covered her hand with his. And when she looked at him, he kissed  her, gentle and lingering. They turned the handle together and stepped  out into the hallway. When she would have headed the way they had come  he shook his head, and with a firm grip on her hand led her farther down  the hallway. He stopped at the third door. The guest room. His room.

His seeking gaze searched her face. "This time I want you naked and beneath me."

Meg caught her bottom lip with her teeth. Apparently finding what he  sought, Luke opened the door and pulled her with him into the darkened  room, whispering, "Never let it be said that I didn't utterly satisfy my  wife."



Meg woke in her husband's bed, her head resting in the hollow of his  shoulder, her arm draped over his chest, her legs entwined with his.

He'd kept his promise and given her so much more.

Slowly, carefully, she disentangled herself and eased from the bed. He didn't so much as stir.

As she slipped back into her dress and gathered up her discarded  stockings and shoes, she paused by the wide window. They'd slept with  the curtains open and overnight a light snow had fallen, dusting the  trees and boulders on the lake shore. The sight was so beautiful that it  made her heart ache. Soon she'd be gone from here. She'd stepped onto a  stage and played her part. But the time for her exit was drawing  inexorably closer.

Feeling like an intruder, she slunk back through the still house.  Bundling up against the cold, she took Caesar for his morning walk along  the shore, tossing his stick repeatedly. Tempted by beauty's promise of  stillness and serenity, she walked out to the end of the jetty and  looked over the lake. The mountains on the far side were still obscured  by heavy cloud.

At the sound of footsteps, she turned, a leap in her pulse. Not Luke but  Jason. Her heart sank and she realized she'd hoped, wanted, it to be  Luke. Wanted to see the man she'd made love to last night. Wanted to see  his face and at the same time was afraid to. In the light of day would  there be any of last night's tenderness and connection, or would it be  regret and distance she saw there?

"I thought I saw someone down here." Jason smiled, warmth in his voice.  He looked a little like Luke. Similar build and coloring but his  watery-blue eyes were always moving, scanning the surroundings.

Meg smiled back, but doubts gnawed at her. What had Jason done to cause  Luke to dislike him so intensely? Intensely enough that he would rather  marry her than have his half brother inherit from him.

"So are the rumors true? Has my brother come home?"

Half brother . Meg nearly said that out loud. Luke was always careful to draw the distinction. "Yes."

Jason's smile wavered and he glanced over his shoulder at the house. Was  that anxiety in his question? Jason had always seemed eager for Luke's  return.

"I was just going back inside. Come in. He's probably up by now." Meg  walked back along the jetty. Jason fell into step beside her.

"I'm on my way to meet someone and I want to go before there's any more snow. I haven't got time to stop. I'll call in later."

She shrugged. "I'll let him know to expect you."

"And let him know … "

She waited for him to finish.

"Nothing," he finally said. "Just … put in a good word for me, will you?"  She walked round to the front of the house with him. As he drove away,  she climbed the stairs.

The front door swung open. Luke, in jeans and bare feet, pulled an  olive-green T-shirt over his head. He tugged the hem of the shirt over  the plane of his stomach and looked past Meg. Jason's red Corvette  disappeared around a bend in the road, leaving it empty and still.  "Damn." Luke's gaze came back to her. "How long was he here and what did  he want?"                       
       
           



       

"Not long and to know if you were home." Meg stepped past Luke and into  the house. The Christmas tree dominated the entranceway. They'd kissed  here last night. Her face heated with the recollections of where that  had led to.

Luke's hand wrapped around her wrist, stopping her when she would have  walked away, turning her back to face him. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him that yes, you were home."

"What else?"

Meg tugged her hand free. "Ask him yourself. I don't want to be a pawn in your petty squabbles."

"They're not petty."

"No, I suppose not." For all that she hadn't known Luke long, she knew  him well enough to be certain of that. "But I still don't want to be  caught in the middle of whatever it is. I think Jason really did try to  help me while you were gone."

"If he did, it was for his own reasons." The creases in his brow deepened. "He blackmailed my mother."

A woman who'd devoted her life to others. A year after her death, the  villagers still spoke of her with love, talked about her compassion and  understanding and her ability to get things done. They'd probably still  be talking about her a decade from now. And Jason had blackmailed her?  "No." He wouldn't have, would he?

"Right up until her death. I didn't find out till I went through her papers in Indonesia."

"I remember your saying you'd discovered something about him. You were so angry."

"Still am."

As Meg repositioned a gold bauble on the tree, she could just make out  his distorted reflection in its surface. "What are you going to do about  it?"

"I haven't made a final decision. I want to talk to him first. Confront him with it."

"Will you bring charges?" She turned back to him.

Grimness tightened his mouth. A mouth that could give such pleasure.  "Most likely. After I strip him of the car, the house and the job I gave  him."

"Oh."

"Don't play the disappointed-in-me card, Meg. The man was blackmailing my mother. I owe it to her."

"You're right, and I'm not disappointed."

"But?"

"I just wondered if that was your only option."

"Unless you can suggest a better one, one that does justice to my mother?"

As Meg shook her head, he slid his phone from the pocket of his jeans,  punched in a number. "Jason. You should have stuck around." Did Jason  hear the command in the quietly spoken sentence? Meg tuned out the short  conversation as she walked away. Luke caught up with her in the kitchen  as she was pouring two coffees. "He'll be back later today."

She passed him a mug. As she lifted hers to her nose to inhale the  fragrance, the ring on her finger caught her eye. The dinner was over,  there was no need for her to wear it any longer. Putting down her  coffee, she twisted the simple gold band from her finger and held it out  to him.