Gateway to Heaven by Beth Kery Page A

said, as if it were all obvious. “You get along with Christian okay. You just needed to find the right guy to bring you out of your shell.”
    Megan made a scoffing sound. “It’s a little more complicated than that,” she said acerbically. “What am I supposed to tell Christian, exactly? ‘I’d like to sleep with you, but I’ve never been to bed with a man before, even though the doctors have proclaimed that without a doubt, I lost my virginity in more ways than you’d care to hear about well over twenty years ago.’”
    “ Sounds like a good start to me,” Tina said without missing a beat.
    A few seconds passed before ragged laughter erupted from her throat. That’s why she loved Tina so much. If she’d said the same thing to Hilary or her mother, they would have broken into tears and tried to give her a sedative. If her father were still alive, he would have turned pale and gone into the den with a full bottle.
    “ He’d freak out and run, Tina,” she said wearily as she picked up the portfolio. “I can’t say I’d blame him.”
    “ You’re never going to know for sure unless you try,” Tina replied softly.
     
    Chapter 5
     
    Megan wasn’t sure what to expect when she stepped off the private elevator into Christian’s loft, but it wasn’t that she would be walking directly into the vast space of his living room. Or music studio, she amended when she took in the piano, several guitars on stands, and a complex network of stereo and electronic equipment. The room she’d entered was well over two thousand square feet on its own, and could easily encompass an entire home. The floors were a beautiful maple that matched the stain on the massive, original timber beams of the ceiling. The bookcases that lined the far wall were custom made, and filled with a multitude of vertically and horizontally stacked books, old record albums and periodicals. The furniture, rugs, and the few art pieces in the room suggested a minimalist, oriental influence.
    “ Megan?”
    “ It’s me,” she answered Christian’s distant voice.
    A second later he entered the room from a hallway to the right. “Come on in. You can watch me while I slave away at your dinner.”
    Megan followed him down a corridor that opened up to another large, well-lit space with a kitchen on the left and a dining area to the right. Her eyes widened longingly when she saw the gigantic terrace outside the sliding glass doors in the dining room, complete with lush landscaping and an outdoor hot tub.
    “ Nice little place you’ve got here, Christian,” she said wryly.
    He laughed while he resumed slicing a tomato. “One of the advantages of Chicago. Only place I could get this amount of space and the view. Manhattan is too expensive for me and L.A. doesn’t have a view worth paying for, as far as I’m concerned.” He set down the knife and wiped off his hands on a towel.
    “ Would you like a glass of wine?”
    Megan nodded and he removed a bottle of chardonnay from the stainless steel refrigerator.
    “ This kitchen is pretty state of the art. Do you cook a lot?” Megan asked with interest as she watched him expertly uncork the bottle and remove some wine glasses from the cabinet.
    “ No. But don’t worry. I know how to cook one or two reliable meals. Nothing fancy but you’re not going to choke on it or anything. At least I hope not.”
    “ That’s reassuring,” she said with a laugh.
    He handed her the wine glass as his blue-eyed gaze ran over her face. “You seem happy. Your work went well?”
    She wrinkled her nose and took a delicate sip of wine, savoring the flavor before she spoke.
    “ It was okay, I guess.”
    “ Are you ever happy with your sculpting?”
    “ Sure. For about three seconds both times,” Megan replied quickly.
    He gave a full-throated bark of laughter. “Yeah, I guess we’re always our own worst critic. Thank God other people aren’t as harsh as we are.” He lifted his wine glass to hers. Megan took