Page 44 of The VIP Doubles Down
“I like this even better than your hand,” she said with a gasp.
He angled his forearm along the underside of her thigh and gripped her bottom to hold her in place while he flexed his hips to go deeper. For a moment he remained still so she could feel his heart pounding against her, hear his breath rasping in his throat, and look into the green depths of his eyes. It was a strange, profound moment of connection.
His grip tightened and he began to move, his pace slow but building, ratcheting the tension in her body a turn tighter each time he drove in. As sensation piled on sensation, she could no longer hold his gaze, letting her eyelids flutter closed to savor the feel of him filling the yearning inside her. He whispered her name, telling her how good it felt for him, how beautiful she was. And then his breath came in pants as he lost control, bringing them both to the edge with fast, powerful strokes. He came with a shout, pulsing hard inside her, his grip like steel on her buttock.
She shifted to bring her clit against the wiry hair at the base of his cock and ignited her own orgasm, her pelvis pushing into his as she shuddered into glorious release.
He loosened his hold on her behind, smoothing his palm over her skin as though to erase the feel of his fingers digging into her. Then he slipped out of her, sending more tremors rippling through her and dragging a long sigh from her throat. She heard the swish of a tissue being pulled from the box and knew he was removing the condom before he pivoted back and gathered her against him. She snuggled into his neck, inhaling the scent of clean, sweaty, satisfied male as the heat of his body enveloped her.
“Gavin.”
“Allie?” His voice was a rumble in her ear.
“Nothing. I just like your name.”
“Your name is not the thing I like most about you at this moment.” She could hear a smile in his voice, but when she felt the brush of his lips against her hair, tears prickled behind her eyelids.
To counteract her stupid reaction, she fished. “Which thingdoyou like most about me?”
“That would be hard to choose. I think it’s your entire lovely naked body wrapped around me.” He paused. “Butyouare focused on my name.”
“It’s the sum of all your parts.”
He laughed, creating a veritable earthquake in his chest. “Cleverly done, Ms.Nichols. I must remember that line.”
She smiled, gratified that a world-famous author would want to use something she said. “When you hang around a writer, you get inspired.”
The muscles of his chest moved against her breasts as he pulled the edge of the quilt up to wrap it around them. “The inspiration goes both ways.”
“Really? Have you started writing again?” Hope glowed in her chest as she tried to pull her head back to see his face. But he held her tucked into him.
“Not quite there yet, but ideas are beginning to flicker in the formerly blank void of my brain.”
“That must be a relief.”
His arms tightened around her. “Beyond measure.” She felt his lips on her hair again. “And I credit you.”
She liked that and she didn’t. Had he made love to her because he was grateful? “Maybe you were just ready.”
“You don’t want to be my new muse?” He shifted as though her words bothered him.
“I’ve heard it doesn’t pay well.”
He didn’t laugh as she’d hoped. “We’ll talk about that later.” He ran his hand down her back in a slow, sensual stroke that lit up her nerve endings. “Right now, a better idea has appeared in my brain.”
Chapter 12
Gavin came awake with the feeling of being watched. He checked Allie’s breathing as she nestled against his side, hearing the slow, even cadence of sleep. Then he saw the cat sitting on Allie’s pillow, staring at him in the half-light of the Manhattan night. Allie had let Pie into the bedroom after they’d made love for the second time, when the creature had begun to yowl.
The cat blinked. Gavin’s father had never allowed pets in the house, and Gavin had learned not to ask. However, when he was about nine, Gavin had made friends with the cats that lived in the parking lot of his father’s store. They were permitted to stay solely to keep down the rodent population and had short, hard lives. When his father caught him feeding them the meat from his sandwich, he was punished. The cats needed to be hungry to encourage their hunting. Gavin had fed them anyway.
Then one of the female cats gave birth to kittens that looked like little furry jelly beans. His father gathered them up in a burlap bag to drown them.
The remembered pain smashed through him again. He had begged for the kittens’ lives. His father had shaken Gavin’s hold off his arm, telling him the kittens would just starve, and then hurled the bag into the frigid water of the river.
Gavin had avoided the cats after that.
Pie blinked again and then curled herself into a ball on the pillow with some of Allie’s hair underneath her.
