“I’m here because you just got a body blow right when you thought things were looking up. I expected you’d want someone to talk to, to lean on. Someone who could help you through the bad time. That’s not pity. That’s caring.” Maybe more than she wanted to acknowledge to herself.

“Well, I certainly leaned on you, didn’t I?” But in the filtered illumination of the New York City streetlights, she could see the tension in his jaw ease as something flickered to life in his eyes. He slid closer, slipping his hand under her hair to hold it away from her neck. “I must reek of bourbon, so I won’t kiss you on the lips, but . . .” He found the skin pulled tight over her jawline and pressed his lips against it before he licked along the edge of the bone.

Enveloped in the cushioned leather of the big Bentley and the scent of Gavin’s spicy soap mingled with expensive liquor, Allie felt a bolt of electricity streak down her neck to fork at her breasts, bringing each nipple to a hard, aching peak. Then it seared low into her belly to coil itself into a hot, yearning knot. She gasped, and he dragged his lips along the tendon of her neck until he reached her clavicle. Tracing it with his tongue, he brought one hand up to her breast, his palm putting just the right pressure against the tight point.

She understood that he was seeking a different kind of oblivion than the bourbon would bring. He could lose himself in the giving and receiving of physical pleasure and forget his despair for a time. As the vibrations of his touch echoed through her, she wanted to open herself to him, to ease his pain so she could bring him back to the brilliant, perceptive man she was coming to find irresistible.

She threaded her fingers into his hair and pulled up his head to find his mouth. “I like the aroma of bourbon,” she said before angling her head so she could feel the firmness of his lips and tease him into opening them.

Gavin groaned against her, the vibration adding an extra dimension to their kiss. He pulled her closer, but their knees got in the way. “On my lap,” he said, his hands on her shoulders, urging her toward him.

She did him one better, turning to kneel with one knee on either side of his thighs. The denim of her jeans slid on the leather seat as the car accelerated, so she skidded up against him with her legs practically wrapped around his waist.

“Good use of momentum.” His voice had gone hoarse.

She could feel his erection pressing against her, harder as they hit a pothole, even with the Bentley’s expensive suspension. “Ahh, Gavin.”

He slid his hands under the hem of her silky top and found the catch of her bra, opening it so she felt the bra come loose. Then he was kneading her breasts under the fabric, his thumbs rubbing over the sensitive tips, the electric sensation zinging through her. She braced her hands on the top of the car’s seat and threw back her head, letting him touch her any way he wanted to because he needed to be in control right now. He pushed up her shirt and bra so that he could suck on her breasts, pulling at the nipples with his lips, swirling around them with his tongue, grazing them with his teeth.

She tried to muffle her moans, but her skin grew more and more sensitive so that each touch reverberated deeper and lower inside her. Only the hard grip of his hands on her waist could keep her still enough for him to torment and tantalize. She reveled in the feel of his fingers pressed into her skin to hold her for his pleasure. She wanted to offer him this, to make him forget for a little while. It was an act of love. The thought startled her before it was swept away under his delicious assault.

He unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans, slipping one hand into the V of her thighs, gliding against the slickness he’d created there.

“Allie, you are so sweet and wet.” He found her clit and massaged it, the contact sending waves of pure arousal crashing through her. She could feel the build of her orgasm tightening and tightening. Then he wedged his hand farther down so he could slide one finger inside her, flexing it to trigger tiny explosions in her center.

“Yes,” she hissed, her fingernails digging into the leather cushion as she bowed backward.

His mouth was on one of the breasts she had unconsciously thrust forward, drawing hard on the nipple. She lifted partway off his lap so he could move his hand more easily in the confines of her jeans.

He took full advantage, working another finger inside her and thrusting in and out with short strokes while his palm dragged against her clit. She could feel herself grow even wetter as he pushed in while tonguing her nipple. For a long moment she teetered on the edge of climax, held suspended in the web of sensation he wove around her, and then her whole body clenched and exploded, clenched and exploded. Her mouth opened to shriek before she remembered Jaros was only a few feet away.

She swallowed her cry just before it broke from her, turning it into a long, ragged groan. She shook with the force of containing the power of her orgasm.

“Let go, Allie,” Gavin said, flexing his fingers at a different angle. “Come for me.”

Her body shuddered as it tightened around him again and released. “No more,” she begged, collapsing with her head on his shoulder, his hand still in her jeans and her body. “I can’t.”

He went still, wrapping his free arm around her while echoes of her orgasm rippled through her. She could hear the rasp of his breathing and feel that his heart was pounding almost as hard as hers.

“Mr. Gavin, we are home.” Allie would have jumped at the intrusion of Jaros’s voice except that her body was too wrung out to move.

Gavin gave a strange little bark of a laugh. “Take us to the garage, and leave us with the keys in the car.”

“Yes, sir.” The intercom’s low hum cut off.

Allie felt a flush of embarrassment. “He must know what we’re going to do.”

“You’ve already done it.” His tone held a flicker of amusement.

“Oh God, I won’t be able to look him in the eye,” Allie said. “Or Ludmilla.”

“Discretion is an important part of Jaros’s job. He’ll never acknowledge what happened in any way.”

“But he still knows.”

Gavin did something with his fingers that brought her nerve endings back to full alert, banishing the driver and his opinions from her mind. It was hard to feel shame when a man’s mouth was on your bare breast and his fingers were moving in mind-blowing ways inside you.

The car rocked a couple of times as though it were bumping over something; then it slowed to a stop. Allie buried her face in Gavin’s shoulder again as she felt the car door close. “Is he gone?”