Leaning against the doorjamb, she drank in the sight of him. His hair was tousled and caught glints of sunlight in its thick, dark waves, as did the scruff of whiskers he hadn’t yet shaved. He wore his favorite outfit of jeans and a black cashmere sweater, both of which outlined the long, lean muscles of his body in a way that sent desire licking through her like the flames of a bonfire.

Neither Gavin nor Pie was aware that she stood in the same room with them. The cat was lost in her feline dreams, and the writer was building his fictional world out of the bricks of words.

For a long moment, she simply watched, trying to paint this image onto a canvas in her mind. She rejoiced in the return of Gavin’s creativity, but Allie understood that meant her time with him was coming to an end. As loath as she was to disturb his progress, she wanted him to need her just a little longer.

She padded across the floor in her bare feet and pressed a kiss on the exposed skin at the back of Gavin’s neck.

The sound of typing ceased abruptly as he spun his chair around to tumble her onto his lap. He twined his fingers into her hair and pulled her head back so he could take her mouth in a kiss so intense it sucked the breath out of her.

“Never sneak up on a writer when he’s writing,” Gavin said, lifting his head with a hot gleam in his eye. “You could do irreparable damage to his psyche, which then must be soothed by crazed lovemaking.”

“Sneak? I could have set off a bomb, and neither you nor Pie would have twitched.” Allie half lay across his thighs as longing pulsed within her. “However, if your psyche needs healing, I’m willing to sacrifice myself to do it.”

The angles of his face tightened into an almost predatory look. “You are the most selfless human being I’ve ever met.” He skimmed his hand up along the outside of her thigh before sliding it under the hem of her shirt and grazing up her rib cage to palm her breast through her lacy bra.

“It’s pure torment,” Allie said as his thumb drew circles around her breast, making the tip harden and ache deliciously. “But I bear it for your sake.” She gasped as he rolled the nipple between his fingers and sent sparks glittering through her chest before they settled in a glow of heat between her thighs.

Wanting his skin against hers, she yanked the hem of her shirt up over her head and sent it flying. She flicked open the front clasp of her bra and bared her breasts to the stroke of his fingers and the morning sun.

“A wanton virgin sacrifice,” Gavin said, his gaze following the path of his fingers as he traced along the now-heavy curves of her breasts. “My favorite kind.”

She wanted his lips where his fingers were, so she stood and straddled his thighs, weaving her fingers into his hair and pulling him into her. His hands clamped around her waist, the fingers almost digging into her flesh. He lapped at one nipple, flicking it with his tongue, so each touch made her arch backward as a zing of sensation streaked through her. “More,” she rasped, pulling him closer.

He sucked on her with all the hot, moist pressure of his mouth, his hands running up to splay across her back so he could hold her tight against him. He pulled at the sensitive tips, then laved them, then ran his teeth lightly around them. She let her head fall back, feeling the brush of her long hair against her own bare skin like a caress.

She sank her fingers into the cashmere covering the muscles of his shoulders that she knew so intimately, clinging to him while arousal drew her body as taut as a bow.

“Now, Gavin!” she gasped, releasing her grip to fumble the button of her jeans open.

Suddenly he was standing, the chair rolling back to crash into an occasional table, toppling both pieces of furniture. His chest heaved as he glanced around the room wildly. Then he leaned forward and with one sweep of his arm cleared half his desk of papers, pens, stapler, and various knickknacks that rained to the floor with a series of thuds and flutters.

Pie bolted off her cushion.

Gavin lifted Allie onto the desktop. When she tried to wrap her legs around his hips, he bared his teeth in a near snarl and commanded, “Lie back.”

She obeyed, feeling the leather inset against her shoulder blades and the wooden frame beneath her head. She looked up to see Gavin looming over her as he worked her zipper down before yanking her jeans and panties down her legs and off.

He stood staring down at her body, his face painted half in warm, golden light and half in deep, concealing shadow. The light draped itself over the darkness of his sweater, limning his muscles in curves of brightness against the black. She saw again the sorcerer who could call worlds into being with his words.

She lifted her arms over her head and spread her thighs, because she wanted to feel his power inside her.

He ground out her name as he ripped open the fly of his jeans and rolled on a condom. Positioning the head of his cock between her legs, he dug his fingers into the soft flesh of her bottom and pulled her to the edge of the desk.

“Hard,” she said, closing her eyes to focus on the hollow that she needed to have filled.

He drove into her in one stroke, a long groan tearing from his throat. The motion and stretch of him made her back arch up off the desk. “Yes, Gavin!”

He withdrew and thrust in again, pulling her against him as he moved so that there was pressure and friction where she craved it. Electric bolts of pure sensation seared through her, lighting up her nerve endings and making her writhe against his hands. It was delicious and mind-bending and not enough.

“Again!” She rocked against him.

He gave her what she asked for, driving in deep and fast. Her eyelids squeezed shut, and she rode the wave of arousal building higher and higher as every touch, every motion, every sound seemed to slide down into the place where he moved inside her. She fought the breaking of the wave, held back the tide as long as she could until finally she hit the still point where every molecule in her body seemed to hold its breath. Then the orgasm slammed through her so hard and bright that she felt as though her skin went incandescent with the overwhelming pleasure.

As her muscles clenched around Gavin, she felt his grip tighten, and then his climax pulsed inside her. She slitted her eyes open enough to see his head thrown back, the tendons in his neck standing out as he gave a long, guttural moan that held her name somewhere in it. The convulsion of her muscles and the pulse of his cock echoed and amplified each other so that his name was dragged from deep in her belly and up her throat.