He shook his head, surprised to find that he didn’t mind at all. If being worked up meant that this woman would stand across the room from him and dare him to stroke himself, if it meant she’d lay herself out on the couch and invite him to touch any part of her he wanted, then so be it.

He liked who he was around Ruby. He liked this man who joked about black leather, who didn’t mind coming undone so long as she was the one in charge of the undoing.

“The biggest part of my plan was to, ah, take care of business before I got here,” he said as he got her top button free. As he suspected, a glimpse of whitish cotton peeked back up at him. Considering how that whitish cotton swelled and beckoned toward him, he decided he’d never seen any fabric he liked more. “So that was the first thing I did.”

“Wait. What?” She paused in the middle of arching her back, the jut of her breasts causing the second button to undo itself. “You mean you jacked off?”

“Jacked off. Spanked the monkey. Choked the chicken. Wrestled the eel.”

She took her underlip between her teeth. “Um… You know a lot of terms for that.”

“I was a teenage boy once, all evidence to the contrary. You’ll notice the only ones I remember are animal-related. I’ve always wanted to be a vet.”

Her laugh rang out so loudly that she cast a panicked glance toward the boys’ rooms, but the one thing Eva and Maury had splurged on in this house was soundproof walls. Lowering her voice a little, she said, “I’m sorry. Please, continue what you were doing. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Since he was in the middle of running a finger lightly along the upper swell of her breast, it took him a moment to remember where he was or what he was supposed to be doing. Exploring the topography of Ruby’s form was like traveling to a distant—and wondrous—land.

“Once I, uh, took care of business, I did push-ups.” He flipped open the third button of her bodice. This one exposed a lot more than just her bra, offering him a glimpse of the band of skin along her rib cage. It led to the enticing curvature of her waist, which he knew from experience would lead to the equally enticing curvature of her hips. Sucking in a sharp breath, he added, “Lots of push-ups.”

“One hundred and forty of them?” she teased.

His voice came out as a rasp. “More.”

“One hundred and fifty?”

He shook his head. The truth was, he’d lost count. Sometime in the past few days, doing push-ups had become synonymous with Ruby standing half-naked with her hand between her legs. He could never go to a gym again.