“Poor baby,” she murmured. She placed a hand on top of his before he could reach the fourth button. “You must be exhausted. I’d better get the rest of these for you.”

“Don’t you dare,” he growled. “After all those push-ups, I’ve earned this.”

She arched toward him instead. “Then by all means, don’t let me stop you. What else did you include in your plan?”

“Careful breathing. Thoughts of open wounds. A faked phone call from Lawson in case I needed immediate extraction.”

With each detail of his plan, Spencer opened a button of her dress. The fourth revealed the neat nip of her waist. The fifth exposed her navel, which formed a perfect circle in the center of her belly. By the time he reached the sixth, he was fully erect and able to count the beat of his pulse by how hard he ached.

“I thought only women did that,” she said, gasping a little as he slid a finger underneath the waistband of her panties. “Faked phone calls to get out of unpleasant dates, I mean.”

“I wasn’t going to fake it to get out of unpleasantness,” he protested. “It was to save myself.”

Ruby’s underwear might have been made of serviceable and breathable cotton, but her skin was pure silk—and the further down her body he went, the smoother it became. He’d just reached the juncture of her thighs when she asked, “Save yourself from what?”

As if he needed to say. The moment his fingers reached what they sought—the warm, slick heat of her—they both knew the answer to that question.

This touch. That pressure. The glory of feeling her squirm underneath him.

“I can’t resist anymore, Ruby,” he said as he gave her dress a yank and felt the rest of the buttons give way. “I’m sorry.”

He wasn’t exactly sure what he was apologizing for unless it was the speed with which he pushed her dress aside and removed her panties. As much fun as it had been to make a game of undressing her, the delay was starting to cause a serious strain. He waited only until she’d managed to wriggle her legs free before sliding a hand underneath her hips. She released a sound somewhere between a sigh and a squeal as he planted a kiss on the gentle swell of her lower belly. That sound became much closer to a moan as he kissed her again, further down this time, the damp heat of her clinging to his lips.