Free Ripped! by Jennifer LaBrecque Page B

all day.” He pushed her back against the mattress and licked her bottom lip. It was quite possibly one of the most erotic things she’d ever had done to her. “And this…” He brushed his mouth over hers in a butterfly kiss, stealing her breath. All thought vanished. Only the sensation of his lips, hisbreath, his scent, his body heat remained. Then he caught her lower lip in between his teeth and nipped at it. A gentle, insistent tugging. Her nipples hardened even further against her bra as if each nibble, each caress was wired through to the very core of her.
    “If—” he took another lick along her lip “I do anything—” he scraped his teeth against the sensitive flesh he’d just licked “—you don’t like, tell me.”
    “So far, you’ve got a one-hundred percent approval rating.”
    And she figured if he liked doing that to her, chances were he’d like it done to him. She pushed him to his back—which he allowed because she obviously couldn’t push him anywhere he didn’t want to go. Good thing they both wanted to go to the same place.
    “Baby…”
    “Hmm?” she murmured, plying her tongue along his gorgeously chiseled lip. And then she couldn’t resist. She teased the tip of her tongue along the faint cleft in his chin. She wasn’t quite sure why that was so sexy, but it was. The faint scrape of whiskers, the slight taste of salt against the tip of her tongue.
    “Take your shirt off,” he said, in a husky tone. “Please,” he tacked on.
    And there was something very arousing about that please . She was certain Lieutenant Colonel Mitch Dugan didn’t ask for things. He ordered and expected his directive to be carried out. But she knew with a certainty that he didn’t ask . If she hadn’t been thoroughlyenchanted with him already, his please would have sealed the deal. He could get pretty much anything out of her with that entreaty. Well, he could pretty much get anything out of her anyway, but…
    “Since you said please,” she said with a teasing smile.
    “Is that all it takes?” He raised his arms, pillowing his head on his hands.
    Eden swallowed hard. Trip another trigger for her. That thatch of dark hair in his armpits, the swell and bulge of bicep and tricep…Dear God, she was in imminent danger of just melting into a puddle of desire right beside him. Discovering his dry sense of humor had been a nice surprise today. It was an even nicer surprise to have it turn up in the bedroom. Is that all it takes?
    “There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?” She edged her shirt up her waist, then suffered an attack of cold feet. He was rock-solid and ripped. He was sculpted and perfect. She wasn’t. She was rounded and the ugly truth was she looked a whole lot better with her clothes on than without, considering that she had a midriff roll going and her thighs could be a whole lot tighter.
    His hiss of indrawn breath broke the room’s silence. It wasn’t a horrified gasp. It was the sound of a man who liked what he saw. Obviously he appreciated curves and softness. All her insecurities vanished beneath the appreciation glittering in his green eyes.
    So she continued—slowly, deliberately edging her shirt up, her skin sensitized to the slide of material over her, past her shoulders and over her head. Cool air settled on her skin, making her even more aroused, if that was possible.
    “Red—” his voice rasped and it had the same effect on her as his calloused fingers against her skin “—is a good color on you. I should’ve known this morning when I saw those shoes. Are your panties red, too?”
    From the bulge in the front of his jeans, he liked the color. A lot.
    She edged off of the bed and slipped off the flats she’d worn earlier, then slowly slid the zipper of her jeans down.
    She worked the jeans over her hips with a little more wiggle than was necessary but he seemed to enjoy the show. Then she stepped out of her pants and into the red heels she’d tossed over