Free One of the Boys by Merline Lovelace Page A

unscathed as a long, hairy paw lashed out, claws extended.

Chapter 5
    B iting her lip to hold back a smile, Maura scooted off the bed. A hissing Bea glared at Jake from the safety of her arms.
    â€œSorry ’bout that.” She swallowed a smothered laugh as she took in his thoroughly disgruntled expression. “I’ll put her in the guest room.”
    Maura muffled her laughter against Bea’s coat as she hurried across the hall. Obviously Colonel Jake McAllister wasn’t used to having his seduction scenes interrupted. She deposited Bea on the guest-room bed and closed the door firmly behind her. Taking a deep breath, she walked back across the hall. Any lingering inclination to laugh fled when she entered the bedroom.
    Jake was sitting on the side of the bed. He’d used the last few minutes to unlace his boots. While Maura watched, fascinated, he slipped them off, then stood and unzipped the one-piece flight suit. What emerged from that green cocoon took her breath away.
    He was long and lean and superbly muscled. A cotton T-shirt stretched across his shoulders, molded itself to his rib cage and trim waist. Her throat tight, Maura ran her gaze down muscled thighs covered with dark, curling hair.
    â€œCome here.”
    His husky voice sent shivers dancing down her spine. Slowly, she crossed the room. Jake waited patiently beside the bed, his eyes never leaving her face. When she stopped in front of him, strong, tanned hands reached again for the buttons on her dress.
    â€œAre you protected, Maura?”
    She nodded up at him, and his fingers burned against her flesh as he worked the tiny coral buttons, one by one.
    Mesmerized, Maura kept her gaze locked on his, seeing the silver flames in his eyes, feeling the backs of his fingers brush against the insides of her breasts. She felt a slow heat begin once more, low in her belly. When Jake’s hands pushed the red dress off her shoulders and down her hips, she swallowed convulsively.
    Standing in a pool of red, clad only in a lacy halfbra and bikini pants, she felt more exposed than she’d ever felt in her skimpiest bathing suit.
    Jake stepped back and took her in. “You’re so beautiful.”
    In a last, dying wheeze, her stubbornly analytical brain cells refuted his raspy words. They reminded her that her hips were a bit too generous and her breasts on the small side. Then the sensual side kicked into overdrive. Maura saw the naked desire in his eyes, and suddenly she felt beautiful. And sexy and wanton. Every spot his eyes touched seemed to heat.
    When Jake reached out to brush his fingers across the swelling flesh above her bra, Maura’s stomach danced. When his hands lifted first one and then the other breast out of the concealing lace, her breath stopped. And when he bent to take one aching nipple into his mouth, her legs almost collapsed from under her.
    She clutched his dark head against her breast to steady herself. His teeth rasped against the tender peak, sending rivulets of fire streaking to her belly. He kneaded the other breast, shaping its soft flesh, tugging gently on the nipple with finger and thumb until Maura thought she would go mad. She must have made some sound, some indication of her need. Jake stopped his assault on her breasts to lay her back on the bed. With steady hands, he unhooked her bra. Maura barely noticed when he disposed of it and her panties. She had time for one deep gulp before he got rid of his shirt and shorts.
    Her hungry eyes raked his lean length as he stretched out beside her. She felt a stab of satisfaction at the rigid hardness of the shaft against her thigh. She wasn’t the only one throbbing in anticipation.
    A sudden urge to shake Jake’s control, to change the pace of his deliberate assault on her senses, seized her. Her eyes gleamed in the darkness as she moved one hand slowly down his chest. Her nails tugged at the springy hair, etched a line of quivering flesh. A bolt of