His gaze kept returning to her eyes, an intensity building between them that was easily as dizzying as the physical touches and kisses up to this point. To some it may not have meant all that much, but for him there was vulnerability in stripping down. He imagined that just because she wore a different kind of armor than he, it didn't make it any less so for her. A metaphorical dropping of barriers beneath the literal sense.

He leaned in as his hands slipped higher, over the curve of her ribs, fingertips just brushing the underside of her small clothes. "Lift your arms," he whispered and chased the words with a gentle tug of lips to her earlobe.