Night Maneuvers - By Jillian Burns Page 0,36

about what she’d agreed to. She’d simply been unwilling to live the rest of her life without knowing what it could be like with Mitch.

“You need to save your strength.” She made herself turn and head for the backyard.

The rest of the day was a snapshot of Alex’s dream of a perfect day. In between hours of backbreaking but fulfilling work, she and Mitch played. They chased, and wrestled, they had a water fight and made slow love in the pool. To her, food tasted better, the sun shone brighter, the grass was literally greener, the water bluer. Everything in her world was enhanced by her love for Mitch.

And as she fell asleep in his arms for the second night in a row, she ignored the dread and fear lurking, waiting for the dream world she’d stolen to come crumbling down. She shoved it way down deep and sighed into hot masculine skin.

11

SITUATION REPORT—DAY TWENTY-NINE: amazed.

The daily Sit-Rep a habit now, Mitch paused in the act of shaving on Sunday afternoon and stared at himself in Alex’s bathroom mirror. How could the face in the mirror look the same as it always did when the man inside was a stranger?

Mitch McCabe never spent the night at a woman’s house. Wasn’t that the point of going to her place instead of his? So he could get up and leave whenever he wanted. No mushy snuggling. No weird mornings after. No false promises to call. No messy entanglements. Those were the rules, right?

But he hadn’t given any of that one damn thought all weekend. He didn’t want to get up and leave. He liked lying in Alex’s arms after sex. And he liked waking up with her. All these years he’d been missing out on what was now his new favorite thing: morning sex.

This morning he’d woken up sore as hell from all that yard work—okay, he may have exaggerated his pain slightly—and Alex had reached into her bedside table drawer for a tube of lotion.

“Roll over on your stomach,” she’d ordered, and he’d obeyed willingly enough.

She’d straddled his butt, squeezed some lotion into her palms and then kneaded his shoulders and the back of his neck with the perfect blend of strength and gentleness.

“Where’d you learn to give such a great massage?”

She’d paused. “You don’t want to know.”

He’d had a massage from Lily before. That’s how he’d met her. Had some guy taught Alex? The image of Alex lying nude while some guy put his hands all over her had made him bristle with irritation. “Was it that SEAL?”

“Settle down, Casanova,” she’d said as she swatted his butt. “Every cowgirl learns to give her horse a good rubdown after a hard ride.” She’d bent down and sprinkled tiny kisses down his spine.

Of course that had led to his complaint that he hadn’t been ridden hard yet. And Alex had obliged. And then there was the showering together after…

Oh, yeah. Mitch smiled as he resumed his shave. He could get used to this friends-with-benefits lifestyle.

There were only a few hours left before Alex would have to leave for work. He frowned at his reflection in the mirror. She was on night maneuvers for another few weeks, so it’d be a while before—

“What are you doing, shaving every hair individually?” Alex appeared in the bathroom doorway. “My grandmother could get ready faster than you.” She leaned a shoulder on the door frame and crossed her arms, one corner of her mouth lifted in an indulgent smile.

Mitch returned her smile in the mirror as he wiped his jaw with a wet cloth. “This kind of perfection doesn’t happen all by itself, you know.”

She rolled her eyes and pushed off the frame. “We’ll be sitting in a dark theater, Casanova. And speaking of which—” she pulled her cell phone off her belt clip “—we’re going to be late if we don’t leave right now.”

He winced at the moniker he’d been given years ago. Until recently it hadn’t bothered him, he’d kind of liked it. But lately he didn’t, especially coming from Alex. Although he could hear the ribbing he’d get if he told her that. “Just need to throw on a shirt.” Before brushing past her to head to the closet, he stopped, caught her in his arms and kissed her behind her ear. “Or we could skip the movie and go back to bed.”

Her hands came up, flattened on his chest and pushed him. “I may not be able to walk afterward if we