Soldier's Christmas (Wingmen Warriors 8)

He must be colder than he thought if he was allowing doubts to creep in. Strange. He never worried about Alicia in the air. That wife of his had grit, focus and invincibility to spare in the clouds. But right now, he was scared as hell of being stuck out here watching her die.

"Talk to me," he demanded.

"Talk," she huffed, "to yourself, Rose-Bud." Apparently she had some grit left in reserve. "Still need that caffeine?"

She stomped ahead. Pissed?

"You're mad?" "What would I have to be mad about?" she snipped.

Uh-oh.

Alicia high-stepped around a drift. She walked along their zigzag path close to trees where branches blocked the bulk of the snowfall. God, she was hanging tough when he'd expected her to collapse long ago. His own muscles shouted in protest, but he was starting to realize Alicia was a wingman who held her own on the ground, too.

Why couldn't they apply that synchronicity to their home life as well as the workplace?

"You know what really torques me off, Rose-Bud?"

"Haven't a clue." But no doubt he was about to learn. He liked that about her, her take-no-shit attitude.

He liked a lot of things about her, such as her grit.

That grit also made it hard as hell to resolve anything. If he wanted to try. Which he didn't anymore.

Did he?

She ducked around a tree, her foot landing on a fresh patch of snowfall. "You let me work my butt off starting that fire in the cave and all the time you had a lighter."

Scooping up a branch, he knelt to sweep away her tracks. "Wouldn't want you to break rules."

A snowball thunked him on the head.

Well, he'd claimed to like her unexpectedness. Just about as much as he liked surprising her right back.

Slowly, he rose, finding Alicia waiting with another arm arced back, snowball missile aimed and ready.

"Watch it, my love. You start surprising me too much and I'm going to get turned on."

He waited for the explosion.

Instead, she laughed, surprising him again.

"Good God, Josh. It's fifty below. I can barely feel my toes. How in the world can you feel your...uh...well... you know."

Yeah, he sure did know, and damned inconvenient timing it was. Shouldn't his body be focused on survival? Instead, it was screaming for him to procreate before he died.

Back to her question and off thoughts of procreating. "I trusted you could start a fire in the cave, so I figured it was best to conserve the lighter fuel for an emergency."

Her arm sagged to her side. The second snowball splatted to the ground, icy missile and anger diffused.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For trusting me to pull my own weight."

Her sincerity knocked him off balance as much as her unexpected anger. He couldn't afford to have his concentration shaken, especially not now. Time to regain distance. "No problem. And, hey, that's a mighty fine butt you were working off anyhow."

Her laugh echoed again, hoarser this time. "Good thing you're my husband or I could write you up on sexual harassment charges for a statement like that, Colonel."