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grinned at the grudging tone in her voice. He sympathized. Growing up with good manners stunk sometimes. He had the same affliction. Like the time he thanked the drug dealer who’d just beat him up for wiping the blood out of his eyes. His guys had given him grief over that for months. Ah, well. So what if they were known as the most polite Special Forces squad in the U.S. Armed Forces? They also got more women than any other squad.
    He eyed the woman on the ladder in front of him. From this angle, he could see several inches up the cropped T-shirt she wore. Her stomach was tanned and firm. She might be a curvaceous woman, but she was also in good physical condition.
    As she continued to paint in silence, he gazed idly around the room. Slowly something disturbing dawned on him. He hated to make his angel mad, but he owed it to her to burst her bubble before it grew too big.
    “Annie, would you mind coming down from that ladder for a minute?”
    “Why? I’m almost done with this section of the wall.”
    “I’m going to say something you’re not going to like, and I don’t want you to fall off the ladder again.”
    Frowning, she came down.
    “Would you mind setting down that paintbrush, too?”
    She glanced down at it and smiled wryly. “You don’t want me armed, either, huh?”
    “Nope.”
    She set the brush down.
    “Look. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”
    “But…”
    “But I don’t want you to get the wrong idea.”
    “About what?” she asked curiously.
    Long experience with women had taught him to be direct and brutal when it was time to let them go. “Annie, I’m in the middle of a mission. I don’t have time to play house with you. All this…nesting…you’re doing is sweet, but I can’t let you get involved.”
    “With you or with your mission?”
    “Either.”
    “Too bad. I’m already involved whether you like it or not.”
    “How so?”
    “Tom, I’m an attaché. It’s no secret to the Gavronese government that I’m trained to do simple espionage work. I just spent seven weeks by your side day and night, and you disappeared out of the hospital this morning. Don’t you think they’re going to come looking for me?”
    He rubbed a hand over his face and looked up at her bleakly. “I really wish you hadn’t jumped into the middle of this.”
    “Don’t. I am a military officer, you know. I knew what I was getting into, and I can handle it.”
    “But you’re a woman.”
    “So?”
    “A woman can’t handle what my men and I have to do.”
    Her voice took on a distinctly belligerent tone. “And why not?”
    “Look, Annie. I’m not some chauvinist pig who thinks women are only capable of cleaning house and making babies. But what we do takes enormous physical strength and endurance.”
    “I’ll grant you men are stronger than women, but that doesn’t mean we’re less intelligent. In my experience brains can usually accomplish just as much as brawn.”
    “Women are an unnecessary and dangerous distraction in the field.”
    “Oh, please. I’ve worked with mostly men for eight years, and I’ve managed not to fling myself at any of my co-workers so far.”
    “How many of them have flung themselves at you?”
    That shut her up.
    “I’m not going to debate the pros and cons of women in combat with you, Annie. The point is, I don’t want you involved with me or my men.”
    “Tough. It’s already a done deal.”
    Frustration coursed through him. He knew what he was talking about here. He’d played this game once, a long time ago, and it had cost one of his men his life. Annie was not taking him there again. He had to make her understand.
    “Dammit Annie. I want you out.”
    “And how are you planning to take care of yourself until you’re healed? Do you expect to stroll out the front door and go shopping without being noticed—assuming you could do it without passing out? Do you know who in St. George will help you and who’ll sell you out? Face it, Tom.