Getting Lucky Read Free Page A

degrees with humidity to match. Even the day-care kids, as he sometimes thought of them, had gotten their asses kicked.
    So, screw it. He could keep up with them any day of the week. Maybe lately he hadn’t liked being in the field as much as he used to, but that was surely temporary. He was just a little discouraged over the way the last assignment had shaken out.
    All he needed was a little R&R and he’d be back in fighting trim. He’d always seen himself in a recon unit right up until the day he mustered out of the service for good, and that’s exactly what he planned to do until he had his twenty years in and was eligible for retirement.How to get the brass off his back in the meantime was the question.
    He realized, though, that there was no use worrying about it tonight. Flipping onto his side, he pounded the pillow into submission, and stuffed it under his head, only to have another subtle waft of fragrance rise to tease his nose. An image of Lily immediately popped to mind and this time refused to be dislodged.
    She was such a little thing—he’d be surprised if she topped out at five-two. But inch for inch, pound for pound, she was pure sex on the hoof. It was more than the sum total of that froth of blonde hair, those blue eyes, and that golden skin. It was the way she moved and the sheer femaleness of her. It was the pheromones she exuded. And it was those curves.
    Man, oh, man. Those curves .
    She had what used to be referred to as an hourglass figure: round breasts, tiny waist, and full, lush hips. Like a top-of-the-line Cadillac, hers was a chassis designed for a smooth ride—a guy only had to take one look at it to get all sorts of ideas.
    The wrong kind of ideas. Zach whipped the pillow out from under his head and hurled it across the room. He rolled onto his other side and pillowed his head on his biceps, swearing another blue streak beneath his breath when the scent he’d thought to rid himself of merely drifted up from the sheets instead. It had been a long couple of days, and he was beat—no doubt that was why he was feeling so susceptible.
    But he didn’t try to fool himself. Lily Morrisette was the type of woman who could tie a man’s thoughts in knots without lifting so much as one single, dainty,rose-tipped finger. And that made her more dangerous than a field full of land mines.
    So first thing in the morning, after he’d had a decent night’s sleep and his brain was once again working at its usual brisk pace, he’d find a way to send her packing.

2
    L ILY STOOD IN FRONT OF THE MIRRORED CLOSET door the next morning and studied her naked body. The longer she looked, the closer together her eyebrows inched. Who invented the full-length mirror, anyway? She’d lay odds on a man with a sadistic streak.
    Okay, maybe that wasn’t fair. Perhaps he was a perfectly nice fellow—one so moon-faced in love with his sylphlike wife that he’d invented the thing so she could admire her svelte and no doubt hipless body from head to toe whenever her little heart desired. Besides, it wasn’t as if the reflection looking back at her was that bad. If she were seeing it strictly through her own eyes, in fact, she’d probably think, Not fabulous. Could definitely stand improvement. But, all in all, not bad for a thirty-five-year-old who’s fond of food .
    Unfortunately, her observation was tainted by the remembrance of Zach Taylor’s cool gray eyes tracking over her, as well as the knowledge that he had clearly never had to sweat cellulite. Sucking in her stomach, standing as tall as she possibly could, she turned side toside, scowling at the not-much-improved-upon reflection. She was simply so darn… round .
    Blowing out a breath, she studied the various components that comprised the whole. It wasn’t all bad news. She liked her shoulders, and her arms had nice definition. She had good skin, and her breasts were fairly decent. They were a bit larger than she would’ve chosen had it been left up to