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The power of it all was so strangely energizing and depleting She’d given up trying to understand why it was this way between theave out and he collapsed on top of her His breath was hot against her neck, their skin sealed together with sweat

So in tune with hi off to sleep, truly asleep, not some micronap on a plane One of the very rare ti with an ear fine-tuned to stay on watch

Her fingers trailed along his back as she turned her head to look out their fourth storyat the harbor leading to the Indian Ocean For tonight, she would watch over Jose because tomorroas couava jao on a picnic blanket in a private cove by the Shebelle River in one of the most fertile places in all of So, because hell, they got ether, eating lunch off of each other’s bodies, had nothing to do ork and everything to do with playful sex

The lush landscape along the Shebelle offered a stark contrast to the scrub brush and cracked dry places of desperation elsewhere in the country Their jobs were tough enough, brutal even at ti places to be alone, to shed undercover personas to be themselves? Even rarer He wanted to show her life at its best when he could

Except he couldn’t escape the feeling that they were transitioning into so with Stella was different It didn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that their connection was different Unique And that had his heart pounding heavier in his chest with a sense that what little tiut-wrenching crash

Shit

He pulled his focus back onto the indomitable woman at his side and thumbed a droplet of perspiration from her forehead Lime and banana tree leaves rustled overhead but offered ainst the harsh African sun Her freckled skin started to redden, ged a generous edge of the picnic blanket over her body The handwoven cloth swept around in bright splashes of green and red

She brushed his hand aside, laughing "It’s no use covering me up I’ll be sunburned all over, but it’s a price I’ to pay" She stroked down his side to his left buttock with the two green footprints tattooed in honor of the early PJs who’d been picked up by a helicopter called the Jolly Green Giant "And I do enjoy checking out your all over tan"

Ethnicity wasn’t soht of other than when time came to fill out forms and check the box He was a US citizen, wore the uniforrandot particularly tough with his randmother was born in Cuba Jose was her father’s narandmother was more of a maternal influence than your ave out"

"Health?"

"She had diabetes, but she put her needs on the back burner to help out when my mother tried rehab… Then Gran was too sick" He’d wanted to be there for her the way she’d been there for hied to her nursing hoht miles away on weekends when the weather permitted

The breeze off the Shebelle cooled his skin and hopefully hers too He was doing his da had been unusual, exotic But what happened when they returned to real life?

The everyday Jose was a recovering alcoholic with a family so dysfunctional they could eat up a whole season on soer type show He didn’t want to lose Stella, but he didn’t kno to keep her Here, in Africa, their ti off when she returned froe to ferret out huot back fro vacationers fro flow of pirate attacks

When he saw Stella, they were either hyped up on the adrenaline of victory or if the e of frustration

Stella set back ho store Not that I’ about the picnic, uava jam" She rolled to her stomach and kissed his chin "I have a per exactly what he wanted to hear She’d said it before

And every time it sliced him to ribbons inside "Stella, I love you too"

Fuck He hated how daonized the words sounded when he said them

She swatted his shoulder "Jeez-Louise, Jose You are so da to be okay" She tapped his temple "Think about it We love each other You’re just stressed right now, and I get that the kind of e do is rough on the nerves We’ll get hoe in a full week of jam and tantric sex…"

"Stop, Stella" He eased her off hi hoher, not easier The me out here in the field, that’s the better h She quickly pulled on her bra and panties, avoiding his eyes He sat beside her again, watching her warily as she stared off in the distance

An ostrich a way clear of the rhinos on the other side of the lake The s to her skin and he just wanted to roll her underneath hiain But after four months with Stella, he knew her pensive face and she wouldn’t budge until she’d sorted through all the "facts" in herher knees, her spine so vulnerable, at odds with her indo yourself to the lione overseas, seen combat, natural disasters, and no one would have faulted you if you’d cracked and taken a drink But you didn’t" She searched his face with those too wise and logical green eyes "You’re an expert at running, Jose Why do you doubt that you can go the distance in your personal life as well?"

"It’s not about the pace or the distance" He toyed with the tail of her braid, brushing it along the back of her shoulders "It’s the ‘afterward’ that hasas I keep running, I’ood When I stop, I crash"

"A crash? Why not think of it as a cool down, relaxing and reveling in success? You don’t have to keep running until you burn out"