"It would save us both some time," he admitted, allowing his eyes to close again as he rested his hand over hers. It was second nature to slip away from the substance of an argument, to avoid confrontation until he could face it with some more significant weapon than assurances or plausible lies ... but doing so with her wasn't something he had ever expected to become as easy as habit. He smiled. "You're welcome to remind me as often as you like. My days would go much more easily if I had someone I could simply defer to on every point. Don't want to come along tomorrow, do you?" he teased. The problem, of course, was that he already had someone to defer to. Taking orders made him terribly resentful.