by Jane Cousins
Heat zinged through Patricia’s veins, and her brain kind of blanked as it tried to process his words. “I did not issue threats… that day, they were clear, concise ultimatums.”
Cullen smiled, closing the distance between them, reaching for her hand, clasping it in his. “I love you.”
“And there was no stomping. I don’t stomp. I just walked in to claim stolen property.”
“I love you.”
“Will you stop saying that?”
“Never.”
She tried to pull her hand from his hold, but he wouldn’t let go. “I… we butt heads all the time. We battle for the superior position in every situation. Neither of us is a follower. We like things done a particular way… our own way.”
“And haven’t you had a blast trying to one up me? Changing meeting times and locations? Trying to get me to tap out by assigning me many and varied challenges?”
“You’re always trying to take over.”
“As are you.”
“You always think you are right.”
“As do you.”
“We can’t operate on this level forever. Something will have to give. And don’t expect it to be me.”
“I think we’ve both been learning to give and take a little over the past few weeks. You can’t deny that when we work together that we’re a superior, cohesive team. We counter each others weaknesses. Several times over the last few missions we’ve held dialogues and come to a mutual understanding. All without a word needing to be said. You know me, Trix. Inside and out. How else to explain our synergy. You can trust me. When I say I’m staying, you know I mean it. And the same goes for the fact that I love you… how much longer are you going to ignore that particular statement?”
Damn him. He was the warrior she had been waiting for. Able to hold his own on the battlefield or in the bedroom. Fair. Loyal. Ruthless when required. Tender when needed. Forceful. And all round kind of perfect. Even their constant battle of wits challenged and heated her blood.
So big deal, he wasn’t taller than she was. And the preposterous idea that she needed to be swept off her feet? Honestly, grow up woman. This was the real world. She let his words sink in… he loved her. He was staying. He wouldn’t lie. Not Cullen. He was loyal, steadfast, determined and tricky. And she loved him right back.
“Okay.” All the tension that had been wracking her for the last several days just melted away. What a relief. Cullen was staying.
“Okay?” Cullen’s right eyebrow arched in query.
“How do you want to do this… thing between us? Both of us are mature, pragmatic realists. Set in our ways. Separate residences, of course. Shall we say a standing date night Wednesday and Saturdays?”
Cullen blinked. Bloody hell, just when he thought he had everything under control. Trix, she always zigged when he thought she would zag. If only he could work out what grand gesture Darcy had been hinting at that would solve everything. He was pretty sure she didn’t mean going down on bended knee and producing a ring. He had a nasty suspicion that Trix might just knee him in the jaw if he did that.
“No? Would you prefer Tuesdays and Fridays? Don’t say I never compromise.”
Cullen’s gaze narrowed as he noted the amusement filling those copper flecked hazel eyes of hers. She was playing with him. “You are an evil woman, Patricia Bennett, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Go to bed every night with you beside me. Wake up each morning to find you there. I want to match wits with you over the dinner table. Spend hours making love to you daily. Make you laugh. And above all else… make you happy. What do you say, Trix?”
“Damn you, Cullen. From the moment we met you’ve frustrated and annoyed me. No one has ever managed to get under my skin the way you have. Worse, I found myself beginning to look forward to that feeling every time we matched wits. I thought… I thought I wanted you gone… but what I really wanted was you. It scared me, I haven’t needed anyone… ever. Putting your faith in someone else… it’s hard. But you proved to me over and over that you were tenacious, determined, and remarkably single minded when you committed to a target.”
“Well, I am a famed Archer.”
“Yes, and now you’re my Archer. Effectively one more quiver in my bow.”
“I do have a mind of my own. You can’t just point me in any direction and fire me off.”
“Really? If I told you I’ve always had a secret fantasy of having sex on the customer service desk, you wouldn’t eradicate any obstacle in your way?”
“Do you?” Cullen’s eyes flared with green fire. “Have that particular fantasy?”
“Maybe.” Patricia smiled.
“Then consider me your weapon to lock and load.” He brushed a kiss over her knuckles, tugging her that little bit closer. “But I believe you have one more statement that needs to be made.”
Patricia feigned an innocent look, then smiled. “Oh, yes, you’re right, it does need to be said out loud. I’m Head Librarian, and don’t you ever forget it, Buster. Or I’ll assign you to head up every arts and crafts workshop evening my Great-Great-Aunts decide to hold. Hell on earth, trust me. Oh, and by the way, I love you.” She leaned down and kissed him.
Cullen returned the kiss for two point four enjoyable seconds before breaking off. “You love me?”
“I love you.” She knew he needed to hear the words. And damn it, she kind of enjoyed saying them out loud. It was freeing, and a good kind of scary at the same time.
“Come on.” Cullen tugged on her hand.
“Where are we going?”
“You gave me a target, remember? You, me, the customer service desk.” They halted at the nearest wooden bridge, the higher water level in the stream burbling up through the slatted wood. “Here. Hold on.”
Before Patricia could blink Cullen’s arm was around her waist and thanks to his understanding of physics, leveraging and weights, she found herself lifted up and over the small bridge, out of reach of the water.
“There, didn’t want to get those suede sandals of yours getting wet.”
Patricia blinked, and then blinked again.
“You okay Trix?” She had a strange look in her eyes.
“You… you just swept me off my feet.”
“Well-”
Patricia grabbed him by the lapels and pulled him in close, kissing him with everything she had. At the same time she manoeuvred him backwards until their progress was halted by the customer service desk.
“I-” Cullen found his words halted by the pressure of Trix’s index finger pressing his lips closed.
“Shush.”
“Dijkiouushme?”
“Say that again?” She lifted her finger away.
“I said, did you just shush me?”
“Yes. Head Librarian’s privilege. Problem?”
“No.” Cullen shook his head, lifting her gently but easily up on to the customer service desk. “I’m just a mere underling, ready and willing to follow any and all of your instructions.”
“Finally.” She grinned. “Now shut up and kiss me.”
Proving that he could follow instructions, Cullen eased himself onto the bench beside her, wrapping a hand around her slender neck he drew her forward and kissed her again. She tasted like heaven, like paradise… like home.
Patricia planted a hand on his chest and pushed him away slightly, breaking the lip lock. “Hold on. You said earlier that you had a suspicion how the library books ended up here. How?”
“You really want to talk about that now?” Cullen leaned forward and planted several heated kisses along the base of her throat.
“Umm…. Yes. None of the magical experts… could come up with an answer.”
Cullen sat back, running a hand through his rumpled hair. “That’s because it was one of your experts doing the stealing and there was no magic involved.”
“Who… Darcy?” It couldn’t be any one else. “Why?”
“Any number of reasons potentially. She likes to break into
places. She gets bored easily. Maybe she was doing it in order to get under your skin. Have you ever crossed her?”
“Darcy? Goddess no. I’m intelligent enough not to poke the psychotic nutcase. Damn… I use to babysit her ass. And when I think about all the books on world domination and economics I use to slip her when she was going through her tween - take over the world phase. Which thanks to me lasted like two weeks, when she realised how much hard work would be involved. That... that little-”
“From the sounds of it you and Darcy get on fine. She might even think she owes you. Maybe… maybe she thought she was doing you… and by extension me, a favour.”
“By bringing us together?” Patricia couldn’t help but scoff. “More likely she thought we’d butt heads, I’d accuse you of stealing the library books and calamity would ensue. That sounds more like Darcy’s usual agenda.”
“Do you think we should confront her?”
“I don’t have a death-wish, do you? You know…” A rather mischievous grin settled on Patricia’s lips. “Now that we’re a… couple-”
“Still trying to wrap your head around that concept?” Cullen enquired, smiling in amusement.
“It’s been like two minutes, give me a break. But I was thinking, couples do stuff together, right? What if our first combined project was to set a trap for a certain thief?”
Cullen smiled, then laughed. “I like how you think Trix. But how about we put that project on the back burner just for the foreseeable future. Right at this moment we have the Annexe to ourselves. And a customer service desk to defile.”
Patricia leant over to kiss him. “I like where your priorities are at. When we’re done here, remind me to share with you my fantasy about making love in the stacks… in the vault… my office… it has the best chair… you have to try it.”
“Shush.” Cullen murmured before claiming her lips. “This is a Library, Trix, a little respect.” Deepening the kiss and drawing her to him.
Patricia moaned softly as Cullen’s fingers found the buttons to her blouse and began to undo them. She knew in most fictional happily ever afters the couple rode off into the sunset. Personally, she preferred a more recreational happy ending. Cullen’s lips tasted like heaven and the man was so very, very good with his hands.
They wouldn’t be your typical couple but this was the Southern Sanctuary. They’d love, they’d play, they’d butt heads. They’d fit right in. So many firsts yet for them to experience. Moving in together. Their first Christmas… oh, damn, she hadn’t gotten around to buying him a Kris Kringle gift as yet.
Hmmm, as Cullen blazed a pathway of kisses down her throat, pushing her blouse down over her shoulders, Patricia couldn’t help but smile, she knew exactly what to get him for Christmas. She would revoke the ban on his library borrowing rights. Yes, and present him with all eight copies of the Karma Sutra stocked by the Library. Maybe include a little taunting note, something along the lines how she didn’t want things to get stale between them.
Her Archer would enjoy the joke… but he’d also see the gambit for what it was. An invitation to play. She couldn’t wait to find out how he’d go about trying to get her back. So much fun to be had.
Hmmm, Patricia never thought she’d be lucky in love. Thought that ship had passed her by. Before Cullen completely distracted her she sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the Goddess above for ignoring her wish for a Warrior, and sending her an Archer instead. He wasn’t who she’d been expecting, but he was exactly the type of man she needed.
The End
About the Author
Jane Cousins has lived in a number of exciting places: the UK, China and Singapore. Now settled in Melbourne, Australia, she has adopted the night time persona of author. Which generally involves donning a silk mask, hunching over a computer and fighting in the name of alpha males and their more than a match female counterparts.
A huge fan of witty banter and smoking-hot instant attraction, Jane has never let the facts or inconvenient reality interfere with the telling of a great story. Currently she is hard at work on book one of a new series featuring those balls out, violence loving Valkyries.
If you liked this book, please rate/write a review on Amazon. Reviews are an author’s life blood. If you like, think of us as vampires. Look deeply into my eyes. You will do everything I say. Feed the vampire, go on, you know you want to. Just one little review.
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Books by Jane Cousins;
Southern Sanctuary series:
To Woo a Warrior
To Trap a Temptress
To Wrangle a Witch
To Seduce A Siren
To Bedevil A Beauty
To Date A Disaster
To Shackle A Shrew
To Thrill A Thief
To Vex A Valkyrie
To Surprise A Seer
To Fight A Fate
To Handle A Hellcat
By the Numbers series:
One For The Wedding
Two For The Show
Three For The Bank Job
To Woo a Warrior
(Book One – Southern Sanctuary)
At six-foot-six, Hadleigh Valhalla would rather be fighting than flirting. She loves working as an Enforcer, protecting her magically enhanced, eccentric, extended family on a daily basis from all kinds of supernatural nasties. Much preferring to be out there beheading the baddies than dating any day of the week… much less stressful.
But a new threat appears on the horizon. Great-Aunt Alma, the wily family matchmaker, is back in town and has set her sights on all the singletons. In order to avoid Alma’s matchmaking machinations, Hadleigh finds herself signing on as the newest member of the hit reality TV show: Paranormal Exterminators.
Vaughn, Captain of the Goddess Maat’s Elite Warriors, has a mission, to find and annihilate all magical beings that threaten to cause chaos in the mundane world. A paranormal reality TV show provides the perfect cover.
A series of mishaps means it’s a race against time for Vaughn and Hadleigh to discover just who is targeting the show and stop them before someone gets seriously hurt or dead. While doing so, Vaughn intends to teach Hadleigh to break all the rules and prove to her she is the perfect warrior for him.
One For the Wedding
(Book One – By the Numbers)
It was the society wedding of the year. A four day party extravaganza during which steel heiress Jami Creswell would wed nut and bolt heir Damian Olsen. Event organiser Ryan Callan thought she’d planned for every possible contingency.
But never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined that she’d bump into the magnetic Chase McNeil whilst she was wearing nothing but a smile. What happened next between them really wasn’t her fault. He was the one who flirted with her …. she only flirted back in self-defence. The bridesmaids have completely misinterpreted the whole thing and forming a posse to wreck vengeance on her life is just going way too far.
Then the bride goes missing! What else could possibly go wrong at this wedding? Only a murder, that’s what.
When an unidentified body turns up on the big day everything is threatening to come down around Ryan’s ears. With her business reputation on the line it’s up to Ryan to solve the mystery of the dead body, find the bride and work out just exactly what is going on between her and Chase McNeil.
Solve murder – check
Find bride – check
Stop flirting with Chase McNeil – urm… let me get back to you on that one.
Two For the Show
(Book Two – By the Numbers)
Las Vegas is a town full of neon signs, bright lights and crazy loons. Showgirl Sher Hanrahan should know, she’s become the focus of a stalker who wants her off the stage and out of show-business for good.
Refusing to be inti
midated by a few annoying notes, a flat tire or three and some tainted chocolates, Sher’s decided to fight back. There’s nothing this stalker bozo can do that will shake her determination to reclaim her life. That is until the dead bodies wrapped with red bows addressed to her begin turning up. Honestly what was wrong with men these days, hadn’t they heard of flowers and jewellery?
Corporate trouble shooter Jake Donnelly is in Vegas with orders to protect a showgirl with a little stalker problem. Should be a walk in the park for a professional like him, right? That’s until he meets Sher Hanrahan of the mile high legs and wicked ‘I know something you don’t’ smile. Suddenly masquerading as her pretend boyfriend becomes the most important mission he’s ever been on. If he wants to keep the girl safe, switch his boyfriend status from pretend to real then he’s going to need to unravel a mystery and face a killer.
With the gorgeous Sher by his side what could possibly go wrong?
Three For The Bank Job
(Book Three – By The Numbers)
Reigning Miss Kentucky and brainiac, Emeltine ‘Eme’ Hanrahan, is having a really bad day. When three nitwit bank robbers turn a simple ribbon cutting ceremony into a hostage siege, it will take all of Eme’s smarts to handle the robbers and save the hostages. That includes one gorgeous stubborn US Marshal, who is clearly unwilling to concede that Eme is anything more than a brainless bombshell in a tiara.
The ditz in the tiara is not only ruining his bust, there’s a very good chance she’s going to get them both killed. Ben Riordan doesn’t know whether to cuff her or kiss her. First, she brains him in the head, then she gets them locked in the bank vault.
Eventually freed it quickly becomes clear that someone is gunning for high profile witness Eme, determined to silence her for good. Now Ben not only has to keep Eme safe whilst using her as bait to lure into the open a criminal mastermind, he has to convince her that he can see past the tiara to the beautiful and brainy woman beneath.