by Aliyah Burke
“Plan is to get you out of here asap.”
“No, it’s not. I’m not going. I don’t give a flying fuck who he is. We agreed to do this together, or have you forgotten that fucker sent me over that cliff as well?”
Unease churned in his gut and he dug in the bag for two pistols, loaded them and readied them to fire. One he shoved in the back of his jeans, and the second he handed to her.
She didn’t take it. “I’m waiting for this explanation.”
“Damn it, get dressed.” He thought long and hard about what he was up against and yet, through it all, he continually returned to the memories of her soft body sliding along his. The scent of her skin, her soft cries as she undulated beneath—and on top—of him.
“Who is this guy to you?”
“A man I thought I’d killed years ago.”
She stared at him, her stunning turquoise eyes holding his gaze, unwilling to drop. “It’s a start.”
“Dress.” He took a breath and cupped her cheek. “Please.”
“Talk.”
“We were on an op in Azerbaijan. Overlooking a shithole of a village, waiting for this bastard war lord to show up and purchase some weapons.” He clenched a fist then swallowed hard as she slowly drew on those little yellow panties she’d removed the previous night before he dropped to his knees and indulged.
She cocked an eyebrow at him as she stepped into her jeans.
Dam, he already missed her legs. “Nothing more than a farming village. But the man lined everyone up once he got there and shot them all in the head. He raped the women and children before he killed them. Did it in front of everyone. When his cock was flaccid, he raped them with objects. Then killed them. And we—we couldn’t do anything. We were under orders to let him get the weapons and leave, only once he was out of the village could we do anything.”
He could still smell the blood on the air that day, as it flowed from his victims.
“When did you kill him?”
“I tracked him down the next night. He was in a brothel indulging in his perverse fetish. He slit the whore’s throat in an attempt to have me stop and help her instead of pursuing him. I didn’t. I shot him in the head, she should have been dead.”
“And he knows who you are?”
“After I thought I killed him, I leveled his properties to the ground. Took everything from him, I didn’t want his people to have anything. I blew up houses and burned his cash stashes.”
“And now he wants you to pay for that.” She winced as she tried to put on a shoulder holster.
Cullen watched as she shoved it in the back of her pants. “Yes.” He walked to the bag and pulled out a Kevlar vest. Carrying it over to her, he carefully put it over her head.
Liz didn’t move nor did she stop watching him.
He fastened the straps ensuring to keep it as high as he could, protecting her vital organs. He knew they weren’t comfortable but she was a cop, she wore them daily.
Gripping her around the shoulders, he pulled her close and kissed her. He would be lying if he said there was no desperation in this kiss. Was it love? No, he wasn’t positive he was in love with her yet, but he believed that there was something much deeper between them and he needed her to stay alive, so he could figure out what that was exactly.
“And you know he’s coming here?”
“No, but I know where he is and I’m going there.”
“We’re going there.”
He didn’t respond. He wasn’t taking her there. No matter what she thought was going to happen.
He finished strapping up and looked around the cabin. He should leave her here but no, he couldn’t risk her being stuck out here while he went there. He could however, call Gray on the way and have him send someone to get her.
“Are you listening to me?”
“No,” he said, lifting her off the ground and taking her to the bed they’d just left. Before she knew what hit her, he snapped some handcuffs on one wrist and secured it to the headboard.
She pulled but there wasn’t any give from the metal she was attached to. “Don’t you fucking dare, Cullen O’Rourke. Don’t you fucking dare!”
“I know you’re pissed at me, Liz but I can’t risk your life like this. He’s going to have men around him and if he knows you mean something to me, he’ll kill you first. That’s something I can’t have. I’ll have someone come for you. There’s heat and you’ll be warm enough.”
He stepped right up to her and took possession of her mouth. She sagged against him and he drew back. “Hate me all you want but you’ll at least be alive to do it.” Right then, he knew, he was in love with her. One day that’s all it took for him to fall for the woman of his dreams. Cullen walked out with her raging, cursing and jerking on the headboard.
He didn’t look back.
Chapter Five
Liz ignored the pain in her side. It seeped, she knew it, but she would get it checked out later. Right now, her anger was keeping the pain at bay. Sure, it was making her blood pump faster but she had a mission. Then, a man to kill.
She watched the two men with her, dressed in black, weapons up and ready to fire. She’d refused to let the men who’d come to rescue her take her somewhere safe. She had demanded they trace Cullen’s phone and get her there. She was so angry she could spit.
Once the address had popped, she’d taken over the driving. It’s what she did every day, she knew the roads and shortcuts. A tight corner and she used the snow to drift it then gunned it, correcting the fishtailing as they raced along. And she had to be there for him. It didn’t matter how pissed she was at him for his actions; she had to make sure he didn’t die before she could kill him.
Or kiss him.
Perhaps both.
They were in a run-down industrial area and she recognized the Subaru they’d been in before. She let one of them take point. While she wanted to make sure Cullen wasn’t killed, she didn’t dare assume she was better than these guys at this. They were military, she was a cop. Big difference in the training they’d received.
Liz tried to slow her breathing and not increase her bleeding, however it wasn’t working. Didn’t much matter now, this would either be a success or a failure. She wiped the sweat from her eyes and continued on, determined not to slow them up.
Gunfire reached them and they picked up the pace. Heart pounding, she ran up another flight of steps.
This was the level. She ducked as slugs slammed into the wall beside her. Taking aim, she returned fire.
They were outnumbered and out gunned. Or so she thought until the skylights shattered beneath their feet above as bullets fired from all around her. She ducked and covered her head as glass rained around her.
“Fuck,” she swore as her stitches tore on her side.
Across the room, she saw him. Cullen, he stood over a man, one she presumed was the fucker behind all of it. So, in tune to the man before him, he didn’t see the one sighting down on him.
Liz never hesitated, lifted her weapon, and fired.
The man flew back and collapsed unmoving.
Cullen looked over at her and her heart hardened. She had what she’d asked for, one night. There wasn’t any reason to think there was more than that between them. She turned away from him.
The moment it was over, she walked to the men who she’d driven. “Thanks for everything.”
One stared at her and gave a sharp nod. “You leaving?”
“Yes. I’ve got to get somewhere.” She adjusted her vest and offered her hand. “Thanks.”
“Anytime, Liz of the State Patrol.”
Liz gave a weary smile and walked out the door without looking back. Knowing full well if she did she’d run to him.
He’d made his choice. And now, she’d made hers.
αβ
Cullen scanned the room taking in the law enforcement he saw as well as the members from The Omega Team. One person he no longer saw was Liz. His heart had dropped to his feet when he’d spied
her but now that it was all over, he wanted to see her, hold her. Kiss her.
Locating the first two he’d seen with her, he jogged over to them. “Where is she?” he demanded as he gave them both nods.
“Gone.”
His eyes widened.
One of them shook his head. “Gone, as in she left.” He held up his hand showing smeared red. “My guess is she’s going to a hospital.”
Cullen kicked the wall in anger and ran. He slipped in the snow and landed hard on his wrist. Spiraling pain radiated from it up his arm and down to his fingers. He rolled and got up running. Skidding to a halt by the car, he yanked the door open and jumped in. “Nearest hospital,” he said to the navigation system when the car was running.
As soon as the directions popped up, he was moving. It didn’t take him long, logically he knew that, but to him, it was the slowest drive ever. Seconds after he parked, he was running inside the hospital. Flak jacket still on, dirty and bleeding, he stopped at the desk.
The woman there looked at him with one eyebrow arched.
“Liz Pryze, State Patrol, was she admitted here?”
She narrowed her gaze at him.
Cullen responded in kind. “Lady, don’t ask me for ID, I just left a firefight and I need to know if she was brought in and admitted here or if she’s at a different hospital.”
“She’s here.”
“Take me to her now.”
“Can’t, she’s in surgery. You can have a seat and I’ll have someone come get you when she’s out.”
Surgery. His mood sank like an anchor in the water.
“Are you injured?” she asked.
“Nothing major.”
“Let me have someone look at that for you.”
Not much later, he was sitting on a bed while his broken wrist was being set and cast. The nurse he’d encountered when he walked in stuck her head in the curtained area and he met her gaze.
“She’s in recovery now and she’ll be fine, when you’re done here, I will take you to her room.”
“Much appreciated, ma’am.”
She backed out leaving him to finish there.
Within the hour, he was seated beside her hospital bed. The magazine ignored as he watched her face. She was out and he couldn’t begin to explain the relief at knowing she would make a full recovery. He closed his eyes and decided to rest until she woke.
She was awake when he opened his eyes again. The frown furrowed her brow but to him, those beautiful eyes were all that mattered.
“Hey,” he said leaning forward,
Liz blinked then turned her head away from him.
He wasn’t going to have that. Pushing to his feet, he reached for her chin and brought her head back around, so he could see her.
“I don’t want to hear you say anything,” she slurred.
“I did it to protect you, Liz. I couldn’t stand for you to get hurt.”
“Says the man with a cast on his arm to the woman in the hospital bed.” She tried to get him to release her.
He refused.
Hooking the chair with his foot, he dragged it closer. “Listen to me, Liz. I know you don’t believe me and I am pretty damn sure you don’t want to hear this. But I wanted to keep you safe. You’d already been hurt and I…god damn it, I wouldn’t be able to handle it if something happened to you.”
“Whatever, you lied to me and you took the decision out of my hands. Go find a woman who wants to be protected, who needs to be protected. It’s not me. I’m not that girl.”
Cullen sat, released her chin, and took hold of her hand, slipping his fingers through hers. “I know you aren’t. However, I’m the kind of guy who will protect what’s his all the time.”
“Good for you. That’s not me.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No.” She closed her eyes and turned her head away.
“I’m not going away, Liz. I’m staying right here. I’m going to be here until you’re released and I’m going to find some way to make this up to you. To prove that I didn’t do it because I didn’t trust you at my back but because you mean so much to me, I had to have you safe.”
“Hold your breath, will you?”
“Nope.”
“I’m a fucking officer of the law, I can handle myself.”
Cullen kissed the back of her hand and watched as she fell back asleep.
It wouldn’t be easy, that was for sure. Liz was pissed and had the right to be but he’d do it again if it meant she would be out of danger. But the fact remained, she noticed he’d been injured and was allowing him to touch her, to stay. It would work out somehow, someday.
He had his prize to claim and he would patiently wait for that opportunity.
About the Author:
Aliyah Burke is an avid reader and is never far from pen and paper (or the computer). She loves to hear from her readers and can be reached here. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. You can follow her on her Amazon Author page, Book Bub author page, or at Goodreads.
She is married to a career military man. They are owned by four Borzoi. She spends her days sharing time between work, writing, and dog training.
I hope you enjoyed reading, His Pryze to Claim. If you could help others to find and enjoy this book as well, I would appreciate that act of kindness. You can do this by recommending it to your friends and/or reader’s groups. Also by reviewing it to let others know you liked it—and why—on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other places, even if it’s nothing more than a line or two. Every bit helps, makes all the difference and is absolutely appreciated.
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Additional books by Aliyah Burke:
Sensual Romance Publishing
If You Dare
Holiday Surprise: Unwrapped
His Purrfect Mate
Raw Exposure
A Knight’s Vow
Lion of Midnight
Megalodon Team
Kincade’s Rose
Harrier’s Healer
Connelly’s Flame
Greeley’s Spyce
Vittano’s Willow
Dimitri’s Moon
O’Shea’s Love
Chayton’s Tempest
Haikon
A Love for Lera
Rakes & Rogues
What the Earl Desires
Her Reluctant Viscount
Her Pirate Rogue
Cottonwood Falls
Relentless
Fracture
Ravish
Spark
Savor
Intensity
Inferno
Snake’s Salvation
Born to Fly
Landing in Love
You Save Me
Wild As The Wind
Zulu Spectre
Hearth, Holly, & Honor (3 in 1)
It Could Happen Again
Tungsten Protective Services
Down Range
All In (Kindleworlds Hot SEALs/Tungsten Protective Services crossover novella)
Twisted E-Publsihing
Graham Family
Justice Is Always Ready
And We’ve Come Full Circle
Denim & Spurs
With This Ring
Dream Lover
You Don’t Know Jack
Maddox Family
The Detective’s Lover
Quad Series
A Little Taste of Home
Too Dangerous To Love
Someday My Prince Good Ol’ Boy Will Come
Black Queen
Totally Bound
Preconception
Seducing Damian
Through the Fire
Serial
Keeper of the Stars Pt. 1
Keeper of the Stars Pt. 2
Ke
eper of the Stars Pt. 3
Keeper of the Stars Pt. 4
Keeper of the Stars Pt. 5
Astral Guardians
Chasing the Storm
Highlands at Dawn
Fields of Thunder
Branded by Frost
Driven by Night
Moon of Fire
Interludes
Temporary Home
Alone with You
Till We Ain’t Strangers Anymore
In Aeternum
Casanova in Training
Harbour of Refuge
Protected by Shadows
Polar Opposites
Code of Honour
A Marriage of Convenience
The Lieutenant’s Ex-Wife
A Man Like No Other
When Stars Collide
Theta Corps (coming Late 2017)
Restitution
Contrition
Vindication
Entangled
Code Name: Papa
Kindleworld
Delay of Game (Game of Love Kindleworld series)
The Wedding Snafu (Four Weddings & A Fiasco Kindleworld series)
Watching You (Lone Star Burn Kindleworld series)
Icy Dare (Dare to Love Kindleworld series)
Daring the Hard Man (Dare to Love Kindleworld series
All In (Hot SEALs/Tungsten Protective Services Kindleworld series crossover)
Fire Devil (Dallas Fire & Rescue Kindleworld series)