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  He slammed the new magazine into the Beretta and bit off a growl of annoyance. “My high horse? I asked her to marry me. To share a life with me. She’s the one who chose work over me, again.”

  “Waaa waaa waaa. Poor you. A woman who’d been forced to be away from the work she’d devoted her life to wants to go back to it and see if it’s still what she wants to do it. How hard that must be on you. Did the Army teach you to whine so pathetically?”

  “Fuck off, Derek.”

  “Nope. The others won’t bother you, I figure, I’m still on pain meds so if you hit me I can just up my dosage. This needs to be said. Christ, man, for five years she had to do work that she didn’t care about. You told us how she glowed when she was helping Ricki with his project. Give her time to get back in the world. Let her find her life is truly her own once more.” He picked up another magazine and turned it around in his hand a few times. “Let her have a say in what she does.”

  “I didn’t force her to stay, Derek. I thought that was apparent by the fact, oh yeah, she’s not here.”

  “You really can be dense as shit sometimes, brother. Let me get the crayon and draw you a picture for your little pea brain. For five years, a man has dictated what she could and couldn’t do for fear of her life. Now, he’s gone and you think she wants to give everything up the same instant she gets her freedom back for another man?” Derek took the sidearm from him, nudged him to the side and fired six shots. Center mass. Nice grouping. Six more and the cluster was in the head. “Not bad for my non dominant hand.” He gave the weapon back to Adam. “Give her time and go see her.”

  Derek walked away. Adam tracked his departure, his brother wasn’t moving as fluidly as he had been but he was on his way to a full recovery. Turning back to the target, he sighed and braced his hands against the table. His brother had a point and as he’d explained, Adam hadn’t seen it. Time to rectify this.

  Pulling his phone from his belt, he called a pilot on his way back inside his house. Later that night, they were airborne as he headed for Shelly Marie.

  It was the following afternoon before he parked his rental in front of her building. Climbing out, he grabbed the flowers and slammed the door before he locked it behind him. He took the stairs to the third floor and knocked on her door.

  The door opened a crack and she peered out at him. “Adam?”

  He fought the urge to wipe his hands on his pants, they were sweating. “Hello, Shelly Marie. Is this a bad time or may I come in?”

  She closed the door and opened it wide seconds later. “It’s not a bad time.” She looked both ways up the hall. “What are you doing here?”

  He stepped in and waited as she closed and locked the three locks on the door once more. When she looked up at him, his heart leapt to his throat.

  “I came to see you.” He offered her the flowers, loving her softening expression as she took in the half dozen purple gladiolas.

  “These are beautiful, thank you.” She went to the kitchen and put them in a vase. “How are you? How’s your family?”

  He pushed up against her, trapping her between him and the kitchen sink. Bracing his hands on either side of her, he nuzzled her neck. “We’re missing you. How are you?”

  “I’m okay. Still jumpy as fuck and I rarely go out at night unless I have to.” She trembled slightly. “I miss you, too.”

  Adam reached up and took hold of her thick red tresses, hair he had wet dreams over, and wrapped it in his fist, turning her head how he wanted it before he captured her mouth. Their moans mingled in their mouths as tongues dueled. She spun, never breaking contact and wrapped her arms around him.

  “Bedroom?” he mumbled unwilling to stop kissing her to ask her properly.

  “It’s a one bedroom, one’s got a bed in it, the other a shower. Both rooms work for me. So you pick.”

  His growl rumbled up from his throat and he lifted her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and yanked on his hair.

  “We’ll talk after about this, Pix.”

  “Nothing to talk about. I’m coming back with you. My bags are already packed. Now, can we talk later?”

  He pushed into one of the rooms and kicked the door shut behind him. “Later. Much, much later.”

  Adam couldn’t explain how happy he was to hear she’d been coming to him. But as she’d pointed out, there was time to talk later. Right now, they had some catching up to do. A lot of it. And he planned on making up for all that lost time. More than once.

  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 found on Facebook or Twitter at @AliyahBurke96.

  She is married to a career military man. They are owned by four Borzoi, and a DSH cat. She spends her days sharing time between work, writing, and dog training.

  For more information on other books by Aliyah, visit her website: www.aliyah-burke.com.

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