Free GROOM UNDER FIRE by LISA CHILDS

pull the trigger at all? And fire bullets into another human being?
    Suddenly, the door opened. And she squeezed...

Chapter Seven
    “Damn it,” was the least offensive of Cooper’s curses as he ducked. The bullet tunneled into the woodwork near his shoulder.
    And Tanya screamed and dropped the gun.
    Instead of ducking again, Cooper launched himself at her—knocking her back onto the bed in case the gun fired another round when it hit the ground. But it only spun across the threadbare carpet like a bottle at a game of spin the bottle. It stopped with the barrel pointing at them.
    Cooper cursed again because he was tempted to kiss her—especially when she cupped his face in her hands and stared up at him as if she wanted his kiss, too.
    “You’re alive,” she murmured.
    “No thanks to you,” he reminded them both. “I guess Logan was right when he said I needed protecting from you.” He’d known she was lying when she said she wouldn’t hurt him. He’d had no doubt she would hurt him—just as she had when they were kids and she’d so readily agreed with him that they were just friends. “I didn’t think you would shoot me, though.”
    Tears sprang to her eyes, brightening the already vivid green. Her hands dropped from his face to the bed where she grasped the sheets. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I thought you were someone else...”
    “My brother? I was tempted to shoot him myself when I realized he’d left you alone.” Since the guard Logan had stationed outside had fallen asleep in a car parked in the lot, he had essentially left her all alone.
    “I shouldn’t have fired the gun until I saw who it was,” she said. “But your brother told me to shoot anyone who came through the door without announcing himself.”
    “And announcing myself in Afghanistan would have gotten me killed for sure,” Cooper mused. “But I’m beginning to think I was safer there—I actually may have gotten shot at less.”
    She shuddered. “Logan was right? He heard shots on the phone?”
    Cooper nodded.
    “Outside Stephen’s condo?”
    Cooper nodded again. “Just as we were leaving the complex, someone started shooting. Neither of us got hit. They may have only been firing to scare us.”
    “To scare you, ” she said, “so you won’t marry me.”
    “Don’t worry,” he assured her. “I don’t scare easily.”
    “That’s not good,” she said. “Because if he can’t scare you off, he’ll try to kill you.”
    The way he had her.
    “That’s why I have to call off the wedding—to keep you alive,” she said.
    “What about a ransom demand on Stephen? You won’t be able to meet it if you don’t marry.”
    Her hips arching into his, she wriggled beneath him until she slid out from under him. Then she grabbed up the phone and charger and plugged it into another outlet. “No missed calls,” she said with a sigh of relief. Then her brow furrowed. “No ransom call...”
    “We don’t know that there won’t be one,” Cooper pointed out.
    “Wouldn’t it have been made already?” she asked anxiously. “Why would they wait?”
    He shrugged. “To see if you actually can get the money together.”
    “But if they don’t want money to give Stephen back, we’ll have gotten married for nothing.”
    His pride stung—at least that was all he hoped it was—that she obviously did not want to marry him. But then, Cooper hadn’t wanted to marry her either. “We can fix that then.”
    “An annulment,” she said with a sigh of relief. “I was going to tell you that you don’t have to worry that I’ll think this is permanent. As soon as I get my inheritance, we’ll get divorced. But an annulment is better...”
    Because with an annulment, it would be as if they had never been married. But the only way an annulment could be granted quickly was if the marriage was never consummated. He ignored the flash of disappointment he felt; he’d known this wasn’t going to be a real marriage.
    He wasn’t the