Linsday McKenna | Character Interview with: Captain Tal Culver, USMC

I met Chief Wyatt Lockwood, a brazen US Navy SEAL, by accident one night after coming in off a sniper mission. We met in the Operations building at Bagram Army Base. He stood out among his SEAL team that had just flown in on a MH-47 Chinook helo. He waltzed into Ops like he owned the damned place. His swagger was because he was a Texas cowboy, to boot. He told me his family owned a huge ranch in the western part of that state.

Damn, he has become such a pest in my life since that first meeting! I might accidentally see him over at the chow hall. Or he’d come up and say hello at the recreation hall where I loved to swim laps in the Olympic-sized pool. Or, we’d see each other at Ops, like two ships passing in the night, with me going on a sniper op with my spotter, or vice versa.

Lockwood’s reputation is well known on Bagram. The guy is easy on your eyes. He has that larger-than-life male presence that just made women turn their heads and salivate. And he knows it. SEALs are well known for their steely, low-key confidence. Add a Texas-sized personality to that recipe, and you get what I mean when I say Lockwood has charisma to burn.

For three years, he’s been shadowing me! You’d think the guy would get the message I’m not interested in him, wouldn’t you? I try to avoid him when I come in off a mission. Sometimes, he’ll meet me at Ops and he’ll have a Pepsi in his hand, which he knows I love, and give it to me as a welcome home gesture. You get really thirsty out on those sniper missions for something cold and sweet like that. He makes a point of knowing what I like because my blabbermouth little brother, Matt, tells him all about me. Sometimes I could wring his neck, too. He’s an Army Delta Force sergeant and all of us are stationed at Bagram.

Being a stealthy black ops type, Wyatt always catches me off guard and shows back up in my life at the most unexpected times. I’ve turned down pizza and beer with the dude. I said no to going to the theater to watch a movie with him. No to joining him at the gym for a work out. He just won’t leave me alone. I’ve even turned down ice cream, which I love, at the parlor over on the food avenue. He knows I will do damn near anything for it. Worse? Him and my younger brother, Matt Culver, are the best of friends. He and Lockwood’s SEAL team are always going out on covert missions together. I hate that they pal around after coming off a mission. I love seeing Matt, but I could do without that Navy chief suddenly materializing before me, too.

Lockwood shows up like a bad penny whenever Matt and I get together for a beer over at the canteen to catch up with one another’s lives. You’d think Matt and Wyatt were welded together at the hip. Really, I think its because Matt had two sisters and no brother to grow up with in our family. That explains to me why he and Wyatt are so tight. They’re a lot a like, and I hate to admit that. Matt is not a woman chaser like the Texan is, thank goodness.

The reason I try to avoid him is because the cowboy’s name is always associated with being a woman chaser. He’s left a string of broken hearts from one end of Bagram to the other. Wyatt is way too likeable. If he wasn’t so damned cocksure and brazen, I’d probably be in trouble. He’s expectant that I’ll swoon over him just like every other woman has. That will NEVER happen! That good ole boy Texas smile of his will melt steel, guaranteed. And it’s almost melted my resolve more than one occasion, which is scary as hell to me.

And for sure, the man does not give up on his target of opportunity—which is me. He’s made it clear he’s interested in a relationship with me. My heart is off limits to him. There’s no way I’m playing his game of sex for a night and him leaving the next morning to find his next conquest. He still doesn’t get why I want nothing to do with him. One of these days he’s going to push me too far and I’m going to lose my officer PC and let him have it with both barrels. I’m not interested in becoming a notch on his gun belt. Oh. Did I tell you what his SEAL ‘handle’ is? Gunslinger. Says it all, doesn’t it?

About Linsday McKenna

The "Top Gun of Women's Military Fiction," Linsday McKenna has had 145 books published under the McKenna name since 1981, most dealing with military or mercenary subjects, for several publishers: Simon and Schuster, Warner, Avon and Berkely, Harlequin/Silhouette. She is the originator of the Military Romance genre, with "Captive of Fate," Silhouette Special Edition, 1983. She has sold 23 million books worldwide and in 33 foreign languages. She proudly served in the US Navy and was a meteorologist.

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About TANGLED PURSUIT

Navy SEAL Chief Wyatt Lockwood is fascinated by Marine sniper Captain Talia Culver. But she wants nothing to do with him after learning of his reputation as a heartbreaker. The cocky Texan refuses to take the hint and keeps placing himself in Tal’s path. When she agrees to help him tend to needy families in an Afghan village, she learns there’s more to this SEAL than meets the eye. But is she strong enough to risk having her heart broken again?

Wyatt can’t stay away from the beautiful, surly Marine. Tal is fascinating—and frustrating—and he is determined to crack through her tough exterior and get to know the soft woman he knows lurks beneath the surface. When he joins Tal on a sniper mission in the Afghan mountains, their bond continues to grow. But the mission takes a dangerous turn. Has he lost his chance with Tal forever?