Radclyffe - Oath of Honor

“I’ll stick to the sure thing,” Evyn said. “Ketchup, that is.”

“Okay.” Wes looked at her a second longer before disappearing to retrieve their food.

“Smooth—really smooth, Daniels.” Evyn shredded her paper napkin and wondered what the hell Wes had just seen in her eyes.

“This is kind of scary,” Wes said, pointing to the grease-stained brown paper bag filled with french fries as she sat down a minute later.

“Never took you for a coward.” Evyn grabbed her double burger with cheese and bag of fries.

Wes just laughed and carefully tore the bag open. Fat golden fries spilled out. She plucked one up, dipped it in a little plastic container of vinegar, and ate it. “Good.”

“Told you,” Evyn said as she plowed through her food. “After this I’ll take you over to the clinic—it’s in the OEOB.” At Wes’s raised eyebrow she added, “Old Executive Office Building. You can sort out your schedule and whatnot today in terms of coverage. Tomorrow, you’ll report to me at zero eight hundred.”

“All right,” Wes said, carefully rolling up the remains of the paper bag that had held her fries. “I need to take shifts in the clinic as soon as possible. I want to see how things work—how the team meshes.”

“I understand. We’ll have at least one away exercise. The rest of the sims we should be able to do at Beltsville.”

“Come again?”

“Our training center.”

“Gotcha. Assuming the polygraph results are okay.”

Evyn lifted a shoulder. “I doubt there’ll be any problem there. It had to be done, but you wouldn’t have gotten this far if there was a question.” She hesitated. “Those things are always tough.”

“It’s okay—I expected it to be intrusive. So I have no secrets left—I never really had many to begin with.” Wes smiled but there was a hint of bitterness in her eyes.

Evyn wished Tom hadn’t wanted her there—she didn’t want to learn about Wes’s life in a windowless room while she was hooked up to a machine that was set to gauge whether she was lying. She wanted to hear about Wes’s family and her aspirations and the places she’d been over dinner and a bottle of wine. She wanted to know more about her, and there was that big, big problem staring her in the face again.

“Have you been assigned permanent quarters?” Evyn asked, steering the conversation onto safer ground.

“I don’t know.” Wes flicked the temporary ID she’d gotten at the gate that morning. “I’m not exactly official yet.”

“We’ll take care of that this afternoon.”

“Thanks. I appreciate—”

“The sooner we get you settled,” Evyn said, gathering up her trash and standing, “the sooner we can see how you’ll do in the field.”

“Sure.”

“Let’s get back.”

Evyn turned away from the intensity of Wes’s gaze. She’d have to learn to look at Wes without wanting to fall into those damn gorgeous green eyes.

Chapter Ten

Cam settled Blair into the crook of her arm and dragged the sheet over them. Blair’s hair was still damp from the shower, and she ran her fingers through the loose tangles while Blair traced lazy circles on her belly. The heat of Blair’s body against her skin stirred the blood in her depths—again. “This is better than spending time traveling somewhere for a honeymoon.”

Blair raised her head and rested her chin on Cam’s chest, her expression grave. “Anytime I get to spend every day with you is a honeymoon as far as I’m concerned.”

“I know. For me too.” The times they were alone, or as alone as they could be, with no schedules, no responsibilities, were rare. And she was about to ruin it.

“Lucinda called this morning just as I was about to go out for my run.”

Blair stiffened, her fingers stilling. “Lucinda never calls unless there’s a problem.”

“She wants me temporarily assigned to White House security.”

“Secret Service? Replacing Tom?”

“No,” Cam said. “I’ll report directly to Averill Jensen.”

“I know they ramp up the detail when he’s traveling, but there’s more to this, isn’t there? Something is going on. That’s why you’re coming with me on the campaign trail.”

Cam pushed up against the pillows so she could look down into Blair’s face. She wanted Blair to read her eyes, as only Blair could. “Yes and no.”

Blair slapped Cam’s stomach, a sharp little slap that was part annoyance, but still damn sexy. “Don’t use government-speak with me. Just tell me what’s going on.”

“Lucinda thinks we might have a leak, someplace close to Andrew. She wants me to find out who it is.”

“She wants you to go undercover because we have a spy?” Blair pulled away and sat cross-legged facing Cam. She kept her fingertips resting on Cam’s bare belly. The sheet pooled at her waist. Her breasts rose firmly on her subtly muscled chest. Her eyes sparked. “Why you? What she’s asking you to do is dangerous. Are you going to have backup inside? What if whoever it is finds out you’re—”

“You buy there might be a leak?”

“If Lucinda says there’s a leak, there’s a leak. How close, really? She must have given you some idea.”

“Close. Military aides, medical staff, security detail. Someone with intimate knowledge of Andrew’s movements well in advance of anything even his staffers and the communications department know.”

“I can’t believe it. I know every one of them.” Blair’s face clouded. “Of course, I knew James Benjamin Harker too, and he stalked me for years.”

Cam slid her fingers around the back of Blair’s neck and soothed the tight bands of muscle with long slow caresses. “Hey. Your father is the most well-protected man in the world. Nothing is going to happen to him.”

“Every time he steps outside that building, he’s a target. God, even when he’s inside, he’s a target. Someone tried to fly a plane into the White House, Cam.”

“I know. And so does everyone whose duty it is to protect him, and believe me, they’re the best. You know that. He doesn’t go anywhere that every contingency isn’t prepared for. And in the worst-case scenario, he has a full medical team standing by. Hell, there’s an operating room on Air Force One.”

“I know, I know. It’s just—to everyone else in the world he’s POTUS, the most powerful man in the world. To me, he’s my father.”

Cam pulled Blair down into her arms and kissed her. Blair had lost her mother when she was a child. Andrew and she had been a team since then, Blair at his side as he’d risen from the governor’s mansion to the White House. He was her father, her friend, and her greatest supporter. “I know, baby. I know.”

“I’m glad Lucinda has you on this. I know he’ll be even safer. She needs you there.” Blair gripped Cam’s shoulders and pulled Cam over on top of her. “But right now, so do I.”

“Ah, Blair,” Cam whispered, “you have me, anytime. Anywhere.”

Cam kissed Blair’s eyes, her mouth, her throat. Blair was restless beneath her, her legs clasping the backs of Cam’s thighs, pulling their bodies tighter, fusing them. Cam slid her hand between their bodies and caressed Blair’s breasts until her nipples tightened and her breasts tensed.

“Oh God, Cam,” Blair whispered. “Inside me. I need you.”

“Soon,” Cam whispered, inching down, skating her mouth over Blair’s breast, kissing her nipple, biting lightly. Blair arched, a small cry escaping, and Cam’s head pounded. She wanted her, hungered for her. Blair was the strongest woman she’d ever known, and she let herself be vulnerable beneath Cam’s hands, beneath her mouth. She opened herself, gave herself, and Cam had never felt so humbled. She kissed the center of Blair’s abdomen, moving lower, slowly, covering every inch of skin with her fingers and her lips.