"Sweetheart, it's all right. It's all right." Even as she held Blair protectively, her expression grew fierce at the memory of the sick terror she'd felt not knowing if the bullets that passed her by had found their target in her lover's body. She cut her gaze to the president's and said with her eyes what she did not want to say aloud. Not now. Not when Blair was still so raw and the terrifying events of September 11 still so painfully vivid. No one is going to hurt her. I'm going to be sure of that.

He nodded, knowing that she did not blame him for sparing no one, not even her, to secure Blair's well-being. Knowing instinctively, too, that she would not allow anyone else that sacred charge. She would die for his daughter, not out of duty, but out of love. "Blair, honey. Let's all take a little while to think about it."

Blair shifted her head on Cam's shoulder and met her father's gaze across the table. "It's already decided. The two of you—you didn't even need to have this discussion because somehow you both already knew what you were going to do. Sometimes I really hate how alike the two of you are." She sighed and straightened. "And I love both of you for it too. So.. .how exactly is this going to work? Because I'm part of this too."

Chapter Three

C am crossed her arms and leaned against the door inside Blair's bedroom. She watched in silence as Blair methodically stripped off the T-shirt and jeans she had hastily donned for the meeting with the president.

"I'm going to take a shower," Blair said quietly.

"Want company?"

A beat passed before Blair nodded. "Yes."

Cam shed her clothes, tossed them on the foot of the bed, and followed into the bathroom. Blair was already in the shower, and the glass enclosure was misted with steam. Visible through the haze, the outline of Blair's nude form swayed hypnotically beneath the spray. Cam stood still, holding her breath, watching. There were moments like this when she was overcome with the wonder of having Blair in her life. When she felt the longing and desire so acutely, it was like a pain deep in her chest. If asked, she couldn't have explained what it was about this one woman that settled in th& very heart of her like none other. Blair was beautiful, intelligent, strong and willful and tender, and so many other things that Cam admired. But it was more than that. This thing, love, that she couldn't define or explain, was what shaped so much of what truly mattered in her life.

Cam gave a start as the shower door slid open and Blair looked out.

"Darling? What are you doing?"

"Just thinking." Cam stepped into the shower and closed the door again. She doused her head in the warm spray and flicked the hair back out of her eyes with one hand. She turned to find Blair leaning against the back shower wall observing her. "Are you angry?"

"You first. What were you thinking about?"

"Come here." Cam pulled Blair close to her beneath the spray. "You'll get cold."

"Don't change the subject." Blair wrapped her arms around Cam's neck and slid her wet body against Cam's until they fit together seamlessly, two parts of a whole. "You had this look on your face.. .like something hurt."

"No," Cam said softly, "nothing like that."

Blair tightened her fingers in Cam's wet hair and tugged. "You know I won't quit."

"I know." Smiling, Cam kissed her.

Blair leaned into the kiss, rolling her hips slowly between Cam's thighs, matching the deep, leisurely strokes of her tongue to the easy rhythm of her body teasing Cam's. "Mmm. Tell."

"Christ," Cam gasped, lifting her head from the kiss. Her stomach was in knots and her thighs trembled. "You don't play fair."

The corner of Blair's mouth lifted in a satisfied grin. "Then why take me on?"

"Because," Cam growled, gripping Blair's upper arms and pushing her against the shower wall, then following with her body hard and fast, pinning her there, "you make me crazy when you get tough."

Before Blair could answer, Cam's mouth was on hers, hot and hungry, and her hands were everywhere, closing over Blair's breasts, squeezing her nipples, running up the inside of her thighs to cup her sex.

Blair's hips bucked as fingers glanced over her clitoris and were gone. She hooked one calf around Cam's hips and drove her center against Cam's thigh. She moaned and thrashed her head, and still Cam kept her pinned, plundering her mouth while Blair rode her thigh. Blair felt the orgasm on the verge of careening through her, and she twisted her torso as she pushed away from the wall. She reversed their positions before Cam could stop her. Ignoring the climax that shimmered just beneath her skin, she went down on her knees with the water pounding on her back and sucked Cam's clitoris between her lips. She heard Cam shout, felt her stiffen, and then they were both coming, shuddering and groaning until their trembling limbs could no longer support them and they slid to the floor.

"God."

"You were saying?" Blair murmured. She snuggled against Cam's body, her head resting between Cam's breasts.

Cam's mind was fuzzy and her barriers down. "I was thinking how much I love you and that nothing else in my life matters except that."

"Why did that look like it hurt?" Blair asked gently.

"It never hurts unless I think about being without you."

"Oh no, never." Blair inched closer and tightened her grip around Cam's waist. She pressed her lips to Cam's breast. "Never."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Water." With another groan, Cam tried assembling her extremities into some kind of working order. "Water. Cold soon."

Laughing, Blair got to her knees, then stood with one arm braced against the shower wall. She turned off the water and stared down at her lover. "Why, Commander, I do believe you've been done in."

"Not so fast." Cam grinned up at her. "That was only a skirmish. There's plenty of fight left in me."

Blair extended her hand and tugged when Cam took it, pulling her to her feet. "Let's hope so."

When they.stepped out and wrapped themselves in towels, Blair leaned her hips against the vanity and regarded Cam seriously. "You know I don't like it. What you're planning to do."

Cam stopped in the midst of toweling her hair. "I know."

"Then why do you do it? Since the moment we've met, this job— this duty of yours—has been between us."

"I know." Cam lifted a thick white robe from the back of the bathroom door and shrugged into it, then passed the matching one to Blair. "There are a lot of reasons. I'm trained to do it. I'm good at it. I have more reason than anyone else in the world to do it right."

Blair nodded. "All good reasons. But not good enough to put the smallest wedge of anger or resentment between us. I don't like anyone protecting me at the risk of their own life." She held up a hand when she saw Cam about to protest. "I understand that it's necessary. I know what my security means for my father, for the country. I know that, and I've accepted it as best as I can." Her voice trembled, but her eyes were dry and hot and hard. "All my life, Cam. All my life I've accepted it. And now I have you, and I'm supposed to be happy about risking you?" She laughed harshly. "I don't think so."

"There's one other reason." Cam kept her hands in the pockets of her robe, because she wanted so much to reach out to Blair. She wanted to touch her, stroke her, soothe the hurt she heard beneath the anger. But she didn't, because Blair did not need that now. What she needed was the truth. "I have to do it, because if I leave it to someone else and anything happens to you, it will break me. I would rather be dead than lose you."

"Oh, Cameron."The anger left Blair's eyes on a wave of tenderness. "I feel the same about you. Can't you understand that?"

Cam closed the distance between them and caught Blair's face gently between her palms. She kissed her lightly on the mouth. "I do understand, I do. There's a reason I'm your security chief, Blair. It's because I'm good at it. Trust me. Nothing is going to happen to me."

"And what about this.. .other? Are you going to be the best at that too?"

"With your safety on the line?" Cam's eyes hardened to obsidian. "Count on it."

"I'll be so happy when the day comes that the only thing we have to worry about is paying the mortgage."

"Me too," Cam whispered. She rested her cheek against the top of Blair's head and closed her eyes. In the distance, she could see a future where they would be together, living an ordinary life, with ordinary problems and ordinary joys. But between this day and that, there was a war to be won.

*

Stark paced in a tight circle around the perimeter of the surprisingly spacious waiting area. When she caught the eye of the slightly amused administrative assistant observing her, she abruptly sank into the nearest chair. She clasped her hands between her knees, fingers entwined, knuckles white, and stared at the door on the far side of the room with the neat, unassuming brass nameplate that said Assistant Director. She'd never been to Assistant Director Carlisle's office before. She'd never been to any assistant director's office. She'd taken her entrance exams, she'd had her psych eval, she'd gone through qualifying physical fitness trials, and she'd endured the Academy, all without ever having seen anyone higher than a regional director. Cameron Roberts, as security chief for the first daughter, held more rank than anyone she'd ever worked with.

The door from the hall opened, and Stark looked over to see the woman in question enter. As usual, the commander wore a dark suit with a slightly paler monochromatic shirt, opened at the neck. The jacket was flawlessly tailored and there was no telltale sign of a weapon, although Stark knew that the commander was one of the few who still wore a shoulder harness. Her own weapon rested in a belt holster on her right hip. Stark bounded to her feet. Standing, she was a head shorter than her chief and compact whereas the other woman was lean.