“I’ll do my best to get up to speed as quickly as possible.”

“No doubt. Tom Turner, the special agent in charge of the president’s security detail, will discuss interfacing with your unit.”

“I’ll look forward to it. I still have a clearance interview, but I was planning to report for duty as soon as that was completed.”

“Actually,” Lucinda said, “I can expedite that. The sooner you officially assume your post, the sooner we can assure a smooth and rapid transition. You drove out?”

“Yes,” Wes said, unclear on the urgency of the transition, but recognizing an order when she heard it. “I flew in and rented a vehicle.”

“Excellent. We’ll have one of the staffers drive it back. You’ll fly back with us on Marine One.”

“Today?” Wes wasn’t completely successful in keeping the surprise from her voice. She hadn’t packed for an extended trip, although she had brought along her regulation uniform for the flight back to Maryland the next morning.

Lucinda smiled. “This afternoon, this evening, whenever Eagle decides to return to base. Problem?”

“Not at all,” Wes said quickly. She’d just need to find a hotel in DC. The details she’d handle in the morning.

“Until then, enjoy yourself.” With a nod, Lucinda turned to a man who had been patiently waiting nearby for a word with her. She greeted him by name and moved away, leaving Wes alone again.

Wes searched the opposite side of the room where she’d last seen Agent Daniels. She was gone, Wes noted, with a twinge of disappointment she couldn’t explain any more than she could explain the brief and disconcerting glance they’d shared a few moments before. She’d been observing the guests, searching for clues to allegiances and hierarchy, studying the people the way she would study a map for an upcoming campaign. These were the players on the new stage of her life, and she needed to know where she fit.

When she’d first noticed the Secret Service agent, Daniels had been talking to another agent, her body language somewhere between annoyed and aggravated. Wes couldn’t hear their conversation, but from what she could glean from Daniels’s expression and the tension in her body, Daniels was unhappy about something. As she’d been watching her, Daniels had focused on her as if she could feel Wes’s attention. Daniels was obviously aware that Wes had been studying her, and shot her a cocky look that held a hint of invitation, taking Wes off guard. Wes had seen the look a time or two, but never quite in this context. Forgetting to hide her reaction, she’d smiled at the audacity and declined the obvious invitation to come and find out more, if she dared.

She wasn’t a coward, but neither was she fool enough to rush in where angels feared to tread. Agent Daniels was a beautiful puzzle she planned to leave safely unsolved.

The music changed to a waltz, and the president’s daughter and her spouse moved toward the dance floor. Other guests joined them. Feeling conspicuously out of place, Wes made her way to a nearby exit and retreated down a deserted hall in search of a quiet place to make arrangements for her trip to DC.

*

Blair deposited an empty champagne glass on the tray of a passing waiter and turned to find Cam watching her. The look in Cam’s eyes was contemplative, dark and serious. Blair moved through the crowd and grasped Cam’s hand. “Dance with me.”

Cam smiled. “I’d love to.”

They found a quiet corner, and Blair wrapped her arms around Cam’s neck, settling her face into the curve of Cam’s shoulder. She fit her body into the long, tight planes of Cam’s as she had thousands of times before and marveled that the sensation could still feel so new and exciting. And today, so very, very right. “I love you.”

Cam brushed her mouth over Blair’s temple. “I love you too. Today, maybe more than ever, and I never would have thought that possible.”

Tears welled in Blair’s eyes, and with anyone else, she would have been horrified, but she just turned her face against Cam’s shoulder until the overwhelming surge of emotion passed. “I’m sorry we can’t have a proper honeymoon.”

Cam chuckled, sweeping one hand through Blair’s hair and settling her fingers against the back of Blair’s neck. “I don’t need a honeymoon, Blair. Every second with you is my pleasure.”

Blair surreptitiously nipped Cam’s neck. “If you think sweet talk is going to get you anywhere, you’re right.”

“Good to know.”

“This year is going to be crazy. With the war, the economy, and the conservatives screaming for a return to tradition, my father—”

“Andrew is going to be reelected.” Cam’s fingers played gently up and down the back of Blair’s neck, a soothing, comforting rhythm laced with unswervable strength.

“I know he is. But this campaign is going to be more of a dogfight than it was the first time around, and I need to be there.”

“Of course.”

“I hate being away from you.”

“I know. I hate it when my job pulls me away.”

“You’re awfully calm,” Blair said, nuzzling Cam’s neck. She kissed her throat softly. “What are you not telling me?”

The chuckle reverberated in Cam’s chest again. Blair loved the feel of Cam’s hands on her, the heat of Cam’s body warming the cold places no other had ever touched. Desire welled within her, and she slid her hand inside Cam’s jacket and brushed her fingers over Cam’s chest. Cam’s intake of breath was so swift and sharp, an arrow of sweet need struck inside her. Dangerous. She could forget what she was thinking, where she was, everything except wanting more. “Cam?”

Cam tightened her fingers on Blair’s nape. She’d been hoping to avoid this conversation for a few more hours, but she’d never learned how to keep anything from Blair. The longer they were together, the worse she got at it. “I’m going to take a leave of absence so I can—”

“You are not.”

“Andrew’s reelection is just as important to me as it is to you,” Cam said. “I’m going with you.”

Blair took note of Cam’s calm tone. Unruffled, unshakeable. The way she sounded when she was determined on a course she knew Blair would object to. Blair kept her voice down, barely.

“You are a deputy director of Homeland Security. Your job is critical. It’s who you are, it’s what you do. You’re not taking time off to drag around the country on planes and trains and God knows what while my father gives reelection speeches, eating at fast food chains at four a.m. and fielding mud balls from hecklers in the audience.” Blair poked a finger into Cam’s chest. “You’d die of boredom in a week.”

“I’m not going to be working crossword puzzles while all of this is going on,” Cam said. “Lucinda will find something for me to do.”

Blair braced her palm against Cam’s chest and pushed back until she could meet Cam’s eyes. “You already talked to her about this?”

Cam nodded.

“This might be the shortest marriage in history.”

“As long as we make it through our wedding night.” Then Cam’s beautiful, sexy mouth curved upward, and Blair wanted to kiss her, which only made her angrier.

“Damn it, Cameron.”

“I had to know what my options were before I could say anything to you. I had a feeling you might disagree—”

“Oh really? You did? How perceptive of you.” Blair kissed her, not caring that half the room might be watching. “I could kill you.”

“If that’s any indication of your methods, I’ll—”

“We’re not done talking about this.”

“We will.” Cam kissed her back, slow enough and hard enough to drown Blair’s anger. “But I want to be with you. Only and always you.”

Blair sighed, surrendering to the need that never lessened, and rested her cheek against Cam’s shoulder. “I guess it’s a good thing I married you, then.”

*

Evyn had half an hour before she was due to relieve Gary on the gate. She found a quiet corner by a bank of windows in a long hallway at the rear of the house. Below her, the ocean roiled against the shore. The slashing whitecaps looked nothing like the warm crystalline waves that broke along the south Florida coast. These surges were gray and cold and hard, as merciless as the wind buffeting the dunes, freezing the blood—icing the bones.

“Stunning, isn’t it?” Wesley Masters said from beside Evyn.

Evyn glimpsed Masters’s face in profile, as starkly beautiful and commanding as the ocean below them, and she was anything but chilled—a flash of heat enveloped her and she had to catch her breath to stifle a gasp. Even a simple greeting was beyond her.

“Sorry,” Masters said, stepping away. “I’m intruding.”

“No,” Evyn said quickly. “You’re not at all. I was just…” She was at a loss to explain, having been caught in a contemplative moment that was so atypical of her she was embarrassed. Most of her daily conversation was with her fellow agents, talking about sports and office gossip and the latest movies—anything to pass the time before those intense moments when all that mattered was the constant search for danger, when a split-second’s delay could be disastrous. In the off time, when the pressure was relieved, all she wanted was to let down her guard even a little—no demands, no obligations, no one to ask more than she could give. She waved a hand toward the window. “I was just…well, daydreaming.”

Wes turned toward her, that intent expression in her eyes. “Were you?” She looked deep into Evyn’s eyes for another second, as if she might find the memory of her imaginings still swimming beneath the surface. Then she turned to look back out at the ocean. “I’ve always thought the ocean held all the mysteries of life. I could watch it forever.”

“Is that why you joined the navy?” Evyn asked, speaking softly so as not to shatter the strange sensation of having stepped slightly outside her life. She wanted to preserve this sheltered moment as long as possible and had no idea why.