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.”
• 78 •
Oath Of hOnOr
“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.
• 79 •
RADCLY fFE
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
• 80 •
Oath Of hOnOr
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.”
• 81 •
RADCLY fFE
“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.
“Oh, you feel so good,” Blair gasped. “I want you so bad when
you make me wait.”
“I need all of you. So much.”
Blair’s fingers came into her hair, caressing her, guiding her lower.
“You do. You always do.”
Cam eased Blair’s thighs apart, kissing the soft skin first on one
side,
then the other, moving inward, nipping lightly, kissing the spots
her teeth had teased. Blair’s hips lifted to her, inviting her deeper. She
lost all sense of time, of place, of anything other than Blair. Blair’s
hands on her shoulders, Blair’s skin beneath her mouth, Blair closing
around her fingers. Blair was everything—air, sun, joy, eternity.
“Now,” Blair whispered. “Now.”
Carefully, gently, Cam drew Blair’s clitoris between her lips,
closing her mouth over her, slipping inside until she filled her. She
pressed inward even as she sucked her deeper. Blood pulsed, muscles
quivered, and Blair was everywhere—in her mind and blood and soul.
“There—” Blair swelled in her mouth.
She guided her higher, stroking, sucking, drawing her ever closer
• 82 •
Oath Of hOnOr
until Blair’s thighs tightened into steel bands. Blair jerked hard against
Cam’s mouth, a choked cry torn from her throat. Blair’s orgasm rushed
around her fingers, pulsed against her lips, filling her with wonder.
“Oh my God,” Blair gasped.
Cam kissed her one last time and settled her cheek against the
inside of Blair’s thigh, softly caressing her belly. “I love you.”
“You make me so happy.”
“That’s everything.”
“Almost.” Blair’s fingers twisted in Cam’s hair and tugged.
“Almost everything—but not quite. Come up here.”
v
Hooker slid into a booth in the rear of the Chicago O’Hare Chili’s
and waited for the server to take his drink order before saying anything
to the man seated across from him. Anyone watching them in the dimly
lit restaurant, and no one was, would be unlikely to remember two guys
on a layover, in rumpled clothes, faces obscured by shadows. When
they were alone, he said, “This is getting expensive.”
“Safer.”
“Right. Next time make it someplace warmer.”
“If it’s inconvenient, I’m happy to quit.”
Hooker snorted. “I’ll just bet you are. But that’s not the way it
works. You’ve already gotten your down payment.”
“Don’t worry. I’m loyal to the cause.”
Hooker shrugged. He didn’t know what motivated the guy, and he
didn’t care. All he cared about was getting his part of the job done, and
he needed this guy to do it. “Tell me what you have for me.”
“A few changes to the upcoming schedule.”
“Delays?” Hooker frowned. “We’ve already got a timetable—”
“I don’t want to know anything about what you’re planning.”
“Don’t worry, you won’t.” Hooker leaned back while the waitress
slid a beer across the tabletop. “All right. Give it to me. Anything
else?”“There’s been a change in personnel at the White House. The
medical unit has a new chief.”
“Not unexpected. What do we know about him?”
• 83 •
RADCLY fFE
“Her.”
“What do you mean?”
“Brought her in from outside.”
“Oh. Okay.” Hooker didn’t like surprises, especially when they
affected one of the key players. “What do we know about her?”
“Not very much yet. Seems to be a straightforward appointment—
navy captain. Nothing unusual.”
“She could be useful. See if we can get close.”
“The place is like a fishbowl. We can’t just go poking around.”
“And we can’t have a wild card in a game we’ve already
started.”
“I’ll do what I can. They’re calling my flight. Here.”
A folded ten was pushed across the tabletop, and Hooker swept it
up in his palm and shoved the bill into his pocket. He fingered the small
memory disk free and pushed it farther down so he wouldn’t accidently
dislodge it along with the money. “What’s on it?”
“The contact info. I’d rather you didn’t contact me—”
“When we need something, you’ll know.”
Alone, Hooker finished his drink, pulled the ten from his pocket,
and left it on the table. Grabbing the check the waitress had left, he
headed for the register by the door. Russo might be right—this thing
was so big they couldn’t afford to leave any witnesses.
v
“So what’s the agenda,” Wes asked as she and Evyn walked back
to the House, “for boot camp?”
Evyn smiled. “You won’t have to run an obstacle course.”
“Good to know.”
“We need to see how you’ll mesh with our team in different threat
scenarios. Everyone else in the WHMU has been on board at least
eighteen months. Not only are you the new guy, you’re the new chief.
You’ll be with POTUS around the clock most of the time he’s away.”
“I understand.” Wes paused at a corner for the light to change.
“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me what the sims are first, are
you.”“No.”
• 84 •
Oath Of hOnOr
“Even though you probably practice the same simulations at
regular intervals anyhow.”
“You’re quick.” Evyn shot her a searching glance. “Piss you off?”
“What? Being treated like a squid?”
“Let me guess—that’s like the lowest of the low at Annapolis?”
Wes nodded. She’d played the game, paid her dues, and earned her
rank. She might be out of her element here, but she was no squid. Yeah,
her emotions. “Not really.”
“Good,” Evyn said, not sounding totally convinced. “We’re on the
same side, after all.”
Wes stopped walking, and Evyn turned to her, her brows drawing
together in a question. “There’s something you should know—
something all the interviews and polygraphs in the world aren’t going
to tell you.”
“Okay.”
“Run your simulations, analyze the polygraph, psychoanalyze me
if that’s what will make everyone feel better, but I would never put a
patient’s life at risk. If I’m not right for this job—one hundred percent
qualified, I won’t need anyone to tell me. I’ll know. I’ll walk away.”
“That makes you very unusual, Captain Masters,” Evyn said
softly. Passersby streamed by on either side of them. Their breath
puffed out in the cold air, mingling and misting and drifting away in
small white clouds. Evyn’s gaze held hers. “No ego investment?”
Wes shook her head. “Plenty. If I can’t do something well, I won’t
do it.”“A perfectionist.”
“I hope not—that’s an impossible goal. A realist, maybe.”
Evyn smiled. “I guess our lives don’t leave room for much else.”
“No.” A pang of unexpected sadness raced through Wes’s chest,
and for some reason, she thought of her family. She’d grown up with
love—surrounded by warmth and joy and support, even though she’d
also been on her own a lot. She still had that love and support, but there
were times, late at night or first thing in the morning, when she ached
for something she couldn’t name. Or was afraid to. “Do you regret—I
won�
��t say the sacrifices, because I don’t think of it that way. But you
know—the job?”
• 85 •
RADCLY fFE
“No,” Evyn said quickly. “You?”
“No. And I guess we should get to it.”
“Yes.” Evyn resumed walking.
Wes worked on getting grounded in what was important. She
wasn’t used to being thrown off track by people. Even her friends had
never been successful at pulling her away from her responsibilities.
Emory was always pushing her to go out to parties and clubs when
they’d been at school together, but she’d been all about the grades.
Emory’d been a serious student too, and no party girl, but she’d never
worried quite as much as Wes. She’d dated. At least casually. Wes had
never cared about that. Still didn’t.
“First stop is getting your permanent ID,” Evyn said.
They showed their IDs to the officer at the west gate, and Evyn
took her to the personnel office. The clerk handed Wes a laminated ID
card depicting her photograph, name, and rank.
“Where in the OEOB is the clinic?” Wes asked Evyn when they
left personnel.
“Down this hall.” Evyn glanced at her watch. “Almost seventeen
thirty. Probably only the night shift is here, but you can see them and
check out your office.”
“Thanks. I appreciate the walk around.” Wes mentally noted the
twists and turns as she matched Evyn’s long strides. At the end of a
deserted hall with white walls, gray tiles, and rows of closed doors
on either side, Evyn took a right into another corridor lit by glaring
overhead fluorescents. A small waiting area on one side was crammed
with black metal folding chairs. Opposite that, four rooms with the
letters A through D over their doors stood open and empty. Examination
rooms. Beyond those, she could see into a large office with a desk piled
high with charts. Probably the headquarters of the Admitting Officer of
the Day.
“Well,” Evyn said, “this is it.”
“I can take it from here—I imagine you need to get back.”
“I was done at fifteen hundred.”
“Oh,” Wes said, flashing back to their dinner of the night before.
For one second she considered asking Evyn if she had plans for the
evening and just as quickly came to her senses. She had work to do—a
lot of it. And Evyn—well, anything with Evyn was best kept simple.
Tomorrow Evyn would be evaluating her. “Have a good night, then.”