Radclyffe - Oath of Honor

to provide intel on last-minute changes, exit strategies, emergency

routes—everything.”

“You’ll tell Cam?”

“Now that she’s in town, I’ll brief her formally. Is she still at the

condo?”

“No, she and Paula went to the range. They’re meeting me here

a little later and we’re going out to breakfast. I thought I’d try to catch

my father. Is he up yet?”

“I imagine he’s in the gym.”

“Thanks. I’ll go hunt him up.”

“Congratulations again, by the way. The wedding was lovely.”

“Thanks. It was everything I wanted, only I never knew it.”

“That’s the wonderful thing about love,” Lucinda murmured.

“So how much time do we have before we travel?”

“He starts his first campaign sweep the first of the year.”

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“Oh good—I’ll be able to spend my birthday on a train.”

“Things have changed in the last few years,” Lucinda said dryly.

“We’ll fly.”

v

Wes woke, twisting in the unfamiliar, too-small bed—senses alert

to danger. As the remnants of sleep fled, she became aware of the body

pressed close to hers. Evyn. Evyn’s back was curved against her chest,

her ass tucked neatly into the curve of Wes’s hips. Wes’s cheek rested

on the pillow an inch from the back of Evyn’s neck. When she breathed

in she could smell the faint hint of lemon in her hair. She’d never

awakened next to a woman before, and she lay very still, cataloging

every sensation. The front of her thighs rested gently against the back

of Evyn’s, the delicate melding of skin to skin a fragile connection

she didn’t dare sever. Her breasts grazed the arch of Evyn’s shoulder

blades, her nipples electrified by the whisper of contact. The moments

they’d spent making love kaleidoscoped through her mind, one after

the other, in vivid breathless images. Carefully, so as not to awaken her,

she slipped her arm around Evyn’s waist and gently spread her fingers

over her abdomen. Evyn pushed back against her, setting their bodies

more firmly together.

Wes held her breath, but Evyn only murmured, “Stay,” as she

grasped Wes’s hand and pressed it to her flesh. Wes’s heart hammered

harder, a wave of tenderness and unanticipated heat strobing through

her. She wanted Evyn again. Her body vibrated with the urge to stroke,

taste, savor. The only thing keeping her from waking Evyn was the

exquisite pleasure of holding her just exactly the way they were. She

nuzzled her face in the curve of Evyn’s shoulder.

Evyn drew Wes’s hand higher until her nipple nestled in Wes’s

palm. “You fit.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake—”

“No.” Evyn turned in Wes’s arms and kissed her. She stroked

Wes’s back, cradled her ass. “I want you too.”

Excitement blossomed in Wes’s depths and she groaned.

“Oh yeah,” Evyn whispered, tugging on Wes’s lower lip. “You

tired?”

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“No,” Wes gasped. “God, Evyn.”

Evyn slipped her hand between them, brushed her palm down

Wes’s abdomen. “Shoulder hurt?”

“What shoulder?” Wes ached, blood thundering in her clit, her

body awakening to desire.

Laughing, Evyn murmured, “All right then,” and moved her hand

lower. “Here?”

“Yes.” Wes held on, breathless.

“Here?”

“Yes, please. Right there.” Spinning, tumbling, drowning in

need.“More?”

“Yes. Almost. Almost.” Wes arched, pressure building, lungs

bursting, exploding—lost in pleasure, eyes wide open and unafraid.

The next time Wes opened her eyes she was alone. She skated her

hand over the place beside her where Evyn had been not long before.

The sheets were cool. The air in the room was equally cool and smelled

faintly of industrial cleanser. Soupy gray light trickled through the slats

in the blinds. Evyn might have been gone five minutes, or an hour. Wes

pushed herself up on her elbows and looked around the room.

Relief surged through her at the sight of Evyn’s go bag sitting next

to hers on the floor. Evyn hadn’t left. But then Evyn wouldn’t disappear

in the night—no matter how she felt about what had happened between

them, she would never walk away. She was far too responsible for that.

Maybe she’d gone out because she hadn’t wanted a repeat of the night

before. Maybe she’d gone out to let the distance say what she didn’t

want to—that what they’d shared was only one night and nothing

more.The idea that the night was over, never to be repeated, sliced

through Wes with unexpected pain. She didn’t know what she wanted

to happen next, and she had no point of reference, other than the scent

of Evyn in the dark and the silky glide of Evyn’s skin beneath her hands.

Those memories and the clear and certain knowledge that she wanted

both again were all she had. Pushing the covers aside, she climbed out

of bed and grabbed her sweatpants and a heavy gray cotton pullover

out of her bag. The hot-water radiator in the corner rattled but didn’t

seem to be throwing off much heat. Dressing quickly in the cold room,

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she sat on the end of the bed to put on her socks. The door banged

open and Evyn hurried in, bringing a gust of frigid wind and scattered

snowflakes. Her face was flushed. She wore the jeans and T-shirt from

the night before. She carried a cardboard takeout tray in her right hand

with two large cardboard cups of coffee and a grease-stained brown

bag. Wes wanted to kiss her. “Say it’s hot and strong.”

“Oh yeah. Believe it.” Evyn grinned. “Thought you might be

ready for this.”

“I am.” Wes concentrated on her socks so she wouldn’t jump up

and touch her. “Have you been up long?”

“No.” Evyn set the tray down on the dresser. She shed Wes’s jacket

and draped it over the back of a lone wooden chair. Water dripped from

her cuffs onto the floor. She stamped snow from her boots and kicked

them off, leaving them on a square of threadbare carpet that served as

a doormat. She crossed to the bed opposite Wes and held out a cup of

coffee.

“Black, right?”

Wes took it. “Right. Thanks. How’s the storm?”

“Dying off. The pizza place across the street doubles as a deli in

the morning. There’s doughnuts there too.” She waved in the direction

of the brown paper bag propped in the cardboard container. “Glazed.

And cinnamon.”

“Perfect.”

“I’m having trouble making a call—I think everyone’s using the

cell lines. I’m guessing it will be afternoon before we can get a flight

out of here. The storm is moving up the coast. Sounds like DC is getting

hammered again.”

“I guess I’d better try to call the unit and make sure there’s enough

coverage.”

“Good luck. I just managed to get my neighbor across the hall to

feed my cat. I couldn’t get through to the House or Tom’s cell.”

“Well, I’m sure whichever doc is around will see that we’re

appropriately staffed.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much. They all know what to do.” Evyn

sipped her coffee and watched Wes pull on her socks. The bed behind

her was rumpled, the sheets and blankets askew. They’d given it a

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workout. Thinking of the way Wes had made her come, more times in

a row than she could ever remember, made her stomach clutch. The sex

had been great—awesome—but the sleeping together had her out of

sync. She didn’t usually do that—even when she spent the night with

someone, she didn’t curl up with them, didn’t turn to them in the night

and need to be closer. Didn’t need to be inside them the way she’d been

crazy to be inside Wes.

“You okay?”

“I’m sorry, what?” Evyn was aware she hadn’t heard a single thing

Wes had said for the last few minutes. Wes looked great in faded sweats

that hugged her ass and thighs. Evyn fought the urge to tackle Wes and

pull her on top of her. She wanted Wes’s hands on her, wanted to be

under her, wanted to come for her. That wasn’t her either. She was all

turned around and—

“I asked if there was anything I could do—you’ve been taking

point all morning, it seems.” Wes’s gaze traveled over Evyn’s body,

glinting with a hunger to match Evyn’s.

“Probably quite a few things, but we’re good for now.” Evyn

glanced around the clean but shabby room, searching for a way to put

on the brakes. She needed to grab the controls, get her head back on

straight. “At least there’s TV. Hopefully it works. News okay with

you?”“Do we need to talk about last night?”

Evyn stopped on her way to check out the TV. The space between

the bed where Wes sat and the dresser with the TV on top was tight. If

she took two steps forward she’d be standing between Wes’s legs. She

mentally nailed her feet to the floor. “You don’t run from the hard stuff,

do you?”

“I don’t see any point.”

“Last night was great. If I think about it much more, I could

probably scare myself, and I’d rather not.”

“I understand.” Wes cradled the cardboard cup between her hands

and watched the coffee swirl around the rim. “If I knew enough to be

scared, I probably would be too.”

“So,” Evyn said. “Since neither of us really scares easily, this

should be simple. I don’t have a problem with last night.”

Wes heard the emphasis on last night . Sounded a lot like past

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tense, as in over and done. Okay. She could accept that. The pain in her

chest didn’t mean anything. Her turn to step up and make this simple.

“Neither do I. My number one priority is to be sure we can still work

together—that there’s no disruption to the team.”

“I don’t see why what happened should interfere with anything,”

Evyn said quickly. Wes was giving her a graceful way out of a potentially

sticky situation, just the kind of exit she usually wanted. She didn’t

feel all that happy about it, but her emotions were screwed up and she

couldn’t trust them anyhow. Better to ignore them. “We’re both adults,

both professionals.”

“Yes,” Wes said, counting on Evyn to be rational and in control.

Especially now, when she didn’t really feel that way herself. “We both

have jobs to do. And considering the circumstances, we can’t afford

any distractions.”

Evyn stiffened, hearing what Wes wasn’t saying. “You know about

the problem with POTUS.”

“Yes.”

“You have me on the short list of suspects?” Evyn had to ask, even

as her body went cold thinking Wes might consider her capable of such

betrayal.

“No, Evyn,” Wes said softly, “I don’t.”

“Why not? You should.” Evyn knew she sounded angry. She

was angry. The whole situation made her crazy. The president was at

risk, and it was her job to protect him. She couldn’t do that effectively