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  Blair’s body tightened each time the small clink broke the silence.

  They leaned into one another, Blair’s back pressed against the front of Cam’s body, subtle curves fusing to long lean angles. Cam’s white shirt was open, her chest naked against the flesh exposed by the nearly backless black dress.

  “Four days is a long time,” Cam murmured, her mouth brushing the curve of Blair’s ear, her breath quickening as she felt her own nipples harden against Blair’s soft skin. “It made it hard to work tonight trying to ignore how much I wanted to touch you.”

  “Why, Commander,” Blair whispered huskily. “I didn’t think anything could distract you from your work.”

  “You do. Cam tore her shirt from her trousers and threw it behind her on the floor, then slid the zipper down the back of Blair’s dress. With both hands, she lowered the sheer fabric over Blair’s body, exposing her breasts to the moonlight, marveling at the way they glowed with the rush of blood and something altogether more elemental to the surface of the pale skin. In the next instant, she closed her fingers around one taut nipple, splaying her hand under the full curve of hot yielding flesh. “You always do.

  As much as she had wanted to go slowly, Cam found it harder with each passing second. Blair’s flesh was soft and smooth but the muscles beneath were tight, her body humming with tension. The quick rise and fall of her lovers breasts under her palms signaled her desire and Cam’s body soared in response, her thighs trembling as she rocked against Blair’s buttocks. When Blair returned the pressure with a thrust of her hips, Cam groaned.

  “You know I like it fast the first time,” Blair gasped, finally relinquishing her passivity and insinuating one hand into the nearly nonexistent space between them, then drawing it rapidly up the inside of Cam’s leg to grasp her firmly through her trousers. “And I’ve had just about a much slow as I can stand. I haven’t stopped wanting you since the bar last night and if I get any more swollen there’s going to be permanent damage.”

  Urgently, Cam grasped Blair’s shoulders and pulled her around so they were face to face, forcing their naked chests to cleave as she kissed her. The kiss spoke of need and longing and raw hunger. As the seconds passed, the first rush of desperation smoothed into welcome and recognition, and when they finally parted, each of them breathing heavily, they were both smiling.

  “Lets try something new. Let’s see how we do with slow this time,” Cam whispered.

  “You’re asking a lot,” Blair said with a small shake of her head, her hands trailing over Cam’s abdomen to the top of her trousers. Deftly, she unbuttoned the silk tuxedo pants and slid down the zipper. “But I’ll try if you do.”

  And then she slipped her hand inside.

  Cam flushed hot and her head reeled with sudden dizziness at the unexpected force of Blair’s fingers gliding over her exposed and ready nerve endings. Her hands trembled on Blair’s skin. “I can’t if you do that.”

  Blair laughed and took her hand away, then laughed again at Cam’s unintentional whimper. “Let’s at least do this on the bed then. I don’t have the strength to stand.”

  They drew apart only enough to strip free the rest of their clothing and then, as if fearful of being separated, hurriedly embraced, their limbs entwining as they rolled together on top of the sheets. Twisting her torso, Cam drew Blair beneath her, one leg between Blair’s thighs as she claimed her mouth. When the heat of Blair’s breath in her throat wasn’t enough to assuage her need, Cam reared up on both arms and pushed downward on the bed, settling her chest between Blair’s spread thighs. Instantly, her mouth closed over a nipple and she bit lightly, feeling Blair’s fingers come into her hair. She found the other breast and cradled it in her hand, working the nipple between her fingers. She didn’t stop until Blair was arched bow-tight beneath her, her breath coming in short gasps.

  “Please, Blair whispered, framing Cam’s face with trembling hands. Her eyes were cloudy as she tried to focus on her lover. “I need you so much.

  Only then did Cam ease her way lower still, kissing her way down the center of Blair’s abdomen, moving both palms to the inside of Blair’s thighs. Blair was wet against her skin. Head pounding, so heady with lust she could barely hear, Cam rested her cheek against the soft down at the base of Blair’s abdomen and gasped, “Slow enough?”

  “Any slower… and I’ll… go off without you.”

  Cam laughed shakily. “Oh, I don’t think so.”

  Slowly, Cam drew her fingers through the thick heat between Blair’s thighs, thumbing firmly against her clitoris as she passed, then dipped inside her for a fleeting moment. Withdrawing despite Blair’s cry of protest, she grew still with her fingers spread over the hot, swollen flesh, feeling the blood pound wildly against her palm. “Don’t. I want you to come in my mouth.”

  “Then kiss me,” Blair begged, “and I will.”

  Very slowly, Cam lowered her head and drew her in, caressing her slowly and carefully with her lips. When Blair’s thighs tensed suddenly, signaling she was close, Cam took her more deeply into her mouth, matching the rhythmic movements of her lips to the tempo of her fingers stroking within. The thrust of her tongue and fingers danced counterpoint to the blood pulsing and muscles spasming around her hand.

  Blair’s hand was fisted in Cam’s hair, clenching spasmodically as small cries ripped from her throat. When she climaxed, Blair choked out Cam’s name in surrender and benediction.

  Eyes closed, not breathing, Cam fought back tears at the soaring wonder of being united with the only woman in her life that mattered. She had no idea how long she lay without moving before Blair finally spoke, breaking the silence.

  “Are you asleep?”

  Cam shook her head slightly, her lips moving faintly on Blair’s still pulsing flesh. “No. I don’t think so. Maybe…or I could just be dead and this is heaven.”

  “Feels like heaven.” Blair laughed unsteadily, flexing her cramped fingers and easing her stiff legs back and forth on the sheets. The titanic contractions at the peak of her orgasm had been nearly painful, and probably would have been if the pleasure hadn’t been so acute. “Come up here…if you can. I want to touch you.”

  “I’m fine,” Cam mumbled, her eyes still closed and her heart beating erratically in her chest.

  “Come up here anyway.”

  Eventually, Cam managed to move the three feet before collapsing on the pillows next to Blair.

  “Slow is okay, I guess,” Blair observed drowsily as she shifted languorously into Cam’s arms, resting her head on her lovers shoulder and a hand on her abdomen.

  “Mmm. Not bad for starters.”

  Blair pressed her lips to Cam’s neck and licked the salty sweat that filmed her skin. A pulse beat hard beneath her lips, and she inched her fingers lower, finding her way between Cam’s thighs. Cam groaned as Blair fingered the hard prominence of her clitoris.

  “Fine are you?” Blair chuckled faintly. “You are so out of touch sometimes, Commander.”

  “Well…there’s fine—” Cam’s pelvis arched as the pressure abruptly escalated beneath Blair’s knowing touch. “And…then there’s…fine.”

  “I don’t think slow is a possibility here,” Blair observed as Cam’s stomach muscles contracted hard and her whole body shuddered. “Is it?”

  “I’m losing it,” Cam confessed desperately, already jerking with the first wave of spasms. “Oh god”

  “Its all right,” Blair murmured, her lips pressed to the curve of her lovers ear. “I have you.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Quietly, Blair opened the door to the elevated rear deck and stepped out into the night. She had pulled on a loose pair of workout shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt and carried a can of soda in her hand. She stopped just outside the door when she realized that she was not alone.

  Paula Stark spoke quickly into her cell phone. “Listen—you take it easy, understand? I’ll call you soon. Yeah, all right. I remember. Night.”

  “Sorry,” Blair
said, crossing the fifteen foot deck to join the agent at the railing.

  “No problem. I’m in between checkpoints and I was just—”

  “Paula, for God’s sake. Do you think I care if you make a telephone call?”

  “Well, strictly speaking I’m—”

  Blair snorted. “Strictly speaking, you should stand in the dark and do nothing for twelve hours?”

  “Well,” Stark rejoined seriously, “ strictly speaking, it wouldn’t be for twelve hours. I’m working the swing shift, so actually I’ve only been on duty for—”

  “I get the picture, Secret Service Agent Stark.”

  Stark shut her mouth and peered at the President’s daughter in the moonlight. She was smiling, and as it never failed to do, Stark’s heart gave a slight stutter. This time, however, she recognized it for what it was. She liked the President’s daughter. More than liked her.

  She respected Blair Powell’s official position, and she valued the work that Blair did in that capacity, representing the nation well whenever she stood in for her deceased mother as the President’s closest female envoy in situations where that kind of position mattered. She appreciated her, too, as an individual who was talented in her own right and passionate about important causes, particularly the fight against the cancer that had claimed her mother’s life.

  And more than all of that, Stark admitted, Blair Powell was a beautiful, sexually compelling woman and she had a history with her. A very brief history, to be sure, but it was a part of her past that, on balance, she was not sorry to have experienced. So when she looked at the woman next to her all of those things affected her, even if they weren’t supposed to.

  Even if as a Secret Service agent she wasn’t supposed to feel anything at all for the person she guarded, other than responsibility. Maybe she wasn’t the best Secret Service Agent because of that, but she knew she probably wasn’t going to be able to change. Maybe no one would really notice her failings. At least the Commander trusted her as Egret’s primary protector, and that was really all that mattered.

  Blair watched the moonlight flutter across Stark’s features and watched, too, the kaleidoscope of emotions—not all of which she understood but some which she clearly recognized. Fondly, she smiled again. “So, checking in with Mac, were you?”

  “Um—”

  “Never mind, Stark,” Blair said, taking pity on her. “I know it wasn’t Mac, because I know your tone of voice when you talk to him. How is Renee anyhow?”

  “She’s good, I guess,” Starks said glumly.

  “You guess? What’s wrong?”

  “They’re letting her out of the hospital in a day or so.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Blair exclaimed, leaning both elbows on the railing so that she and Stark both faced the bay far below. “That’s a lot sooner than expected, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, and that’s the problem. She’s already talking about when she’ll be going back to work.”

  “Why am I my not surprised?”

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind,” Blair said with a sigh. “I can’t imagine that she’ll be able to go back to work right away, even if she wants to. Don’t worry too much—she’s going to need physical therapy, right?”

  “Yeah, she is. Still, I’m sure she’ll figure out a way to get a desk job even if she can’t get back to field duty right away.”

  “You know, Stark,” Blair said pointedly, “most of you on my team probably shouldn’t even be working right now, so you might try to put yourself in Savard’s position.”

  Genuinely perplexed, Stark turned her head to meet Blair’s eyes. “What are you talking about? None of us were hurt.”

  “Jesus. Is it a requirement that all Secret Service agents be blockheads?”

  Stark stiffened at Blair’s criticism, ready to defend her colleagues, but before she could get a word out, Blair continued.

  “We’re not just talking about physical injury, although god knows, Cam should probably still be on sick leave.”

  “Is the Commander ill?” Stark asked with sudden, genuine concern.

  “Nothing she would admit to, but the point is, she was hurt. And all of you lost a colleague and had two others injured. It could have been any one of you. That kind of thing hurts, too.”

  “It comes with the job, Ms. Powell,” Stark said, suddenly somber and suddenly sounding years older.

  “Yes,” Blair replied, likewise subdued, with noticeable sympathy in her voice this time. “I guess it does.”

  Very briefly, in an unusual movement for her, Blair squeezed Stark’s forearm, then brought her hand back to the railing in front of her. “At any rate, I don’t imagine that Savard is going to be any different than the rest of you, but hopefully she’ll be sensible enough not to push for anything too physical until she’s ready.”

  “The one good thing is that she’s going to be staying with her sister in New York City while she recovers,” Stark explained, the enthusiasm back in her voice. “So if she does get an assignment, it will most likely be in the local field office, at least temporarily.”

  “Ah—so she’ll be nearby then.”

  “Yeah. She will.”

  Blair couldn’t miss the note of excitement in the young agent’s voice, and she couldn’t help feeling just a twinge of jealousy. Because Renee Savard and Paula Stark were free to explore whatever was happening between them and to do it with all the joy and anticipation of any two people who might be falling in love. It was something she had never had the opportunity to do.

  Now she was in love—hopelessly, achingly, desperately in love—and she still found the joy tinged with sadness, and sometimes anger. It was 3:00 in the morning and she had just left her lover’s arms because she could not awaken with her, even in one of the safest places in the world.

  Chapter Thirteen

  At 7:30 the next morning, Cam walked into the kitchen and headed directly for the coffeepot. She helped herself and carried the mug out onto the rear deck, taking advantage of the rare morning sunshine and unusually clear sky. Even in summer, fog was the norm on a San Francisco morning.

  At the sound of the door sliding open, the woman standing at the rail turned in her direction.

  “Good morning,” Cam said. She leaned a shoulder against the open door frame and sipped her coffee, taking a moment to appreciate the sunlight on her lover’s face.

  “Good morning,” Blair said quietly, leaning back with an arm outstretched on either side of her body, her hands curled over the top rail.

  “Mind company?”

  “Not yours,” Blair rejoined with a smile.

  Cam crossed the deck to join her, quickly surveying the densely shrubbed rear property down to the street, which was barely visible as it fell steeply away below them.

  “Felicia is down there somewhere,” Blair noted as she watched Cam do a perimeter scan. “Its her shift.”

  Cam merely nodded, watching until she saw the faint shadow of her agent move across her view. Satisfied, she turned to the woman beside her. “How are you?”

  “Better than I was yesterday morning at this time,” Blair answered, a husky tone in her voice. “I’m content for the moment.”

  “And I’m sorry,” Cam replied with a laugh. “I fell asleep—”

  “Don’t apologize. First of all you needed it,” Blair admonished. “Second of all, it makes me feel like a stud.”

  “Huh…I’m wondering just how to take that. Does that mean that I’m not?”

  Blair met her eyes, noting with relief that the shadows beneath them were rapidly fading and that the pain which Cam thought she couldn’t see was gone as well. “Oh no, Commander. Your stud credentials are well intact.”

  “That’s good to know,” Cam said, grinning. She leaned on the rail and worked on her coffee, allowing her mind to drift in the postcard-perfect view. Eventually she asked, “Have you seen my wayward mother this morning?”

  “I certainly wouldn’t expect to—not this early. Not if
I read the situation with Giancarlo correctly.”

  “I believe you did,” Cam agreed with a fond smile. “If she’s not back by this afternoon, I’ll call her before we depart for the airport.”

  “I’ll be sorry to leave here,” Blair said quietly.

  Cam moved her left hand along the rail until it covered Blair’s right. Their shoulders were nearly touching, but only someone on the deck with them could have seen the movement. Automatically, their fingers entwined, thumbs brushing over the tops of each other’s hand.

  “Yes, so will I. I’ve been here before, but it takes being here with you to realize how beautiful it is. Being with you makes the entire world look different.”

  For a moment, Blair was speechless. It was one of those times when Cam took her completely by surprise, and it was just the way she had always imagined that being in love would feel. She had just never imagined she would feel it herself. “We don’t have to leave that feeling here, do we?”

  Cam met her gaze again, marveling at the myriad shades of blue that moved in the depths of her lover’s eyes. “No. We don’t. Let’s make sure we don’t.”

  “Cam, I…”

  At that moment, the cell on Cam’s belt vibrated. Grimacing, she said, “Sorry,” as she pulled it off and flipped it open. Turning slightly away, she answered, “Roberts.”

  Something about the way Cam’s shoulders stiffened nearly imperceptibly caught Blair’s attention. Ordinarily she barely noticed these frequent calls from an agent checking-in or an intelligence update being relayed to Cam, they were so much a part of her life. Now she found herself listening without really intending to.

  “Where are you calling from?…You’re sure?…When?…Are you all rig…No. Not for a day or so…Yes…Yes…I’ll find you…Okay…Yes. Good.”

  “Problem?” Blair asked as Cam terminated the call. She was certain that Cam had been timing the conversation.