Oath of Honor Read online

  about it once we get settled.”

  Wes followed them down the hall and into a small room with

  several windows that looked out over another expanse of lawn studded

  with rose bushes. The room was crowded with a conference table, eight

  chairs, and a row of bookshelves underneath the window. A file cabinet

  stood in one corner and a polygraph machine rested in the center of

  the table. She sat down across from it. Evyn and Preston sat facing the

  machine.

  “The way this works,” Preston said, “is that the test is given in two

  parts—part one will cover some basic informational questions. Then

  we’ll move on to part two with more focused questions. Have you ever

  had a polygraph?”

  “No.”

  “Is there anything you want us to know now before we start the

  test?”“I assume you’re referring to anything which I feel would

  disqualify me for this position?”

  Preston answered before Evyn. “We find it’s best not to try

  to outthink or rationalize whether or not there is a right or wrong

  answer.”

  Evyn added, “Just answer each question to the best of your ability.

  If there’s something in the past you think may hamper or confuse your

  answers, you should tell us. That will actually help us interpret the test

  to your benefit.”

  “There isn’t.” Wes hadn’t expected to see Evyn until later, and

  this wasn’t the way she had hoped their next encounter would come

  about, but Evyn was here to do her job and so was she. In a way, she

  was relieved. There could be no ambiguity about what was happening

  between them. Nothing. Only business.

  “All right,” Preston said. “We’re going to go through some basic

  questions first.”

  Wes knew the basics of the polygraph. She understood that

  some questions were designed to elicit a yes-or-no answer, and those

  responses formed the baseline comparators for other answers. She also

  knew it was best not to try to figure out which questions were the critical

  comparators. “I’m ready.”

  Preston made some notes while Evyn connected the galvanic

  • 70 •

  Oath Of hOnOr

  skin recorder to Wes’s right arm. Wes was aware of sweating slightly.

  Unusual for her. Even under the tensest conditions, she rarely perspired.

  She wasn’t concerned about the test, but she couldn’t shake the lingering

  connection she felt to Evyn Daniels, and the disorienting effect of her

  presence.

  “All right, Dr. Masters,” Preston said, making a mark on a

  scrolling roll of paper. “We’re going to begin. Is your name Captain

  Wesley Masters?”

  “Yes.”

  Preston alternated asking her routine questions—her term of

  service, her duty stations, her field experience—interspersed with

  pointed questions.

  “Have you ever been arrested?”

  “No.”

  “Have you ever used illegal drugs, recreationally or in conjunction

  with an assignment?”

  “No.”

  “Have you ever met with foreign nationals hostile to the U.S.?”

  “No.”

  “Have you ever met with known terrorists?”

  “No.”

  “The Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, the American

  Christian Army?”

  “No. No. No.”

  She answered no so many times she began to feel as if she was

  revealing she had no life outside her job. But then, she didn’t.

  Finally, Preston turned off the machine and Evyn sat back. She

  gave Wes the slightest smile, and for some reason, Wes’s uneasiness

  disappeared.

  “We’ll let you know the results as soon as they’ve been analyzed,”

  Preston said.

  Wes rolled her shoulders and stretched her neck. “Good, thank

  you. I wonder if you could tell me how to get to the medical offices

  from here.”

  “I’ll take you,” Evyn said.

  “And someplace to eat?”

  Evyn glanced at her watch. “It’s almost sixteen hundred. I’ll show

  you a good place to get a late lunch.”

  • 71 •

  RADCLY fFE

  “I don’t have much time,” Wes said, not wanting a repeat of the

  intimacy of the night before. She needed a buffer between them if the

  disappointment she’d experienced earlier was any indication of how

  strongly Evyn affected her.

  “I’m sure your team can wait another forty-five minutes. POTUS

  isn’t scheduled to leave the House today. Whatever activity there is in

  the clinic is already being handled by your staff. Lunch first. Then I’ll

  take you over to meet your staff.”

  “Thank you,” Wes said, realizing when she had been given an

  order in the form of a suggestion. She’d have to get used to that, since

  Evyn was in charge. And since part of Lucinda Washburn’s unspoken

  message had been to assess those on the list, she’d best get on with her

  job. “Lunch it is.”

  • 72 •

  Oath Of hOnOr

  chapter nine

  Cam leaned against the doorway to Blair’s studio in the house

  they’d purchased not far from Tanner and Adrienne’s on

  Whitley Point. In the middle of winter this far north, sunset came

  early, and the late-day sun slanted low on the horizon. Diffuse golden

  light cast a halo around Blair’s face as she concentrated on the canvas

  propped up on the easel in front of her. Her paint-spattered jeans rode

  low on her hips, and her faded black T-shirt with a silk-screened Andy

  Warhol slid up and down over the hollow of her spine as she captured

  the colors of the sea in gray, and green, and blue. A strip of skin two

  inches wide just above the waistband of her Luckys winked into

  view and disappeared to the rhythm of her brushstrokes in a hypnotic

  cadence that captured Cam’s attention and made her throat go dry.

  She knew that spot—the sweet softness of the skin, the delicate ripple

  of bone beneath supple muscle, the breathy moans when her fingers

  dipped and stroked. She’d rested her hand in just that spot while they’d

  danced at their wedding.

  She smiled. They hadn’t really celebrated privately yet. By the

  time they’d said good-bye to the last of their guests, thanked Tanner

  and Adrienne for opening their home and putting up with the weeks of

  heightened security, and made it back to their place down island, they’d

  fallen into bed exhausted. After sleeping far later than usual, they’d

  both needed to unwind. Blair wanted to paint. Cam needed to move.

  Now she wanted nothing more than to be right where she was, looking

  at her wife.

  • 73 •

  RADCLY fFE

  “Have a good run?” Blair asked, touching a dab of purple to the

  swell of a wave.

  “The beach is a bitch. I’d forgotten how much harder it is to run

  on sand.”

  “Tire you out?” Blair wiped her brush on a cloth and set it in a tray

  next to the easel and turned, her gaze slowly sliding from Cam’s face

  down her body.

  “Just getting started.”

  Blair smiled slowly.
“You’re all sweaty.”

  “Sorry about that.” Cam fanned her fingers over the center of her

  chest, and Blair’s eyes flared with heat, making her nipples tighten and

  pressure surge in her groin. “Stark made me promise I’d let her join me

  when her leg healed.”

  “Oh, I can just see that—I know she hates to run. You’ve been

  torturing her again by playing to her need to best the boss.”

  “Ex-boss. And all Secret Service agents are competitive by nature.

  I didn’t have to play her at all.”

  Laughing, Blair crossed the room with the easy grace of a trained

  martial artist. She gripped the bottom of Cam’s T-shirt and jerked it up

  and over Cam’s head, tossing it onto the floor behind them. She leaned

  against Cam’s body, pinning her against the doorjamb. “Well, I like you

  sweaty and you’re going to need a shower anyhow—I’m going to get

  paint all over you.”

  Cam circled Blair’s waist and gripped her ass, snugging Blair’s

  hips into the vee of her pelvis. “Is it washable paint?”

  “I might have to work on it.” Blair nipped at Cam’s chin and kissed

  her, molding her mouth to Cam’s, teasing the seam of her lips with the

  tip of her tongue. “Rub a little here and there.”

  “Make sure you get a lot on me, then.” Cam pulled her closer,

  enjoying the heat spreading through her belly, the rising beat of arousal,

  the anticipation of the pleasure to come. Blair’s hands covered her

  breasts, thumbs lightly brushing her nipples, and she tilted her head

  back, giving Blair room to scrape her teeth down her throat. “Your

  mouth is so hot—God, Blair.”

  “You taste so good,” Blair mumbled as she nipped and kissed her

  way to the hollow of Cam’s throat. She licked the salty skin there and

  moaned softly.

  • 74 •

  Oath Of hOnOr

  Cam pulled the tie holding Blair’s hair back, letting her thick

  waves fall free. She tangled her fingers in them, cupping the back of

  Blair’s head, guiding Blair’s mouth lower, to the curve of her breast.

  Blair’s teeth closed over her nipple and Cam jerked. They were alone in

  that part of the house, but several of Blair’s security agents were in the

  kitchen—and she was losing her grip more with every stroke of Blair’s

  tongue. “Shower soon?”

  “Mmm, in a minute,” Blair whispered, licking a warm path down

  the underside of Cam’s breast.

  “Blair,” Cam warned, her thighs starting to shake.

  Blair laughed, pressing the flat of her hand to the center of Cam’s

  belly, making slow, tight circles, knowing the motion would work Cam

  up even faster.

  “You looked beautiful,” Cam whispered, “standing over there in

  the sunlight.”

  Blair stilled, then raised her head, her blue eyes dark and

  questioning. “You always catch me off guard, Cam. You mean that,

  don’t you.”

  “Every time I see you, I fall in love again.”

  “I believe you when you say those things. You make my heart

  melt.”Cam framed Blair’s face and kissed her softly. Her body demanded

  Blair’s hands, Blair’s mouth, Blair’s fingers, but her heart wanted

  nothing more than to hold Blair close with her last breath. “I love you.

  You’re all I want.”

  “Cam.” Blair’s fingers trembled against Cam’s skin. “I never

  thought I’d have this. You undo me.”

  The tears shimmering on Blair’s lashes were Cam’s undoing. She

  only wanted her love to make Blair smile. “Don’t worry—I’ll never

  tell.”Laughing, the hint of vulnerability erased by joy, Blair closed her

  eyes and rested her cheek against Cam’s shoulder. “Good. I’d hate for

  my badass reputation to suffer.”

  Cam skimmed her hand under Blair’s T-shirt and stroked her back.

  “Want to take that shower with me?”

  Blair fingers skated lower, brushing softly between Cam’s thighs.

  “Want me to finish what I started?”

  • 75 •

  RADCLY fFE

  “Oh yeah. Several times.”

  Laughing, Blair took Cam’s hand and dragged her down the hall.

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  v

  “Five Guys?” Wes said when Evyn stopped in front of the red-

  and-white checkered burger joint.

  “What? You don’t like burgers? Are you a vegetarian?”

  “No.” Wes shook her head. “I think my coronaries can take it. A

  burger would be great.”

  “Well, these are great burgers.” Evyn reached for the door but Wes

  was there first, pushing it open and waiting for her to pass. “You know

  that’s very retro, right?”

  “What?” Wes let the door close behind them and followed Evyn

  to the counter.

  “Holding the door for a woman.”

  “Does it bother you?”

  “Do you always do it?”

  “If I don’t have to knock someone down to get there first.”

  Evyn laughed. “Chivalry just comes naturally to you?”

  “I don’t know. Is that what you call it?”

  Evyn almost said I call it sexy, but caught herself just in time.

  Wes really didn’t know her actions were both charming and unusual,

  and that made what might have been annoying in someone else just

  plain attractive. “I guess you take the officer-and-a-gentleman thing

  seriously.”

  “I do.”

  “So you don’t just rely on the uniform to turn heads?”

  “Never did, really,” Wes answered easily. The glint in Evyn’s

  eyes made it hard to resist her good-natured teasing. “I’m not the head-

  turning type.”

  “Come again?” Evyn stared. Did the woman really not know how

  hot she was?

  “What?”

  “Never mind.” Evyn took a mental step back. Fifteen minutes

  alone with Wes and they were already dancing around personal issues

  • 76 •

  Oath Of hOnOr

  again. Maybe even flirting. Without her even realizing it. Without

  meaning to. Wes slid right through her usual barriers, and she couldn’t

  have that. Especially not here, on the job, and especially not with Wes.

  “We don’t have much time, so if you know what you want…”

  “I’m good to order,” Wes said, visibly drawing back.

  Evyn supposed she’d been rude, but better that than familiar. So

  what if the cool curtain that fell between them chilled her more than the

  miserable weather outside.

  They ordered, grabbed a table by the window, and waited for their

  number to be called. She started to rise when the server called their

  order, but Wes got to her feet.

  “I’ll get it. Ketchup on your fries?”

  “What else?”

  “Vinegar,” Wes said.

  “Blasphemy.”

  “You should try it.”

  Evyn leaned back in her chair and stared up at Wes, who stood

  looking down, amusement dancing in her eyes. Every single thing

  about her was attractive—the sharp profile, the long tight body, the

  devastating mouth. And she was close enough to being on the job to

  know what it meant to have no life to speak of—a schedule
that changed

  at a moment’s notice, travel plans she couldn’t share, colleagues who

  knew her better than family. Or maybe who were her family. Wes

  Masters might just be the most interesting woman she’d ever met, and

  that was a big, big problem. She’d had a very brief and very ill-advised

  affair with another agent right after she’d been assigned to DC. They’d

  split up when her ex’s ex returned from an assignment overseas and

  wasn’t so ex any longer. Unfortunately, Evyn kept running into said ex

  on the job. That was painful at first and then just embarrassing. Then

  and there she’d decided to keep life simple—a total separation of work

  and play. Wes was upsetting her game plan. Add to that the whole

  breach in security issue, and the inadvisable became the impossible.

  “I’ll stick to the sure thing,” Evyn said. “Ketchup, that is.”

  “Okay.” Wes looked at her a second longer before disappearing to

  retrieve their food.

  “Smooth—really smooth, Daniels.” Evyn shredded her paper

  napkin and wondered what the hell Wes had just seen in her eyes.

  • 77 •

  RADCLY fFE

  “This is kind of scary,” Wes said, pointing to the grease-stained

  brown paper bag filled with french fries as she sat down a minute

  later.“Never took you for a coward.” Evyn grabbed her double burger

  with cheese and bag of fries.

  Wes just laughed and carefully tore the bag open. Fat golden fries

  spilled out. She plucked one up, dipped it in a little plastic container of

  vinegar, and ate it. “Good.”

  “Told you,” Evyn said as she plowed through her food. “After

  this I’ll take you over to the clinic—it’s in the OEOB.” At Wes’s raised

  eyebrow she added, “Old Executive Office Building. You can sort out

  your schedule and whatnot today in terms of coverage. Tomorrow,

  you’ll report to me at zero eight hundred.”

  “All right,” Wes said, carefully rolling up the remains of the paper

  bag that had held her fries. “I need to take shifts in the clinic as soon as

  possible. I want to see how things work—how the team meshes.”

  “I understand. We’ll have at least one away exercise. The rest of

  the sims we should be able to do at Beltsville.”

  “Come again?”

  “Our training center.”

  “Gotcha. Assuming the polygraph results are okay.”

  Evyn lifted a shoulder. “I doubt there’ll be any problem there. It