by Sandy Lowe
Exchanging glances, Valentina and Cori hopped off the bed and hurriedly tossed on whatever clothing they could find. They tried to stifle their laughter as Valentina nearly ran into Cori on her way to the bathroom. She waved Cori toward the door, who prayed she looked presentable. She took a deep breath, then opened it.
“You’re awake, good!” Judy stood with one arm up high, holding her digital camera like it was a first-place trophy. “Come on out to breakfast. You’ve got to tell me if any of these pictures turned out well.”
Cori took in her friend’s knee-high rain boots, her waterproof jacket, and a poncho poking out from her back pocket. “Where have you been?”
Judy tilted her head, eyeing Cori over her glasses. “Honey, we had a sunrise hike this mornin’. I knocked about two hours ago, but it was as still as molasses in here.”
There was a creak and Cori turned, following Judy’s gaze. Valentina stepped out of the bathroom. Her hair was wild as she brushed her teeth and sheepishly waved in their direction. Cori grimaced and turned back to Judy.
“Hi, darlin’,” she called to Valentina. Then she looked at Cori and patted her camera. “Don’t take too long. I hear there’s something special for breakfast. Some kind of stuffed pineapple.”
“We’ll be there in a minute,” Cori replied as she moved to close the door. Just then Judy leaned forward, lowering her voice.
“Oh, and honey, your shirt’s on backward.”
Glancing down, Cori found the end of a tag sticking out near her neck. She blushed and mumbled a thank you. Judy winked, then turned to go.
Cori, still red, closed the door and leaned against it. She shook her head as laughter overtook her.
Valentina emerged once again from the bathroom, her hair tamed and pulled up in a bun. Seeing Cori, she quirked an eyebrow and asked, “What’s so funny?”
Cori looked at the beautiful woman standing in front of her. She inhaled, enjoying the scent of them that still lingered in the warm air. Outside, the birds sang and the rest of the jungle soon joined in.
Smiling, Cori said, “Nothing’s funny. I’m just so glad I went on this trip.”
Remain Overnight
Kara A. McLeod
Kara A. McLeod currently lives in Colorado with the most ferocious dog in the history of dogs and a freakishly large kitten. She is thoroughly enjoying life post-USSS.
The picturesque peaks of the Green Mountains standing tall and proud in the last rays of the setting sun made for awe-inspiring scenery on the ride back to the resort, but I hardly looked at them. Now, like much of the rest of the day, the sight did nothing to capture my fascination. Even the knowledge that earlier I’d been atop their snow-covered crests, dutifully following the president’s daughter as she’d tried to lose me on the slopes, barely registered. It’d been just another post-standing assignment for me. Nothing spectacular about it. Such was life in the Secret Service. And I’d had other things on my mind.
When we finally made it back to the resort where we’d been staying for the past few days of this First Family outing, I bolted out of the car the instant the wheels rocked to a stop and headed toward the lobby. My brain was a thick puree; mostly useless mush broken occasionally by one very specific subject bobbing to the surface every now and again, only to be shoved immediately and violently back down into the slush.
Whatever. It was fine. I was almost to my room, and by extension, my reprieve. Once I was behind closed doors, I could stop pretending I wasn’t wallowing in thoughts of her like a lovesick teenager. I didn’t think I’d ever been more focused on a goal in my life, and given my line of work, that was a problem. But maybe this would be enough to get her out of my system. Or at least take the edge off so I’d be able to resume functioning the way I was supposed to. Because ever since we’d met, I’d been—
A hand on my arm stopped my bullet-like progress through the hotel lobby, and I cursed myself for my inattention. Before, I never would’ve been caught out like that. Now, however…Now I was prone to patterns of behavior that would’ve been unthinkable six months ago. Daydreaming, distraction, an inability to focus on my surroundings. Reason number 376 why this whole thing was a terrible idea. Not that I was counting.
“Allison.” Matt Levise was looking at me with concern. He kept his hand on my arm as he stared, and the two of us in the middle of the foyer became something of an obstacle for the other agents who’d also just gotten off shift and were headed to their rooms to slough off the day. “You okay?”
I used the excuse of needing to hitch my gear bag higher onto my shoulder to shake him off and moved half a step back. I considered my personal space sacred, and I didn’t like anyone touching me. Well, almost anyone. There was one person who…No. Don’t go down that road. Not here. Not now. Not when a boss is standing right in front of you, scrutinizing you like he’s waiting for you to spill your deepest, darkest secrets.
“I’m fine,” I said, hoping my pause hadn’t been too long. “Why?”
Matt narrowed his eyes at me. “I know you like to retain deniability regarding what the guys get up to when they’re drunk on these road trips, but you normally at least join us for dinner.”
My eyes strayed to the hallway where my nice, cozy room was located as my mind wandered back to the specific reason I hoped I wouldn’t be joining them for dinner. My heart stuttered. “I’m just tired. It was a long shift.”
“Still, you’ve got to eat, right?”
“There’s no law that says I have to eat with you guys, though, is there?”
Matt appeared startled by my words, though I’d tried hard to keep any bite out of them. He shook his head. “No, of course not. What? Have you got a hot date or something?”
Don’t blush, don’t blush, don’t blush. I rolled my eyes and scoffed. “Are you kidding me? Who with? Steelman?”
Matt considered that for a moment but didn’t appear ready to give up on his theory. He shrugged. “I don’t know. You seem pretty eager to get away from all of us.”
“Yeah, because I’ve just spent twelve hours with you. I’ve reached my limit. Now I want to take a hot shower, eat my weight in pasta, and crash.” None of that was necessarily a lie. It just wasn’t the entire truth, as it left out some key elements of what else I wanted to spend my evening doing.
Matt laughed. “Fair enough.”
I tried to smile at him, but my desire to be finished with this conversation and get to my room was overwhelming any sense of courtesy. “Okay, then. You guys have fun. Try not to get into too much trouble.”
Matt hesitated for a beat, and I cringed as I waited for him to push the issue, but one of the guys called his name from across the lobby and distracted him. Thank God.
“Well, if you change your mind, let me know. Maybe you can meet us out later.”
“Ha. And watch the guys pick up girls who are barely old enough to drink and are certainly not old enough to notice the indent on their fingers where they’ve only recently removed their wedding rings? No thanks.”
Matt made a face. Neither of us was blind to what—or who—the guys did when they were out of town, but neither of us condoned it, either. “Yeah, I’ll definitely be leaving before that part. I’ll see you tomorrow morning, okay?”
He bobbed his head once in what we called “the PPD nod” even though neither of us was on the Presidential Protective Division and headed off toward the summons, which was in the opposite direction of the rooms. I let out the breath I’d been holding in with a shaky sigh. Now that I was free of any and all work-related distractions, it was that much more difficult to ignore my jangling nerves. I’d been trying all day not to ruminate on the possibilities of this very moment. Trying and failing epically. Now there was nothing standing between me and my racing thoughts.
Which brought me right back to reason 376. I groaned as I started the long trudge down the hall to my room, which was at the far end. I was torn between rushing down the corridor and dragging the trek out as long as possible. I w
as teetering on the razor-sharp edge between elation and crushing disappointment, and since I had no real way of knowing which way I was going to fall, I was inclined to prolong the tumble.
My heart was engaged in a runaway tap number that would have made Vera-Ellen green with envy, and the swirling geometric patterns splashed across the hallway carpet did nothing to help dispel my dizziness. Not for the first time, I wondered what the hell I was doing. This whole thing was a spectacularly horrible idea. I knew that. I’d always known it. I’d never held any illusions that this would end up anyplace other than disaster. Why, then, was I so determined to continue? Maybe if I could figure out the answer to that question, I’d be able to untangle myself from this mess. Preferably before anyone got hurt.
My breath was having a hard time actually getting to my lungs by the time I pushed opened the door to my suite. It was just as well. I was half-afraid of what I’d find there. And half-afraid of what I wouldn’t. Difficulty breathing seemed like the least of my worries in that moment, since my heart felt in danger of exploding inside my chest.
The room was bathed in a soft glow that was partly due to the dimmed lamp in the far corner and partly due to the cheerfully crackling fire in the fireplace. Nothing was out of place. Not a pillow. Not a chair. Not a bag. The room looked the same way it had every other night when I’d returned from my post-standing shift. Turndown service had obviously been completed, but that was the only sign anyone had been in my room.
My heart sank, and I couldn’t stop my lips from turning down in near despair as I allowed myself to sag under the full weight of what that meant. I dropped my bag to the floor just inside the door, and it landed with a dull thud. I sighed heavily, chastising myself for getting my hopes up as I secured the door behind me.
I didn’t know why I felt so let down. I’d been preparing myself for this inevitability all day long. Whenever my thoughts had strayed to what possibilities the night could hold I’d forced myself to focus on the reality that it most likely wouldn’t. We were just messing around, I’d reminded myself. I’d been half kidding when I’d suggested she meet me up here for the long weekend, anyway. And she’d obviously been completely joking when she’d told me to leave a key to my room for her at the front desk. Though I had been nothing short of sincere and hopeful when I’d done it.
“This room is absolutely amazing,” a voice said from behind me.
My deflated heart lurched inside my chest, and I spun around, not positive I hadn’t imagined it. My hands were trembling, and I was certain I was setting myself up for another, even more shattering, disappointment. But no. When I finally made the full 180 degree turn, Ryan was standing just outside the door to the bathroom, dressed in one of the resort’s fluffy robes, rubbing her damp tresses with a towel and smiling at me.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a beautiful view,” she went on, though her eyes remained locked on me as she said it, which made it tough to know for sure which view she was talking about.
I gaped at her like an idiot, and whatever thoughts I’d been trying to keep at bay for hours dissolved into nothingness. I couldn’t even think of anything to say. Oh, God. She’d shown up. I almost couldn’t believe it. She was actually here.
“Why do you get the trips to a gorgeous ski resort and I get the trips to Bumblefuck, Arkansas?” Ryan asked, her grin widening to a smile. “How many times can the president go to Bumblefuck, Arkansas, anyway? It’s definitely more than five because that’s how many times I’ve already had to go.”
I blinked at her, attempting not to be completely captivated by her damp hair tumbling down across her shoulders or the one stray droplet of water trickling down her neck. Why did I have to find her so damn attractive? It’d be so much easier for me to think if I didn’t.
“Because you’ve been out of the academy for a hot five minutes,” I said after what had to be the longest pause in history. “And Ops only gives the good trips to people who’ve been on for a while. Or to their friends, I suppose.”
Ryan’s grin faded, and her brows furrowed. “Well, that doesn’t seem fair. It’s not my fault I don’t know anyone in Ops yet.”
And speaking of not fair, while Ryan seemed nothing more than vaguely amused, the way my body was humming just because we were in the same room together punched a level of unreasonable I hadn’t ever experienced. Not when she wasn’t around, anyway. The seeming injustice surrounding my reaction to her since the moment we’d met was borderline infuriating.
“Yeah, well, that’s just the way it works,” I retorted, putting more snark into the words than I’d originally intended. Yikes. I needed to calm down. It wasn’t her fault that the second those blue eyes locked onto me, my insides melted to the consistency of the center of a lava cake, and I was reduced to a quivering mess of longing and hormones. I needed to stop taking my anger at myself out on her. She didn’t deserve it.
Ryan’s eyes crinkled as her lips twisted into a sly smile. “Does that mean you’ll talk to your friends in Ops, so I stop getting the trips to the middle of nowhere?”
“No, it doesn’t,” I blurted out, horrified by the notion of asking anyone for anything for her. Like that wouldn’t start the rumor mill churning overtime. Neither of us needed that kind of scrutiny.
Ryan didn’t seem even remotely fazed by my ire. She just grinned wider and padded back toward the bathroom, tossing over her shoulder, “Gonna make me work for it, huh? Okay. I can do that.”
I let out a sigh and sank onto the edge of the enormous bed that dominated one entire wall of the suite. What the hell had I been thinking? This had been a terrible idea, inviting her here. For one thing, she was going to be bored out of her mind being confined to the room while I was at work for the next couple of days. For another, I hated the effect she had on me almost as much as I craved her touch. The dichotomy was maddening. Why did I deliberately put myself in these situations?
I lifted my head at the sound of bare feet padding across the carpet, and my eyes almost crossed when Ryan leaned one shoulder casually against the doorjamb to study me. The tie to her robe had slipped, and the sides had fallen open a bit. Not enough to be indecent, but definitely enough to capture my attention. I didn’t know whether the move had been calculated or not. What I did know was that the opening in the fabric showed enough cleavage to fry my brain and make me immediately wet. Oh. Yeah. That was why I put myself in these situations.
“How was your shift?” Ryan asked, folding her arms across her chest. “Is it true the president’s daughter tries to ditch us at every possible opportunity?”
I licked my lips and swallowed. The last thing I wanted to think about was the fact that there were colleagues milling about everywhere, and this little secret tryst thing we had going on could get blown up in about a dozen different ways. No, I could worry myself sick about that later. And I undoubtedly would. Now, however, I preferred to focus on the play of firelight across her skin. That was a much more pleasant topic.
“That good, huh?” Ryan said, interrupting my thought process.
I blinked and tore my gaze away from her chest to look into her eyes. “Huh?”
The corners of Ryan’s mouth were turned up in a small smirk, and she shifted her stance slightly so that her hips rolled, pulling the fabric of the robe taut against one side of her body. She was toying with me now, and we both knew it.
The irritation I’d been struggling with pretty much since the instant we’d met several months ago suddenly boiled over in a wave that caught me off guard. I had no idea where it’d come from, but I was overwhelmed by the need to wipe that smug look off her face. I wanted her beneath me and moaning wantonly. I wanted her to feel as helpless and out of control and needy as I always did whenever anyone so much as mentioned her name.
I didn’t bother to reply to her inane line of questioning—did she seriously want to spend any of our alone time talking about the president’s daughter? I rose and strode across the room to take her face between my hands a
nd kiss her senseless. The shifting emotions I saw in her eyes as I approached were rewarding—as was the small squeak of surprise I swallowed when I closed my mouth over hers, but I wasn’t completely satisfied. I wouldn’t be until I was certain that her brain was a scrambled mess and her body was alight with a fire that only I could douse.
I threaded my fingers through her hair and tightened my grip. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to let her know that I was calling the shots. Hard enough to produce that small whimper that always escaped the back of her throat whenever I did something that surprised her. I smiled into the kiss and clenched my fingers again, reveling in her soft moan.
My head swam a little at the sensation of her lips on mine, and I allowed myself to wallow in the pleasant light-headedness for a moment before I forcibly banished the fog. It wouldn’t do any good to lose focus now. The last thing I wanted was for her to flip the situation around on me. She could wrench groans and sighs out of me later. And I had no doubt that she would. She always did. But right now, it was all about making her come undone.
I combed my fingers through her soft locks a few more times, marveling at the silken texture against my skin before I let my hands trail down her neck and over her collarbones to the tie of her robe. The gentle graze of my nails across the bare skin between her breasts was anything but accidental, and the sharp gasp she made boosted my confidence.
Never breaking the kiss, I slowly untied the knot keeping the garment closed and slid my hands beneath the fluffy fabric, grazing her hips with my palms before wrapping my arms completely around her waist and pulling her close. I dug my fingernails lightly into the small of her back and almost gasped myself when she pressed her body against mine.
I continued to kiss her for several long moments until I was too overwhelmed to continue. Then I dragged my lips across her jaw and down to her neck, where I began to suck and nibble. Ryan gasped again and threw her head back, granting me more access to her delectable skin. She threaded her fingers through my hair and pressed me harder against her.
