by Dana Marton
But there had been a number of rewards for the two of them, such as dinner at the White House that evening.
“It was nice of Derickson to ask us over.” Danny grinned at her.
He was leaning against one of the bed posts, wearing a tuxedo like the first time she’d seen him. He looked impossibly handsome with that sexy smile hovering over his lips, his gaze boring into hers.
“He is still upset over Harrison.” She flexed her toes, glad to be rid of the shoes. “So am I.”
The president had given them an update when the topic came up. Harrison was finally talking. He’d been unhappy at the agency, hadn’t been promoted as he thought he should be. He’d been waiting for the last ten years to get onto the president’s detail. Others had made it before him, some of them minorities. When The New Brotherhood tempted him through his new girlfriend, he let himself be swayed by his own resentment and their money.
Even now, he did not see his acts as betrayal of his oath. He was convinced he was doing his best to save his country.
She reached to her nape, to the back of her gown to pull down the zipper.
“Let me.” Danny strode to her.
She turned and pulled a few loose tendrils of hair out of his way.
“So much of life is coincidence,” she mused. “If Bobby Reznyck didn’t get fixated on me and decide to pursue his own agenda within the Brotherhood, I would have never met you, never have found out about the planned attack on the Summit.”
“He was obsessed with you. He blamed everything that had gone wrong in his life on some law you voted on years ago.”
His voice was thick with barely restrained anger that told her Bobby Reznyck was lucky he would spend the rest of his life in prison. He wouldn’t want to run into Danny.
“But if it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer if you didn’t refer to our meeting as coincidence,” he added. “That was fate.”
He tugged the zipper down slowly, gently. When he was done and the fabric gaped open, he drew a finger down her naked back.
Heat pooled inside her. And need.
He brushed the straps down her shoulders, nudged them along until the sky blue silk pooled at her feet. He turned her and dragged his lips over hers once, twice, then, leaving her aching for more, moved back to allow her room to step out of the dress.
“I love you,” he said.
She went to him, lifting her arms to wrap them around his waist, but he captured her hands and kissed her palms in turn, long and hot, before letting them on their way.
Amazing how little it took for him to send her insides melting. She glanced around, self-conscious given the historical significance of the room. “If these walls could talk—”
“They would say: Kiss him already.” He pulled her even closer until their lips met.
He felt incredible. She forgot all about their surroundings when he deepened the kiss.
And he didn’t stop there. In a smooth move, he maneuvered her forward a few steps, then pulled her down to the bed, on top of him.
“So you think Cal is warming to the idea of the two of us together?” he asked when they came up for air.
“He better.”
They’d had a long talk when he’d gotten back from his “golf vacation.” Seeing him come back whole and safe had been a tremendous relief. She had a good inkling that he was involved in the same thing as Danny, that he was the boss, that every time one of them went away on a “consulting assignment” they went to combat, to mortal danger.
She wondered if she would ever get used to that. Maybe not get used to, but she could and would accept it. Because these were the two men in her life whom she loved beyond all others. And she wasn’t powerless. She would do her best in her own position to make the world a safer place.
“He still gives us separate rooms when we come to dinner and end up staying the night,” Danny remarked.
“He’s an old fashioned man.”
“There goes my plan of eloping in Vegas.” He took a deep breath and held her gaze. “I suppose I’m going to have to ask him for your hand in marriage, all proper.”
Her breath hitched. She couldn’t keep the smile from her face and the tears from her eyes. She hadn’t thought she would marry again, that she could love again. But what she’d found with Danny was a pure and generous blessing, if unexpected. And she was determined to hold on to that treasure, not to let anything or anyone between them.
“I love you Daniel DuCharme,” she pressed her lips to his, and sunk into his heat and into the happiness he’d brought to her life.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2539-8
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Copyright © 2006 by Dana Marton
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