Oath of Honor

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

you a good place to get a late lunch.”

• 71 •

RADCLYfFE

“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 •

RADCLYfFE

“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