Mark Vincent has risen from senior special agent to Director of Interior Affairs in the WBIS. Lately, life has been sweet for him -- in addition to his promotion, he's found a partner in Quinton Mann, who can almost match his ability in the intelligence field, in spite of the fact Quinn's CIA. Mark has also found a condo in Alexandria with the help of Portia Mann, Quinn's mother, and it's closer to Quinn's town house than Mark's present apartment. Sweetest of all, Mark plans to take Quinn to his island in the Caribbean for the holidays.<br><br>Quinn's glad he has the holiday with Mark to look forward to -- something is going on at Langley, and he feels he's being kept out of the loop. To make matters even worse, useless missions and sleepless nights filled with nightmares are leaving him exhausted. But then his mother's life if threatened, and Quinn discovers the accident that resulted in her hospitalization was no accident. The obsessively self-absorbed Senator Wexler is involved, and while Quinn considers himself a civilized man, now he's out for blood.<br><br>Up until this point, Mark has stayed out of Quinn's CIA business. But hurting Quinn and those he loves isn't a smart move, and Mark has every intention of seeing Wexler pays. Quinn demands to come along, and while Mark isn't happy, he finally agrees, and they set out together to deal with the senator. There's just one catch: this will be the first time Quinn sees Mark at his deadly best, and Mark isn't sure how his lover will react.

Forever

Well, I liked to think so, but why was he bringing that up now?


Yeah, we’d dueled to a draw. The man was good, I’d give him that. Not as good as me, but….


“…you’ve played the saxophone…“


That had been years ago, before the WBIS, before I’d even enlisted, and it wasn’t in any of my records. How the fuck had he learned about that?


“You going somewhere with this, Mann?”


“I just assumed you could ride, as well. Why didn’t you just come right out and tell me you hadn’t been on a horse before?”


“Beats the hell out of me,” I growled. No way was I going to tell him it was because I liked him thinking there was nothing I couldn’t do. “Would you have changed your mind about me joining you?”


“No. But I’d have given you another mount. Blue really is good-tempered, but his gait can be a bit jarring for a beginner.” A bit? “Next time I’ll see if the stable has Kathy Thorn available.”


Chapter 7