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

“Signore?” The waiter offered it to me.


I shook my head; he gave a short bow and hurried off to offer other diners the pepper.


Once we were alone and had begun to eat, Quinn murmured, “The holiday season is approaching.” He seemed particularly interested in a leaf of arugula.


“You could say that,” I agreed cautiously. There were still a couple of weeks until Thanksgiving.


He put down his fork and looked across at me. “I always spend Christmas with Mother.”


“Yeah, so? You can do what you want, Mann. I don’t have you on a leash, you know.”


“You really are a pain in the ass, Mark. What I want is for you to spend it with Mother and me.”


“You…uh….” I reached for my glass of water. If I drank the wine, I was sure I’d swallow it wrong and choke on it, and it was too fine a vintage to abuse that way. “You do?”


Chapter 75