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

I trusted Mark, had trusted him even before he’d defied his organization’s policies and come to Paris to rescue me, when my own Company would have left me to die.


Because I trusted him, I didn’t press him. He’d told me we’d deal with Senator Wexler together. I was a patient man. I could wait, and revenge would be all the sweeter.


We went into my mother’s home to celebrate the day.


Later that evening we returned to Mark’s condo, and although I made cocoa from scratch, it grew cold as we found other ways to occupy ourselves.


At the moment, we were lying on Mark’s bed, our breathing slowly returning to normal. We hadn’t slept much the night before, and I sprawled on my stomach and burrowed my head in my pillow, waiting for sleep to overtake me.


“It’s kind of short notice, but we both have this week off and…. Want to spend some time with me on Isla de puro deleite?” he asked. He traced the line of my vertebrae from the hollow at the base of my skull down to my tailbone.


Chapter 98