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

Although Mark had made reservations for an early dinner—it would take us more than three and a half hours to drive to Shadow Brook—the restaurant was already crowded, and a line of people were waiting to be seated.


We were greeted as usual by Giovanni, the ma?tre d’. “Buona sera, signori. It is good to see you again.”


“Doesn’t this guy ever take a night off?” Mark muttered in my ear.


I laughed softly and whispered, “Pot, meet kettle.”


“Your table is waiting. Buon appetito, signori.”


Cesare, our waiter, led us to our table in the alcove. He snapped open our napkins, placed them over our laps, and then hurried off.


There were no menus, which was unusual.


I raised an eyebrow. My lover didn’t notice, however, since he was busy tracking our fellow diners.


“Not necessary. I ordered when I made the reservations.” He turned his attention to me, his eyes glinting.


Chapter 108