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

“Okay.” He snapped on all the lids and put the leftovers away. “We’ll have dessert now. No, not those.”


But I had already reached for the fortune cookies, and I opened one. You will stumble into the happiness of your life. How would Mark react to that? I cleared my throat. “It says, ‘Well begun is half done.’”


“Yeah? I guess that’s good to know.”


“Your turn.” I tossed him a cookie.


He caught it, tore open the wrapper, and broke it in half. “Oh, uh…now this is interesting.” Warm color rose in his cheeks.


“What does it say?” And why would it cause him to blush?


“Uh…‘Perseverance wins the race.’ Of course it would have been a good thing if they’d spelled ‘perseverance’ right.”


“How did they spell it? Let me see.”


“Nah, not important. It’s all bullshit, anyway.” He crumpled up the fortune and stuffed it into his pocket, then stood, went to the refrigerator, and opened the freezer door at the top. “Never mind the fortune cookies. I think you might enjoy this more.”


Chapter 135