Carl Stanton had a lot to pay for. It had been the nasty divorce with his wife that had spurred the first of the rumors. Kia Stanton had wanted out of that marriage, and when Carl had refused, she had let the first rumor free. But Kia was no longer associated with the membership there, so how had the rumors of his and Kimberly’s membership leaked out? Even more worrisome though, was the threat that his father’s previous association would be revealed as well.

“Does Madison know about Father’s connection to The Club?” he asked her then. “Is this causing you problems?”

He would kill the bastard if he had dared to abuse the petite, fragile woman that Jared knew his mother was.

She smiled mirthlessly. “You forget Jared; this is a marriage of convenience. But as far as I know, Daniel hasn’t heard any rumors he shouldn’t have. But if he did, it would serve him no good. He can’t harm me with it. But that isn’t the point. What will you do now?”

What else could he do?

“Let her go,” he whispered bitterly. “The only thing I can do.”

Chapter Four

She could have been a spy, Kimberly thought, but the additional training didn’t go hand in hand with enforced chastity. There was always modeling, but Kimberly always thought that doing without pizza and losing that extra fifteen pounds that tormented her would have just been too painful. And being a rich man’s mistress was just out of the question; there was only so much shopping one could do before it became rather boring. Besides, just like being a spy, it would require the loss of her virginity. Everything else was just boring, so she joined the Police Academy instead, going from there to several security agencies that specialized in protection.

The work wasn’t really abnormally dangerous, and she got to wear a gun. She liked that part. Especially when the assignments required her to be in close proximity to arrogant men with more testosterone than good sense. Those assignments were few and far between thankfully, but occasionally they reared their ugly heads. Then there were those assignments that just sucked. The ones that she knew were going to test her patience and her training. This was one of them.

She stared back at her boss and one of her dearest friends, dumbfounded, restraining her disbelieving laughter. This one was just too bizarre to be real.

“Could you repeat that?” she asked carefully, certain she had to have heard wrong.

Richard Decker’s thick gray brows snapped into an instant frown.

“You heard me, Kimberly,” he said with careful emphasis. “You will be assigned to Raddington’s team, despite the alert that your welfare could be on the line as well. You will stick close to Raddington, and the team will surround you for the duration of time it takes to ascertain if the threat is real or imagined. You’ll head out to the Raddington Farm tonight, and you will stay there until this assignment is over.”

Kimberly stood stiffly before him, breathing in carefully through her nose as she gritted her teeth with the effort it took to restrain her sarcastic reply. This was a farce if she had ever heard of one. How in the hell had it happened?

“Richard, I don’t believe this is a good idea…”

“It isn’t your place to make that determination,” he said coolly. “The order has come down from the Capitol itself. There is no other option.”

Another deep breath. Deep breaths, she reminded herself. She could control the explosion building at the top of her head; all she had to do was breathe. At least, that’s what that arrogant, soft-spoken martial arts expert had told her.

“Then I’ll resign.” It wasn’t a threat. It wouldn’t be the first time she had resigned from an agency, and she doubted it would be the last.

“You could do that.” Decker nodded his head slowly, watching her dispassionately as she stood before him. “You’re a big girl, Kimberly, you can do whatever you want to. If you want to keep running. Or, you can face the fact that there will be times you’ll have to knuckle down and accept the inevitable. Especially if your father is chosen as the vice presidential hopeful in the next election as is rumored.”

So the rumors were true. Just what she needed.

“I don’t consider it running…”

“Well I do, dammit,” he growled. “I put my ass on the line to hire you, if you remember correctly. I didn’t think I was bringing on a damned quitter.”

She almost flinched. He didn’t raise his voice, but Richard Decker didn’t have to, his dark brown eyes could slice you in half when he felt the need.

“It’s a trick,” she argued, dropping the pretense of subordination as anger fed the resentment that had been building within her for weeks. “It’s not his first, it won’t be his last,” she said as she spoke of the father she had given up on years before.

She shook her head, fighting the need to confide in the only person who had reached out to her in years.

Richard Decker wasn’t just her employer; he and his wife had become friends of hers. They had supported her need for independence from her father, and had provided her a quiet, peaceful retreat in their home when she had needed it. Turning him down ate at her soul, but the risks were too great.

“If you walk away from this assignment, then you can kiss your future in security work goodbye. You’ll never get another decent agency to hire you. And you know it.” He leaned back in his chair, his arms lying comfortably on the sides as he regarded her. “Is that what you want?”

She resisted the urge to clench her fists. “You know it isn’t,” she said heatedly. “But this is insane, Richard. There’s no more a threat to Raddington and myself than there is to you. It’s another of his asinine little plots, nothing more.”

“And we can’t be certain of that,” he retorted. “Until we are, you will take this assignment Kimberly, and you will do it to the best of your ability. If for no other reason, than for me. I really don’t relish the ass chewing I’ll get from my boss if you pull out.”

Emotional guilt. She hated that and he knew it. He knew it and he was using it against her anyway.

“That’s low,” she snarled.

“But effective.” He leaned forward once again. “You’ll take Matthews, Adams, Lowell and Danford with you. They’ll take shifts patrolling the main grounds while you stick close to Raddington. Stay with him. Just until we’re certain.”

Stay with him, close to him, be in the same house with him. Kimberly wanted to groan miserably at the thought. The past week had been hell already, the arousal that normally taunted her was turning into a torment. She dreamed of Jared, craved his touch, his kiss. The emptiness that echoed between her thighs seemed to echo through her soul now.

He wouldn’t take “no” for an answer for long. He would have what she had denied every other man at that club, and she knew it. In the process, he might very well steal her heart. She couldn’t afford to let any man touch her heart.

She breathed out wearily. She was tired. Sleep was getting harder and harder to attain and she knew she was going to deal with the exhaustion claiming her soon. Another trip to The Club was out of the question. After the last episode with Jared she had a feeling the relief she had found there would be nonexistent now.

“Fine,” she finally muttered, knowing she was making a mistake, feeling it so deep in her soul that it reverberated through her body. “We leave tonight. Anything else?”

Richard’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

“Is there something you’re not telling me, Kimberly?” he finally asked. “Something that could affect this assignment?”

Yeah, she wanted to fuck the client so damned bad that even now, her vagina wept with the hunger of it.

“No,” she answered instead. “Other than the suspicion that Senator Madison is playing yet another of his games, I can’t think of anything.”

“Would Jared go along with it?” She could see the automatic need to protect her in his eyes. Richard and his wife had been lifesavers in the past few years, but as she had told him before, there was nothing anyone could do to save her from her relationship with her father.

“I doubt Jared is involved in any scheme he would hatch up.” She finally shook her head at the question. “I don’t even think his mother knows all the details. The Senator wouldn’t want to ruin his good image.” It was all she could do not to sneer in contempt.

“Even I don’t know all the details,” he grumped. “Does anyone?”

She smiled mockingly. “The Senator and myself, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s two too many.”

Richard’s gaze was compassionate, but it did little to still the demons raging within her.

“I would pull you out of this if I could,” he told her softly. “You know I would Kimberly. But it’s not my call.”

She nodded bleakly. “I know Richard. Don’t worry, I won’t mess this up. We’ll leave tonight.”

He nodded slowly. “I’ll keep in touch with any new developments. As I said, at this point, the threat is only suspected based on intel coming through Homeland Defense. Your father’s a dirty son of a bitch, Kimberly, but he’s working wonders in Washington in national defense. That makes him a target, and it makes you and Jared a target. You can’t get away from that.”

“There are a lot of things I can’t seem to get away from,” she bit out fiercely. “Doesn’t mean I have to like any of it… I’ll get ready to leave now, if there’s nothing else.”

Richard sighed heavily. “No, there’s nothing else, Kimberly.”

She nodded shortly and turned and left the room. She managed to hide the fine tremble in her body until she reached her jeep, but as her fingers wrapped around the steering wheel, she felt the small shudders that reverberated inside her.

Jared. She stifled a moan as she laid her head against the wheel for long seconds and fought for her composure. For some reason, it seemed fate was out to destroy her. She could be strong away from him, but how the hell was she supposed to hide the hunger that ate at her soul for him, if she was forced into such proximity with him? And why was she suddenly wondering if the fight she was embroiled in with her father was even worth losing out on so much as a minute in Jared’s arms?

* * * * *

Jared stood on the back porch of his home staring into the twilight of a Virginia summer evening. He remembered, long ago, watching his father stand here as he debated some problem, staring into the surrounding forest with a frown on his dark brow as though the answers he sought were to be found there.

“The fact of the matter is, it’s Kimberly’s life in jeopardy, Jared,” his mother continued to speak behind him. “I’ve managed to convince William Lance, the head of the Secret Service, of my plan. He in turn has convinced her father that this is the only course they can take in protecting both of you. I didn’t think you would want this left to strangers.”

The mist was rising along the mountains now, he noticed distantly. Like gentle wisps of fairy dust, easing along the ground. Soon, they would enshroud the land as night took over, bringing an eerie comfort to the darkness.

“How high is the risk?” he finally asked her, keeping his voice carefully even.

“They aren’t certain yet. But you know how these things are. It could be rumor; it could be fact. I didn’t think you would want to take the chance with her life, though.”

Never. There could be no risk.

“How many are on the team with her?” he asked her quietly.

“Four, though two of them are iffy. I attempted to get them pulled, but when William approached her father with the idea he was vetoed out of hand. Their records aren’t as good as I would have preferred.”

He nodded slowly. “I have several of the men who were with me in the Forces working here. I’ll pull them in to the house and set up safeguards. As for the men on Kimber’s team, I’ll need their records as well as any intel on them.”