“Samantha...”

His low growl had her turning to smile innocently at him. “Yes?”

“How am I supposed to work here when all I’ll be thinking about is bending you over my desk?”

She returned to the desk, placed her palms in the center and gave him a come-hither look. “Why imagine it when you can have the real thing?”

“That’s not happening here.” He pointed to the camera in the corner of the room.

“Oh, snap. That could’ve been embarrassing.”

“You think?” he asked with a bark of laughter. “You’re a danger to my career.”

“As I recall, I tried to tell you that way back when you were talking me into ‘just a year’ in the Senate to complete John’s term. And look at us now.”

“Indeed. Look at us now.” He held out a hand to her and she came around the desk to take it. “Let’s get out of here before they make me work today when I told them I was taking the day off to take care of my injured wife.”

“My injuries do require your constant care.”

“Mmm, I feel a nap coming on before the boy gets home from school.”

Sam grabbed her purse from the desk. “Let’s go.”

They were on their way to a clean getaway when the president’s chief of staff, Tom Hanigan, stopped them. “Mr. Vice President, Mrs. Cappuano, it’s good to see you. You’re looking well.”

“No, I’m really not,” Sam said with a laugh, “but it’s nice of you to say that.”

“We’re glad you’re all right.”

“Did you need something, Tom?” Nick asked.

“The president would like a word if you have a minute.”

“Do we have a minute?” Nick asked Sam.

“I suppose we could make some time for the president.” The sheer lunacy of the statement wasn’t lost on her.

“Oh, um, he was hoping for a minute alone with you, sir. I could see Mrs. Cappuano back to your office if you’d like.”

“Since we both know he wants to talk to me about her, there’s no reason she can’t be there.”

“As you wish, sir.”

As they followed him through the halls of the West Wing, Sam looked up at Nick and mouthed the word hot, rubbing her knuckles over her chest.

He mouthed the word stop, pointing again to cameras mounted in the hallway.

Sam muffled a laugh with her hand over her mouth while he shook his head at her irreverence.

Tom went straight to the Oval Office and knocked on the door before continuing inside.

Sam’s eyes got very big as she followed both men into the most famous office in the world.

Nelson stood and came around his desk to greet them. “Nick, it’s so good to see you, and Mrs. Cappuano.”

“Please call me Sam, and don’t bother to say I look well, sir. We all know that’s a lie.”

Nelson laughed at her cheekiness. “We’re happy to see you alive. That’s all that matters.”

“Indeed,” Sam said as she tried to take in—and memorize—every detail of the Oval Office. She wanted to pinch herself to believe she was actually standing in the room she’d heard about all her life.

“Have a seat,” Nelson said, gesturing to the gathering of chairs and love seats in the middle of the room.

Sam and Nick sat together on one of the love seats, while Nelson and Hanigan took easy chairs.

“I understand you spoke to Ambrose yesterday,” Nelson said, cutting to the chase.

“I did.” Nick hesitated for a moment before he continued. “I want you to know, sir, that I appreciate the amazing opportunity you’ve given me. However, my wife and family will always come first. I cannot and I will not ask her to be anything other than who and what she is.”

Sam’s heart swelled with love for him, and despite her intense dislike of PDA, she took hold of his hand and linked their fingers.

“We understand where you’re coming from, Nick. We really do. However, this is a much bigger issue now. You have to know that.”

“I do. We both do.” His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat, betraying his true feelings even as he stuck to his guns with the president. “And it’s a risk we’re willing to take so Sam can continue the career she loves. I won’t ask her to give that up, and we all know she’d have to if she had protection.”

“I have to be honest with you,” Nelson said. “It makes me extremely uncomfortable that the whole world now knows the vice president’s wife is unprotected.”

“I understand. Trust me, it makes me extremely uncomfortable too.”

“But you’re unwilling to bend on this?”

Nick glanced at Sam before he replied. “I’m unwilling to bend. If you’d like me to resign, say the word and you’ll have my letter by the end of the day.”

“That’s the last thing any of us want.”

“Then I’m afraid we’re at an impasse.”

“So it seems, but I do appreciate your candor. I’d like to consult with my national security team before we make any decisions. Mrs. Cappuano... Sam. I hope you know our concerns are in no way a reflection of you or your abilities as a police officer.”

“I understand.” In their shoes, she’d be doing the same thing.

Nelson stood to signal the conversation was over. He shook hands with both of them. “Tom will see you out. Thanks for coming by and I hope you feel back to normal very soon.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Holding hands, Sam and Nick walked out of the White House to the SUV the Secret Service had waiting for them.

“Thank you for that,” she said when they were in the car.

Nick leaned over to kiss her. “Anything for you.”

Epilogue

Shelby chose Bermuda because it was a short plane ride and because it was beautiful and tranquil and one of her friends had a house there that she was happy to lend to Shelby on short notice.

Her vacation came together rather well given that she hadn’t planned it months in advance the way she always planned everything. For all the good that had done her. Wearing a pink floral maxi-dress, she walked along the water’s edge at sunset on her fourth day in paradise, her hand curved protectively over her abdomen.

She couldn’t wait to be fat and round with pregnancy. She’d be forty-three when the baby was born, and she felt like she’d waited a lifetime for this moment. Nothing, not even the possible end to a promising romance, could detract from her joy at realizing her long-held dream of becoming a mother.

If it were just going to be the two of them, they’d be the happiest twosome in the history of the world. She’d take her baby with her everywhere she went, and she’d devote her life to giving her son or daughter the best possible childhood. Just knowing the baby was growing inside her made Shelby feel less alone.

She walked until the sun began to dip beneath the horizon and then turned back. Trudging along the water’s edge, she enjoyed the gentle lap of the water against her feet and ankles.

With the darkness descending quicker than she’d expected, she picked up the pace and was breathing hard by the time she cut up the beach to the stairs that led to her friend’s beachfront home.

As she approached the stairs, she stopped short, gasping at the sight of a broad-shouldered man sitting on the stairs.

“Is this beach taken?” he asked in that honeyed Southern accent that had made her weak-kneed from the first time she ever heard it.

When she recovered her breath, she said, “What’re you doing here?”

“I came for you.”

Icame for you.Do not swoon, Shelby Lynn. Do.Not.

“How did you find me?”

He scoffed. “I’m an FBI special agent, darlin’. I find things—and people—for a living.”

“What do you mean, you came for me?”

“Just what I said. The second you walked away, I knew I’d made a huge mistake letting you leave.” He reached out and took hold of her hand, drawing her down to the step next to him. “I love what we have together, Shelby. I love who I am with you and how I want to be worthy of you and your baby. Our baby.”