by: Tracy Solheim
Series: Men of the Secret Service
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: March 26 2020
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Amazon | Paperback | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | Google Books | Goodreads
Will their double lives deceive their hearts?
The Secret Service’s number one cyber asset, Special Agent Ben Segar, has a reputation for playing it straight... until a top-secret assignment has him cozying up to an enigmatic beauty from his past – his runaway prom date. Now, he’s willing to break a few rules to even the score, including unmasking a potential traitor, which would make his revenge even sweeter.
Photographer Quinn Darby was born into the spy game. When her life is threatened, she turns to the one man she knows she can trust, but Ben is no longer the mild-mannered lab partner she once loved. Instead, he’s a full-grown, alpha-man whose appeal is even more irresistible. She’s vowed to never again deceive him, but to protect him, she must keep her double life a secret.
Soon, Quinn and Ben are embroiled in a cat-and-mouse game with the enemy – and each other. As the case intensifies, so does the heat between them. Will the greatest casualties be their hearts?
The deck was blessedly empty. Quinn lengthened her stride toward Ben’s boat. She was just about to climb aboard when the name painted on its side stopped her in her tracks.
Seas the Day.
The moniker was an homage to their carefree spring break senior year when they’d dreamt up a future together. A future that included a sail around the world aboard a boat with a name they’d come up with while huddled around a campfire—Seas the Day. She’d been playing a dangerous game then, spinning a fantasy of a life she could never have. Not with her family background. Ben had nurtured a lot more faith in their future, apparently. The ever-present shame that had been clinging to her for years suddenly made her eyes sting and her mouth dry. He’d never know how she wished all their dreams could have come true.
“I thought you were dead.”
The sound of his voice behind her startled her. Not only that, but the words he uttered made her stomach drop. She was glad for her dark sunglasses that hid the astonishment surely reflected in her eyes.
Had anyone ever worried about her?
Her parents loved her. But they loved each other more. For much of her life, Quinn was just a project to them. Someone to groom to be an even bigger player in the game. But sweet Ben, the boy whose heart she’d apparently dented if not broken, had actually worried about her. His revelation shook her to her core.
She pivoted slowly so they were facing one another. He stood with his arms crossed over his impressive chest. Just for a moment, she wondered what it would be like to have his strong body wrapped around her again. To be the one who was being protected instead of the one who was forced by circumstances beyond her control to do the protecting.
Except her life wasn’t a fairy tale. Ben Segar wasn’t going to ride in and rescue her. He had no idea what she’d become. And it was better this way. Because if she let him in, he’d hate her even more than he likely already did. And that just might destroy the shred of integrity she still possessed.
“Still alive and kicking,” she managed to say without her voice cracking.
I thought you were dead.
Not exactly the line he imagined he’d lead with after all these years. It revealed too much. The last thing he wanted was for her to think he had actually missed her.
But for once in his life, Ben knew what it was like to have his brain scrambled. Probably because she was standing before him, wearing a pair of shorts displaying her long, lean legs to perfection. She no longer exuded the innocence she once wore like armor. Instead, she had matured in all the right places, looking a hell of a lot more exotic than she ever had. And he hated how much the sight of her was turning him on right now.
He managed to bob his chin up and down in response, but he couldn’t seem to move anything else. That was probably a good thing because were his limbs not frozen, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to stop himself from throttling her.
Or kissing her.
And that thought made him even angrier.
Seas the Day.
The moniker was an homage to their carefree spring break senior year when they’d dreamt up a future together. A future that included a sail around the world aboard a boat with a name they’d come up with while huddled around a campfire—Seas the Day. She’d been playing a dangerous game then, spinning a fantasy of a life she could never have. Not with her family background. Ben had nurtured a lot more faith in their future, apparently. The ever-present shame that had been clinging to her for years suddenly made her eyes sting and her mouth dry. He’d never know how she wished all their dreams could have come true.
“I thought you were dead.”
The sound of his voice behind her startled her. Not only that, but the words he uttered made her stomach drop. She was glad for her dark sunglasses that hid the astonishment surely reflected in her eyes.
Had anyone ever worried about her?
Her parents loved her. But they loved each other more. For much of her life, Quinn was just a project to them. Someone to groom to be an even bigger player in the game. But sweet Ben, the boy whose heart she’d apparently dented if not broken, had actually worried about her. His revelation shook her to her core.
She pivoted slowly so they were facing one another. He stood with his arms crossed over his impressive chest. Just for a moment, she wondered what it would be like to have his strong body wrapped around her again. To be the one who was being protected instead of the one who was forced by circumstances beyond her control to do the protecting.
Except her life wasn’t a fairy tale. Ben Segar wasn’t going to ride in and rescue her. He had no idea what she’d become. And it was better this way. Because if she let him in, he’d hate her even more than he likely already did. And that just might destroy the shred of integrity she still possessed.
“Still alive and kicking,” she managed to say without her voice cracking.
I thought you were dead.
Not exactly the line he imagined he’d lead with after all these years. It revealed too much. The last thing he wanted was for her to think he had actually missed her.
But for once in his life, Ben knew what it was like to have his brain scrambled. Probably because she was standing before him, wearing a pair of shorts displaying her long, lean legs to perfection. She no longer exuded the innocence she once wore like armor. Instead, she had matured in all the right places, looking a hell of a lot more exotic than she ever had. And he hated how much the sight of her was turning him on right now.
He managed to bob his chin up and down in response, but he couldn’t seem to move anything else. That was probably a good thing because were his limbs not frozen, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to stop himself from throttling her.
Or kissing her.
And that thought made him even angrier.
Purchase Between Love and Honor from:
The Men of the Secret Service Series:
Recipe for Disaster ~ Review
Places to find Tracy Solheim:
Follow
I really enjoyed this book
ReplyDeleteI'm glad. I like this series too. I'v read Shot in the Dark, I just need to write my review. You know the one that doesn't want to be written. It should have been posted earlier this week.
DeleteI love Ben in the previous books.