She wants her Secret Service agent back...
She was the presidentâs only daughter. And like a bad movie cliché, Vivian Bennett fell in love with her Secret Service agent, Joe Hunt. Except the night she chose to confess her feelings, the night he rebuked her embarrassing advance, was the night her stalker kidnapped her.
That was ten years ago. Joe, of course, had rescued her. But that didnât stop her father from firing him, and her juvenile mistake cost Viv her best friend. Well, sheâs back in Washington and, even though her dadâs no longer in office, sheâs started to get threatening letters. She needsâwantsâthe only man sheâs ever trusted to protect her a second time.
âYou want me, of all people, to protect you?â
Vivian took a deep breath. Sheâd known coming here wouldnât be easy, but Joe was her best option and her first choice.
âIâm no longer entitled to Secret Service protection and I wouldnât want that anyway. I could hire another investigator but that person wouldnât know me and wouldnât really understand the situation like you do.â
And the last time in her life she had felt truly safe was when Joe had been watching over her. She wanted that again. She was willing to sacrifice her pride to get it. Hers had been a foolish stunt by a twenty-year-old girl who thought she was madly in love...
You were madly in love.
Regardless, she thought, her feelings had cost him his job, his future and his relationship with his father. Not to mention what that did to the rest of his family. Vivian had considered what might happen when she saw him againâthat he might yell or, worse, tell her to get lost in that scary soft tone he always used when he was super angry.
His laughter was unexpected.
Then suddenly he stopped. âYou do recall what happened the last time you were under my protection?â
Dear Reader,
Her Secret Service Agent is kind of a crazy story. I actually wrote this book many, many years ago. And I always loved the idea of it. However, after taking it out of the drawer, I realized how much I had changed as a writer in the years since and knew that I was going to write the whole book over again.
It was great rediscovering my old self while at the same time realizing how far I had come in my twenty-plus years writing for Harlequin.
Joe was then and is now one of my most favorite heroes, and Vivian is the heroine I most respect for being afraid about a lot of things but always standing up to those fears. I really hope you enjoy their story! If you like Her Secret Service Agent, you can follow me on Amazon, find me at www.stephaniedoyle.net, on Facebook at Stephanie Doyle Books, or on Twitter, @stephdoylerw. Phew! Thatâs a lot of places.
Stephanie
STEPHANIE DOYLE, a dedicated romance reader, began to pen her own romantic adventures at age sixteen. She began submitting to Harlequin at age eighteen and by twenty-six her first book was published. Fifteen years later, she still loves what she does, as each book is a new adventure. She lives in South Jersey with her cat, Hermione, the designated princess of the house. When Stephanieâs not reading or writing, in the summer she is most likely watching a baseball game and eating a hot dog.
CHAPTER ONE
Ten Years Ago
âVIV, WHERE ARE we going?â
âJust follow me,â Vivian said, taking Joe by the hand and leading him through the crowded house party a couple of blocks off the Georgetown campus. She needed privacy, something sheâd thought would be easy to find at a college party. Everyone had stories about secret hookups at parties like this. The reality, however, was there were more people than space in the brownstone and the hooking-up seemed to happen openly.
Something she might have known if she actually did the college party scene more often. She didnât usually come to these types of events. Not the most social person, she preferred spending her nights quietly with a small circle of friends. Friends she could trust.
For that matter so did Joe Hunt, who was her Secret Service point man.
Tonight had been his night off, but Vivian had convinced him to switch shifts with Cindy, who mostly handled nights and weekends. Joe had a hard time denying Vivian anything, so it wasnât a surprise heâd agreed to the request. Now she had to work up the courage to go through with the rest of her plan.
Vivian thought that if she could have him to herself at a casual event, and they could really talk, then he might understand what she was feeling. He might also be more willing to admit what she was pretty sure he was feeling, too.
âSeriously, Viv, if this is about you thinking Iâm going to let you drink, forget it. Youâve got six months to go before youâre twenty-one, and Iâm not bending on a single hour. Your father would have my ass.â