SECRET SERVICE
by Tal Bauer
Release Blitz
Release Date: June 18, 2022
Cover Design: Angela Haddon Book Cover Design
Genre: M/M Romance
Trope: Bi-awakening, romantic suspense, forbidden love, secret relationship
Synopsis
A passionate, thrilling, and addictive standalone MM romance.
President Brennan Walker captivated me from the moment I walked into his Oval Office.
Heโs a mystery Iโm determined to unlock. I don’t know what’s hiding inside Brennan’s gaze when he looks my way, or why black lightning keeps crashing between us. Heโs a storm at midnight, a dark moon rising, trouble on the horizon.
Iโm on the verge of sliding into discoveries and truths that maybe Iโm not ready for.
I’ve never been with a man, but now? I’m dreaming about his bleu clair eyes and wondering what it would feel like if his lips touched mine. Thereโs something here, something between us, like the oxygen weโre breathing is igniting before each inhale.
But heโs the president. I’m his Secret Service agent. Heโs the job.
He’s forbidden.
If we cross this line, Brennan could lose everything.
I know I have to walk away.
But I can’t.
How much are we willing to risk?
And how badly will this go up in flames?
โ โ โ โ โ
Secret Service is a standalone MM romance, full to the brim with passion, suspense, and forbidden pleasures. Fall in love with Special Agent Reese Theriot and President Brennan Walker… and hold on tight for the ride of your life.
Add to your TBR List!
Excerpt
Brennan Walker had my heart in his hands from the moment I first walked into his Oval Office. There is a key to a part of my soul I never knew existed, and he holds that key inside himself.
Didnโt matter that Iโd never been with a man. Didnโt matter that I had never craved a man. Had never once thought about muscles moving beneath sweat-slick skin, about the scrape of stubble against my inner thigh, about the taste of a furred chest against my lips.
A lit match scorched each of my nerve endings when I shook hands with President Walker a year ago. His acetylene-blue eyes locked onto mine, and I was undone.
What I remember most from the day we met is the buzz in my brain, like neon lights short-circuiting when you step into a dive bar. The way time stood still, like film catching and quivering on the reel, unable to move forward. How something ripped open inside me.
There are people who should not come together in this world. Reality quakes too strongly beneath the force of their love.
I am no one. I am no titan, no giant walking this planet, but if my love for this man was ever testedโif ever the world tried to take him from meโI would rip the sky from the edges of this earth.
This love I feel terrifies me, and itโs terrified me from the moment our gazes first locked, when the distance between our souls seemed like an impossible, unknowable divide. Human beings are not meant to carry nuclear reactors within their hearts.
We didnโt meet that day so much as collide. Crashed. Set our futures and our presents and every muscle fiber of our hearts on fire.
Here we are, colliding again.
He backs me down the hallway from the Oval to his private study. Weโre kissing like nothing in the world can stop us. My ass hits the desk edge, and he swipes the surface clean of his folders and binders. Policy briefs and the Top Secret pouch tumble to the floor. He guides me down, moaning into my mouth as my hands sink into his hair, our lips locked.
Only our clothes separate us, and if I could, Iโd rip them away. Feel his chest against mine, bare skin to bare skin.
Heโs the first man who ever kissed me. The first who buried his face in the back of my neck and sighed my name like a prayer.
Heโs the first man who dropped to his knees in front of me.
Brennan cups my face as our kiss deepens. My hands dig into the solidity of his shoulders, hard enough to bruise. Iโve clung to them, sunk my teeth into them, buried my shouts in their broad expanse. The weight of the world rests on those shoulders, yet heโs made room for me, too.
My thighs grip his hips, dragging him to me, until weโre pressed so close itโs nearly painful. His hands sweep down my sides, but he runs into my holster. His touch skirts my pistol and lands at my waist, and if we had ten more seconds, weโd be undoing each otherโs belts.
But we donโt have ten seconds. What we both want, we canโt haveโnot now.
That weapon and everything it represents is in the way.
My internal clock fires, a talent Iโve cultivated through years of standing watches in this White House. โFour minutes are up,โ I breathe. โTime to go, mon cher.โ
Brennan rests his forehead against mine, our lips still touching. This is a caress now instead of a kiss, a connection we need like we need to breathe. He steps back, but I blink up at the overhead lights as I count down my pulse.
We need these seconds to pack this away, come back to our cold, hard reality.
We should never have met, because thereโs nothing I wonโt do for Brennan, and that kind of loveโburn the world down, fly the black flag, you are my forever for alwaysโis too dangerous.
We are dangerous together.
If I stop to really think about what Iโm doing, my carefully constructed justifications and excuses and rationalizations will collapse. Iโve bargained and compromised and made deals with the devil, all so I can taste this manโs kiss and feel his skin against my own.
Our stolen minutes are up.
On the ground, thrown down when we couldnโt keep our hands off each other, is the classified pouch, the Top-Secret, Presidential-Eyes-Only one. Itโs the reason weโre here, burning these four minutes as my most trusted team of agents puts the final pieces together for one of the greatest presidential subterfuges of all time. Brennan and I have broken every rule, but not onceโnot onceโhave I let a sliver of risk through my shield that surrounds the president. Heโs not just the job. Heโs everything.
Which is why I hate tonightโs mission more than Iโve hated any other. It claws at me, chews through my thoughts until I want to scrape my flesh from my bones.
But more than that, I hate that whatever is happening, it has Brennan running raw. Heโs ragged. Fracturing. His kiss tastes like desperation, and his hands are trembling as they cling to me.
Why the hell does CIA Director Liu need to talk to President Walker off-site, in the middle of the night? Away from everybody, and so far off the books weโre operating in illegal margins?
Whatever the reason, this meeting is so classified that no one in Brennanโs administration can know itโs happening. Iโm the closest person on the planet to Brennan, and he hasnโt even told me whatโs going on.
Brennan is going to Langley in an SUV that will run dark. I donโt want him going anywhere without my impenetrable layers of security, but that kind of protection draws attention, and right now, he needs to go as unnoticed as possible.
Usually, presidential motorcades are half a mile long, flanked on each end with motorcycle patrols blocking traffic. There are pacer cars, dummy limos, the Counter Assault Team, an ambulance, the comms wagon, electronic countermeasures sweeping the airwaves, a helicopter overwatch, and, of course, my army of agents.
Tonight, there will be none of that.
Purchase Link
Amazon Universal ~ https://geni.us/PngGa
Giveaway
$10 Amazon Gift Card
a Rafflecopter Giveaway
About the Author
Tal Bauer writes breathtaking, heartfelt, and often action-packed gay romance novels. His characters are head over heels for each other, and fight against all odds for their happy ending.Nothing stands in the way of love.
Tal is best known for his romantic suspense novels, including The Murder Between Us and The Grave Between Us. He has also written You & Me, The Jock and The Quarterback, along with the Big Bend Texas Rangers series.
Connect with Tal
Website: https://talbauerwrites.com/
Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3xWrMVk
Facebook Author Page: https://bit.ly/3O0HJPT
Goodreads Author Page: https://bit.ly/3xWJ98D
Instagram: https://bit.ly/3OeGWKM
Tiktok: https://bit.ly/3xWmNUv
Amazon Author Page: https://amzn.to/3OiQ4y1
Bookbub Author Page: https://bit.ly/3b57SOW
Giveaway Rules/Conditions
- By entering the giveaway, youโre confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
- By entering you are agreeing to the Terms and Conditions set out by Rafflecopter for entries.
- Prizes will be distributed by the person/organization donating the prize, i.e., the author/publisher/organization managing the rafflecopter giveaway promotion. Romancing Riley is not responsible for the prizes or their distribution, and accepts no responsibility for the validity of the included giveaway.
- By entering you are agreeing to hold Romancing Riley harmless if the prize or giveaway in some way negatively impacts the winner.
- Void where prohibited by law.
Rules modeled after giveaway promotional terms by Joyful Jay @ joyfuljay.com.