Agent Harper “Shield” Kennedy’s specialty within the Elite Operatives Organization is security, although she’s long lost any gratification from babysitting most VIPs. However, her new assignment—to safeguard the U.S. president—will prove to be the biggest challenge of her career. Shield’s mission to protect the first female chief executive is complicated by threats to her own life when she begins to question the president’s orders. Loner Ryden Wagner is content with her life as a florist until she becomes a pawn in a political deception involving the highest office in the land. Trapped in a dangerous game where one false move could cost Ryden her life, she has to rely solely on the president’s new bodyguard. As an attraction between the two women grows, so does the urgency for answers, but will the truth bring them together or tear them apart? Kim Baldwin is a recipient of a 2010 Independent Publisher Book Award and a 2008 Alice B. Readers’ Appreciation Award. A former network news journalist, she has published a dozen novels with Bold Strokes Books. Xenia Alexiou was born in Greece but considers herself a citizen of the world. Her passion for writing is exceeded only by her love of photography. She is a 2010 recipient of a Golden Crown Literary Society Award.