Chapter One

            The sun dropped lower, blending more into the horizon, creating a kaleidoscope of colors both more brilliant and subdued, making the whole sky look more beautiful than anything seen before. The reds and oranges danced as the blues and purples tried to lull them to sleep, both of them dancing a dance that had occurred every night since time began. But tonight, it seemed different. It seemed that all the colors in the sky were darkening not just to signify the end of another day, but to celebrate all of the love and togetherness that had ever been and that ever would be.

            And as he watched the most beautiful sunset he had seen in his life, Harry Mitchell regarded the sleeping woman in his arms with admiration. Watching the light of the sunset dance on the features of her face, he couldn't help wondering how this woman had utterly and totally stolen his heart. In all his years, he had never encountered someone who could make him feel so vulnerable. But as she lay curled up on his swinging bench outside his house, with her head on his chest, he knew he was loved.

            In the short time he had been in the city of Nass, Ireland, he had not expected to get close to anyone, let alone women. He was a trained black-ops operative working under deep cover for the NSA for the last four years. Since he graduated from the marine academy and gone into Special Forces, he had known nothing else but subterfuge. Here, he was to monitor certain electronic and phone communications coming to and from any Ireland government installations. And the relative quiet of Naas gave him an opportunity for privacy in what he did.

            Secretly monitoring all the communications of certain Dublin institutions was proving to be quite an interesting task, as Harry had to travel the 33 kilometers to Dublin quite often to see how things were going with the government. But doing so always held some risk. If he was found out by anyone, he could be put in jail for a very long time. Or, and this was far more likely, he could be killed for his actions against this country's government. And if the Irish government eventually found out who he really was and whom he was actually working for, they would not be too happy to find that one of their allies had been spying on them.

            Tomorrow was another day, and he had to take another one of his trips to Dublin again. Every trip was getting harder, as the government lackeys were getting smarter. There had been a few close calls last time, and he had to forestall his next trip for a month. Tomorrow was the day he would be going back to check on everything, and also make sure his taps were still in place and computer codes were still up-to-date. Every year he would check everything, a tradition formed out of his academy days, where he used his skills to tap nearly every phone in his complex for his entire tenure. Back at the academy, nobody knew about his subterfuge until he told his professors when he graduated.

            He always worried when this time of year came around. Every year, his stealth skills were put to the test, and although he had never failed, it seemed to get harder each year. He shuddered to think of what would happen to him if he did fail.

            As his thoughts took him to the dark recesses of his mind, he mentally shook his head. He would not think about that tonight. He once again looked down at the woman sleeping peacefully on his bench. One hand coiled around her waist and the other stroking her scarlet hair, he could not help but think of what a beauty she was. How her chest rose and fell with her breathing, how her face looked with the light of the sunset reflected off it, and how warm she was. He thought of the many times he made her smile, and how her face positively glowed with brilliance unmatched by any sunset.

            As he started to drift off to sleep, he had another thought. The most beautiful thing in the world was not the sky tonight. The most beautiful thing in the world was lying in his arms.