On the night before she was due to return to work, Lieutenant Sam Holland lay awake watching the bedside clock count down to midnight, the hour she'd officially be back on call. Five minutes to go. Sam had expected to be itching to get back to work after two weeks of constant togetherness with her new husband, U.S. Senator Nick Cappuano. But as the final minutes of their blissful interlude slipped away, she was filled with despair, wondering when they'd ever get that much time alone together again.

"What's the matter, babe?" he asked from behind her.

Sam used to hate sharing a bed, and now she couldn't imagine sleeping without his strong arms around her. Conceding defeat to the clock, she turned over and snuggled into his chest. "I'm not ready to go back to work."

"You've got a few hours yet."

"Is it after midnight?"

He raised himself up to peer over her shoulder. "One minute past."

"They can call me in anytime now."

"Maybe you'll get lucky and the criminals will take a night off."

"Let's hope so." She pressed a kiss to one of his well-defined pectorals, and slipped an arm around him. "You've totally ruined me, you know."

"How's that?"

"Before this, before us, I used to hate vacations. They'd make me take one twice a year whether I wanted to or not, and the whole time I'd be bored and jonesing to get back to work. But now..."

"I feel the same way." He tipped her chin up and kissed her. "We've got much better things to do than work."

"Exactly." She gave herself over to the kiss, powerless to resist him even though they'd both be tired in the morning if they didn't get some sleep. The trip home from their honeymoon in Bora Bora had left them jet-lagged.

Without breaking the kiss, he shifted on top of her.

"Nick..."

"Hmm?"

"We already did this tonight—twice if I recall correctly," she reminded him, as he trailed kisses from her jaw to her collarbone.

"Is there a daily sex limit law on the books?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Then shut up and kiss me."

She was still laughing when her cell phone rang, making them moan with dismay.

"Ignore it," he said, capturing her lips for another kiss.

That she was half-tempted to pretend she hadn't heard the phone was so wildly out of character it scared her. Clearly, she'd gone soft in the head since she got married. "Let me go, Senator. Back to reality."

"Don't wanna," he said as he released her.

Sam grabbed the phone from the bedside table and flipped it open. For the first time in two weeks, she said, "Lieutenant Holland."

"Lieutenant," the dispatcher said, "I was told you're back on duty as of midnight."

Since Nick was awake anyway, Sam turned on the light and reached for the pad and pen she kept handy. "That's correct."

"We have a report of a double homicide at Carl's Burger World on Massachusetts Avenue."

She wrote down the address. "I'll be right there. Can you page Detective Cruz?"

"Will do."

Sam ended the call and turned to give Nick a quick kiss. "Sorry."

"Duty calls," he said with a long-suffering sigh. "What've you got?"

"A double at Carl's on Mass Ave."

"I don't know that place."

"A friend of mine worked there when I was in high school, but I haven't been there in years." She pulled on jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt since it was still chilly at night. Sitting on Nick's side of the bed, she glanced at him as she put on socks. "Best vacation ever."

"For me too."

"We should do it again sometime."

His face lifted into the sexy half...