Chapter 2-The Senior Agent Always Gets the Bed

"There Goes the Neighborhood"

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"I don't want anyone up to watch us break in," Lee attempted to explain to his argumentative would-be partner. He then gestured to the stairs leading up to the bedroom. "Now, are you coming?"

"NO," Amanda protested loudly. "I can't sleep here! How would I explain it? I would feel like I was lying and sneaking." It was bad enough that she'd already been lying to Dean in one way by not telling him that she'd slept with Lee last week. She had also had to make up a story for her mother's benefit of how her car had ended up trashed and why she had looked like a train wreck when she got home after the helicopter ride. How would she explain this one?

"You are lying and sneaking," Lee responded pointedly with a shrug as if it were no big deal. "You're working for the government."

"NO! I mean, I would feel guilty...You know? Like I was...having a...a thing," Amanda sputtered. She was starting to become increasingly flustered because she already felt horribly guilty there he was, standing there with his shirt open bringing out those primal feelings in her again which was only adding to her guilt. She shouldn't be feeling this way about a man she barely knew when she had a perfectly nice boyfriend with a stable job who wasn't in any way going to lead her into a life of danger. "...or something," she added.

"A thing?" he questioned with a bemused expression. He couldn't help the soft chuckle that escaped his lips as he reflected back on their "thing" in the helicopter.

"Yes, you know...a thing."

"You mean like an affair?" he suggested, unable to resist teasing her as he knew she was also thinking about their brief "thing." He wondered if she remembered as he did, just how incredibly hot it had been.

"Yes, that kind of thing," Amanda replied softly feeling a bit foolish that she couldn't say the word "affair" in front of him. After all, the man had been inside her just a week ago. That thought gave her an all-too-familiar fluttering feeling in the pit of her stomach as she recalled just how good it had been and how he'd made her feel so indescribably desirable; something that she hadn't felt in a long time. But a "thing" was all that it was. He'd made that painfully clear when it was all said and done.

"Well, you're not," Lee stated firmly. As good as it had been, he wasn't about to travel down that road, not with a woman who had two kids at home. That led to the possibility of attachments and he liked his life just that way it was, unencumbered. "Now, do you like a window open at night?" He couldn't understand what the big deal was. After all, they'd had sex in a helicopter just a week ago where she'd been passionate, wild and unrestrained, practically begging him to give her her release when he'd been buried deep inside her. Why was she acting so puritan all of a sudden? Surely, after that, she could be comfortable sharing a bed with him. It was just business, after all.

"Lee," she attempted to speak his name in her stern, motherly tone, but she knew her voice was sounding more frantic. "I have to consider Dean." She needed to remind him, and herself, that she has a boyfriend. Then the thought crossed her mind that she shouldn't have to force herself to remember that. After all, Dean was a very good man. But not as good as Lee, a taunting voice in her head reminded her.

"Okay, how does he feel about windows," Lee said a little more gruffly than he'd intended. He couldn't quite put his finger on why, but the fact that she was still seeing that weatherman bugged him more than he cared to admit aloud. What could she possibly see in a guy like that if she could be so carefree with him?

"Never mind, never mind, you don't understand," Amanda gave up trying to get it through his thick head that she just couldn't spend the night with him. Pretending to be his wife was one thing, but acting on it... She didn't trust herself not to let things go too far again.

"All I understand is that we are on a job. This is purely professional, is that not correct?" Was she maybe taking this undercover assignment a little too seriously? It wasn't as if they were really husband and wife.

"Yes, that is correct," she answered her nervousness easing a little.

"Okay, then one of us gets the bed, the other the couch, I don't care. The important thing is that we get some sleep. We'll tend to get killed less often that way." He then began to make his way up the stairs.

"Who gets the bed?" Amanda called after him knowing the answer before she asked.

"The senior agent always gets the bed," Lee replied smugly, turning toward her with a cocky smirk, still curious about her sudden prudishness when she'd been such a firebrand in the helicopter. Why was she such a contradiction?

She couldn't help flushing slightly at the way he was looking at her as he leaned slightly against the wall. The way that he was flashing her that sexy smile, those adorable dimples, and bare torso making her weak. Damn him! She thought

As if sensing her thoughts, he added as a final parting shot, "Get your mind out of the gutter, would you?" As he turned, he couldn't help but smile wider because he knew that her mind wasn't the only one in the gutter. He saw her blushing and just knew she was thinking about their liaison in the helicopter. He was too, he had to admit.

"Ugh," Amanda groaned. She kicked off her heels in frustration, lobbing them at the couch.

Lee chuckled at Amanda's obvious discomfort as he sauntered slowly up the stairs, but his mirth soon ended as Amanda scurried up the stairs, meeting him on the landing facing toward him, blocking his path, hands on her hips with what he'd already come to know as the "mom" look. "What?" he growled, feeling a little disconcerted by the way she was staring him down, their verbal sparring and the memories of their first case together having aroused more than just his curiosity.

"What do you mean; the senior agent always gets the bed? Who made up that ridiculous rule? You know, I've been reading some of the rulebooks Mr. Melrose gave me and I don't seem to recall that anywhere," she argued challengingly.

"Well, it's not so much a rule as it is, just protocol. The agent with more seniority is the lead on the assignment, regardless of what it is. That includes deciding what's what in undercover work."

"Well, it's time for a new protocol," Amanda insisted as she turned to the second set of stairs in an attempt to get to the bedroom before him. She hadn't gotten up two steps before she was halted by his hands on her waist.

"Oh, no, you don't." Lee gripped her tightly to keep her from progressing any further; he turned her to face him. "You're not comfortable with sharing, fine. You're not getting the bed." He then leaned in closer and said in a low growl, "I'm the one who has to be alert and ready for anything."

"Alert?" she rasped in a throaty whisper, "Is that what you're calling it?" She pushed against his chest in an attempt to free herself. Bad idea, Amanda, she scolded herself as the maneuver had sent a shock through her. During their frenzied coupling in the helicopter, she hadn't been able to touch his bare chest like this due to the vest he'd been wearing and now she felt like she was touching a live wire.

Lee smiled at her, his eyes dancing as he pulled her hips flush against his and whispered low in her ear, "A good agent always has to be alert."

"Now, who has their mind in the gutter," she countered. "For the record, I never said that I objected to sharing." She found herself suddenly unable to stop her hands from running up and down his well-muscled chest or stop herself from inching closer to him.

"Who says we need a bed at all," Lee replied huskily as he captured her lips with his own.

The next few minutes were a blur of tactile sensations, mouths meshing, tongues dueling, hands roaming and tugging at buttons and zippers all while they ground against each other.

Amanda soon found herself pressed against the wall as their kiss broke and Lee wasted no time in lowering his lips to a newly-exposed breast. She gasped as the contact arching her back to give him better access as his hand slipped inside her pants and touched her the same way that he had in the helicopter, setting off a raging inferno within her. How could something that she knew to be so wrong feel just so...right? With the way they fit together so perfectly in each other's arms, they way that they instinctively knew where to touch each other, it was as if she had been made just for this man. She pushed his shirt from his shoulders, running her thumbs across his masculine nipples, delighted in hearing him groan in response, further excited that she was getting to him the same way that he was getting to her. While he continued his ministrations, she lowered her hands to his stomach, hovering, just above his waistband, unable to resist teasing him just a little as she ran her fingers lightly over the bulge in his pants.

Lee pulled his mouth from her breast and said with an impish grin, "I know you can do better than that," as he pushed at her pants to remove them entirely causing them both to topple to the landing with her atop him. This deterred him for only a matter of seconds and it actually gave him easier access to slide her pants the rest of the way down her long legs. He was surprised to find that Amanda had somehow worked her hand inside his own pants without him even noticing until she felt her long fingers encircling him.

"Is that better?" she said with a wicked grin.

"Oh, God, yes," Lee groaned and was further shocked when Amanda slid down the length of his body, capturing just the tip of him in her mouth. "Ohhhh," he cried out involuntarily at the way she worked him with her lips, her tongue swirling around the head, the feeling intensifying until he knew he couldn't last much longer. "No more," he growled as he pushed her up and flipped her to her back, her legs on either side of his as he pushed himself into her, using the lower stairs as leverage.

"Oh, Lee," she cried out at the feeling of him inside her again. She locked her legs around his hips, pushing up against him to deepen the connection.

"See? Who needs a bed?" he said as he withdrew and pushed back into her slowly watching her eyes as he did so. God how he loved being inside her, feeling her beneath him, the way that she responded to him, but he found himself unable to resist teasing her the way she'd teased him.

"Please," she cried as she bucked her hips against his to get him to increase the pace, as he was moving within her maddeningly slowly.

"Is this what you want?" he whispered as he withdrew again and plunged into her harder than before, trying to hold himself back for as long as possible, relishing the feeling of just being within her again.

"Yes," she hissed trough clenched teeth as the anticipation built.

"Or maybe you like this too," he said as he lowered his lips to her neck, suckling the tender pulse point there that he'd learned from their last encounter made her weak.

"Yes,' she repeated.

"Or maybe this," He murmured against her skin as he slid one hand between them to stroke her softly while he continued to drive into her at the same pace, withdrawing slowly and plunging back into her hard.

"YES!" She cried louder than before no longer in control of her voice as he brought her closer and closer to the release she so desperately craved. Their verbal foreplay had gotten her worked up before he'd even touched her and now that he was touching her, she needed that release even more than before.

At hearing her loud cries, Lee couldn't hold back any longer and began driving into her faster and harder, pushing her closer and closer to the edge, until he felt her tight muscles clenching around him. "Now, you are coming," he rumbled echoing his words from earlier as he soon followed. He emptied himself into her, groaning out her name loudly as his climax hit him full-force causing his head to spin at the intensity of it. He continued riding out the wave of his release until he was spent, and collapsed atop her unable to control his heavy breathing or the pounding of his heart.

They lay there still wrapped around each other until they were both able to breathe normally again. Lee pulled back to look at her, but found he couldn't bear the intensity of her gaze and looked away. He pulled out of her abruptly, causing her to whimper slightly.

"Wow," she said with a chuckle.

"Uh...yeah..." he responded awkwardly as he rose to his knees on the step below her. "Amanda, we...should...uh...talk about this."

"Oh, now you wanna' talk?" She gaped at him incredulously. She couldn't believe it. Thirty seconds ago, he'd been inside her calling out her name and now he wanted to talk? Was he already regretting it?

"I mean...about...uh..." he ran a hand through his hair. This conversation wasn't normally this uncomfortable. The women he was usually with knew the score, but Amanda was different. Twice, not once, but twice, he'd lost his head and not given any thought to protecting her. The thought filled him with dread. She was already a single mother raising two kids by herself and he hadn't given a single thought to the idea that he could very well have made her a mother again by his recklessness...until now.

"About what?" She gave him a curious look as she sat up and reached for her discarded blouse, pulling it on, suddenly feeling the need to cover herself and desperately wishing that her pants were not three steps down on the other side of where Lee was kneeling in front of her.

"We...um...we haven't been very...uh..." he struggled for the right word, "...responsible."

'Oh." She nodded in acknowledgement as it dawned on her what he was talking about. "That's what you're worried about? You don't need to worry about it. I'm on the pill. I have been for a long time, since shortly after Jamie was born. I stopped it for a while after my separation from my ex-husband, but I started it up again when I started seeing Dean."

"Oh," Lee breathed a deep sigh of relief. Then an uncomfortable realization hit him. She was taking the pill for him, the mediocre meteorologist. "You mean, you're sleeping with him?" he barked at her in an accusing tone as he stood angrily and yanked his pants up as he did so.

"And you're what, shocked by this? He is my boyfriend," she said as she rose and pushed her way past him to retrieve her slacks, pulling them on hastily.

"Oh, right, your boyfriend. Well, you didn't seem to be thinking too much about him a few minutes ago!" he shouted.

"You know what?" she retorted. "You're starting to sound jealous and you have no right to be. You and I agreed just a week ago that there was nothing between us. So, whether I'm sleeping with my boyfriend or not is none of your damn business!" The truth was she hadn't slept with Dean since meeting Lee, but she wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of letting him know that.

"Right, you're right. Why should I care? You can screw the entire neighborhood and it's none of my business. I mean, after all, we're not involved and it's not as if I'm exactly a monk. I have a black book full of names that I can call anytime. More than one, actually."

"Good, so maybe next time you need a pretend wife, you can call one of them."

"Believe me, I will," Lee said.

"Good." Amanda responded tersely as she hurriedly finished getting dressed and scurried down the stairs into the living room.

"Good," Lee called after her before picking up his fallen shirt and stomping up the stairs.

Amanda jumped slightly at hearing the bedroom door slam loudly and muttered, "I guess the senior agent got the bed, after all."

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Once the case was wrapped up, Lee and Amanda were downtown walking on the sidewalk watching in silence as police cars passed them. Lee finally turned to Amanda, and couldn't help noticing that she who is still a little shaky.

"Are you all right?"

"Oh, I'm... I'm...um...yes." She gave him a curious look. Could it be that he was actually concerned?

Seeing the uncertainty on her face, he tried again, "You're sure?"

"I'm sure." What she wasn't sure of was him. "I'm really... 'm all right." She paused for a moment to try to gauge his feelings, but couldn't get a good read on his inscrutable face and nervously changed the subject. "Well, tell me. What was in those hair dryers, anyway?

Right, back to business, he thought dismally. "Oh, the terrorist guns we were after." He wanted so much to get back to the subject. He'd been trying in his clumsy way to let her know that he at least cared about her well-being. "Look, you want to get a drink? I'll tell you all about it." He turned again to face her and they stopped walking; this time she faced him as well.

Is he asking me out on a date? She decided that that couldn't be the case, not when moments after they'd been intimate, he'd tried to brush it off as if it meant nothing."Uh, no, I can't. Maybe some other time." She hurriedly looked away from him and down at the wedding band she still wore. She slipped it off. "I'll give you this. Guess I won't be needing it anymore. She placed it in his hand.

"Yeah, right. Yeah, I guess the honeymoon is over, huh?" He chuckled awkwardly and tried to shrug off his disappointment that they wouldn't be spending another night together.

"Right. I guess so." She was hoping that he'd argue with her, maybe give her some kind of clue as to what had been on his mind when he'd asked her to get a drink with him.

Uncomfortable with the intent way that she was studying him after she'd just turned him down for a date, he reverted back to his old tactics. "You know what the whole problem with our marriage was?" he mused in a teasing tone to hide his disappointment.

"What?"

"It just wasn't very exciting."

"Yeah."

They both laughed uneasily and then turned away from one another again as they resumed their walk in silence.