Author's Note: First, I want to think all of my loyal readers for following this very twisted tale and for all the reviews and to my guest reviewers that I am unable to reply to, thank you as well. Second, a quick note about this chapter and the next; in viewing these again for the purposes of writing this story, I'd forgotten that these two episodes were aired out of canonical order as Amanda's ankle injury occurred in this episode and in "Always Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth" she is already wearing a cast from the injury, so "Service Above and Beyond" should come first for that reason. I am also taking a little liberty with the "after midnight, Cinderella" scene in delaying the call from Harry Singer for a little while.

Chapter 6-Cinderella After Midnight

"Service Above and Beyond"

"You're not falling for that guy's line, are you?" Lee questioned Amanda in annoyance, jealousy flaring within him. No, not jealousy, he argued with himself, concern. Yeah, that's it, concern. After all, Delano could very well be mixed up with Eastern Bloc agents and he didn't want to see Amanda get hurt. That's all it was. "I mean, talk about obvious."

"What line?" she squawked back, her voice rising. "Look, you may think Jim's no good, but I think he's charming and I think he's sincere." She was laying it on thick, she knew, but she couldn't resist goading him for the way that he was behaving as if he owned her. If that's what he wanted with her, he should just say so and with more than just the occasional physical interaction.

"Jim?" Lee felt his annoyance increasing at Amanda's obvious naiveté.

"Yeah." Amanda nodded and stubbornly folded her arms across her chest.

Lee scoffed and fired back, "Have you got any idea how many women Jim has been sincere with?"

"I don't believe it," Amanda stared at him incredulously and she really didn't believe him and his sheer nerve. All the women he paraded in and out of his life and yet, he was judging her date and acting as if she were his personal property.

"Dozens," Lee interjected to make his point, though he felt like a massive hypocrite when he was guilty of the same thing, except in his case, he'd never made a promise to a woman that he didn't intend to keep. The women he ran around with knew the score from the start.

"No. You," Amanda said her voice rising again.

"What about me?" Lee asked hesitantly, fearing Amanda would call him out on his own recklessness in relationships.

"You're sounding like a jealous person-"

"I am not j-"

"You have no right to act like a jealous person," Amanda told him hotly, her voice now almost to the level of a screech.

"What are you-"

"Look, you just take this little thing," she snapped as she proceeded to rip the mic from the brooch and shoved it forcefully into his hand, "and get it out of my life, go back in your truck, do whatever you're doing and don't eavesdrop on me." She then stormed out, leaving to do nothing but gape open-mouthed after her.

"Now, wait a minute. Just one-" He glanced at the tiny mic in his hand, gripped it tightly and shouted after her, "Amanda!" turning to find himself face to face with a different woman entirely and that Amanda long gone.

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Lee relentlessly paced back and forth in the library of the French Provincial house that the agency had set up for Amanda as he anxiously awaited her return. His thoughts were in turmoil as he nursed a scotch on the rocks, his third since Amanda had walked out on him at the restaurant hours before. "What the hell his she doing with him," he growled aloud as he took another glance at his watch. He'd lost count of just how many times he'd done that since she'd stormed off in a huff. "It's one-thirty for God's sake! What the hell could they be doing until one-thirty in the goddamn morning?" He took another swig of his drink as his thoughts took him places he didn't want to go. "Oh, I know what they're doing," he grumbled as he downed his drink and made his way to the bar to pour another, tortured by the idea of James Delano laying his hands on Amanda and the idea that she might let him.

Lee knew from first-hand experience what a firebrand Amanda was and couldn't stand the idea of any other guy benefitting from it, especially a cad like Delano with his cheesy lines. The thought made him want to beat the guy within an inch of his life. And Amanda? What the hell was she thinking, falling for it, flirting with him shamelessly. Had she suddenly forgotten that she was supposed to be this wholesome mother of two, that she had two impressionable young boys at home? What would they think if they knew their mother was- Was what, exactly? Before he could nail down his thought, he heard the front door open and hurried toward the door of the library. Amanda's words to him about being jealous crossed his mind, halting him in his tracks. Not wanting to appear too eager to see her by rushing into the room, instead he sauntered slowly to the doorway and watched her interaction with the two undercover agents as they retrieved the very expensive jewelry she was wearing.

"It's way after midnight, Cinderella," Lee scolded her with a teasing grin as they walked away, idly shaking the cocktail in his hand.

Amanda started at hearing his voice and turned to find herself suddenly face to face with him. "What are you doing here?'

"Someone ripped off her microphone in the ladies' room and that left me with a lot of time to kill," he answered in what he hoped was a nonchalant tone as he took another swig of his drink to keep himself from losing control.

Knowing that at some point, they would need to talk about the fight they'd had, but not wanting to get into it at this late hour, she hurriedly explained, "Listen, I have to get home. I should change clothes." She turned toward the stairs, but was halted by his voice.

"Aren't you going to tell me about your evening?" Lee inquired still trying desperately not to sound over-eager and be the jealous person that she'd accused him of being.

"Well, there's nothing to tell," Amanda answered with a hint of amusement dancing in her eyes at his obvious attempt to conceal his possessiveness of her. She couldn't resist toying with him a little. "I did what your computer wanted me to do and now, it's time for me to slip into a phone booth and turn back into Amanda King."

"Amanda, we went to a lot of trouble to set this thing up. We scrambled the TV signal, we had Singer tell his servants that our people were there to fix the reception...'

"Um...what did they find out?" she asked. While she really had no personal interest in James Delano, she also didn't want to see him in any trouble because he really did seem to be a nice man, not at all her type, but still a very nice man.

"Unfortunately, not much," Lee replied in disappointment as he stared into his glass. He'd been hoping they'd find something implicating Delano up to his eyeballs so that he could prove to Amanda that he was not jealous and that his concern was merely a professional courtesy. "We went through Hollander's things, we found a few deutschemarks, a passport, a return airline ticket to Munich with a connecting flight to Berlin..."

"Wait a minute," Amanda interrupted as she held up one finger to stop him.

"Hmm?" Lee finally looked back at her.

"Who's Hollander?'

"He's working with Delano," Lee said pointedly as a reminder that she had been on a job tonight, not a date. "The ticket's for Sunday. They'll be making their move between now and then." He took a deep breath and smiled at her. "Now, what were you saying about your evening?" He prodded as he sipped at his scotch.

"Oh," Amanda teased with a mocking smile. "I wasn't going to say anything at all about it." She then trotted up the stairs.

"Oh, no, you don't," Lee warned as he quickly followed her, catching up to her just as she reached the landing. "I want you to tell me what happened tonight."

Amanda smirked at him and parried, "I'm sorry, Lee, but on a need-to-know basis, you don't need to know."

"Well, I just don't accept that! You do know that you were on a job tonight, not some getting-to-know-you first date, right?" After what he'd just told her, how could she still think that man was worth being involved with?

"Of course, I know that, Lee. How could it be anything remotely resembling a real date when he doesn't even know my real name? Why should that mean that I can't have a little fun?" She turned from him to walk toward the bedroom.

"Fun?" He glowered at her incredulously as he flung his cocktail glass aside, shattering it on the stairs below him. He grabbed her arm, spinning her to face him, pinning her up against the banister. "Just what the hell kind of fun were you having with him tonight?"

"That is none of your damn business," Amanda fired back hotly as she tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but failed miserably when he only held her tighter, giving her no room to escape.

"None of my-" Lee broke off. He was suddenly struck by the fiery, challenging look in her eyes.

"That's right. None of your business," Amanda reiterated. "As you keep reminding me, we're not involved, so what I do with anyone else doesn't concern you."

"Oh, what about your boyfriend? You keep reminding me that you have one. Would you say it's his business?"

"Yes, I do have a boyfriend and it's not you," Amanda retorted. "So, you need to get off this jealousy kick right now."

"I am not jealous," Lee insisted, looking her straight in the eyes as his mouth inched closer to hers, but wasn't sure who he was trying to convince of that more, Amanda or himself.

"NO?" Amanda challenged never breaking her eye contact with him.

"No," he stated firmly just before their lips crashed together in a tumultuous, exploratory kiss, lips and tongues doing battle as they groped at each other's clothing. Lee's coat and tie landed on the floor behind him while he tossed the dressy, frilly jacket she wore across the banister to land on the stairs behind her, her creamy shoulders exposed to him by the spaghetti-strap dress she wore beneath it. He broke their fiery kiss breathing heavily, as he nipped at her earlobe before moving down to her neck, suckling at the tender skin there. He was grateful that her jewelry had already been removed leaving no barriers to his access to her soft skin.

Amanda gasped at the contact of his lips against her neck as she furiously tugged at the buttons of his shirt, yanking the tails of it from his pants as she exposed his chest, loving the feeling of his hard muscles beneath her exploring fingers. "Don't you dare give me another hickey," she scolded as she thumbed his nipples into hardness. "I had a hard enough time hiding the last one."

Lee laughed and replied, "Good," not a bit sorry that he'd left his mark on her during their last encounter as he lowered his lips to her neck again. He was very glad that he'd suggest she wear her hair up because it exposed her to him all the more. He lightly fingered the thin strap on her shoulder while his other hand cupped her bottom, pulling her tighter to him wanting to make damn sure that she understood just what she was doing to him.

"Oh," Amanda cried at feeling his erection pressed roughly against her, spurring her desire for him just at their verbal sparring had. She reached her hands between them to loosen his belt with one hand, while cupping him with the other, just as she felt his hands sliding the zipper on her dress down.

Lee groaned at Amanda so boldly touching him. He pulled back from his assault on her neck for a moment to enjoy it while he pushed at the tiny straps on her shoulders, causing her dress to pool at her feet and was shocked to find that she wore no bra beneath it. "Oh, Amanda," he cried as he felt her hands inside his pants, now running one hand up and down the length of his shaft while the other cupped his balls. Lee lowered his mouth to capture one breast with his teeth, the other breast with one hand, while his other travelled to her taut bottom, pushing at the silky panties she wore to expose her fully to him. He pulled back from her once more to allow her to step out of them. He captured both of her hands in one of his, before using the other to lift her leg to rest on his hip, locking eyes with her as he slowly pushed into her.

"Lee," she hissed as she felt him penetrating her, his hand on her hip, his smoldering eyes boring into her own passion-filled ones. Amanda tugged at his hip with her leg to urge him on because he was being so still, it was driving her crazy with raw need.

Instead of following her lead, Lee, unable to bear the intense eye contact any longer withdrew from her, spun her away from him, her back to him. He roughly grasped her hips, bent her slightly over the banister and plunged into her hard from behind, groaning loudly as he did so. Mindful of the other agents downstairs, he buried his face in the apex between her shoulder and her neck to muffle his cries as he drove himself into her.

"Ahhh, Amanda cried at his hardness slamming into her as she gripped the railing of the banister tightly hanging on for dear life as he pounded himself relentlessly into her, the depth of his penetration causing her to moan uncontrollably, forgetting for a moment that they were not alone in the house.

"Shhh," Lee hissed in her ear, pointing briefly down the stairs reminding her of the others in the house. He withdrew from her and slammed into her harder than before, his need to show her who she belonged to overtaking him until he realized that he was about to lose it way too soon. He slowed his moments for a moment, moving his hand between her legs, caressing her in long slow, strokes until he felt her getting closer to her peak, her body beginning to tremble in front of his. He heard her increased cries of pleasure, before he picked up the pace again and felt her pulsing around him, quivering and gasping before him and with one final hard thrust, he emptied himself into her, emptying himself also of the intense envy he'd felt for the man who'd spent the evening in her company.

Breathing heavily and sweating profusely because of his exertions, he leaned wearily against her, cradling her to him, as he rained soft kisses to her neck and shoulder. He was immensely comforted by the thought that he knew now without a doubt by the way she'd responded to him, there was no way that anything had happened between her and James Delano. His brief moment of peace was interrupted by the jarring ring of the telephone downstairs. He quickly slipped out of her, scrambled to right his pants, and pull on the rest of his clothes, chuckling at the thought that he still hadn't made it all he way out of his pants with her.

Amanda chuckled herself as she gathered up her discarded clothing and with a shrug, said, "Well, I guess I'm going to have an easier time changing clothes now," as she scurried to the bedroom.

Just as Lee had finished re-tying his tie, the female agent called up the stairs, "A Mr Singer, on the phone for you." Lee quickly trotted down the stairs and met the agent at the bottom as she said, "The agency, they're patching it through this phone." She indicated the phone in her hand. She glanced at the bits of broken glass and Amanda's jacket on the stairs and said, "What happened there?"

"Oh...uh...well..." Lee hedged. "well, that's...uh...that's just Amanda. She's a bit of a slob. You should see her desk at the office." He knew it wasn't remotely true, but couldn't think of anything else to say without giving himself...or their activities...away.

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Lee moved closer to Amanda's eerily still-form in the ambulance, fighting back the sting of tears that had formed in his eyes. Seeing her nearly lifeless in Delano's house had made one thing perfectly clear to him. What he felt for her was more than just an intense physical desire. God, help him, but he'd fallen hopelessly, desperately in love with this perplexing, obstinate, paradoxical woman. He gingerly brushed her hair from her face as he struggled to speak, hoping his words would reach her enough to bring her back to him. He had to reach her. He couldn't lose her. "I...I...uh...guess this one got a little rough..." He shook his head as he paused, then said in a choked voice, "I'm sorry. You did a hell of a job. you really did. You might even make a decent agent someday."

Amanda, drifting on the edge of consciousness, heard Lee's voice pulling her like a magnet, opened her eyes, and said in a groggy voice, "Thank you."

Lee's eyes widened at seeing her eyes fluttering open, a flurry of emotions enveloped him. He was so grateful to see her beautiful chocolate eyes gazing up at him, reassuring him that she was going to be okay, but at the same time was worried that she'd heard him pouring his heart out to her. "You're awake," he said his voice a mixture of elation and fear. When her heard her delirious response about Portofino, he smiled with a slight shake of his head as he realized he had nothing to worry about on either score. His secret was safe for a little while longer.

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Standing in her back yard, Amanda's thoughts whirled at Lee's parting statement. She flushed slightly and said wistfully, "He carried me," wishing she'd been awake to witness such an act of tenderness from her otherwise gruff, aloof partner, wondering after all their encounters what it would be like to have a real moment with him, not driven by danger, jealousy or sheer animal lust. As she walked back into the house, she pondered that thought further. How would it be if he'd carry her to the bedroom for once, instead of their encounters happening just wherever they happened to be at the time? Would they make love slowly and tenderly? Would they spend the night together, reaching out to each other in the middle of the night to begin again? "Never gonna' happen," she said softly as she shook off those nagging thoughts and returned to her sinkful of dishes.