Chapter 68-We Pretend to Be Lovers
"Stemwinder, Part One"
"This is a real drag," Amanda muttered. She had sat in Lee's 'vette for the better part of two hours uncomfortably listening to the sounds coming from Sonja Chenko's apartment. She cringed every time she heard the kissing sounds, wishing that it were she in Lee's arms. She knew it was just part of the job, but she couldn't help the sick feeling she was getting in the pit of her stomach. A moment of panic arose within her when she heard nothing but silence for a long stretch of time. Had Lee moved his peacock dance to the bedroom, she wondered. No, she told herself firmly. He promised that he wouldn't.
How dare she put her hands on MY man, she thought scathingly. She'd love nothing more than to put some of the skills she'd learned recently in her hand-to-hand training to take Sonja out. First, she'd shown up and hit on Lee at THEIR place, a place that had been their sanctuary. Now, she was up there, doing God only knew what in an attempt to seduce classified information out of him. She was so lost in her thoughts that the driver's side door opening startled her and relief flooded through her as Lee slid his long form into the driver's seat.
Lee had just closed the driver's door and reached for the key when he felt Amanda's long, slender fingers sliding the zipper of his pants down and before he could protest her hand was wrapped around him and he was emitting a primal groan. He heard a loud thump and looked over to find the phone knocked off its cradle, but had barely had time to process that when he found himself engulfed in Amanda's warm mouth. "OHH," he cried as she began to suckle him hard and fast. "'Manda," he hissed through clenched teeth.
As much as he would like to have let her continue, he knew he had to stop her. "Amanda," he uttered in a warning tone as he used both hands to gently push her back toward her side of the car. When she looked at him with questioning eyes, he explained as he straightened his pants, "As much as I'm enjoying this, we don't know who might be watching right now." He grinned at her. "And I'd much prefer it if I knew we didn't have an audience."
Amanda nodded as she sank back down in her seat to avoid being seen, but couldn't help the triumphant smile at the reaction she'd gotten from him. She hadn't heard anything like that coming from Sonja's apartment. "Drive fast," she commanded.
"You know it," he replied as he put the car in gear and peeled away from the curb.
Once they'd reached his apartment and he'd let her in, Amanda was on him again in an instant, pushing his jacket from his shoulders, tugging at the buttons of his shirt, and nipping hard at the skin of his neck. "'God," he groaned at her ministrations. He grasped her hips and backed her up further into the apartment until she was half-seated against the back of the sofa. His shirt and her blouse were soon dropped to the floor as his hands found their way under her skirt, clawing at her panties as they breathlessly devoured one another.
"Lee," she gasped as she felt him stroking her beneath her skirt.
He pulled back from her in an attempt to cool things off a bit and searched her face with a questioning gaze as he panted out, "You know, Amanda, this...this isn't necessary." He lightly caressed her face. "This thing...this thing with Sonja. It's not...not something I wanted."
She was touched by the fact that he was trying to reassure her, but he saw by the blazing look in her eyes that she didn't want reassurance. She wanted retaliation, to prove to Sonja that Lee belonged to her, no matter what the other woman might do. Amanda answered by reaching for his belt, followed by the buttons on his pants. "But it is necessary," she countered. "It's our cover, isn't it?" She smirked at him, reminding him of the cover they'd once played in which he'd been overly affectionate and made her uncomfortable in the process. "Didn't you explain to me that in the Lisbon variation, we're supposed to be lovers?"
"I suppose I did," he responded with a grin.
"And I told you that I could make that adjustment." She reached into his now-opened pants and ran a hand along his growing erection. "I'm a pro, right?" She paused in her exploration of him to push his pants and boxers down to his ankles with both hands.
He stepped out of his shoes, stripped off his socks, and kicked the garments aside standing naked before her watching her watching him as he did so. "So, you are," he replied. "Just look at your observation skills, but in my observation, one of us is overdressed here."
Amanda unhooked her bra and shimmied out of it, while Lee reached behind her to unzip her skirt, letting it pool at her feet and she stepped out of it, kicking her heels off in the process. "So, what does a pro do next?" she questioned in a seductive tone. "Something like this maybe?" She ran her hands down his bare chest, thumbing his nipples.
Lee sucked in a breath as her hands began moving over his body again. "Or something like this," he answered as he grasped her bottom and lifted her off her feet to straddle him, pushing into her as he captured her lips in a fiery kiss.
"Lee," she hissed at him filling her as she linked her hands behind his neck and locked her legs around his waist.
He thrust into her once more and then began walking toward the bedroom with her in his arms. When she broke their kiss and latched onto his neck again with her mouth, he was forced to pause when they reached the fireplace. He pinned her body against it, gripped her hips tightly and pushed into her again, then once more, then just held her there as he took a moment to savor the feeling of her lips on his skin. Once more he thrust up into her and watched in delight as she threw her head back and let out a low moan.
Determined to make it to the bedroom, he began to carry her again, but when she began to rock against him, he had to stop again in the hallway just outside his bedroom door. Didn't she get what she was doing to him? How hard she was making it for him to just stay upright? "'Manda," he growled as he kissed her firmly and ground his hips against hers, pushing her higher against the wall so he could thrust into her again, deeper this time.
"Lee!" she cried when he did that. She'd missed this with him so much. It had been so hard for her to listen to his make-out sessions with another woman, to pretend to fight with him when all she wanted was to get him alone and away from the other woman's clutches.
Embarking once more on his journey, Lee finally made it to the bedroom, Amanda still wrapped around him and they tumbled to the bed together, giving them more freedom to give in to their desires. Five nights without each other and of pretending they were on the verge of breaking up had taken its toll on both of them. "So good," he whispered in her ear as she pushed her hips up to meet every thrust of his.
"Yes, so good," she echoed back at him as the tremors of her release began to take her over and she felt herself spiraling out of control, sending him over the edge with her, his guttural groan in her ear giving her just as much satisfaction as he collapsed atop her.
They lay there together, limbs tangled, breathing hard, neither speaking for a long moment as their bodies cooled and heart rates slowed. Lee was the first to break the silence. "I...uh...I..." he panted. "I don't think you'll find...that one in the books."
She nodded as she ran her leg along his. "No statistics for Sonja to measure?"
He shook his head firmly and fixed her with a sincere look. "None," he stated adamantly.
"Good." She gave him a pleased smile as she pulled him back down to her and cradled him against her.
Lee knew that he needed to tell her how he really felt about her, that she needed that security. He pulled back again and caressed her face tenderly. "Amanda, I-"
The moment was lost by the shrill ringing of the phone sitting on his nightstand. Of course, he thought as he pulled completely away from her to answer it. It was the dispatch desk at the office wondering if everything was okay since neither of them had checked in yet. They'd already tried the car phone and hadn't been able to get through. He let out a soft chuckle as it occurred to him then that he'd never dug it back out from under his seat where it had landed during Amanda's assault on him.
"I should go," Amanda stated abruptly as she bolted from his bed and into the living room.
Lee caught up with her to find her gathering up her clothes. He took hold of her arm and spun her around to face him. "Amanda, what the hell?"
"What?" she snapped as she pulled her arm from his grasp and slipped into her panties.
"Where are you going?"
"Home," she answered tersely.
"Amanda..."
"The boys need me," she told him with no further explanation as she pulled the rest of her clothes back on as quickly as she could, grabbed her purse and headed for the door.
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The next day, after her snippy outburst of "Lee did all the dancing," Lee knew he had to get to the bottom of her sour behavior.
"My, my," Francine laughed. "Seems your girl can't handle a little competition."
"Zip it, Francine," Lee snapped and hauled ass out the door to catch up to Amanda.
He caught up to her just as the elevator door was beginning to close. He caught it with his hand to stop it and slipped in to the car with her. "Okay, you wanna' talk to me now or upstairs?"
"Talk to you? About what?" she questioned obtusely as she kept her eyes straight ahead.
"Oh, How about we start with that crack you just made in Billy's office?"
"Crack? What crack? I was just stating a fact. You were the one who did all the dancing."
"Are you forgetting who I was 'dancing' with last night?" he countered in irritation as he tugged at her arm to get her to look at him. "It sure as hell wasn't the Soviet siren. That woman makes my skin crawl."
Amanda finally looked at him in surprise. "She does?"
"Oh, yeah. The sooner we get this done, the happier I'll be." He reached for her hands, holding them both in his. "I want us to get back to being...well, us...you and me." Now wasn't the time to tell her, but until Sonja had shown up that night that at Emilio's, he'd had every intention of laying it all out on the line that night, had a ring in his pocket and had planned on giving it to her, if she'd take it. He hoped she would. After all, she'd accepted the keys to his home with no questions, hadn't she? That was why his smile had faded so fast when he realized that the brunette who'd walked in wasn't her.
"You mean that?"
"Yes, I mean it." He meant much more than that, but it would have to wait now. Why the hell had Sonja shown up when she did and ruin the moment he'd planned with Amanda? He'd been busting to tell her about Norman's "regulars" comment and thought it would have been the perfect lead-in to asking her to be "regular" with him. But he'd felt he had to be honest with her about bumping into Sonja. He'd desperately tried to recapture the moment by telling her about his talk with Norman and how much he liked the idea, but the mood had been lost by the mention of the Soviet agent.
"Good," she nodded firmly, released his hands and looked back toward the front of the elevator.
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"Steadman. I thought his name was Steadman," Dotty replied to her daughter as she tried to explain, but without really explaining what was going on.
Not now, Mother, please. Can't you see that I'm a wreck? "No, Mother, it's Stetson." As she explained the best that she could, it was all she could do to keep calm. She was worried about Lee and still reeling from his blurted out, 'I love you,' just before he'd hung up on her. That was such a Lee Stetson stunt to pull. Of all times to say something like that, it was when he thought they might never see each other again.
After giving her family their instructions, she hurried up the stairs wondering just what she was going to do. She then stared in awe to find the man in question lying on her bed. He jumped up as soon as she walked in. Her heart sank, though when he told her that he'd come to say goodbye. She argued with him that she was all tangled up in it too. When he prepared to actually say goodbye, as desperate as their situation was, she couldn't help the small smile that crossed her face when he reiterated that he loved her face to face. "I have for a very, very long time," he confirmed what she'd already known for a very, very long time, but was elated to finally hear it from his own lips.
Her rambling ways took over as she insisted on going with him, ending it with, "And I love you, too."
Lee smiled back at her and finally conceded, replying simply, "I guess it's your tail too." He'd hated himself for telling her that he loved her the way that he had, but he'd have hated himself more if he'd never gotten a chance to say it at all. The fact that she loved him too was just icing on the cake.