Chapter 76-An Indelicate Offer

"Photo Finish"

"What are you doing?" Lee questioned his fiancée' with a stupefied look on his face. "Are you gonna' just sit there?"

"Yes, I'm gonna' just sit here," she snapped angrily as she yanked the pass from her lapel and waved it at him. "I've got a visitor's pass and that's all I can do is just sit here!"

As they argued a few minutes more on the merits of taking their own action versus allowing Mrs. Frampton and her security review board handle things, Lee realized that he wasn't getting anywhere with her. He finally took a deep breath to calm himself. He had to make her see how serious this was. It was bad enough that due to the danger of their work, they'd agreed that they couldn't let anyone in on their engagement, couldn't properly celebrate it like a normal couple should; now, with this hanging over their head, the board could permanently strip Amanda of her security clearance preventing them from ever seeing each other again.

He knelt before her and looked her in the eyes and in a gentler tone, explained, "I told you before, didn't I? We might not be able to work with each other anymore." He swallowed hard and in a choked voice added, "See each other..." He found he couldn't finish the thought. The idea of never seeing her again was just too painful.

Upon seeing the anguished look on his face, his words hit home. "Are you sure?"

When he just nodded, with a quiet, "Yeah," she asked, "Okay, what do we have to do?"

He shook his head. "I don't know, but dammit, let's make a start!"

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Amanda smiled as Lee began talking about his "magic fingers" again as those very magic fingers began working loose the tight muscles of her neck. A shiver crept up her spine as his lips grazed her neck, but then she found herself distracted by what she'd just found in the Statik Aerospace computer files.

Lee let out a groan as she explained it to him. "We're back to the floor wax," he commented, realizing that she had been onto something the whole time.

She went on to show him the discrepancy between Statik's personnel roster and what their contractor was billing them for. "Amanda, you're brilliant! We may just be close to cracking this thing. I should call Billy back and let him know."

"Or..." she stopped him with a hand on his knee and turned toward him. "We can wait 'til morning. I mean, you did just talk to him and Tanner said everything's fine there, right?"

"Right," he felt a shudder of anticipation creep up his spine at the way she was sliding her hands up his legs.

"I believe you said something about an indelicate offer." She reached to undo his pants.

"I...uh...I didn't think you were listening."

"Oh, I was listening. Now, I know I'm not a member of any royal family..." She slowly inched his zipper down. "But my name is King, so that should count for something." She reached inside his boxers to grasp him firmly and then looked up at him. "Shouldn't it?" She lowered her head to take him in her mouth

"Oh, it counts," he groaned as he threw his head back against the couch while she stroked him with her lips and tongue. "It definitely counts."

She released him and looked up at him again. "Are you sure now?"

'A-man-da," he growled. Was she trying to kill him? He yanked firmly on her hands to pull her up to a standing position, yanked the tails of her shirt from her jeans and unfastened the button at her waist. He moved his hands upward to undo the buttons on her blouse one by one until he was able to push it from her shoulders, revealing her lacy white bra. Even in the dim light, he could see her skin was already tinged with the flush of desire. "Let's go to bed," he croaked.

She shook her head. "No."

"No?" he questioned.

"Mm-mm. Right here. We haven't properly christened your new couch, after all."

He let out a laugh. Would she never cease to surprise him? He kicked off his shoes under the coffee table while she toed off her own and they resumed their position. He planted a warm kiss to her stomach, his tongue dipping into her navel emitting a squeal from his fiancée. "Lee," she pleaded.

He looked up at her. "Now, you know how it feels," he teased.

She leaned forward and began working on the buttons of his shirt. Once completed, she ran her hands up and down his bare chest, raking her nails against his hard nipples.

He let out a hiss at her touch, his desire for her mounting. He'd been really worried that if they couldn't solve this thing, they'd never have this again. Now that they were closer to an answer, he found that he could relax a bit and just enjoy being with her again.

Lee unzipped her jeans and peeled them down her long legs. She stepped out of them, but then when he reached for her panties, she stepped back as far as the coffee table would allow and wagged a scolding finger at him.

"Uh-uh," she admonished. "Not this time, Buster. Lingerie's too expensive to keep having to replace it." She unhooked her bra, dropped it to the floor, and then shimmied out of her panties.

Lee let out an involuntary gasp at her standing so boldly in front of him, stark naked. Still he couldn't resist responding to the challenge he saw in her eyes. "Oh, well, if you'd ever wear sexy nightgowns for me, it's be a lot easier to undress you, wouldn't it?"

"Hmmm...That's the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it?" She knelt again and tugged on his pants. He shifted slightly to accommodate her and exposed his boxers fully. She nodded to his underwear. "I don't see you wearing anything particularly sexy for me. They do make stuff for men too, you know." She yanked his underwear down his legs and once he was just as naked as she was, he pulled her into his lap where they shared heated kisses as they touched and teased each other.

Lee lowered his mouth to her breast as she took hold of his shaft firmly and guided him into her, both of them crying out at the renewed union. "Amanda," he groaned against her skin as she began to rock body toward his, pushing him deeper within her. How could he ever have been so stupid as to have even thought of denying himself this in the past? He'd tried over and over again to tell himself that she was nothing more than just one more fling to him until he'd found that he couldn't be with anyone except her. He couldn't recall just when that realization had hit him, but he knew it now without a doubt. He had to be with her forever.

"Lee," she sighed as he grasped her hips to increase the pace of her movements. They locked eyes as they moved together, sharing whispered words of love and desire until they were both well beyond the point of whispering and were harshly crying out one another's names as they tumbled over the edge together.

"I love you," he croaked hoarsely through his ragged breathing.

"I love you," she responded and planted a soft kiss to his lips as she lovingly caressed his face.

Once his breathing slowed, he couldn't resist teasing her. "It was the magic fingers that did it, wasn't it?"

Amanda laughed and he couldn't help smiling. They'd had so little to laugh about over the past week. "No," she answered. "It's just because you're such a sexpert."

"Oh, is that right? Is that all you want me for?" he pouted.

She shook her head. "No, I want you because you're a good man and I'm completely in love with you, but the other stuff doesn't hurt."

"So, the stuff about not wanting to go to the cabin with me..."

She placed her hands on his chest. "Wasn't anything to do with you. It was all about work. I wanted to go, I really did, but I also wanted to do a good job. I needed to prove that I could do stuff on my own without you looking over my shoulder or being there to guide me."

He nodded. "I understand." He let out a sigh because he knew there was still so much that he needed her guidance on, a committed relationship was still new to him and even though they'd decided to keep their marriage a secret, the thought of taking on her two boys when he knew nothing about how to take care of kids, terrified him. He wondered if there was anything she didn't excel at and worried that as time went on, she'd see that he just didn't measure up.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothing," he lied. "I was just thinking. You know, you really did do a great job." He pointed to the computer. "That was really good work."

"Yeah?" she questioned hesitantly. She was still so unsure of herself in his world. She thought back to his words of the other day about having nothing to prove, but still, she felt she had to try to be more than just the famed Scarecrow's protégé. "On that note, we're going to have a lot of work to do tomorrow, so we should get to bed."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Long day."

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"You gave up too easily," Amanda teased with her hand wrapped still wrapped around his tie.

"Oh, yeah?" He smiled warmly at her, happy that they were back to being themselves again without the shadow of her suspension hanging over their heads. They still had a lot to work out, but they had time.

"Mm-hmm." She edged closer to him.

"What about all that work you said you had to do on the Statik review?"

"Oh, I was just teasing you. When I presented all that stuff to Beaman, he gave me a bit of a reprieve because I went way above and beyond anything a trainee is required to do and since Joe has the boys this weekend, what do you say we take off a little early and get out of this town for a couple of days before Billy finds us something else to do?"

"You know, I think you're right. I don't think you need me guiding you anymore. You come up with good plans all on your own now."