Bobby POV
It took Alex ten minutes to drive us from the corner to Pete's, and I needed every last one of those minutes to calm my libido.
Because the woman is like liquid fire.
I was feeling it when I saw her drive up.
I mean, I was feeling the excitement and the rush of love and the adrenaline from the culmination of the day, and so when I first got in, I couldn't help myself.
I didn't care that we were four blocks from 1PP.
I mean, it was almost dark already and we were in a car with mostly-tinted windows, so who was going to see us?
Well, if someone did then they got an eyeful because I couldn't resist feeling beneath her shirt, running my fingers over that smooth skin while I ran my tongue along the edge of her ear.
It took all of my restraint not to pull her over the console onto my lap so that I could feel that glorious pressure of having her body against mine.
And then she had to touch me.
Not inadvertently.
Not lightly.
Because that wouldn't be Alex.
No, in true Alex fashion, her touch was deliberate and firm and tantalizingly perfect.
I didn't want her to stop, but we were still fully dressed in the department SUV, for the love of God, so I finally forced myself to grab hold of her wrist.
The absence of her touch bought me some time, so I continued kissing her until I thought that maybe I might be able to make it through a couple of hours at Pete's before taking her home and ravaging her.
"So…Pete's, right?" I'd asked her when I pulled away.
"I don't think so. I think we need to go home first."
And the idea was so tempting that I was nearly ready to ditch our friends.
We could throw the cherry on top and be home in half an hour, and a minute after that, I'd have her naked beneath me.
Or on top of me.
Or bent over in front of me…
The visual was so stimulating that it's a miracle I didn't blow my top, just sitting there teasing with her about going to Liz's house, since it was closer.
But I couldn't deny her this celebratory night.
She deserved to do her victory lap with our friends because tomorrow would most certainly bring about the solidification of Alex's position in Major Case.
Holt would be committing career suicide if he chose Ross now.
Alex laughed at our banter and then pulled me over for another kiss, and I couldn't resist making one last suggestion, even though I knew we wouldn't do it.
But I wanted to push her a little, and make her just as hot and bothered as me.
"Or we could just do it right here in the car."
For a second, I thought she might say yes.
But I'm okay with the fact that she didn't.
Because I could see how much my touch was affecting her, how much she wants me.
"Pete's first," she finally said. "Then you can take me home and have your way with me."
"Oh, I plan to have my way with you," I told her as she turned to put the car in gear.
"Anything in particular in mind?" she asked with a smile.
"Yes. But I'd better not talk about it now, or I won't be able to walk into Pete's without holding something in front of me."
Her eyes shifted from the road to the general vicinity to which I was referring, and then she took pity on me and changed the subject.
"So what did you think of the press conference?"
We chatted about that for the duration of the drive, and by the time she parked down the block from the bar, I had things down to a manageable size.
"Stanley caught me in my office, wearing the ring," she said before we got out of the car.
"He saw it? What did he say?"
"No, he didn't actually see it, but I scrambled to hide it, and he knew something was up. I put him off until tonight."
"So he's going to ask you," I said with a nod. "And you're going to say…"
"I think we tell him. He already knows we're together. How much worse will it make it, the fact that we're getting married?"
"How much worse?" I asked as I leaned across the console. I kissed her and then ran my hand over her hair, smoothing down some of the stray strands that I'd created earlier. "It makes it so much better."
She smiled at me, that beautiful smile of hers, and said, "You know what I mean."
"Yeah. Um…it means we can't say it only just happened, whenever we might get caught. It'll obviously show that we've been together for a while, and even if Moran signs the regs, the fact that we're engaged will mean we were together beforehand."
"So we'll still be putting Stanley in the difficult position of keeping a secret for us."
"Right."
"So…"
"So we just tell him that. We can be honest, and he'll have another secret, or…he can forget about it and have plausible deniability."
She took the ring off of her finger again and put it into her pocket.
It doesn't seem fair that we can't just enjoy our engagement like normal people, but I'm not going to complain.
Not much, anyway.
Not today.
We've got too much to celebrate.
The others were already at our table, and there were drinks sitting at the two empty places.
"I trust you got your hellos out of the way, since you came in together," Stanley said wryly.
"You've got a problem with public displays?" Alex asked teasingly as she sat down.
"No problem at all," he said with a wry grin. "And after a day like today…I'm kind of surprised you two even showed up here. I figured you'd be at home celebrating."
"Soon," I said as I picked up my drink. "Very soon."
"You nailed that press conference, Alex," Liz said.
"Thanks to Mike and Bobby," she deflected. "So let's drink to them."
"And then we'll drink to the longevity of the captain of Major Case," Stanley added.
We ended up drinking to a whole lot more than that, and after about an hour, someone made the brilliant suggestion that we should order food before we all got completely sloshed.
Because wouldn't that be something…Alex showing up hung over for her do-or-die meeting with Holt.
So we slowed down the alcohol and started on the food.
"This'll be it for us until Sunday night," Mike said once the plates were cleared. "As soon as I can get out of there tomorrow, Liz and I are headed upstate."
"I'm promising noon," Alex told him. Then she smiled and said, "Or sooner if we're out of work."
"If we're out of work, we'll all take a trip upstate," Stanley joked.
"Yeah, I like that idea," I said.
Mike rolled his eyes at me and said, "You're not staying with us. I found us a cabin on the lake…with a hot tub and a fireplace…and only one bed."
"That's okay. We don't need a bed," Alex teased. "Right, Bobby?"
"Uh uh," Mike argued. "I know how bad you guys are. How many weekends did you spend in my spare bedroom?"
I smiled and shrugged, enjoying listening to him and Alex banter back and forth.
"Too many," he continued good-naturedly. "I wore out my damn IPod trying to drown you two out. I mean, come on, Alex. How many times do you have to call to God? He's not the one doing all the work."
Liz and Alex both started laughing while Mike tried to look indignant, but it didn't work. He started laughing, too, and then he said, "And yeah, okay, you were giving Bobby his props, too, but my point is, we're not sharing a cabin with you."
"Okay, I think we're wading into the territory of too much information," Stanley said. "It might be time for more drinks."
"I'll help you," I offered. I leaned over and kissed Alex on the cheek and then left them to their rapidly declining conversation while I followed Stanley to the bar.
"Have you talked to Moran?" I asked him once we'd place our order. "Are we as set as we think?"
"It's not in stone, but it may as well be. Holt's keeping his cards close to the vest, but he's not stupid. And Alex telling him flat-out that she won't take that media job no matter what…he'd be a fool to go through with the transfer, and he might be annoying but he's not a fool."
"What'll they do with Ross? I hear he got his badge back."
"Yeah. Denise held it up for as long as she could, but Ross has been a fixture in Holt's office this week, so she finally had to send it through."
"And she's the one who took Alex's file to Zaring's office."
"Um…yeah."
"On your request?"
"Is that what Alex thinks?"
"No. She told me what you said."
"I may have mentioned to Denise that it would be helpful to get Zaring behind us."
"And you mentioned it with Alex's file in your hand?"
"Denise told me she'd been fielding calls from Theresa for a couple of weeks, keeping them from being transferred to Zaring's office. It was dumb luck that another one came in Tuesday morning, only thirty minutes or so after Denise had delivered Alex's file, mixed in with some other documents."
"Denise…you…Theresa…this whole thing is like a coup," I said, although I wasn't upset by that. In fact, I was about to burst with pride in Alex for unwittingly instigating such a following.
"Not a coup. It's a stand," he corrected. "And maybe she had some help, but only in the sense of making people see what's already there. You know what I'm saying?"
"I do, yes."
He held my gaze, nodding at me meaningfully, and then the bartender came with our drinks and the moment was over.
"If they're still talking about your sex life, I'm going to have to call it a night," he quipped as we went back to the table.
"It depends on whether or not they were going to analyze each time," I fired back. "Because if that's the case, we're going to be here for at least a week."
He looked at me, apparently surprised by my joke, and then he laughed and shook his head.
"I don't know how I didn't know about you two. I mean, before. I went back and forth so much I made myself dizzy, and the whole time you two were in each other's hip pocket."
"How long do you think we've been together?"
"I don't know," he admitted, his steps faltering for a moment a few feet from the table as he stared first at Alex and then looked back at me questioningly.
"Since last summer."
"That's all?"
"I mean, that's all we've been together together, yeah."
"Huh," he commented and then he continued on to the table. He passed out the drinks and then sat down and looked curiously at Alex.
"So…Alex. What were you doing in your office this afternoon?"
She glanced at me briefly as I slid into the booth next to her, and then she replied in exactly the manner we discussed.
"I'll tell you if you really want to know, but it'll mean additional culpability for you."
"How come you didn't ask me if I mind being culpable?" Mike joked.
"You're not my boss," Alex reminded him after rolling her eyes.
"And I'm not either when we're off the clock," Stanley said. "Hey, in for a penny, in for a pound. Lay it on me."
Alex kept her hands in her lap while she put on the ring and then she set her hand on the table, close enough for his inspection.
"Holy crap, are you kidding me?"
"You're surprised?"
"I'm…yeah. I mean, I guess with everything else going on, I figured…I don't know. You'd be focused on that. But I guess it shouldn't surprise me that you've been able to do both," he remarked, still stunned. And then he added, "When the hell did this happen?"
"Just Tuesday night. Well, a few days before that, but formally Tuesday night."
"And don't worry," Alex said. "We're not going to do it right away. Well, unless the meeting doesn't go well. Then we might do it tomorrow."
Tomorrow.
It would almost be worth losing our jobs to think that we could go to bed tomorrow night as husband and wife.
But I'm a patient man.
Or at least, I can be.
"And even if Moran signs the regs, we'll wait a little while," I added. "We know we have to make it look…new."
"What if he doesn't sign?" Stanley posed.
Alex and I looked at each other for a long minute, but neither of us had an answer.
Because even though we'd said it didn't really matter, it does.
"He'll sign," Mike spoke up as he picked up his glass. "And in a couple of months, I'll throw one hell of a bachelor party."
He and Alex bickered jokingly for a few minutes about whether or not strippers would be allowed at the party, but I just sat back and listened.
It had been a good day for the home team, and I felt a tremendous sense of relief knowing that I'd done my part by helping to get a confession from Riley.
And in less than twelve hours, we'd have Holt's decision.
TBC...