Lee and Amanda had stopped by The Agency briefly to pick up the file on the case they were about to embark on and arrived at the state park the next afternoon, checked in and were given directions to their cabin. Lee pulled the "vette up to their assigned cabin to find Francine's car already parked there. "Great," he muttered.

"Hey, come on, now," Amanda said. "You were the one who suggested this assignment might be the perfect opportunity for us to get some good practice at being married out in the open and you knew Francine and Efraim were on this assignment too. Since Francine already knows, that makes this even easier. We don't have to hide anything and with Efraim, we can just act like we're playing our cover."

"Yeah, maybe," Lee said not entirely convinced. "We could just tell him the truth and not even worry about it. I mean, he is your training supervisor so he's going to have to know sooner or later."

"In his case I've prefer later," Amanda said. "You know what a tattletale he is. He's worse than the boys. He'd go running to Billy before we have a chance to tell him ourselves and we owe it to Billy to tell him face to face."

"Billy can handle it if we don't," Lee said. "It's not like he doesn't already suspect anyway, he's been dropping hints to me about us getting married since last October."

"Lee, no, Billy would be hurt. I think we should wait to tell Efraim."

"Amanda, I thought we agreed we weren't going to keep this secret anymore. Yesterday you were on board with this. You even said yourself you wanted more than five days."

"I know and I do, but now isn't the right time."

"Damn it, Amanda! We talked about this! Are you going to fight me on this again?"

"I'm not fighting. I'm just saying we should wait until we wrap up this case and tell Billy first before we tell anyone else at The Agency!"

"Oh, but it was fine for you to just blurt it out to Francine! Francine, of all people! The one who's been on my case ever since she first found out that you and are were involved."

"That was different. Like I already told you, I desperately needed someone to talk to about this!"

"Yeah, I heard you say that, but it still hurts that you wouldn't talk to me about it! I'm your husband, Damn it!" Lee flung the door open in anger.

Francine and Efraim exited the cabin just as Lee and Amanda were getting out of the car. Lee opened the trunk to start unloading their bags flinging them violently to the ground while the other pair unloaded luggage at Francine's car.

"You guys haven't unloaded your stuff yet?"Amanda said trying not to let on how rattled she was.

"No, we were getting the lay of the land first," Efraim answered as he awkwardly glanced from Lee to Amanda wondering if they were still fighting. Judging by the way they were both behaving, he suspected they were.

"So, I take it that since we're all right here, that means the four of us are sharing a cabin." Lee said in annoyance.

"Yeah, the retreat was so booked they assigned two couples to each of the two-bedroom cabins," Francine replied. "It's not surprising that they put us all in the same one since we were registered at the same time."

"I guess that makes sense," Lee said as he hoisted his and Amanda's bags not wanting her to do any heavy lifting and all four walked into the cabin together. He was irked though that he and Amanda wouldn't have as much alone married couple time as they had planned on, not that it really mattered now since she was pissed at him again.

"They told us when we checked in that these cabins are set up for families, not multiple couples, so one room has a double bed and the other has bunk beds," Francine explained. "They told us we'd have to duke it out with the other couple for who gets what room, but I don't think that's necessary since it's you guys we're sharing with. I hope you don't mind, but we took the room with the bunk beds leaving you two the room with the double bed," She said with a suggestive look at Lee and Amanda gesturing toward the empty bedroom to the left of the main room. "There's no way I'm going to share a bed with Beaman here."

"You don't know what you're missing, Frannie," Efraim quipped sliding his arm around her waist.

"Do you plan on keeping that hand intact," Francine said with an icy glare. Efraim quickly removed his hand "Besides, the way Roxanne from accounting tells it, there's not much there to miss." Lee and Amanda both laughed at this as Efraim sulkily carried his bags into the room to the right. "And from what I gathered from your argument the other day, this won't be the first time you two have shared a bed, so we didn't figure you would mind sharing," she said as she turned back to wink at them before following Efraim into the other room.

"It won't be the last time either," Lee said pointedly earning an frosty scowl from his wife.

"Listen," Efraim said from the other room. "Since the events of this thing don't get started for another three hours we thought once we got unpacked, we'd start doing some poking around seeing if we can't buddy up to some of the other couples here and see if we can narrow down who's involved with the Brigade."

"Sounds like a good plan," Amanda said. "Before we do anything else though, I need to get cleaned up. I'm all sticky from the car ride up here." She walked into the bedroom she'd soon be sharing with her husband. She sighed. She'd been looking forward to it. Now, she wasn't so sure.

"And I want to get unpacked and settled before we do anything else," Lee said. following his wife's lead with their luggage.

"Ok, we'll see you guys later," Francine said.

By the time Lee entered the room, made sure the door was firmly closed and locked behind them and laid the two suitcases and two overnight bags on the bed, Amanda had already hightailed it to the bathroom, her discarded clothes in a pile on the bed. He heard her turn on the shower and he began to strip off his own clothes and padded to the bathroom to join her hoping against hope that she wouldn't turn him away. His breath was momentarily halted as he saw the silhouette of his wife's nude body against the shower curtain. He pulled it aside just enough to step in behind her, closing it behind him.

"Hi," Lee said not sure what else to do. Things were so awkward between them right now.

"Hi," she said as she reached for a washcloth, lathered it up and handed it to him over her shoulder. "Can you help me with my back?" Lee swallowed hard. So far, so good. She hadn't kicked him out. He ran the cloth across her shoulder blades, down her back to just above her tight rear end covering her in soap before stepping back a little to let the shower spray wash it off. He then moved his hand lower to her buttocks caressing each cheek with the cloth before slipping it between her legs. He knew his was pushing his luck, but he had to try something to break their stalemate. He held his breath slightly waiting for her reaction. Would she let him continue or would she tell him to go to hell? He was rewarded with a soft moan from her lips and breathed a sigh of relief. He paused for a moment to rinse the soap out of the cloth before moving it back to where he'd had it caressing her gently with it and found himself getting excited at the sounds she was making. He traced the scar on her back with his other hand before lowering his lips to it That scar was always a reminder of how close he'd come to losing her forever and now when he saw it he couldn't help but think that if they'd survived near-death, surely they could survive these never-ending arguments about who to tell their secrets to.

No longer content with just touching her and wanting to taste her, he gently turned her around to face him, locking his lips on hers, probing her mouth with his tongue the way he was longing to probe her body. He lowered his mouth to her neck, then to the scar on her chest before sinking even lower placing his lips to the damp curls between her legs before reaching his true destination causing her to cry out as his lips and tongue began their assault on her most tender region. He stroked her again and again with his tongue and took great pleasure in hearing her moan and cry out his name. He knew she was close and he wanted to bring her over the edge. He pressed his tongue into her more firmly until he felt her shuddering above him and before the spasms from her climax had had time to stop, he stood and raised one of her legs to his hip and drove himself up into her with all the force he could muster, causing her to cry out even louder than before.

Now that he had her where he wanted her, he had no intentions of being gentle. He felt a great need to remind her that she belonged to him. He lowered his mouth to suckle her neck as he continue to drive into her. She knew instantly what he was doing and spurred him on. "Harder!" Amanda cried out her need for him as desperate as his for her. She was tired of the distance their secret marriage was causing and the endless fighting. She just wanted to feel close to him.

"I...can't...get...deep ..enough.. inside...you," he panted hoarsely as he continued to thrust up into her. She decided to help him by taking a small leap and wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips. He pushed up against her driving her back against the cool tile resuming his brutal assault on her neck, biting down more forcefully than he normally would.

"That's going to leave a mark," Amanda said but didn't stop him enjoying he lips ravaging her neck while he was pounding into her at the same time. Lee kept it up driving into her again and again until he felt her clenching around him and heard her crying out his name over and over again. "Oh, Lee you're so good, so hard, feels so good" she cried as wave after wave of pleasure overtook her.

Lee continued plunging into her until relishing the feel of how tight she was around him until he began to tumble over the edge with her. He released her neck and kissed her mouth again but continued to move inside her until the last vestiges of his climax had subsided. He stopped moving but didn't release her, just continued to invade her mouth with his tongue until felt he could no longer hold her up and was forced to let go.

Amanda whimpered at the loss of him inside her and moved to kiss him puling him back into her arms needing to still feel his body pressed against hers. This time it was her turn to pin him against the shower wall kissing him fiercely. They continued to kiss each other feverishly, groping and grinding against one another until the hot water ran out. "We should get out of here before we freeze to death," He said as he turned off the shower spray and stepped out of the shower reaching for her hand to help her out. As soon as they were both out, he pulled her into his arms and began a new assault on her mouth grinding against her again both of them still dripping wet from the shower.

She broke away from him trying to catch her breath. She turned and caught a glimpse of herself in the bathroom mirror. "Yep, definitely left a mark," she said looking at the reddish-purple love bite now visible on her neck.

"Good," Lee said. "Now, people will know you're taken whether we tell them or not, " he said not feeling a bit sorry that he'd temporarily branded her. He lowered his lips to her neck again from in the same spot while he reached for her hands where she had placed them on the countertop and entered her from behind. She gasped and looked down at their linked hands. He lifted his mouth from her neck. and said , "No, Amanda, don't look down. I want you to look my face in the mirror so you can see what you do to me."

Across the hall, Efraim and Francine were just existing their room having finished their unpacking. As they passed the door to the other room, they heard Lee's voice loudly saying, "Oh, God, Amanda, do you have any idea what you're doing to me?"

"You think they're fighting again," Efraim said.

As they heard more sounds coming from them that were clearly not sounds of a fight, Francine said, 'Definitely not."

"Nope. So, what do you think, make-up sex after their fight the other day?"

"Probably," Francine said though knowing what she did now, she highly doubted it. They seemed to have made up when she saw them at the hospital. "You know, whatever, they're doing, we should give them their privacy and go mingle like we said we were going to." Knowing that they were married, she didn't feel comfortable eavesdropping on their private time together, especially since Amanda had told him that they'd been deprived of their honeymoon and had been playing catch-up ever since.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Efraim said following Francine out the front door but he had firmly in his mind that he needed to have a talk with Lee Stetson about how a senior agent should act with a junior agent.

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An hour later, Francine and Efraim returned to find Lee and Amanda sitting on the couch, Amanda legs draped across Lee's lap and her right arm on his shoulder as they both perused the list of participants in the retreat looking for anything that might jump out at either of them.

"Hi Guys," Amanda said briefly glancing toward the door before turning back to the open file on her lap.

"Hi," Francine said a little surprised that they hadn't made a move to change their position since Efraim was there and they'd made it clear that they didn't want her telling anyone about their marriage.

'Is anything jumping out at you here from the last time you dealt with the Brigade?" Amanda asked her husband as she idly played with his hair with her right hand while flipping through the file with her left.

"There are a couple of names that look vaguely familiar. I'll get Billy to have someone run a check on them."

"Stetson," Efraim said, "Can I talk to you in private?"

"No need, Efraim," Lee replied without looking up. "There's nothing you can say to me that you can't say in front of my wife," Lee added with a smile at Amanda. He'd won their last battle and Amanda, tired of fighting had relented. He had made a good point. Efraim was going to find out sooner or later. It's not like they were going to be able to hide her pregnancy anyway.

"Cure, Stetson. Real cute," Efraim said.

"I'm not being cute."

"I don't know about that," Amanda said. "I think you're pretty cute."

'Thanks," Lee said. Efraim looked a Lee with a look of pure fury on his face.

"Efraim, why don't you just say what's on your mind already?" Amanda said.

"Ok, fine, have it your way," He said. "I'm concerned about whatever this thing is you two have going on.

"What thing?"Amanda said purposely being obtuse.

"Oh, come on, Amanda. Francine and I heard the two of you when you were in bed earlier."

"We weren't in bed," Lee said with a grin at Amanda.

"Nope," Amanda agreed.

"Oh, come off it, you two! We heard distinct sounds coming from your room that could only be the sounds of people having sex. Didn't we, Francine?"

"Leave me out of this," Francine said. "As soon as I realized what was going on, I suggested we get out of here."

"Oh, that," Amanda said. "Well, that's true. but we just never actually made it to the bed, did we, Lee?"

"No, we didn't," Lee replied with a mischievous grin at wife.

"And shame on you for listening to what should be private time between a husband and wife," Amanda said.

Efraim looked at her in shock. "Amanda, you do realize that this job doesn't require you to play all the parts of your cover?"

Amanda glared at Efraim incredulously. "Efraim, do you think I'm an idiot? Of course, I know that. Who said this has anything to do with our cover?"

"She makes a good point, Efraim," Lee said. "You've had her in at least a dozen of your training classes. You should know she's smarter than that."

"Lee, you are the senior agent, Amanda's still a freshman and if there's any sexual misconduct going on here, as her training supervisor I am obligated to report it to our superiors." Lee laughed at Efraim's outrage, however, Amanda became outraged herself.

Amanda tossed the file aside, jumped from Lee's lap and pointed a finger in her trainer's face. "Listen, there is no sexual misconduct going on here. That would require there to be coercion or harassment on Lee's part and it would require that I be an unwilling party to it. Aside from which sexual harassment is defined as an unwelcome sexual advance. Let me assure you that I am not in the least unwilling nor are Lee's advances unwelcome. I am an grown woman and who I choose to sleep with is none of your damn business! I will have sex with my husband any damn time I choose and anywhere I choose because I happen to enjoy it!"

"Ooh," Lee said with a chuckle. "I guess she set you straight, didn't she? She just likes sleeping with me."

"Right, because you're her "husband" Efraim said with a snort.

Lee rose to his feet to stand behind Amanda, "I am." He reached for Amanda's left hand with his own holding them both up for him to see. "You'll notice these rings are not Agency-issue? Come on, Efraim, you used to work in fabrications. You should know from the time you spent there that these aren't the cheap crap they normally hand out. Look at her engagement ring, if nothing else. That is a two-carat diamond."

"So, you honestly expect me to believe that the two of you are actually married?"

"That's what we're saying, Efraim," Amanda said as she leaned back into her husband's arms.

"Right, You, Amanda King, getting Lee Stetson, chronic playboy to settle down and marry you. That'll be the day," He scoffed.

'Fine, don't believe us," Lee said as he flung himself back on the couch, pulling his wife back into his lap to her earlier position. "Go ahead and tell Billy what you heard today. I doubt he'll be shocked, He's known that we're a couple for months."

"Actually," Francine said. "He's known for longer than that. When I was in his office yesterday and the subject of your very public fight came up, he said something about noticing you hadn't been out with anyone but Amanda in close to two years.

"It's true. October 1985 is when we started seeing each other exclusively," Lee said. ""You know, Efraim, it doesn't matter if you believe it or not. We're just trying to come clean with everyone. We're both damn tired of hiding our feelings for each other."

"This isn't getting us anywhere," Amanda said. "If he doesn't want to believe us, he doesn't want to believe us. We're wasting time. We've all got work to do," She said picking up the folder she'd tossed aside earlier.

"Yeah, we should all get our minds back on this case," Francine concurred as she began to fill them in on what she and Efraim had gathered from the few people they'd met on their walk through the park.