Upon re-entering their cabin and seeing that it was empty, Lee took Amanda in his arms kissing her fiercely causing her to drop the bag she was holding as she wrapped her arms around him in response. He backed her up against the door as he probed her mouth with his tongue. They spent several long minutes kissing feverishly until Amanda pulled away breathlessly. Lee used the break to lower his mouth to her neck where he'd left his mark the day before.
"Lee," Amanda gasped. "Lee, we have to stop. We only have twenty minutes."
Lee pulled his mouth from her neck for a moment. "So, we'll be late," he said as he kissed her again pressing himself into her and then began again on her neck as he tugged at her top to caress her skin beneath it.
"But, our cover," she protested weakly.
"Our cover is as newlyweds," he said firmly. "Which we actually are and if anyone asks why we're late, that's the excuse we'll use." Having witnessed the ogling that Chambers had directed at his wife had set off a primal desire to possess her again, to make it known that she was his. He reached between them for the closure of her jeans, quickly unfastening it to slip his hand inside to touch her.
"Oh, Lee," she cried out at the fire he was creating in her. She reached backward to lock the door to keep them from being interrupted as she gave in to her husband, forgetting that they were supposed to be working and just losing herself in sensation.
Once their clothes were discarded right there in the entryway, Lee lifted Amanda up against the door hooking her legs around him as he entered her. He locked eyes with her and said, "You've mine, only mine," as he began to thrust up into her, his eyes never leaving hers.
Amanda returned his gaze, clasped her face in her hands and said, "Yes, Lee, I'm yours, only yours." She knew that after everything they'd been through, he needed that reassurance.
"Oh, Amanda, I love you," he cried out as he moved within her thrusting upward while pulling on her hips to deepen their connection.
"I love you," she replied. She gasped at feeling the hard wood of the door against her back combined with her husband's hard length inside her. "OH, I've missed this so much." While they'd made love several times in the past few days, it seemed like they were still playing catch-up from their thwarted honeymoon and all the numerous nights they'd spent apart since they'd been married. "I've missed you so much." She lavished his face and neck with kisses as her climax began sending her heart soaring and longing for the day when they could live completely openly as husband and wife.
Lee buried his face in her neck as his own climax hit him, and whispered against her skin how much he loved her and needed her, his body trembling against hers as they held onto each other as they began their downward spiral together. "Amanda, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he cried as he lowered her legs back to the floor, but kept his face hidden.
Amanda gently lifted his head from her shoulder, gazed into his eyes and said, "What are you sorry for? If I didn't want this, I'd have said something. You know I would have."
"No, not for this, Amanda. I'm never sorry for making love to you," Lee said, "I'm sorry for this whole stupid mystery marriage. It's all my fault that we've spent the last four months being miserable without each other, living separately, never really being the husband and wife we should be. My idiotic blind fear kept us from being together." Billy's words from earlier in the day had been haunting him ever since they'd left the agency.
"No, Lee, this isn't entirely your fault. It's our fault. You didn't make this decision alone. I agreed to it because I had the same fear. We both made a mistake in keeping our marriage to ourselves and now we have to live with the consequences, but I'm willing to do that if you are. When this case is over, I don't care what we have to do; I can't spend another night without you beside me or wake up alone one more morning."
"Me either, I can't either," Lee said. "I don't care anymore who's pissed at us for keeping this secret. We'll deal with that when we have to, but I can't go on living without my wife."
"And I can't go on living without my husband," she agreed as she tenderly stroked his face. "I can't keep being married and living apart. I was an idiot to think I could do that again and not have it fall apart like it did with Joe. In spite of our fighting, I'm so glad that we finally agreed on this before we fell apart too. I couldn't have lived with losing you." She kissed him softly. "I love you so much," she said with tears in her eyes.
"And I love you," He said placing on hand on each side of her face and kissed her again. "I couldn't have lived with losing you either and that's exactly where we were headed."
"I know. It makes me sad to think that we've been putting everything else ahead of our marriage for months. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that we've been doing that long before we ever got married, even before were engaged. Everything else, the agency, the boys, my mother, even my ex-husband, have always come first and our relationship has come last, always on the back burner. It feels like our whole life together had been filled with nothing but stolen moments, but that's all over now. We need to start putting our marriage first," she said and let out a long breath now that her ramble was done.
"I couldn't agree more," he said with a smile. "I say we start right now." He then lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bedroom. Once there, he laid her on the bed and quickly followed her lying beside her and lavishing her with kisses, kis hands caressing her skin.
While Amanda was greatly enjoying the attentions of her husband, she knew that they were there to do a job, "Lee," she protested between kisses. "We do have work to do." She was trying to concentrate on what she knew needed to be done, but was finding it very difficult with her husband's naked body pressed against hers, the way that he was kissing her, the way that he was touching her.
"Weren't you the one who just said we need to put our marriage first," he murmured against her skin as he ran his tongue along the scar on her chest, a painful reminder of how close their marriage had come to ending before it had really begun. He raised his head for a moment to look at her. "Weren't you?"
"Yes," she said breathlessly.
"Well, this is a start to putting our marriage first. Let Francine and Beaman handle the interviewing part. We have all the files we brought from the office here, and I brought the laptop with me. We can go through all that stuff later," He ran his hand up her thigh to her hip and placed a tender kiss to her lips. "Right now, I just want to be your husband, not your partner." He pulled her leg up over his hip and grasped her bottom to be closer to her.
"Later," she agreed sighing at the way he was touching her.
"Besides, nothing says we have to participate in these ridiculous events to fix what's wrong in our marriage. I think fixing our marriage starts right here with you and me." He kissed her again and wrapped his arms around her.
Amanda wrapped her arms around him kissing him back fervently, wanting more than anything to just stay in this little hideaway with him forever and not let the outside world come between them ever again. When Lee lowered his lips to her neck, she gasped at the contact, giving in once again to the intensity of the feelings she had for him, thinking again of how much she'd missed him, missed being close to him, and how much she was longing for the day that they'd have a real home together.
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Billy had rounded up the freshmen agents and he and Dr. Smyth had handed out individual assignments to each of them in the conference room. "All right, you all have your assignments to work on until Agent Beaman gets back from his field assignment to resume your classes. Now, remember, you are not to discuss your individual assignments with each other or with anyone outside of this room," He said as he exchanged a grin with Dr. Smyth knowing that is exactly what they would do. "Now, let's get to it!: The agents in the room began to disperse except for one who remained seated looking disturbed as she read the details of her assignment.
Once the remaining agents had filed out of the room and she still remained seated, Dr. Smyth said, "Is there a problem, Agent..."
"Newton," she answered. "Stephanie Newton."
"You have a problem with your assignment?" Smyth asked the young woman.
"Well, Sir, I don't mean any disrespect, but...um..." she fidgeted nervously.
"Out with it, Agent Newton! Time is money, as they say," Smyth demanded.
Billy held up a hand to Dr. Smyth to indicate that he should handle this situation. Dr. Smyth threw up his hands and left the room, chomping on his cigarette holder in irritation. Once he was gone, Billy crossed the room to her, leaned against the table to look her in the eye and said, "Whatever it is, Agent Newton, I want you to feel comfortable talking to me about it."
"Well, it's just that I've been in a lot of classes with Mrs. King and I like her. She's helped me out a lot. You know, helped me ease in around here, shown me the ropes and well...I...uh...I've been assigned to check out hotel registrations for her and Mr. Stetson and...I...um...I feel..."
"You feel uncomfortable invading her privacy?"Billy finished for her.
"Yes, Sir. I consider Mrs. King a friend, and she's a good person."
"Yes," Billy said with a smile. "She's a very good person."
"Then why are you investigating her? I mean, from the looks of my assignment, it looks like you think she's having some clandestine love affair with her partner."
"I'm afraid the why is on a need-to-know basis only. Your assignment is very simple. You search hotel registrations for the two-week timeframe outlined in your folder there for Mr. and Mrs. Stetson and if you find a match, you conduct interviews with hotel staff and report back here. I'm afraid I can't tell you more than that."
"But if it's true," she paused a moment as she believed that it was true. She'd seen the way they had looked at each other when they thought no one was looking and she'd heard through the grapevine about the fight they'd had, although knowing the gossip flew around the agency, she wasn't sure how much of it was to be believed. "If it's true, this could ruin her life. I mean, she's a mother of two children."
"I understand that it's difficult to spy on someone that you consider a friend," Billy said in a soothing tone. "But I'm afraid this is a part of the job. Now, if this is something that you feel you can't handle, you might want to consider another line of work." At seeing her hang her head, he said, "It's nothing to be ashamed of. Many people can't deal with the seamier side of the job. In fact, even though she's been here for four years, it's something that Amanda, herself, still struggles with."
"No," she said with resolve. If Amanda King could do this, so could she. "I'm a professional. I can do this."
"Good," Billy said patting her on the shoulder. "Now, go to it."
"Yes, Sir," Agent Newton said. "Thank you, Sir."
Billy shook his head and smiled at how much this twenty-something agent reminded him of Amanda King and found he was not surprised at all to learn that she had been mentoring the younger agent. Billy was lost in his thoughts when Dr. Smyth re-entered the room.
Dr. Smyth puffed on his cigarette thoughtfully watching through the window as the young woman exited the bullpen hastily and said, "This Agent Newton; is she going to be the weak link in our chain of deception?"
"No, I think she's going to do just fine," Billy said with a smile. "I think she's going to be as good as Amanda one day."
"Well, then maybe when she's done with this assignment, we should give her something a little more challenging, something that she can really sink her teeth into."
"Count on it," Billy said.
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David Chambers was wondering what had happened to the Stetsons and why they hadn't shown up for the scavenger hunt when he'd just seen them a while ago, and had searched for them. He made his excuses to the others that he was hoping that they hadn't gotten lost in the massive state park. Maybe they'd just decided as many couples in the past had that the events weren't for them and had left He had just arrived back at their cabin and found that not to be true as the silver Corvette was still parked in front of it. He stepped up on the front porch, knocked and when he got no answer, tried the door only to find it locked.. As he made his way around to the back of the cabin, he heard Amanda Stetson's voice crying out loudly clearly in the throes of passion. He grinned a lascivious grin. He initial impression of her when he'd first seen her at dinner last night were dead-on accurate. She is a firecracker, he thought.