Chapter 40
They made and ate dinner among much laughter and lingering glances. They took turns feeding each other bites from their plates and then sucking the juices off the other's fingers. By the time the food and three quarters of the bottle of wine were gone the sexual tension had built to such a fever pitch that it was tangible in the room. AJ made her feel like a young girl again and he also felt years younger when he saw the desire in her eyes.
"Miranda, I don't want you to think that the only thing I want from you is sex, but I want you again!" he told her. "I haven't felt like this since I was in my twenties! You are so desirable that I just can't stop thinking about making love to you!"
She gave a small laugh, "AJ you have no idea how that makes me feel to hear you say that. I'm flattered and giddy that you want me that way. I love you and want you to love me as often as you like."
He got to his feet and offered her his hand, "Then shall we adjourn to the bedroom my dear?" he asked.
"That sounds like a wonderful plan to me," she replied.
As they lay cuddled in each other's arms later AJ said, "I'm going to be out of town this weekend, my dear. My daughter always tries to come into town to see me for Father's Day, but this year she can't get away. So I told her that I would fly over for the weekend before you and I met."
Miranda shuddered and pushed herself up so she could look into his face, she said, "AJ, I have a bad feeling about your trip…..I don't think you should go."
"My dear, I know we are new in this relationship, but nothing bad will happen if I'm gone for two days."
"That's not what I meant AJ. I have enough faith in our relationship to know we will weather a few days apart, but I just have a feeling you shouldn't go."
"Nothing will happen to me, my dear. I've survived a war and several very dangerous SEAL missions, a weekend in Italy won't be anywhere near that bad, even if I do have a run in with my ex-wife," he smiled indulgently at her and then kissed her further protests away.
She let the subject drop as AJ's kisses became more persistent. Miranda made a mental note to talk to him more about it later.
AJ was going over his morning messages when PO Coates announced that Commander Rabb wanted to see him. AJ usually didn't see Harm till the staff meeting so wondered what he wanted so early. He soon found out that the reason was Harm had received another of the mysterious emails. Harm handed AJ a print out of the message that read, 'Your client has raped before and will again if released.'
"Do you have any leads on where these are coming from Sir?" Harm questioned him.
"I'm afraid not. Whoever is sending them has been very careful not to be discovered. All we have managed so far is to track the sender to public use computers."
"It's frustrating to feel that there is someone out there with seemingly inside information on a lot of our cases."
"Yes, it is, but I'm not sure what else we can do at this point to discover any more. It seems that since we haven't been acting on the advice in the emails, they have become more insistent. The sender appears to be frustrated. Maybe that will lead them to make a mistake and give us something more to go on."
"I hope so Sir," Harm said and after being dismissed, left AJ's office. The newest email came up at the staff meeting later that morning and the speculation that the sender might slip up if the messages were continuously ignored.
Because AJ had an early morning meeting with the SECNAV that he needed to prepare some notes for, he and Miranda didn't see each other that night. That was how he wasn't aware that she'd woken from a terrifying dream gasping for breath and sitting straight up in bed. Miranda had dreamed that Colonel Mackenzie's Vette had crashed because of something wrong with the brakes.
To Be Continued….