"Stupid son of a bitch," I mumble as I open the door, dropping the keys to the floor outside the door. I step inside and close the door behind me. I’m not inviting him in. "Hi, Honey, I’m home," I call out.

I put my bag down and lift my head to find Kels with my Twinkie, licking the filling from … Oh God! What I wouldn’t give to be a little yellow sponge cake.


* * *

I hear the key in the lock. Instinctively, I know Harper is back. I can feel it, feel her. Given my current state, I have two choices: admit that I was worried about … eh … without her, or torture my partner. I know she’ll forgive me for torturing her; I would never forgive myself for admitting the other.

I pick up the Twinkies, remembering her comment about licking out the cream. I open the package and wait until I’m sure we’re going to be left alone. Then her eyes meet mine.

She thinks she can beat me at this game? I invented sexual frustration and have honed it to perfection over the years. After taking a small bite, I lick my lips and then take my finger and insert it slowly into the creamy center. I swirl it around, letting her see the effect of my finger on the spongy texture.

When I withdraw it, it is coated with the sugary nectar. I look at it for a long moment. Then, slowly, while watching her, insert it in my mouth. She groans and I can’t help but grin.

"Get everything you need?" I ask as I remove my finger from my mouth. Is that a slight tremor I see?

"Oh, don’t go there right now, Little Roo, especially with what we need to do," she growls at me as she steps forward.

I offer her a bite of the cake. "I’m sorry, Tabloid." She takes hold of my wrist and my eyes as she takes a long, slow bite. Oh Lord, well, we just might be evenly matched. "I … I needed to play a little, to break up the tension," I stammer.

"You call that breaking up the tension? Good God, woman, you’d kill a normal person in the bedroom." She drops her backpack to the ground and begins unzipping it. "Good thing for you, I’m not a normal person."

I chuckle as I pop the last of the cake into my mouth and bend down to see what she’s brought back. I recognize the transceiver, pinhead mike and receiver. "What are these for?"

She smiles. "Ah, thanks for finding those, baby." Before I realize what is happening, she stands up and drops her jeans to the floor. I am now kneeling by her backpack staring at a mile’s worth of leg ending in a white thong.

"I … I …" I am going to pass out. "I always figured you for a boxer gal," I manage finally.

She laughs, low in her throat. "I didn’t know you thought about me in my underwear, Kels."

God, more than you know.

She then pulls the elastic of the waistband away from her skin and I nearly faint. I force myself to not crane my neck to get a good look down. I also refrain from offering to help.

Next thing I know, she is putting the transceiver down the front of her underwear.

Okay, I think my Twinkie trick just got its ass beat. "What are you gonna do if they search you?"

"Anyone who puts a hand there uninvited, loses their arm at the shoulder. Because I’ll rip it off and beat them with it."

"I’ll keep that in mind."

She shrugs as she unrolls the mike wire. "Oh, you have an open invitation."

She plugs in the lead to the pinhead mike and runs it up under her shirt, lifting her T-shirt as she goes. I watch with avid interest as the tanned flesh is revealed. Damn. She has six pack abs to die for. She pulls the front of her bra away from her skin and slides the mike under it. Letting the elastic snap back, it holds the mike in place for her, she secures it with a small piece of tape as well.

"Can you give me a hand?"

"I’ll give you two," I mutter, giving serious consideration to that invitation.

She tsk’s and then spins around offering me her broad back. "Run the receiver lead up for me?"

I take the dangling earpiece and run the wire around her hip, holding it in place with my left hand as my right hand pulls it though the elastic of that thong and then up her spinal column. I hit the edge of her rolled up shirt, and have to lift it up and slide my hand under to continue my path.

"Want it under your bra?" She gives a nod and a grunt as my fingers slide under to move the receiver through. She’s so tall, however, that I can’t reach down from her collar and pull it out.

"Bend your knees," I husk, then quickly clear my throat.

"Okay, but, hurry, Kels, we don’t have time for you to feel me up right now. Later. After we get the fuck out of here."

"Stop flattering yourself."

"Stop rubbing yourself against me," she counters.

"I had to lean to keep my balance."

"Uh huh."

Finally, my hands stop betraying me and I grasp the earpiece and pull it clear of her shirt. The black lead wire blends in with her hair perfectly.

She takes it from my fingers and presses the small device into her ear. "Thanks." Turning around, she gives me another long look, then she leans in and does something I’m not expecting.

"You missed some," she says as she licks a bit of cream from the corner of my mouth.

Oh, I want to turn my head and kiss her senseless, but I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do it. No matter how much my mouth and other parts of my body want to. I am not going to do it. No.

While I struggle with my now raging hormones, remembering the taste and feel of that kiss we shared in the closet, she drags her jeans back up her long legs, zipping them and then fastening the button. Her shirt is tucked in next.

I successfully resist the urge to lean into her breasts and whisper "testing, testing." I should get an Emmy for that restraint.

For her part, Harper seems completely unaffected by our game, having recovered from the Twinkie moment with her usual smug grace.

She’s just finishing up the prep on the camera and helping me with my mike when the door opens again. It’s one of the younger guards, much bigger than the last one. Tall and very meaty, he looks like a human wall. My guess is he would be our host’s attempt to intimidate my partner.

"Boss is ready ladies. C’mon."

"After you, Kels. Stick close as we go outside." She adds this last bit for our non-viewing audience.

"Oh, no problem there, Tabloid, trust me." I take a deep breath and adjust the mike one last time, remembering the feeling of her hands raising my shirt to put it in place. God, I’m reduced to this as foreplay. You know, it occurs to me that I used to put my own damn mike on, but I haven’t since we met.

Harper takes a moment to adjust and collect all our gear. She gives me a look that says ‘trust me’ and I know I do, with my heart and soul. She hands me a jacket that looks like hers, but by the smell of the cologne I know it belongs to Jims. Sweet kid, but he needs help with his taste in aftershave. I slip the jacket on, grateful for the extra warmth now that I’ve lost Harper’s. Stop it, Kelsey!

The human wall leads us down the hall and out to the porch. Jesus, there are cops and National Guardsmen everywhere. Even this idiot must realize he isn't going to simply make this go away. Scamp is standing there too, seemingly oblivious to the danger posed. I follow him as he leaves the porch for the front yard. I hear Harper right behind me. I watch as our host takes a deep breath, as he seems to survey everything around him. He’s far too calm.

Harper rigs him up with a mike and presses one of his goons into service, holding the antenna for her so we can broadcast back to the truck. Then Harper lifts the Betacam to her shoulder and winks at me, giving me another smile. Okay, I like that smile … a lot. Even Beth, whom I adore, doesn’t have a smile like that. And, certainly, doesn’t make me feel as safe as Harper does. Less sexually frustrated, yes; safe, no. Sometimes, actually, most of the time, safe is a hell of a lot more important.

"We’re ready. Are you?" I ask, as I take my mark where Harper has pointed to the ground as she begins rolling.

Scamp turns slowly and looks at us. "Are you really ready? Are you prepared to air to the entire nation the death that will most certainly take place here today because people refuse to allow us to live here in peace."

I fight to not roll my eyes, okay, Kels, be a professional. Instead of what I want to say, I say, "There are those who say that you have provoked this antagonism – that you would have been allowed to live here in peace if you had not deliberately encouraged the young men of this community to terrorize the local citizens. If that is true, then it suggests that you deliberately set up your own downfall. Why did you take such an aggressive course of action?"

"It’s important for people to know how corrupt our own government has become."

I hear Harper snort behind me and I can almost hear the Lewinsky joke rolling around in her head. I take another deep breath. "Risking the lives of more than a hundred and forty people being killed is going to prove how corrupt our government is? How so?"

"Men are no longer allowed to live as God intended. Free from the restrictions of a government that now has to control our every movement. From the moment we are born until the second we die, they know what we are doing."

Great, just great, a paranoid maniac with conspiracy delusions, this should be fun.

He continues as he looks at the law enforcement surrounding him. He knows they are closing in. "We are forced to register our children when they are born by getting social security numbers for them. Our young men must register for a draft to fight unjust wars on foreign soil. You have to register to vote. Provide ID to buy guns to protect your family. You work hard and the government takes money from your pocket and food from the mouths of your family to pay for its own decadence."