AN: Here is the conclusion of Les and Mari's story. Thanks to everyone who has followed along on this little story. Wishing everyone and very happy holiday season and New Year!

AN2: Italics = conversations in Spanish

Disclaimer: The characters and their world belong to Janet Evanovich. I'm just playing with them for fun and all mistakes are my own.

Previously:

"Les?" Her lips hovered barely an inch from mine when the kiss finally ended.

"Hmm?" All of my higher order brain functions were occupied with figuring out if I could steal another kiss, so I wasn't up for talking, much.

"Screw talking and take me to bed."

As I fitted my mouth to hers, I could only think that that was the best idea I'd heard all day.

Chapter 3

You know what they say: the fourth time's the charm

Lester's POV

The first round was frantic. I'd barely gotten Mari naked and in bed before I was coming with a roar as her nails and teeth bit into my skin. The second round was just as urgent and left me shaking and drained – at least until Mari began kissing her way down my torso. I swear her mouth could wake the dead.

The third time, we made love. If this was the last night we'd ever have together, I was going to fill my senses with her. For long, frozen moments my whole world was narrowed down to silken feel of her skin sliding against mine, the hitch in her breathing as I moved inside of her, the honeysuckle and vanilla scent of her shampoo, the sweet taste of her nipple against my tongue, and the way her eyes went pitch black with pleasure as she came in rippling waves around my cock.

I finally collapsed in a shuddering heap on top of her. A gentleman never crushes his woman, so I used the last of my strength to flop over onto my back, pulling Mari with me so that she lay half on top of me.

"Dios, woman," I gasped out when I'd finally regained the power of speech. "What are you doing to me?" Little Les should've been down for the count after that last round, but he was already letting me know he was ready and willing for further service.

Mari cracked open one eye and smacked me on the shoulder. "Don't even think about it," she mumbled. "I need fuel and about twelve hours of sleep before any more funny business, Mister."

I sketched a half-hearted salute. "Yes Ma'am."

"Besides, aren't we out of condoms, yet?" She asked on a yawn.

I craned my neck toward the bedside table. "Nope, the guys left us a whole twelve pack." And I was taking it as a personal challenge to use every single one, if she'd let me.

It was maybe a half hour later, when she was sitting cradled between my legs as she dug into the pint of ice cream Steph had left for us, that I finally got the guts to ask the question that had been plaguing me all afternoon.

"Why did you think I'd cheated on you?"

She turned in my arms so fast I almost got clocked with her spoon. "You're actually denying it?"

"I'm saying that I want to hear your side of things." I sighed. "All I know is that we went to bed one night and I woke up to you telling me to leave." And setting my duffle bag on fire on the lawn of the small house we'd rented just outside of town.

"And you left, just like that, without a fight," she accused.

"I was supposed to fight to stay?" I asked, my eyes widening with surprise. She'd told me to leave, but I wasn't supposed to? Why didn't women come with an instruction manual?

"God, you men are so dumb."

Hunh, and I thought I was respecting her decision by not contesting the divorce. "Look, if I acknowledge that I was wrong to not ask what went wrong, will you try to explain it to me?" I smiled crookedly. "I really am clueless."

She sighed and put the ice cream aside. "And I shouldn't have just shut you out like that," she admitted, grudgingly. She scooted out of my arms and slid over until we both sat side-by-side, propped against the headboard.

"I guess I never trusted that someone like you would be happy with someone like me."

Someone like me? "I never looked at another woman while we were together!"

She snorted. "You were a legend, and you knew it! Remember the time I visited you and that Ram guy wouldn't stop talking about your little black book?"

She'd only visited Trenton once, while we were still dating, and I did remember that Ram and the guys had been most appreciative of inheriting my phone's contact list before I'd purged it.

"It wasn't like that," I grumbled. When she just glared at me, I sighed. "Yeah, I had more than my share of women when I was single, but I don't know how to say it any more clearly – I only thought of you or wanted you after we met up that last time." That I had to specify which of our marriages I'd meant was just a testament to how screwed up our relationship was.

"I saw texts," she muttered, her cheeks flaming bright red at having to admit that she'd snooped through my phone.

I shrugged. Since Hec and Ric had done an extremely thorough background check on her, I couldn't really point fingers. "If you did, I bet they were one-sided."

She nodded. "The couple I saw, you said you weren't interested, which surprised the heck out of me." She snorted with laughter. "I don't even swing that way and I would've had trouble saying no to some of those offers."

She sighed. "If it was just that I could overlook it, but I heard you moaning some puta's name in your sleep that night. Does Maria ring a bell?"

"What?" I asked in confusion. I prided myself on never forgetting the names of even the most casual of hook ups, and there hadn't ever been a Maria. But then I thought back to the last couple of months of our marriage and groaned when it hit me. "Fuck."

I had to grab her fast as she started to roll off of the bed. "I messed up, but not the way you think."

She was rigid in my arms, but didn't move away. "I can't wait to hear this," she said sarcastically.

I sighed. "There's an orphanage in Colombia called Santa Maria. I spent some time around there just before we divorced."

"You were in Colombia," she repeated, her voice flat.

"Yes." I sighed. I'd been so sure I was protecting her by not telling her about my trips into the wind. But after watching everything Ric and Steph had gone through over the last few years, I knew now that probably wasn't the wisest call I could've made. "I was on a mission."

"But you left the army years ago!"

"Yes, but I still had a contract where I was on-call for certain instances." Like when a minor drug lord I thought we'd already sent to Hell popped back up and decided to take cover in a girl's orphanage while I was tracking him down.

"And one of these missions was in Colombia."

I knew she wanted to say more, so I decided to tell her what I could. "I was sent to track down a person of interest." When she just frowned, I sighed. "We'd both get jail time if I gave details, but trust me, he was one of the bad guys."

"And this Santa Maria orphanage was involved?"

"He holed up there, and things went badly." I closed my eyes and said a brief, silent prayer for the souls of the little girl and nun that were killed that day. "People died." And I still had nightmares about it, sometimes. I told her as much.

She was quiet for several long moments before her arms stole around me and she hugged me to her, tight and hard. "It wasn't your fault." She whispered. When I started to protest, she shushed me. "I'll probably be mad as hell at you in a few minutes, but not because of what happened on that mission."

She reared back slightly so that she could look me in the eye. "You acted on orders, and everything you just said me tells me that the only one to blame was the bastard you were sent to find."

Months of therapy had led me to accept that what had happened in Colombia was unavoidable, but knowing that Mari didn't blame me had me releasing a breath I hadn't even known I was holding. We sat there, against the headboard for several long minutes and I just let myself enjoy being wrapped in her arms again. But I had a feeling the peace was going to be short-lived when she finally sighed and released me.

"So when you disappeared for almost a month, you were on some top-secret government mission? One that you couldn't even hint about to your wife?"

"I told you I was going out of town!" I immediately regretted opening my mouth when she reared back, as if I'd just slapped her.

"You sent a two line email telling me you were leaving on a business trip." Her eyes narrowed. "You weren't answering your phone, and all Tank or Bobby would tell me was that you were 'off-line' and would call me when you got back. In my world, off-line means 'I'm visiting my other girlfriend.'"

"OK, I can see how that looked bad." I squirmed slightly under her scrutiny. Mari's glare was twice as deadly as Steph's or my mother's. "Maybe I should've told you that I still ran missions."

"Maybe," she said, her voice saccharine sweet. "Though I can't see why. I was only your wife, Les!" Her eyes filled with tears. "I mean, surely the fact that you were out there risking your life wasn't anything I needed to know about," she hissed. "I was so mad that you'd left me alone when the shit hit the fan, and now you tell me you could've died in some jungle?"

"I screwed up," I crooned as I sat up in bed and pulled her onto my lap. Dios. Her anger I could handle, but her tears… She just cried harder and fought me at first, but I held on tight and whispered a stream of nonsense into her ear until she finally begin to calm.

"You're right. You deserved to know the whole truth about my life." I swallowed around the lump in my throat. "I screwed up and I'm so sorry, baby." I'd thought she'd go ballistic if she'd known I still had a year left on my contract when we got married, but maybe we could've avoided all of this heartache if I'd just come clean. Well, as clean as Uncle Sam would've allowed me.

But then her last words finally sunk in. "What did you mean, the shit hit the fan?"

"You caught that?" She hiccupped and was silent for several minutes, as if she was gathering her thoughts. "I'd just taken a pregnancy test the morning I got your email."

"You were pregnant? You had my baby?" I shook my head as a mixture of dread and disbelief flooded through me. I'd left her pregnant and alone, and she hadn't told me?

"I wasn't pregnant long," she whispered. "I had a miscarriage a couple of days before you returned."

"Oh, fuck," I swore. "And instead of calling first, I just showed up and slipped into our bed in the middle of the night." I'd thought she was nuts for just kicking me out without a word, but I couldn't blame her. I'd abandoned her without a word while she was going through one of the worst experiences a woman could go through, and then apparently babbled another woman's name in my sleep. Sure, we both knew the truth now, that there was no woman, but that didn't make me any less of a bastard.

"I'm so sorry," I repeated. "I should've been there to support you. You're… OK, now?" It was a little late to ask, but I had to know. When she nodded against my chest, I carefully lifted her off of my lap and swung my legs over the side of the bed.

I rested my head in my hands and took a deep, shuddering breath. Intellectually, I knew that it had happened a long time ago, but I felt the loss of our child and it was like a fresh stab wound to the gut. "We probably still have a shit load to talk about, but I won't keep you here to do it." I stood and passed Mari her clothing to before grabbing my own. "I'll go see about getting us out of here."

"Wait." Her hand on me was far gentler than I deserved. "You mean we aren't really locked in here?"

I shrugged. "We are, but Hector has just been waiting for the word from me." Sure, Ric had said we were stuck here, but none of them would ignore us if I signaled we were in trouble or if I gave the 'all clear.'

She shook her head. "Loco." When I turned back toward the door, she stopped me again. "What if I don't want to leave?"

"Yeah?" A thin thread of hope began to unfurl in my chest. I didn't see how she could ever forgive me, or that we could work things out, but my abuela always said that miracles were real.

"Yeah. You should've been honest with me, but I screwed up too." She sighed and started to pull me back toward the bed. "I should've had the guts to confront you, and I should've never kept my pregnancy from you."

I sat on the edge of the bed, but kept my pants firmly on. "You were hurting."

"Yeah." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "But so were you, right?" When I nodded, she tugged on my hand until I was fully reclined beside her. "Tell me the truth, Les. Are you still running missions?"

"No." I'd made the mistake of keeping things from her before, but I promised myself then and there that I never would again. "That was my last mission. I still do bond enforcement, sometimes, but my job is pretty safe these days. Lo juro." I'd become a freaking paper pusher if it meant I got her back.

"I don't want you to change, I just want you to be honest with me," she said, surprising me. Either I'd picked up Steph's habit of talking out loud, or Mari had suddenly developed ESP. "Are you OK now?"

I nodded. "I can even get you a doctor's note, if you like," I joked. I'd pretty much crawled into the bottom of a bottle after she'd thrown me out. And it'd gotten even worse when I'd been served with the divorce papers. I'd probably still be laid out drunk somewhere if Ric and Bobby hadn't detoxed my sorry ass and then dragged me to see the shrink RangeMan kept on retainer.

Her eyes closed briefly, as if in pain. "I think we have a whole lot to talk about, tonight."

And that's what we did. As strange as it sounds, I finally met my ex-wife that night. We'd known each other most of our adult lives, been married and divorced three times, but we'd never really opened up to each other before. It was hard, but I let her see beneath my carefully crafted façade. Well, I am devilishly handsome and insanely good in bed, but I let her see the little boy that cried when his dog died, the scrawny kid that followed his older cousin into the Army, and the guy that would rather watch old musicals than go out clubbing.

I finally really met Mariela Sanchez, and she was beautiful. She was still as sexy and smart-mouthed as ever, but what really made her beautiful to me were her hidden fears and her hopes and dreams. And all it took was my asshole friends locking us in a room together. I'd never tell them that, though.

And when we'd run out of words for the moment, I showed her how I felt. And she gave every ounce of feeling right back to me. Afterward, when our bodies were cooling, and we were wrapped around each other in the too-soft hotel bed, I came to a decision.

"I don't want this to end when Hector finally gets around to letting us out," I whispered as

I held her close in the pre-dawn gloom. "I'd like us to try again."

Mari yawned, sleepily. "You want to get married, again? The courthouse is closed, Les."

"No!" And then I realized how that probably sounded. "Don't get me wrong, marriage is definitely a goal, but I have a crazy idea." Well, it was crazy for us. "Let's do it right this time and try dating first."

"We did that last time."

"I'd like to really date this time," I insisted. As exciting as the weekend visits were, I wanted something solid, something real. "You know, as in we actually try living in the same town. We could bother each other at work, go grocery shopping together, even try sleeping in the same bed without having sex first, sometimes."

"Wow. That sounds really… normal."

When she didn't say anything else, I continued. "I can move here," I told her. "Trenton winters suck, and it's definitely not the place to pursue my life-long dream of being an Elvis impersonator," I joked. I'd miss the crew at RangeMan, but I couldn't help but remember how many arguments we'd had over who was going to move last time. We'd both been so determined to get our own way that we'd both lost out.

She chuckled. "As long as you don't try to become fat Elvis, that'd be OK."

I rolled my eyes. "I would totally rock the jumpsuit." But that was beside the point. "I know we still have a lot to work out, but the thing is, I've always loved you, Mari. I'd like another chance."

She was quiet for so long, I started to dread her answer.

"I'd like that too," she finally said, her voice suspiciously thick. "I didn't stop loving you, either, even when I wanted to hate you." She turned in my arms, so that we were eye to eye. "Yes to the dating, but I expect sex every night, Mister."

I chuckled then, as a weight I hadn't even been aware of lifted off of my chest. "Yes, Ma'am. But you have to tell Ric I'm quitting."

"Me? Do you know how scary your cousin is?" She pursed her lips, thoughtfully. "MGM has casinos back East. Atlantic city is what… an hour or two away from you?"

"There are lots of casinos in Jersey, and any of them would be lucky to have you in security," I agreed. "But did I mention that the winters suck?"

She chuckled, and kissed me softly on the lips. "We'll figure it out in the morning. You've almost killed me, Santos, and I need sleep."

As we drifted off, I felt something I hadn't in a long time. Hope.

L&M~L&M~L&M

I woke, way too early, to the distinctive thump of my Glock and our cell phones as they landed beside me on the bed.

Hector snickered when I blindly flipped him off. "Hey, get up, asshole, Estephania's ordering breakfast."

I raised my head and squinted at the bedside clock. "Some of us actually got lucky last night. It's 0700," I snarled as I pulled the covers up and over Mari's sleeping body. We'd really have to work on her situational awareness. Though on second thought, I hadn't heard Hec come in either. "I didn't give you the all clear, yet."

Hector just smirked and nodded toward the bedside lamp. "You did, all night long, Santos."

I swallowed a curse, as I realized that I really hadn't gotten all of the bugs. "I want every copy you have of those recordings," I said, letting my voice go cold and deadly. A little good natured ribbing between friends was one thing, but gay or not, no one got to see my woman like that, except me.

Hector nodded sharply and left without another word, so I flipped over and started to kiss Mari awake. Yeah, we'd barely gotten a couple of hours of sleep, but little Les was letting me know that it was never too early for morning nookie.

Unfortunately Mari wasn't on board with the plan, once she'd realized that my friends were most likely listening at the door. So, against my better judgment, we showered separately and joined my favorite assholes. Steph proved why she was my second favorite lady by having the coffee and pancakes standing by.

"Did you have to take so long to work things out?" Ranger muttered under his breath as we sat down. "Babe and I should be in Hawaii, by now."

"And did you have to spring us so early? I still have a couple of condoms left, asshole," I whispered as I grabbed the syrup from its place at his elbow. It wasn't like he was actually going to eat a pancake or any of the delicious bacon Beautiful had ordered. When Ric just flipped me off, I snickered. "Honeymoon not going the way you wanted, primo?"

"Les!" Steph's face was flaming bright red. "That's none of your business!"

"And mine and Mari's lives weren't yours," I told her, as I pinned each of them with a glare. Hec and Steph actually had the grace to look a little shamefaced, but my cousin just smirked.

I was all set to keep on ribbing Beautiful, but Mari had other ideas.

She reached over and squeezed Steph's hand. "I still think you're all crazy, but I'm glad you cared enough to interfere." And then she proved once again why she was the perfect woman for me when she grabbed the strawberries and whipped cream off of the table.

"Just don't ever do it again," she said as she disappeared into the bedroom.

"What she said," I told them as I liberated both of our plates from the table. I had a feeling we'd need the fuel at some point. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat but…."

"Santos!" She bellowed from the other room. "Get your ass in here!"

"The boss has spoken." I sketched a jaunty wave at Steph as I headed toward the other room. "Bring me back some Kona and a Hawaiian shirt, willya?"

Epilogue:

One year later

I stepped out into the main terminal of the Las Vegas McCarran airport and stopped to get my bearings. Maybe I was momentarily distracted by the group of Shriners that had just hit the jackpot ten feet to my right, but it took me several seconds to realize that the loud ringing I was hearing was my phone and not the slot machines that lined the concourse.

I checked the display and smiled as I hit accept. "Hola, querida."

"Hello, handsome," Mari purred back. "A little birdie told me you took an earlier flight."

"Well, I knew my fiancé would kick my ass if I were late for my own wedding."

"Maybe," she told me. "But I would've definitely kicked Ric's ass if that'd happened. Who throws bachelor parties in Jersey?"

I slanted a look toward my travel companions. "What can I say – he was dropped on his head a lot as a baby." And Tank had threatened major mat time if half of the Trenton crew had flown to Vegas like they'd originally planned. Ric flipped me off and Steph just giggled.

A SUV was waiting for us by the time we made it out of the terminal. Not so long ago, I would've piled in next to Steph just to piss off Ric, but I let the lovebirds have the backseat. After a year of domestic bliss with my woman, I was a changed man. For example – there hadn't been a single stripper at the bachelor party Ric and Hector had thrown for me. Instead, we'd started the evening with a takedown on Stark and ended it with poker and a couple of boxes of newly legal Cubans.

The biggest change was with me and Mari. We'd both had plenty vacation time to burn, so we'd spent the two weeks after Hec had sprung us… reconnecting. And not just between the sheets. By the time Ric and Steph had stopped by on their way back from the honeymoon, we'd worked out most of the relationship details we hadn't bothered with the first three times. We'd live in Vegas for the time being, alternate holidays with our families, and we knew we wanted at least two kids – in a couple of years.

My career as an Elvis impersonator was put on indefinite hold when Ric refused to accept my resignation. It turned out that Vegas was a prime candidate for its own RangeMan branch, and I was just the man to bring it online. The branch had been up and running for seven months now and we were already in the black.

So, yeah, life was pretty good. I had a job that didn't bore me to tears and a woman I couldn't wait to come home to every night. Not that'd it'd been as easy as that, but Woody and Zero had transferred out with me and Brown had dug up the name of a couples' counselor for us.

Zero drives like a maniac, so we made it to the Bellagio with probably too much time to spare. At least that was my main thought when I was counting down the minutes to the wedding a couple of hours later.

"Quit that!" Steph slapped my hands away from my tie and readjusted it. "If you don't stop fidgeting, I'm going to have Carlos come in here and make you!"

"Him and what Army?" When Steph just rolled her eyes, I flopped down on the couch in their suite. "Sorry, just wish I could see her already."

"She's going to knock your socks off." Steph gave a last tug at my collar and stood back to admire her work. "You clean up pretty well yourself, Santos."

I chuckled. "I never thought we'd get here, you know? Mi primo an old married man, and me finally taking the plunge."

Steph cocked her head to one side. "This isn't your first rodeo, Les."

"It is," I corrected her gently. "The other three times were…" I couldn't put it in words, but this time felt real. "You know, I never did thank you for what you did," I told her, changing the subject.

"You mean kidnapping you and Mari?" Her lips quirked into a half smile. "I took one look at you two in the hallway that night and knew she was the one who got away."

"The Hell?" I asked, offended. My blank face was better than even Ric's. I told her as much.

Steph snorted. "As if. How many monitor shifts did we spend together, Les? Way too many," she answered for me. "And you were never shy about giving me the stats and duration of every hook up you'd had since junior high. You've had more one night stands than Joe Morelli!" When I went bright red, she just patted me on the hand. "But you never mentioned Mari, not once. That's how I knew."

"Yeah." I couldn't deny it, so I stood and dropped a kiss on her forehead. "So thanks for being willing to commit several felonies for my own good."

She snickered. "Anytime." Her phone beeped and she glanced down at the display. "Everything's set downstairs. Though Carlos wants me to tell you that there's a SUV waiting outside if you change your mind," she joked.

I just shook my head. "Not a chance. The fourth time's the charm."

And that's the story of how I married the Mariela Sanchez for the fourth and last time. We had the ceremony for old time's sake at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas on the one year anniversary of our reunion, and Steph and Ric stood up for me. The fountain played 'At Last' as the minister pronounced us man and wife, while our friends and family looked on via Skype. And because I know better than to deny the women in my life, there were two cakes.

The End.