She had decided, after the department meeting, to go to the basketball game. It was one of her quirks; she loved basketball. As a matter of fact, while at school herself, she played on the women's basketball team; she even thought that she'd been pretty good.

Carol Delallio was going to indulge herself. She was so pleased these days with her decisions.

She'd worked as a chef in restaurants, while gathering her credentials for over 10 years. Now at 31, she'd made a change in her life style.

She went to work on the faculty of the culinary institute at the university and loved it. She was still in the kitchen but had the marvelous chance to pass on her experience and good culinary habits to a younger group of up and coming cooks-chefs. She liked that.

She also commanded attention right away. Carol Delallio was what was called, in the vulgar patois of the times, 'stacked'. She was fairly tall, at 5'11" and had very nice bodily measurements.

She was periodically pleased by the attention she got from students and the younger guys, but held herself in check and had 'rules' for her living.

One such 'rule' was against fraternizing with students.

That afternoon the faculty of the institute met and she went the basketball game directly from there. She found, praise be!, a parking place in the parking garage and walked the block and a half to the center where the game was to be played.

She dressed 'up' a little, since she was anticipating the faculty get together. For her, that evening, it was sensible heels and thigh highs, topped by a denim skirt that was a little short but not too short. The skirt had buttons down the front and she wore, over that, a dark blouse. She also allowed herself to show just a little, only a little bit of red lace above her cleavage.

That as her festive gesture to herself, and how great she felt about her new position. It was a red teddy kind of garment that had thin shoulder straps and was high cut at her hips, with fasteners underneath, in the crotch.

Also at the game, as much a fan as Carol D was, was Lt. Reed Garnett. He'd gotten his criminal studies credentials from the university and had been a sports fan from that point on.

He had time just then, and decided to take in the basketball game.

He was sitting a number of rows above Carol D. He certainly noticed her, once she came into the gym for the game.

He also noticed three guys, young guys that noticed Carol D also. They poked one another and made comments to each other about 'the babe'. It was one of the words that Reed heard them use.

Reed Garnett was a 'noticer'; he took in his surrounding and noticed what was going on. He'd been with the police force for 12 years, since graduating from the university. He'd been a detective, and now lieutenant of detectives, for about seven of those twelve years.

He was a tall man, going to about 6'3". He carried his 215 lbs rather well. He worked out regularly and made sure that the workouts were hard; he tended to push himself.

One of the things that made him a good cop, and a really good detective was his instincts. He allowed himself to follow his instincts time after time. That worked for him well.

And tonight, as he sat there, after he'd give Carol D an appreciative glance, he didn't like the attention that the three young guys were paying. He didn't like it at all.

He watched them and tried to hear what they were saying to one another, and what he could hear, didn't sound very good.

The university team had a very comfortable lead, and Carol D decided to head home. She wanted to miss the crowd at the end of the game.

So, during one of the 'time outs', she got up and headed for the exit.

It was then that Reed did hear one of the three guys say to the others: "Okay, let's get her."

It was spoken quietly but he was listening in avidly and heard them.

He let them get ahead of him, to not warn them, and in case he was wrong about their intentions; then he followed them.

Reed walked slowly into the garage and went from floor to floor. As he walked along, he heard a bit of noise coming from the next level up.

As he approached, he had his gun out and ready. He was still hoping, for the lovely lady's sake, that he'd been wrong about the intentions of the three kids.

He wasn't.

He saw immediately and the three were so busy that they didn't see him coming up upon them.

The had Carol D surrounded and kind of in their power. They already had her blouse off and her skirt. She was struggling, until one of them pulled a knife and held it under her throat. She stopped struggling immediately.

She was wearing a full body length, red, lace teddy.

Reed had to stop himself from staring; he was astounded by the beauty of the woman.

The three kids had already unsnapped the crotch snaps and the teddy's bottom was pulled up. One kid knelt and was fingering Carols pubic hair from the front and one of them was playing with her butt from behind.

The one with the knife was saying to her in a soft voice: "Momma, I want a kiss now and you'd better make it good, or else I'm gonna slit your throat right here."

He kissed her and she wrapped her arms around him and waded into the kiss, while the other two played with her.

It was then that Reed got to them.

"Seconds!" he said, and all three of them broke away from the woman.

"Ah," the one who'd been kissing her said, "A hero! Makes our games complete!"

He stepped away from the woman and took a step in Reed's direction with the knife ready. The other two were still kneeling and beginning to get up.

Reed realized that this was his chance. He flipped his coat open in one direction, showing his badge at his waist and brought the other hand up with the gun and simply shot the knife wielder in the hip.

The kid went down with a scream, while the other two put their hands up.

"Both of you," Reed said, "On the ground, face down!"

The two of the obeyed instantly.

"You can dress, Ms," Reed said and Carol D grabbed her clothes and stood behind Reed to put her skirt and blouse on.

Then she was hugging him and crying.

"Oh, oh, oh, oh!" she wailed, "Thank you!"

Then Reed was on the phone, calling for back up and an ambulance for the knife wielder.

Reed held the trembling woman and said: "Congratulations, gentlemen: aggravated sexual assault, attempted rape, assault with a deadly weapon! You're going to be living on the state for quite a while."

It was then that they heard the sirens. The police back up arrived first and then the ambulance. One of the officers rode to the hospital with the knife wielder and other officers took the final two into custody.

"We'll get these guys into the system, Lieutenant," one of the policemen said.

"Thanks, Ray," Reed said. "I'll see to them tomorrow early."

"Good," the policeman said.

All the while, Carol D was behind Reed. Then he had time to turn and face her. She was hugging him again.

"Thank you, thank you," she said, holding onto him.

"We'll need you to come to the station tomorrow," Reed said.

"Yes, I can do that," she said. She hesitated then, and he noticed it.

"Don't know what to do," she said, softly. "I'm so shaken!"

"Your car?" he asked.

"It's here," she said.

"I'll go with you to your car and then I'm going to follow you home," he said, "I know how upsetting this can be."

"Thank you," she said, wiping tears from her eyes. She went to hug him again, and as soon as they hugged, she began to cry again.

"Don't properly know how to say 'thank you'," she whispered.

"Sure you do," he replied, "You're doing it now."

She looked away then and he wiped the tears from her eyes with his pocket handkerchief.

They walked together to where her car was. Since his was a floor below, he rode down with her and she waited until he'd gotten his car and was able to follow her home.

She pulled her car into her driveway and parked it in the garage. He was parked in her driveway behind her.

He walked toward her, after he'd gotten out of his car; she was waiting for him.

"Thank you," she said.

He noticed that she still looked shaken.

"Come in for coffee?" she asked.

"Love to!" he said, accompanying her into the house.

"This is very nice," he said.

"Only lived here about two months," she said to him. "Moved her to teach at the university culinary institute."

"Aha," he said, "Big time chef!"

"Yes,!" she said, breaking into a smile.

By then they were in the house. She stood by the door, still not sure of herself.

"Okay," he said, "Let's go from room to room. We'll do a top to bottom search."

"Thank you," she said, "You must think that I'm a baby."

"I think that you just almost got raped and are acting in a normally, almost shocked fashion. I'll stay here, if you need me to."

She hugged him again, saying: "You are nice of nice! How great for me."

They did their perusal of the house then, going from room to room. He didn't neglect a closet, the attic or any part of the house. They finished with the basement, where she had a work room in a lower floor kitchen that the house had. It was one of the things about the house that caused her interest in it.

"Don't you have to be anywhere?" she asked.

"No, not really," he said. "Had an almost wife who decided about 6 years ago that she didn't want to be married to a cop."

"Oh," she said, and then, without a thought, "How could any woman not want to be with you."

She put her hand over her mouth then and was blushing from ear to ear.

"Thank you!" he said, smiling at her. "Any chance of that coffee now?"

They went to the kitchen and she made the coffee.

"I think..." she began,"I think that I want to take a shower; kind of wash that off of me!"

He nodded. "I'll be here drinking my coffee."

"Thank you!" she said, hugging him again, before she walked out of the room to her bedroom, where she did indeed take her shower.

She came back in 25 minutes; now she was dressed in a pair of black, stretch running pants with a tee shirt over them.

He smiled, as she came in.

"Lovely!" he said, and it made her smile.

"Late night snack?" she asked.

"Never say 'no' to food fixed by an expert!" he replied.

She fixed them each a grilled cheese sandwich, giving him a bottle of stout to go with it.

After they ate, they settled down and talked a bit. She told him about taking the job, as a new kind of start for her.

"I was simply interested in going a new way for myself," she explained. "And the culinary institute here at the university was a grand opportunity for me."

She shook her head then and said: "Have always lived in small towns and have not developed a sense of watching out for who's around me."

"Yes, it takes some getting used to," he put in.

"Almost made me a statistic today!" she said, and a shiver went through her.

She thought a moment and said: "I need to find a way to say a proper 'thank you' to you."

"You've been doing that constantly, since we left the garage," he replied, "And I appreciate that."

She was silent then and said: "I want to ask you something."

"Yes?" he replied.

"Could you ... um ... could you maybe stay here tonight?" she asked. She hurried on then: "I'm not ... um ... asking for..."

"I know that," he said. "Yes, I can. I can grab the couch, and it'll be fine."

She grabbed him then, and simply held onto him.

"You're so wonderful!" she said, "This all will take some getting used to!"

"I know that," he said, "I'm not going to go anywhere."

"Oh, thank you!" she said, hugging him still more.

"TV?" she asked.

"Cool," he said, "We can see what's on."

They spent some time then watching some tv programs; they were nothing earth shaking but it was the two of them and a companionable thing for them to do.

After the TV, she got him a blanket and he took his shoes off, put his gun and badge aside on a table by the couch and settled down.

She got a hug 'good night' from him and went up to her bedroom.

It was maybe an hour later, when he heard her approaching. The moonlight showed her now dressed in a long, ankle length night gown.

"You awake?" she asked softly.

By then he was sitting up and said: "Yes."

"Didn't think it was a good idea to sneak up on a cop, when he's sleeping," she said, grinning at him. But at the same time, he could still see, feel her tension.

He simply looked up at her, with the moon light behind her, showing, through the light beige fabric of the night gown, the outline of her body. He didn't say anything. He just stared for many seconds.

"Mind if I... ?" she began.

He simply turned the cover down and moved to the back of the couch, as she fitted herself onto the couch with him.

He put an arm around her waist and pulled her to himself. It made her sigh and then she drifted into sleep.

The dawn found them still snuggled on the couch, with his arm around her waist.

She stirred and he said, softly into her ear: "Coffee?"

"Yes," she said, "For my hero! Coffee!"

She got up and his eyes then followed her across the room and into the kitchen.

"Wow!" he said to himself, watching her walk away. "Reed Garnett, you're truly a good guy!"

She brought the coffee then, and had taken the time to get himself up and straightened out. He said nothing.

"Work today?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, "Probably good medicine for me."

"Yes, it will be," he said. "Need you at the station to make a statement this morning. We can go together, if you like."

"Yes," she said. "If it's okay, I'll wait for you here and we'll both drive and go in together."

"Sounds fine," he said. He was still determined to be protective of her.

A PROPER 'THANK YOU' AND DINNER:

They got the business of Carol's statement taken care of fairly quickly. Then Reed walked her to her car to see her off. At her car, they hugged and he almost kissed her, but held himself back, not wanting to add to her already overloaded senses. For her part, Carol noticed it and was actually disappointed that he didn't kiss her but she didn't want to 'rush' him at all. It was fairly a standoff.

Carol had a plan in mind, however, since she was still determined to say 'thank you' in a more proper way.

She returned later with her packages.

Someone called out: "Lieutenant! Someone to see you!"

Another voice chimed in: "Pretty woman for the Lieutenant!"

Yet another called out: "The pretty woman is back for the Lieutenant!"

Reed came out of his office and said: "Okay what's all the hoohaa?"

They began to razz him as soon as he saw Carol standing there.

He went to her and they shared a hug in greeting. This produced a lot more noise from the crowd in the detective's room.

She whispered to him and he said, in a loud voice: "Okay, gang, cool it; she brought us lunch!"

Then a cheer went up from the group and Reed proceeded to introduce Carol to the detective squad.

They sat in his office over the lunch. "I wanted to say 'thank you' in a more personal way," she explained.

"This is very nice of you," he answered, "And it was delicious! I can see why the university hired you for the culinary institute."

This got him a large smile from Carol.

"Thank you for saying so!" Carol answered.

"Only the truth," Reed said.

"I'll take my things with me now," she said. "Unless some might like to have more."

"Let's ask them," he replied.

They detectives opted to keep the food and let Reed return her utensils later.

As Reed, then, and Carol were gathered at the door, someone made a loud kissing sound and there were more loud noises from the detectives.

Carol grinned at Reed, who said: "Don't mind them."

It only made their racket louder.

Carol then, with a bit of a blush, asked: "Can you come to dinner Friday at my place?"

The noise continued; the squad was having so much fun at the Lieutenant's expense.

Reed turned to them and said: "Quiet, you apes —— not you, Sally," he said to the female detective, she grinned —- "She's asking me for a date."

They were more raucous than ever then, enjoying themselves.

Sally piped up and said: "Honey, I'd be lot more fun to have at your house than that stick in the mud Lieutenant!"

"Thanks so much," Carol said. "I choose him!"

Now they hooted at Sally.

"Okay, we're out of here!" Reed said and a voice from in the squad room called out: "Coward!"

They walked toward the entrances and Reed said: "I'd love to come to your house for dinner on Friday! What a treat. Can I bring anything?"

"Just your enthusiasm!" she said.

Carol D, by that point, was completely smitten by Reed Garnett. The 'almost kiss' incident stayed in her mind and tumbled there with all the thoughts about what had happened, or almost happened with those three guys.

She found herself, as she worked mentally on those things, coming back more and more, constantly to thoughts about Reed.

By this time, she was determined. She took a deep breath, as they were standing near the entrance and pulled him into a hug.

As they were hugging, and both enjoying it: Reed was simply blown away by the feel of Carol's body almost connected to his. He knew that he was an instant away from getting an erection. Then, as they were hugging Carol whispered into his ear: "I'm going to seduce you on Friday! Be prepared!"

"I'll be up to it!" he said, before thinking.

It made her giggle and say: "Yes, I can feel that you will be."

She quickly brushed her lips across his and then turned to go. She had one more 'arrow in her quiver' and said, as she turned to go: "You watch me walk away now!"

"Won't miss it at all!" he replied and did stare at her, as she strode out of the building, her slacks in a constant motion from the movement of her butt cheeks.

"Wow!" he said, the same way that he had at her place.

She heard him and turned and grinned at him, putting her hand to her mouth and sending him a kiss.

He walked back into the station house just shaking his head. When he entered the squad room, they all stood and applauded for him. He gave them a grin and bowed, as he went to his office.

For the balance of that week, Carol's mind, at work and at home, was focused on Friday night and Reed coming to dinner.

She thought only briefly about the quickness of what was happening between her and the handsome detective lieutenant but didn't let it bother or sidetrack her. She planned the menu carefully, and did her shopping to get all the necessary ingredients.

But there was more for her in her 'seduction' plans. It was a matter of the incident with the three guys in the garage that continued to roll around in her mind.

It made her angry and, in talking to herself, she said that she refused to let those kids throw her into a state where she'd be afraid of or off of sex for a lifetime. That was not going to happen. She was determined about that.

Carol tended to be a very physical person. The way she looked certainly mirrored that. She was, as any man could attest in looking at her, built like the proverbial 'brick outhouse'. She enjoyed that too; it was a core part of her thoughts about herself and her sexuality.

But she realized now, with the attack, her sexuality had to be, in essence, reclaimed.

She was a very determined young lady and her determination, at this point in her life, involved 'getting back on the horse, as the phrase has it, and she was going to 'get back on the horse' with Reed Garnett. That much she promised herself.

She thought about it during the week and made plans based on her continuing thought process about the attempt in the garage.

For that night, she wore the same clothes. It was part of her 'reclaiming' scenario. She hoped that Reed would understand.

As a matter of fact, out of whim, during the afternoon, when she was working on the appetizers, she wore only an apron and shoes. It made her smile, calling up a mental image of Reed Garnett. She was pleased.

She stood in front of the mirror, after an afternoon shower, and slipped on the red, lacy teddy. She pulled up the straps and snapped the snaps and regarded herself.

"Oh, yes," she said. "He's in for a time! That lieutenant of mine is in for it."

Then the thought flashed across her mind: "They're not going to ruin my life; not going to spoil me enjoying who I am. Gonna just show that lieutenant who I really am. Then watch out, copper!"

The thought pleased her. She turned around and stared, over her shoulder, at her butt and was pleased.

"Oh, yes, girl! You've got it!"

Then she paid attention to the heft of her breasts and the puffiness of her nipples.

It was all putting her in a good mood. She was, in fact, re-establishing her sexual identity. She simply refused to be a life long victim for those guys, and she found herself saying that. It made her smile.

She put on next the dark blouse, letting the little bit of red lace show at her cleavage. She smiled. Then it was the skirt: fairly short —-she pulled it up on her waist to make it shorter. She wore smokey thigh highs and heels.

She put on an apron then and paid attention to her dinner preparation, humming to herself all the while.

The dinner preparation process was also a part of her good mood. That was the way it always was for her. She simply loved to cook and to fuss.

She certainly enjoyed it all that afternoon, cooking for 'the lieutenant', as she kept thinking of him in her mind.

She put on music, and it made the preparation time that much more a treat for her. She stood at the stove swaying her hips to the music, and talking to herself: "I wonder if he dances? Hope so!"

She had it all ready in time: appetizers, and a good bottle of wine, and a mouth watering main course.

She hesitated about dessert but then gave herself the message that she'd be the dessert herself. It made her giggle behind her hand.

Then the doorbell rang.

She turned her head toward the door, with a smile on her face, and took off her apron.

"Coming," she said, as she approached the door.

She opened the door and he stood there. He had both flowers and a bottle of wine.

"Why, lieutenant!" she said, "How nice of you to bring gifts!"

"Oh, dear," he moaned, almost to himself, "Look at you!"