Chapter 1

Hi, my name is Stephanie Plum and I am a bounty hunter. I am currently at a sleazy bar on Stark Street doing a distraction job for Rangeman. Bobby is behind the bar, Tank and Lester are outside. Ranger has been out of town for a month doing some business in Miami and spending time with Julie. I just want to get this distraction job over with so I can go home and take a hot bubble bath.

I strutted up to the bar in my short red leather skirt and ordered a Corona. My skip was already sitting at the bar, so I just sat right next to him.

"Hi," I purred in my sexiest voice.

"Hi, I'm Dave."

"Susan, good to meet you."

"Well, Susan, what are you up to tonight?"

"I was supposed to go out with my boyfriend, but the asshole stood me up."

"That's too bad Susan, can I buy you another drink?"

"Sure, Corona," I stated.

"Corona for the lady and another shot of tequila for me," Dave shouted to the bartender.

Bobby sat the drinks down in front of us and gave me a small smile.

"So, Susan, are you looking for some company tonight," Dave whispered in my ear while his hand was making it's way up my thigh.

"Oh, I don't know."

"I can be real good company."

"Mmm, yeah, I bet you can be," I half whispered, half moaned into his ear.

I allowed his greasy hand to slide up my thigh and then suddenly stood up.

"Well, I'm parked out back Dave."

As I stood up I felt Dave grab my hand and we walked out the back door together. The instant we were outside Dave had me pinned up against the wall. His hands, tongue, and mouth were everywhere. "Um, come on Dave, let's wait till we get back to my place. Let's wait until we have some privacy," I said in the bravest voice I could muster. Dave ignored my request and continued to attack my body with his. My flimsy top was ripped from my body, his mouth sucked hard on my neck, his hand was moving up my thigh again. Hot tears were coming down my face. Where in the hell were Lester and Tank? Suddenly Dave was pulled away from me. I looked up into Lester's hazel green eyes and he quickly stripped out of his tight black t-shirt. "Here Beautiful," he said as he pulled his shirt over my head.

Everything suddenly hit me at once and I hurled myself at Lester's now bare chest. "Oh Baby, shhh, it's okay, we're all here now. Everything is going to be okay, you are safe now."

"Les, man, what the hell happened?" "What took you guys so long," Bobby yelled at Lester.

"There was interference with our mic's or something, are you and Tank okay with taking Dave in to the cop shop?"

"Yeah, sure man, we got it." "Feel better Bomber, you did good tonight."

"I'm gonna get her out of here." Lester whispered over my head to Bobby.

Lester turned me to his side and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. When we reached one of the waiting black SUV's he helped me get in. When he got in the driver seat I touched his tan, muscular arm and said "Thanks Lester." Then I must have fallen asleep because that is all that I remember.

The next thing I know we are pulling up to the Rangman building.

"I thought you were taking me home."

"I thought you might not want to be alone tonight. You had a pretty bad scare back there." "I'm so sorry me and Tank didn't get there sooner." Lester held my hand gently with a pained expression in his eyes.

"Alright, I'll stay here tonight, but you sleep on the bed and I'll take the couch." I smiled up into Lester's sad face.

"No way, Baby, you get the bed and I'll take the couch," he grinned back at me.

Chapter 2

"Wow!"

"What?" Lester asked in a confused voice.

"Are you sure this is your apartment?" I asked, turning to look at his face.

"Yeah," he answered, still confused.

"But, it's so clean and organized."

"Oh, haha," Lester stated with a grin on his face.

I grinned back and moved into his small kitchen and started going through the cabinets. "Uh, Les…"

"Yeah Baby."

"What's for dinner at Hotel Lester Santos?"

"How bout a pizza from Pino's, I'll go pick it up."

"Great, can I use your shower while your gone?"

"Yeah and if you need anything while I'm gone Hal is downstairs on the monitors."

Lester shut the front door behind him and I went to find his bathroom. His apartment is set up a lot like Ranger's. It is just a little smaller. There is a living room, small kitchen with a bar, and the bathroom is through the bedroom. Whoa, Lester has a big four poster bed and I just have to test out this mattress. I flopped down and sunk into the thick down comforter. Now I wanted to hurry and take my shower so I could get back to that heavenly bed. 'Oh, darn," I thought to myself while entering the bathroom. It is a nice bathroom with all of the necessary amenities, but no special shower like in Ranger's apartment. At this point though, it didn't really matter, I just wanted to get the smell of the bar and Dave off of me. At the thought of Dave I felt hot tears start to well up in my eyes. "No, no more of that," I said out loud to myself. I stripped off my red leather skirt, Lester's black t-shirt, and stepped out of my fmp's.

I stepped in and adjusted to water to very hot and checked out grabbed Lester's shower gel. I grinned, it smelled just like him, like old spice. I cleaned my body with his body wash and then washed my hair with his shampoo. Of course, in typical male fashion, Lester does not have any hair conditioner. I didn't even want to think about how my curls were going to look in the morning. Oh well.

I stepped out of the shower and realized I had one small problem---- no clean clothes. I put my sheer black thong on, wrapped the thick white bath towel around me, and tentatively stepped into Lester's bedroom. "Les?" No answer. The coast was clear so I wandered into Lester's closet in search of something to sleep in. Lester has a small walk in closet with jeans, t-shirts, some nice dress clothes, his Rangeman uniforms, and a small safe (which I assume hold his weapons.) I snooped through his closet a little bit and came across a well – worn olive green t-shirt. "I bet this looks great with his eyes," I said out loud.

"I think so."

"Oh, my God Lester!!"

A smiling Lester was standing right behind me. I pulled the towel a little closer around my body and stammered out, "I, I was just looking for something to wear."

Lester's face softened, "It's fine that you're in my closet Baby, get whatever you need." "I rented the new Die Hard movie, have you seen it yet?"

"No, but I've been wanted to see it."

"Great, I'll go set up the movie and you can get dressed."

Lester walked out of the closet and towards the living room. I slid the olive green t-shirt over my body and dropped the white towel. I went and hung up the towel in the bathroom and combed out my hair, still concerned about how it was going to look in the morning with no conditioner.

"Hey," I said to Lester as I entered the living room.

"Hey yourself, you better get some pizza before I eat it all."

I grabbed a plate, two slices of pizza, and a cold bottle of water from the kitchen counter and went to join Lester on the couch.

"Mmm, I don't think Pino's knows how to make a bad pizza," I said taking my first bite.

Lester just smiled at me and started the movie. It was action packed and we watched the first half in silence, until I stood up and stretched.

"What, you don't like it?" Lester asked in a worried voice.

I smiled back at his concern, "No, I do like it, I just have to use the bathroom."

"Oh," Lester said turning back to watch the movie.

I went through Lester's bedroom again to use the restroom and when I came back into the living room Lester had cleared out pizza mess and was sitting on the couch with a blanket across his legs.

"Hey, are you interested in sharing that blanket?' I asked while sitting down next to him and pulling part of the blanket over me.

"I guess you just answered your own question," Lester joked back. Lester unpaused the movie and we went back to watching the movie in silence. I felt myself start to doze off and snuggled into Lester's warm side. I guess it was okay with him because he wrapped his arm around me. "Thanks again Les," I mumbled as I dropped off to sleep. "Your welcome Baby," Les whispered back and kissed me on the top of my head. The last thought I had in my head as I drifted of was wondering why Les had been calling me "Baby" all night long and why I liked it so much.

Chapter 3

I woke up to fingers lightly running up and down my back. I may not be a morning person, but this was a nice way to wake up. "What time is it?" I mumbled sleepily.

"It's only 6. I'm going to the gym and wanted to know if you would like to join me," Lester answered back. I looked up at him to find him laying on his side next to me in his bed. "How did we end up in here?"

"I carried you in here last night, but I slept on the couch," Lester said while sitting up. He was wearing black basketball shorts, a white tank top, and was now putting on his tennis shoes. "God, he looks hot," I found myself thinking. Then I found myself thinking, "What are you thinking?"

"Thanks for the offer Les, but no I do not want to go to the gym at 6 in the morning."

"I kind of thought that might be your answer sleeping beauty," Lester said while throwing a pillow at my head.

"Hey!" I yelled while sitting up and throwing my own pillow at his head. He grabbed the pillow out of my hand before I could even throw it and pushed me back down on the bed. We were suddenly wrestling on his bed---he was going easy on me. I had never seen Lester have this much fun and I thought I was going to pass out from laughing so much when I heard someone clear their throat. Lester sat straight up and I looked up to find Bobby standing in the doorway to Lester's bedroom. "Bomber, Les." "Sorry to interrupt, but I thought you were supposed to meet me in the gym a half hour ago," Bobby stated in mock anger.

"Alright man, I'm coming," Lester said to Bobby while standing up from the bed. "Steph, I'll be back in about an hour and then I can give you a ride to wherever you need to be this morning."

"Okay thanks Les." "Have fun at the gym Bobby," I sat up on the unbelievably soft bed and gave Bobby my finger wave. The guys walked out of the bedroom and I heard the front door click shut when they left. I couldn't believe I was actually going to do this, but I decided to get out of bed. It was Friday and I was hoping to get some money into my sad bank account so that I didn't have to work on the weekend.

I slid off of the luxurious bed and went to see if Lester had any coffee in his apartment. As I moved into his small off white kitchen I did notice a coffee maker that I had not noticed the night before. I searched through Lester's cabinets and finally found coffee. And this was not just any coffee, but Starbuck's coffee---yes!! I set up the coffee to brew and figured I would go see how scary my hair looks this morning.

I walked back towards the bedroom and saw that there was a pillow and blanket on the couch, so Lester really did stay on the couch last night---what a gentleman.

Alright, onto the scary hair show. I looked in the mirror and was actually pleasantly surprised, my brown curls looked fluffy and I began searching for a brush. I brushed through my hair and pulled it up in a simple ponytail with a hair band I found in one of Lester's drawers, "interesting," I thought to myself. Next, I stepped into Lester's shower and lathered up with some of his fantastic shower gel. I stepped from the shower and wrapped myself in another fluffy towel.

"Oops, no clothes again," I whispered to myself. I stood there thinking for a minute and then decided I needed coffee. I wandered back out to the kitchen and fixed myself a cup with lots of cream and lots of sugar. Just as I finished my last sip of coffee I heard Lester's front door open.

"Have a nice workout with Bobby?" I asked while setting my coffee cup down.

"Yeah, I did," Lester answered while walking towards me. "You look good, is this how you're going out today," He asked while ruffling my hair a little.

"Yeah, what do you think of my outfit?" I asked while standing up and twirling around.

"As much as I like it, I think that it might be kind of hard chasing skips in just a towel," Lester answered while walking back towards his bedroom. "I'm gonna grab a quick shower and then we'll figure out what do with you."

"Oh, thanks," I answered back sarcastically.

I heard the shower turn on and poured myself another cup of coffee. While I was drinking my coffee I found myself wondering how Lester looked all naked in his shower with all the soap and the water. "Stop it," I whispered out loud to myself.

"Stop what?" Lester asked. Once again he was standing two feet away from me and I had been so wrapped up in thoughts that I hadn't even heard him.

"Oh, nothing." "Now I still need clothes," I said trying to distract him. "I think I still have some stuff in Ric's apartment. Do you think you could go check?"

"Oh, you still have clothes in there huh?" "Umm, yeah, sure I'll go check it out."

I don't know why everything suddenly got so uncomfortable. Les and I had been having a nice morning and suddenly I mention Ric and he gets all weird on me. I don't get it.

"Okay, thanks Les." "I'll just be waiting here in my towel," I said hoping to lighten the mood.

Les grinned back at me and I watched him walk out the front door in his Rangeman uniform.

Chapter 4