These are not my characters. They belong to the author Janet Evanovich and thank you for letting us borrow them and run with our fantasies.

I have been working hard on my original and the editing and pushed back to take a break and read a little the last couple of days. I got an idea for this story and it popped out and was finished with a decent ending by this afternoon. So, thought I would start putting it up for you. It is pretty much canon with a Babe HEA. However, even though it has some funny in it, read the title. It's a tale woven with a good bit of my trademark angst.

Not unfriendly to any other characters in the story.

My beta girl, alix33, has not seen it yet. So, all mistakes are mine until she pops in and cleans it up for me. Thank you girlfriend!

Warning - The beginning is hot and spicy!

Handcuffs and Heartache

Chapter 1

It had been two months to the day since Ranger was shot and lay bleeding on my living room floor. He was alive and well and mostly recovered now from the ordeal. But, I wasn't. Over these weeks it was like my life had drastically changed and nothing seemed the same.

I hadn't seen much of the man in black since the day he got out of the hospital and I showed up at his apartment with cake and flowers. He had dosed me with some Ranger humor and told me all I needed was one Ranger. Boy, wasn't that the truth. However, right now, I was missing him so much that I would be happy with just half a Ranger.

I had told Joe the day Scrog shot Ranger that I loved him and that was true. What I had not told him was that I loved Ranger too and I loved him a little more. When Joe had tried to rekindle the romance and move on with our relationship, I stayed idling and unmoving and not very enthusiastic. Finally, after one night of trying to start my engine and keep it running for an hour, he threw up his hands and gave up.

He wasn't angry when he sat up on the side of the bed and put his hands through his dark hair. He turned to me and reached out and gently rubbed my leg and sighed. "This is it, isn't it, Cupcake?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Joe. I think it is. I meant it when I said that I loved you and I always will. It's just not the forever kind for me and I'm not really what you want."

He said with a little contempt in his voice. "It's him you love more. I saw it that day. I've never seen you come apart like that. Have you slept with him?"

I reached out and touched his hand. "Just one night a long while back. I didn't cheat on you Joe. We were in an off period during the time. He hasn't pursued me for a relationship. He doesn't really want one."

He looked at me like I was crazy. "Then why are you pining for him if he doesn't want you?"

I shook my head. "Not too bright, I guess. I don't know. We just have a bond."

He growled, "If that fucker hurts you, I'll shoot him."

"No you won't. It will ruin your cop career. He's already hurt me before. He's a man and he's not perfect," I smiled at him and touched his unruly black hair.

He leaned down and wrapped his hand around my neck and kissed me. "Love me one more time before you hit the road, Cupcake. Me and Bob are going to miss you like crazy."

I wrapped my arms around him and turned his head and whispered in his ear what I was going to do to him and his boys.

That had been two months ago. We had lunch a couple of times and Joe was making an attempt to move on. There was a new female transfer to the station and she was just Joe's type and he had just recently asked her out for a casual dinner and they had hit it off. Goody for him. I was sitting here lonely, except for Rex. I was missing Ranger like crazy.

While reading an article about men and their fantasies in Connie's new issue of Cosmo at the bonds office, a plan began to hatch in my head. I was trying to think what would be Ranger's fantasy? The old lingerie and the raincoat thing was too cliché for him. Oh, he would like it, but I wanted to think of something that would really bring out the animal in him. Black leather and whips were probably in his kinky wheel, but not necessarily in mine. I didn't like pain. I just endured it when I had to. Then the perfect idea came to me. Something very hot and nostalgic for us and worth a repeat performance and if I pulled it off just right, it would bring out the wild cat and the gorilla in him. Oh boy!

I got up and headed out to prepare and fine tune the details of my plan. I went to the salon to see Mr. Alexander and got my hair trimmed and straightened for a sexy change. Then I headed to a little day spa place I knew in a strip mall and got my fingers and toes manicured and my doodah cleaned, polished and waxed. When I came out, I noticed two things. It was winter and now I knew for sure why animals wanted to keep their fur. My bare doodah was sensitive and catching a breeze. The other thing that I noticed was the sign a couple of doors down and I impulsively walked in. I stood there looking around at all the art on the walls and a guy came out from behind a curtain and greeted me.

He smiled at me. "Hey sweet and sexy. What can I do for you?"

I took in a big breath of air and puffed out my cheeks and blew it out. "I'm impulse shopping I think."

He laughed. "Never heard that one before, put exactly like that. Impulse and shopping here is usually combined with spirits. You have any tats?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Big chicken here."

He laughed again. "What were you thinking when you opened the door to my little shop of horrors? Maybe we can start there."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Duh, you're not helping with that visual. I was thinking that I wanted to surprise a special guy with something that would make him say, "Wow!"

He grinned. "A tattoo on your woman can definitely do that. I'm a guy, I know. What would you like it to say and look like?"

I thought for a minute. "Well, this is probably a bad idea. His street name is Ranger. Maybe the name with some nice script, but feminine looking."

He thought for a minute. "Are you talking about that scary cat, Manoso?"

I looked a little embarrassed. "Yup, probably one and the same. So, if we do this, you can't mess it up or you could wake up naked in a third world country."

He threw his head back and guffawed. "You are one funny, chick. I got an idea. Take a seat and let me sketch it for you.

He came back in a few minutes and showed me a sketching of a small tattoo in a really pretty script and he had wound a vine through it that accented the script and it was threaded through a heart. I said, "Wow. That is a beautiful design."

He chuckled. "Guess I got it right. Next question, where do you want it?"

"Well, this is mainly for his eyes. I don't want everyone to see it."

He walked around behind me and stuck it to a butt cheek. "We could put it where it would fall just under a bikini line on your rump. It's a popular and sexy place for a tat on a woman."

I grinned at him. "Okay. Is it going to hurt bad?"

He said, "Nah!" Then he reached behind the counter and handed me a sucker and I giggled.

An hour later, I had my first tattoo and he put a big bandage on it and told me to take it off in a little while and keep rubbing vitamin E oil on it so it wouldn't scab over bad and would heal quickly. I was surprised that it hadn't really hurt that bad. He was a sweet guy and we'd had a nice conversation while he was working.

I did the drive-through thing for dinner and fed Rex when I got home and finished working out the rest of my plan and jumped in the shower for a quick hosing off. I dried and smoothed my hair straight in the couple areas where I got it damp and lotioned and rubbed some vitamin E on my tattoo and into my elbows and knees. I dabbed a little bit of dolce vita fragrance all over my body. Ranger liked to kiss and he liked to kiss everywhere. I then checked my teeth and my breath and dug my two pairs of handcuffs out of my bag. Ookay, it's now or never. I shivered a little.

Being that I wasn't sure where he was exactly, I waited to see if he would answer the phone before I handcuffed myself to the shower rod. I hit speed-dial one and crossed my fingers, because if he didn't answer, I didn't think that I would have the courage to try this again.

"Yo."

"Y… Yo, yourself." Shit, I was already shaking in anticipation.

"You okay, Babe?"

"I...um need a little help."

"Where are you?"

"My apartment." Click. I looked at my phone. I guess that meant he was coming.

I attached one pair of cuffs to the rod and then took the other pair and cuffed both wrists and then reached up and clipped myself to the pair hanging off the rod. Then I shivered and waited and shivered and waited for what seemed like an eternity. An eternity that was really only a few minutes. Hey, I was naked and nervous here. Finally, I heard my locks tumble and very quiet and cat-like steps moving through my apartment. Then his big hands appeared through the doorway of the bathroom wrapped around a gun and then one leg appeared and then the gun moved in my direction and half of Ranger appeared. When he saw me, the serious face changed and began to soften. As a he lowered the gun, a smile began to spread across his handsome face and I watched as his dark eyes began to smolder.

I was a bundle of nerves wrapped in a bundle of crazy wiry nerves. Similar to that big ball of outside Christmas lights that you dread pulling out of the box every year. The one you barely manage to get unraveled to put up. My thoughts and eyes moved back to Ranger. My nerves were even effecting my brain. He was still standing in the doorway. His eyes slowly traveled from my head all the way down my body. They stopped below my waist and he licked his bottom lip. Ooh, good sign. They began to travel again and moved all the way to my toes and slowly back up until he was looking at my eyes. That took as long as it did for him to get here. He said, "Babe..?"

Shivering and at a loss for words and courage, I said, "It's about time. I was freezing my patukas off."

He holstered his gun and slowly walked up to me, but made no attempt to free me. "Who's responsible this time?"

I looked in his eyes and hoped that he saw something in mine that would reveal everything that I was feeling so that I didn't have to say the words. I whispered and said simply. "I am."

He shrugged his wool pea coat off his shoulders and let it drop to the floor along with his utility belt. He slowly walked up to me and snaked a hand around my waist and one gently around my neck and pulled my face toward his and then just rested his cheek against mine. He whispered in my ear, "Are you sure, Babe?"

I whispered back. "Couldn't be any more sure. I…" The words were just lost on me in that moment, but evidently he understood what I was trying to say. He slowly brought my mouth to his and just simply touched his lips to mine. Just the anticipation alone made me moan against those gorgeous and 'oh so sexy' lips. He ran his tongue across my bottom lip and then took my mouth first slowly and sweetly and then it became more demanding. I groaned and opened my mouth for him and he didn't move to enter. Sweet Jesus. I wanted to beg him to enter.

I was trying to get closer to him and thrashing on the cuffs so that I could take control of the kiss and I couldn't get close enough. I thrust my tongue in his mouth and he captured it and sucked me in and kissed me in earnest. He kissed me until my knees literally buckled and he caught me as he always did and looked in my eyes while running his hand down my back to my ass.

I looked at him intensely still shivering and said, "In a million years, I could never learn all the Ranger rules. They're exhausting. I was kind of hoping we could make up our own now. Maybe get on the same page."

He said simply, "Babe."

That hand was now kneading my ass and moved south and my breathing hitched. I shivered again, "Well, you kind of do owe me. I planted bugs on my ex for you and I jumped him and beat him up a little. That was big." He was grinning and amused now. I looked down at the front of his pants where he sported a massive bulge. And, he was aroused. Great sign. He moved just an inch closer to me. I glanced down at myself and groaned feeling the moisture between my legs turn liquid like water just from the heat emanating from him. "Yup, that's big," I gasped.

The grin notched up a big degree into a wolf grin and his fingers started down my butt crack and he stopped at my hiney-hole and I jumped and squeaked. He just lingered there rubbing little circles and I wiggled and gasped out, "Holy hand grenade…" This was butt stuff and he was still going to make me blow.

His tongue flicked out and licked the inside of my ear and goose bumps popped out all over me and he whispered, "What do you want?"

I turned my head into his neck and licked and kissed it. "You. Without the qualifiers."

"Babe, I've already told you…" I took his earlobe between my teeth and sucked.

I whispered. "Ranger, I'm already yours. Turn me around."

He raised his head and stepped back and slowly turned me. He was silent for a minute and then I felt his hand run down my back and stop right at the apex of my butt crack and he rubbed there and then moved it over and lower. Then he did the sweetest thing. I felt his lips moving across the still sensitive skin. The heat of his body left me and I moaned in protest. I heard the rustle of clothing behind me and then his hand was on my stomach and moving down slowly and when he touched my smooth mound with his hot hands, I gasped and my knees nearly buckled again. I felt his breath at my neck and then he licked the place where my pulse was pounding and sucked the tender white flesh there into his mouth and moved those hot fingers between my dripping… Ohmigod!

TBC -