I don't own them, J.E. does. I'm not making any money from this.
School Daze
Chapter 1
Ranger and Tank pulled into the parking lot of the local community college and quickly found a parking space near the sidewalk that would take them to the business building. For the next eight weeks, the college was offering a special course in business that included word processing, Microsoft Excel spreadsheet something-or-other and assorted other office crap they needed to learn.
Ranger looked at his watch. "The class starts at 1900 hours so we have fifteen minutes to get to the building, find our room and get a seat near the front of the class," he told Tank.
"I always used to sit in the back of the class," Tank grumbled. "Why do you want to sit in the front?"
"That was high school," Ranger explained patiently. "Now, we actually want to learn something. We're paying good money for this."
"It seems silly to take these classes when we could just hire someone to do all the office work," Tank said, as he opened the passenger door of the Bronco and slid out.
"We will be hiring someone to do the office work, but we need to know what's going on, otherwise, the people we hire could do anything they want, even rob us blind, and we wouldn't know anything was wrong until it was too late."
"I guess that makes sense," Tank said grudgingly, as they made their way to the business building.
They found the room easily, but there was a problem. The desks were large enough for Ranger, but Tank's large body would not fit into the stupid opening between the desktop and the attached chair.
Ranger glanced around the room and noticed an over-sized desk in the back. "No worries, Tank. I'll swap one of these smaller ones in the front row for the larger one. Hang on."
Ranger headed to the back of the class and got to the over-sized desk just as another student slid into it.
"Excuse me," Ranger said politely, but that seat is taken."
A tall blonde kid who looked about eighteen or nineteen grinned up at Ranger, daring him to try to take the seat. He was a pretty big kid and Ranger figured he was fresh out of high school and had played on the football team. He definitely looked like a jock.
Under different circumstances, Ranger would have given the kid a threatening look and that's all it would have taken to get him to move. However, this was the first day of school and he didn't want to cause any trouble right off the bat. He took out his wallet, located a twenty dollar bill, and dangled it in the air. "The view near the window is nice this time of evening," Ranger said.
The kid looked over to the windows and grinned. He turned his head back to Ranger, stood from the desk, grabbed the twenty and made his way over to a seat near the window. Ranger picked up the desk and carried it to the front of the room just as the instructor entered.
She looked at Ranger who was still holding the desk over his head and raised one of her shapely eyebrows. "Redecorating or just rearranging?" she asked him.
Ranger sucked in his breath and handed the desk off to Tank. The instructor, Ms. Plum, was gorgeous. She had long brown curly hair, huge blue eyes and the longest, shapeliest legs he'd seen in quite a while. He flashed her one of his two hundred watt smiles and said, "Just helping out a friend."
Ms. Plum's eyes widened when she took in Tank's appearance. The man was huge and it was clear he needed one of the over-sized desks. She nodded and went to stand behind her desk waiting for everyone to be seated.
Finally, she spoke. "I'm Stephanie Plum and I'll be your instructor for this special condensed business course the college is offering. If it turns out to be a success, the college will consider offering it once each academic year, so I'm hoping you'll all listen well, study hard, and do your part to make the program a success."
A kid in the second row raised his hand and Ms. Plum asked him to state his name and then ask his question.
"I'm Steve Cunningham. Are we going to have a lot of homework, professor?"
Here we go already, Stephanie thought to herself. Students worried about homework on the first day of class. "First of all," she told him, "I'm not a professor. There will be some homework, but a lot of it will be in the form of worksheets that you'll need to complete. There will also be required lab time, so be sure to get one of the handouts from my desk with the hours the business lab will be open for this course. Now, any other questions before we get started?"
Steve Cunningham raised his hand again and Ms. Plum nodded her permission for him to speak.
"How come we paid for college classes and didn't get a professor? That doesn't seem right."
Ranger turned in his seat to face the kid. "Cunningham!" he barked out. "Did you bother to read the information in the course description? Ms. Plum has a degree in business administration and she is a local business owner. She went back to college in 2004 and earned her teaching certificate. At her business, she trains people for office jobs and offers them job placement assistance. The college asked her to teach this special program as an extension course. It's not part of the regular curriculum." He turned to Ms. Plum and threw her a brilliant smile.
Stephanie raised one eyebrow at Ranger when he finished speaking. "You left one thing out," she told him.
Ranger bit his lower lip as he thought back to the bio he'd read about her. "I'm sorry," he finally said. "What did I leave out?"
"Well, ever since I learned to speak English, I've been able to answer for myself."
Ranger's eyes widened. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out at first. Not true for Tank who was snorting with laughter along with the rest of the class.
Finally, Ranger found his tongue. "I apologize. I didn't mean to speak out of turn."
She gifted him with a friendly smile. "Apology accepted, Mr.?"
"Manoso," Ranger said, filling in the blank. "But you can call me Carlos or Ranger."
"Mr. Manoso works for me," she said with a no-nonsense tone. "Now, let's get to work."
She picked up some packets from her desk and handed several to the person in the first seat of each row so they could take one and pass the rest behind them. When she handed a few to Ranger, she felt a tingle as their hands made contact. Ranger felt it too. His head jerked up and their eyes locked.
Dios! She was so beautiful. She was wearing a blue wrap around dress that matched her beautiful eyes. On her feet were black three inch heels with a strap around her slender ankles. She had medium size silver hoops in her ears and eyelashes that were so long, they could be weapons. Indeed, weapons that could capture a man's heart, if he wasn't careful.
Ranger swallowed hard and contemplated whether or not he wanted to be careful where she was concerned. His life didn't really lend itself to relationships, but he was completely on board with flirting, dating and good sex. He wondered if she was single. She wasn't wearing a ring on her left hand, but that didn't mean anything. Next, he wondered what she was like in bed. Besides being beautiful, she moved gracefully and was very confident. He liked confident women. He really liked beautiful confident women. He especially liked beautiful confident women with long sexy hair and big blue eyes.
The packet Ms. Plum handed out contained the syllabus for the course, a laminated sheet that had a diagram of a computer keyboard and their first two assignments.
Ranger flipped through the packet as his mind pictured her wrapping those long legs around his waist as he pressed her back against the door to his seventh floor apartment. Ms. Plum was talking about becoming familiar with the keyboard diagram, but Ranger had used a keyboard a million times. He suspected most everyone in the class had and it seemed like a waste of time. That said, he loved listening to her voice so he didn't really care what the subject matter was.
Before he knew it, class was over and he found himself disappointed. He wasn't ready to leave, but Tank had already gathered his things and was heading to the door.
It was Monday night and the next class was Wednesday night. He'd make sure he and Tank arrived in separate vehicles on Wednesday so he could stay behind and speak with her. Maybe he'd invite her for coffee after class.
Stephanie leaned back in her chair and watched the students file out of the classroom. Her eyes lingered on the man who had introduced himself as Carlos Manoso or ... what did he call himself? Ranger? Yes, she thought it was Ranger or something like that. He was strikingly handsome. Gorgeous, actually, with skin the color of mocha ice cream and a smile that made her panties wet before class even got started.
He was cute when he spoke up for her to one of the other students and totally adorable when she rebuked him in a humorous manner and he apologized. She had a feeling he was a man who wasn't used to apologizing, but it seemed he was a gentleman, and if he felt he owed a woman an apology, he wasn't above offering one.
His eyes were a beautiful shade of brown and practically pierced a hole through the student name Steve Cunningham, but when he turned them toward her they completely transformed and became soft and gentle. Too bad he was a student. She figured he was in his early thirties, as was she, and if they'd met under different circumstances, she would have been tempted to ask him out.
She wondered how he felt about women taking the lead and asking for a date? He seemed like the type of man who liked to be in control, but at the same time, he didn't seem like he would feel intimidated or put off by a woman taking the initiative in asking for a date. Not that it mattered, since he was, in fact, a student.
Of course, that would only be true for eight weeks. If she still liked him and was still attracted to him once the course was over, maybe she'd ask him out. Something to think about.
A/N – I'm working on a longer, more complicated Babe A/U story, but I'm only on chapter 4, so it'll be a while before I start posting it. In the meantime, this little story popped into my head so I had to take a break from the other and write this one. Hope you enjoy it. I'll post chapter 2 tomorrow.