Spring Fever

Karen

Disclaimer: Janet owns it all. Just borrowing.

A/N: Thanks to Rinski for the great idea

How many days in a row does it have to rain before you're allowed to just stay in bed? I had counted 13 straight days of rainy, cloudy, clammy weather and I was done. Ready to move to the Bahamas and take up searching for shells. Can you make a living at that? At the very least, I was thinking I would just sleep this dismal, cloudy day away – sometimes I do my best work in my bed – although unfortunately it's not as exciting as it sounds. Not currently anyway. Right now my bed was empty except for me, but I was trying to think of a plan to change that. I knew I loved Ranger – I had admitted it to myself after Scrog, but I hadn't told him. I think he knew, but he wasn't doing anything about it as yet. Maybe it was just the weather, but I was tired of the cat and mouse game we'd been playing for a while. I needed a change. I was ready for something real – and I was not in a mood to hear half-assed excuses. I knew Ranger wanted me, probably more than he realized. Maybe that's wishful thinking on my part, but I thought I had gotten under his skin in a way few people had. And I wanted him. Bad. So I needed a plan to convince him to give it a real, not-just-casual-sex shot. Problem was, plans weren't my strong point. Flying by the seat of my pants and hoping for the best would be my usual MO.

I walked into the bonds office, dropped a dozen Boston Creams on Connie's desk and stared at Lula. She was standing in front of the desk, using a pencil as a microphone and singing loudly into it. "You're the perfect man for me, I love you I do." She belted out, then bowed low. I recognized the song from the movie Dreamgirls, and Lula did it proud – she had a hell of a voice. We clapped and she straightened up.

"Whatcha think?" she questioned. "We're hitting that new bar this weekend and they're having a karaoke contest. It's Tank's birthday – you all are invited to come along. Except that if you're gonna come, you gotta come up with a song so I'm not up there alone. Maybe we can do a group number, too, like a Supremes thing. I'm planning a solo for my man, though." She smiled, looking like the proverbial cat.

"Hmmm." Connie looked at me expectantly. "Interesting. Could be fun."

"Could be embarrassing." I corrected. But with the lack of a plan on my part, I thought that maybe I should work with what was available. I didn't have much of a voice, but I could move – Sexy Dancing 101 is standard fare for Jersey girls. The moves, plus a semi-slutty outfit, and I was hoping no one would notice the voice. At least that was going to be the plan.

The door opened and from the tingle at the back of my neck I knew it was Ranger. Turns out it was Ranger and Tank, but as my radar doesn't extend to the Merry Men, it was an allowable error. Tank went over to Lula and lifted her off the ground, bringing her lips up to his and taking possession. Her arms went around his neck and twin stabs of happiness and envy hit me at once. I automatically turned my eyes to Ranger and found his eyes assessing me, face wearing its usual blank expression. He crooked a finger at me. "I need to talk to you outside."

I followed him to the alley and looked him over. Black short-sleeve shirt. Check. Tight enough to see the eight-pack. Check. Black cargos. Check. Great package. Check. Somehow I raised my eyes to his face and saw the mocking smile on his face. A bolt of lust just hit me so hard – it was totally ridiculous how just looking at this man could reduce me to a pile of molten, on-fire hormones, with an ache inside of me that just made me want to grab him and rub myself all over him. And, since I could, that's exactly what I did.

I reached out for him and trailed my fingers up his chest and around his neck and pulled. Since he ended up next to me, I figured he was okay with it – maybe he was curious? It wasn't normal for me to be the aggressor. I leaned up and touched my lips to his and felt him stiffen for a moment before his arm swept around me to circle my waist. His other hand caressed my hair, then fisted it and dragged my head back, his eyes raking over my face, searching my eyes. Whatever he saw in them made his eyes go blacker than night and he pulled me closer and claimed my lips, his tongue searching for mine. A moan escaped me as his tongue intimately dueled with mine and my body fit itself familiarly with his. My body was on fire the way it never was for anyone else, and it was demanding more.

His fingers slid up my ribs and surrounded my breast through my shirt, zeroing in on my hardened nipple, and rolling it between them. I slid my hands down his back, pulled his ass in to me and ground myself against him. I could feel his hardness and gave myself up to it, giving in to the desperate need to be held and owned by him. I all but wrapped myself around him, and my hands reached under his shirt and pulled it up, aching to feel his skin next to mine. I ran my hands up his stomach, feeling each crevice and muscle, his skin warm and smooth under my touch. My fingers zeroed in on his nipples, rubbing them to hard points before sweeping up to his shoulders, loving the feel of solid muscle beneath them. I was lost, riding this tidal wave of desire so strong I couldn't stop myself; I needed to know he wanted me just as badly.

"Ranger, God, oh please," I panted, as his hands lifted my shirt and dove underneath, pushing my bra out of the way and caressing the swells of my breasts. His fingers unerringly returned to my nipples and rubbed them until I thought I would explode from just that feeling alone. He traced a pattern down my neck with his lips, placing kisses randomly on my skin before strongly sucking at the soft skin between my neck and collarbone. My head dropped to the side at the incredibly feminine feeling of being branded. My hands ran down his abs and stroked him through his cargo pants, feeling the incredible hardness that threatened to split his pants any minute. All I wanted was him – to feel him, to take him inside of me, to have him belong to me. All I could feel was need.

"Babe. Dios. Christ Almighty." He mumbled some more in Spanish and it crossed my mind briefly to try to remember what he said, but the tidal wave of passion that was surrounding me shut out any rational thought and I fought to open his belt to get to what I wanted, what I needed.

A persistent noise penetrated my lust-filled consciousness and I realized that he had paused, his head up and listening, his hand on the Glock at his hip. I focused and identified the noise as a car horn. I looked toward the street and noticed a convertible stopped right in front of the alley.. Traffic had jammed and the car, and its passengers were in perfect view of us, and us of them. Since the passengers were waving and yelling encouragement, I could only assume that we had pleased them. Good to know I still had it. I slowly surfaced from my agitated state and straightened up, my breath heaving unevenly. Ranger dropped his other hand from me and a half-smile touched his lips. I looked up at him and saw the storm in his eyes, even if he seemed otherwise unaffected.

"Gonna need a minute, Babe. I'm far from unaffected."

"I affect you?"

Ranger raised an eyebrow at me, signaling the idiocy of that question. "Christ, Steph, I near fucked you in an alley in broad daylight. What do you think?"

I blushed. "I meant, how do I affect you?"

"Dangerous territory, Babe. You know what you do to me – the same thing I do to you and I'm not stupid enough to think any different. What is the problem is my lifestyle – you deserve more."

"What if I don't want more?"

His eyes flared at me and some emotion passed across his face. "Don't sell yourself short on what you deserve, Babe, and it's not the little I'm able to give you."

"What if I don't want more?" I repeated. After all, who knew what I wanted better than I. Oh, who was I kidding? I wasn't even sure what I wanted. And I didn't exactly know how much I could expect from him, but I was banking on the hope that there would be a middle ground between the two. I knew he believed that I wanted the picket fence and the 2.5 children. I just knew what my heart and body told me – that the person in front of me was It. The One. And somehow I had to convince him. Because I knew I couldn't live happily without him.

Ranger looked at me and his fingers caressed the hair at my temple, smoothing it back and playing with a curl.

"Eventually you will," he replied slowly, sadly it seemed to me, and he walked away.