I Stephanie Plum hate fake tan. Why do people who live in America where the sun shines through no matter what kind of cloud, mist, rain or sleet have to layer on disgusting orange stuff and look like they are positively toxic. Anyway back to the point as I was chasing my skip, Alex Petrie through the alley at the back of the mall he turned threw a rubbish bag straight onto me. Okay so granted it slowed me down some but then it burst covering me in what I can put an educated guess to being Fake tan.
My arms, neck, face and the bottom of my legs were now a lovely day glow orange colour. I traipsed back into the mall to go through and collect my car when I spotted the tanning salon sign. Without a second thought I stormed over and planted both hands on the desk glaring at the nuclear orange and peroxide blonde bimbo in front of me.
"Oh honey. You're supposed to use it in moderation." She drawled patronisingly. I took a deep calming breathe and turned my patented Burg death glare on her, when she didn't melt or scream and explode I spoke in a low voice.
"It was thrown at me. How do I get it off?"
"Well that depends on what brand it is." She answered smiling, obviously knowing I had no idea what brand the crap was.
"Well tell me different methods for different brands and I will try them all."
She ran off a list noting the different ways down which basically all seemed to be have a scalding hot shower and scrub till you find bone. Just as I was leaving an ear splitting sound exploded from behind me and I turned to find Elizabeth Conway and old friend from college squealing happily as she rushed towards me. I smiled widely, Lizzie and I had been stuck at the hip all through our first two years of college but had unfortunately had lost touch a while back.
"Stephanie Plum, I cannot believe it is you!" She stated hugging me fiercely as I returned in equal fashion.
"I know it has been way too long. How are you?"
"Good, how are you? I've heard of a few exploits but haven't been able to get a number. You're a bounty hunter right?"
"Yeah, and none of the stuff is true. I'm brilliant, what are you doing with yourself?"
"I own this shop here." She told me. "Hey if you're not too busy tonight maybe you would join me for my birthday night out?"
"I would love to. I'll have to see if I can get this stuff off first though." I smiled.
"Oh no problem, use these wipes." She told me thrusting a packet of wipes into my hands smiling.
"Thanks." I stated giving the girl at the desk another glare for good measure. "Here take my number and phone me later about the plans, I would love to come."
She noted the number and we said our goodbyes as I left the shop smiling at the thought of a night out with Lizzie, we had always been wild in college and having just broken up with Joe I needed a crazy night out.
Just as I was out the door she shouted over.
"Oh and we are dressing up as school girls so drag a shirt and tie out." I nodded thinking of the fun with playing dress ups.
After using the wipes then showering completely I headed over to RangeMan. Ranger had said he wanted to speak to me tonight so I was going to make it a quicker visit by visiting him in his office. I parked then headed to the fifth floor stopping to talk to Hal on monitors then knocked on Ranger's office door.
"Enter."
I headed in shutting the door behind me and took a seat while he finished his phone call. He was corporate Ranger today, in black slacks, black shirt and tie with a black suit jacket slung over the back of his chair. Hey that gives me an idea, I don't actually have any shirts, maybe I could borrow one? I hope to god he at least owns one cheap shirt. He finished his call and caught me looking at his chest, hey I was just seeing if I thought it would be big enough to cover me enough. According to his wolf grin he thought differently, I didn't really blame him now that I was alerted to how hot he is I noticed him a hell of a lot more too.
"Babe." He was full out grinning now, great amusement again.
"Eh… yeah… you wanted to talk about something?" I asked trying to keep eye contact as best I could.
"Distraction tomorrow?"
"Sure, what time?"
"I'll pick you up at nine; we're going to the Moon Room." I smiled and nodded then took up my courage because I didn't really want to spend more money though and I liked Ranger's clothes.
"You don't happen to own any inexpensive dress shirts do you?" He quirked an eyebrow and waited for me to continue but I didn't want him to give me an expensive one so I waited for him to answer.
"I might."
"Is that a yes or no answer?"
"Yes."
"Would I maybe, if you're not using it or needing it and don't mind too much be able to borrow it for like twenty four hours?" I rushed causing him to smile the full, you're amusing me a lot grin.
"What is it for?" I sighed, not a good way to ensure a quick getaway by telling Ranger I planned on wearing it myself so I just shrugged and turned red.
"I don't want to say." I finally admitted making his smile widen.
"Is it for your use or someone else's?"
"Mine."
He smiled leading me to the elevator and up to the seventh floor. I waited at the door to his bedroom not trusting myself to go in while he was in as well.
He came out and handed me a hanger with a shirt on it, I didn't want to be rude so I would wait until I was in the privacy of my own bedroom before checking the label so I just thanked him and turned to leave to apartment. As I pulled the door open Ranger reached from behind me shutting it firmly, with one move I was pinned against the door hip to hip with a smiling Ranger. His lips descended on mine and all thoughts were wiped from my mind until he leant back slightly resting his forehead against mine.
"What are you doing tonight Babe?"
"Friends birthday." I managed to choke out causing him to smile at the breathless tone of my voice. "Why?" I asked as an after thought.
"Boy's and I are going out. I would have invited you."
"Well we might see you out. I better go and get ready, I need at least another hour or two to get ready."
"You look beautiful anyway." He told me causing my breath to catch and drawing out his wolf grin.
I finished doing my hair in soft curls than pulled it into wonky pigtails letting a few curls frame my face. After light make-up and freckles drawn on I used eyeliner to make the blue of my eyes stand out then added a little clear gloss.
I pulled a black VS set on then dug around to find my belt, after collecting the black and gold belt and a stripy school tie I put in some gold earrings and a gold bracelet then pulled out my black knee high hooker heel boots with gold ties up the back and slipped them on tying them tightly and admiring the view. It looked good if I was trying to seduce, mm maybe a plan for later if we bumped into the Merry Men by accident, now for the best part of the outfit, Ranger's shirt.
I checked the label before putting it on and just about fell over, Armani, Ranger thinks that Armani is a cheap shirt. I pulled out my cell pressing speed dial one.
"Yo."
"Armani is not cheap! I can't borrow this it's expensive, it probably cost more than my entire wardrobe put together."
"Babe."
"Don't Babe me! This is very expensive, what if I ruin it?"
"Is that likely?"
"Well this is me! It may blow up or something."
"Babe, I wouldn't have given you it if I was worried. Why do you need it anyway?"
"Because I… wait! No stop it." Then I hung up. Oh crap I hung up on Batman, I quickly redialled and didn't even let him speak.
"Sorry. Bye!" Then I disconnected again and threw the phone away looking at the shirt, this was going to bite me in the ass wearing something so expensive.
I unbuttoned it slipping it over my shoulders then buttoning most of them up again, I left a few down creating an arrow to my cleavage. Then I tied the tie very loosely round my neck and tucked it under the collar then fasted the belt so it was hanging around my waist and pinched the shirt in so that it looked like a dress that fell a few inches below my ass. I noticed that when I bent over or anything it would ride up so I slipped a pair of hot pants that Lula had gotten me for Christmas on, you couldn't see them unless I moved too much though so it looked good.
Just as I had finished there was a knock at my door and there stood Lizzie in her outfit, she had on thigh highs with a visible garter and a very short pleated skirt then a tight white shirt unbuttoned really low and a tie on, her hair was the same as mine but straight. We hugged squealed and she led me out to the taxi where there were two girls already sat.
"Right girls this is Steph. Steph this is Mandy." She told me indicating the slightly plump grinning girl on my left. "Then this is Mercedes." She pointed to the slutty yet beautiful girl next to me who just nodded and looked me up and down before sniffing and turning away.
We had danced for the whole first hour only stopping to pick up a drink then dancing some more. We had just grabbed a booth and I was disappointed not to have seen Ranger or the MM out but tried to enjoy the night as best as possible.
"Right girls competition time. Since we are all single lets play the man point's game."
She explained the role and I knew by the fact I had agreed that I was already drunk. We just had to assign points to a few guys in the club, most of them started off as ten points for talking, then twenty for a dance, thirty for them buying you a drink and fifty for getting a kiss. The person with the most points won, not that I could see anyone remembering how much people had won. I wasn't a big fan of the game but bimbo Barbie who had been a bitch all night deserved to go down.
Just as we went to make our way to the floor to start the game Ranger walked in with the MM, they headed to a booth sitting and Tank and Lester went to get drinks. I tried to avoid eye contact and Lizzie dragged us back to the table.
"Okay all the men that just came in start at fifty except for the smaller guy at the bar, he starts on seventy and the guy in all black with the longer hair starts at one hundred. We had to add for how hot they all are, do you think they are models?"
I kept quiet knowing I could get major points for this one but decided to start small. I could get Tank to buy me a drink easy so I winked to the girls and headed over.
"Hey guys."
"Bombshell how you doing?"
"Good, could you do me a favour and pretend we haven't met before tonight? We are playing a game and I want to win." They both looked puzzled. "It's a points game for stuff like getting a guy to dance, buy you a drink and getting a kiss. I don't want that bitch to win."
Tank smiled and asked for a margarita and Lester drew me closer, whispering into my ear and causing me to blush bright red.
"I can help with the kiss if you want." I smiled picked up my drink, kissed both on the cheek then headed back to our table to squeals of delight from Lizzie and Mandy but Mercedes was sitting sour faced.
"Girl that was amazing you got points in the first five minutes. How did you do it?"
"Luck." I smiled sipping my drink and grinning as Mercedes stood up quickly unbuttoning another button at her chest.
"Well girls, I'm about to get some points so don't wait up." She sauntered over to the boys table and pretended to fall landing, surprise, surprise in Ranger's lap. He quickly lifted her back from his knee setting her on her feet which she obviously didn't like. She moved on to try and seduce Lester but his eyes caught mine and I gave a barely noticeable shake of the head so he started looking very bored. I had to smile and turned to chat to the girls. Within a few minutes Lester came swaggering over the dance floor towards us with Mercedes latched onto his arm.
"Stephanie wasn't it?" He asked then smiled when I nodded. "Would you like to dance?" I grinned and held my hand up and he snatched his arm back from Mercedes and led me to the dance floor. We danced for a bit until I needed a drink so we headed to the bar and chatted while I got Lester to buy me a drink.
"I told the guys to steer clear of that Mercedes girl so we are going to help you guys get some points although I don't think it's all that much of a chore dancing with someone as beautiful as you Bomber." He told me making me blush, I turned away slightly embarrassed and suddenly the night wasn't so good any more.
Lizzie and Ranger were in the middle of the dance floor seemingly having fun, I pulled my eyes away and remembered of course he could dance with people it wasn't as if I owed him and I had ignored him so far.
Les noticed my change in mood so pulled me onto the dance floor where he spun me a few times and we ended up laughing our asses off. Just as the music overlapped I tugged Lester close recognising a slow song would come on n a minute and whispered in his ear.
"Go swap partners with Ranger, quick." He laughed. "What! I don't want anyone dancing with Mercedes but I don't want anyone but me dancing with Ranger."
We headed over and Lester tapped Ranger on the shoulder swapping partners and leaving me in Ranger's arms. He was smiling down at me obviously amused.
"What?" I asked just as the slow song started and he pulled me tightly against him but so we could still look in each others eyes.
"Did you tell Santo's to switch?" I blushed and buried my head in his shoulder playing with the hairs on the back of his neck.
"I don't like other women touching you. Especially when I have to witness it." I finally mumbled but it was enough for him to hear it.
"Good because I don't like other men touching you. Especially when I can't beat them up for it." He joked moving his hands slightly lower so they were sat at the top of my ass and causing me to giggle.
"You never did tell me why you were out tonight."
"Just needed a night to blow off steam." He pulled back slightly and ran his hands down my sides and back up brushing the side of my breasts. "I love the naughty school girl outfit. Took a lot of my control not to take you home the first time I saw you." He pulled me tightly against his body and ran his hands down my back till they were covering my ass. "All I want to do is run my hands all over you till I get to hear those sexy moans again. I want to kiss all over your body till your begging for me, god Babe what you do to me." His voice had gotten rougher as he spoke so that when he finished it was so low and husky I had a feeling I was about to self combust. I tried to press myself closer and moaned loudly when his lips assaulted my neck.
By the time he made it to my lips I was so worked up I battled with him for control. We were moulded together as our lips duelled and tongues slid against each other that I hadn't noticed it was 3am already and the lights were coming on in the club.
We continued to kiss until there was a lot of cheering coming from behind Ranger and I peeked over to find both groups standing grinning. Well everyone but Mercedes who looked like she had swallowed a lemon.
I blushed burying my head once again into Ranger's shoulder and felt him laughing, suddenly he stopped and pulled me out to look in his eyes.
"Come back with me?" I nodded and he grinned slipping an arm around my waist and pulling me towards the door. There were three Black Bronco's and Ranger's Porsche sitting outside so I said goodbye to the girls and told them I was going back with Ranger causing more squealing and a bigger glare.
When the girls were all about to club into the Bronco Hal had offered them a lift in I decided the game was up.
"See you Beautiful." Lester said hugging me then climbing in.
"Later Bombshell." Tank said as he followed.
"Bye Bomber." Came Bobby next hugging me as well.
This went on till I waved and shouted to the cars before the doors were closed.
"See you Monday guys." The girls all stared open mouthed as Ranger laughed pulling me closer and telling me loud enough for the girls to hear.
"Babe, I love you in my shirt." At this the doors closed taking the started girls home.
I leant against Ranger and he hugged me tightly. "This was a good night." I told him reaching up and kissing him softly but by the time we pulled apart both of us were gasping for breath. "So Mr Manoso, you said something about going somewhere?"
His wolf grin appeared and before I could react I was bundled into the Porsche as we sped to Haywood.