Don't own them, don't make any money and I promise to return them unharmed but with broadened horizons. No copyright infringement intended!

Warning: There will be a healthy dose of smut and there's gonna be talk and use of sex toys. A lot of different sex toys. They're mentioned at one time, but most of them will be used later on. And yes, there will be plot, although it might not seem like it at first. There will also be offensive language, there's going to be violence, and I guess a warning for angst is in order too. That should cover everything.

For all those who are wondering, this story was supposed to be a oneshot. I got the idea while chatting with Annie (Thanks, Babe), but when I got down to writing it, my muse decided she wanted more. First she wanted a prologue to the oneshot and then she wanted a continuation and in the end it turned out to be the continuation of Stronger. You know how it is. So here I am. Enjoy!

To understand this story you should read Stronger first, but it's not absolutely necessary. Just know that Steph is tough as nails now ;)

Huge thanks goes to Mud, who agreed to beta for me. Thank you, Mud!

Birthday Surprises

By Katrin Gilbert

Previously

Steph went to Mexico to get training. Before she left Trenton, she broke up with Joe Morelli and then came over to talk to me. When I escorted her to pack what she'd need we professed our love for each other and have been a couple ever since.

She came back after a little over six months, stronger than ever. She actually surprised me with her arrival, but that wasn't the only surprise she had for me. We had welcomed her home with a big party and slowly I started to discover what had changed. She was carrying more hardware than I or my men did, and she knew how to use it. I was so damn proud of her. And when she came back she came to live with me.

She ended up with a contract with the government identical to mine, and the day we talked about it she did her first job for RangeMan. In the process she saved my life and that of eight innocents. I was injured as well as Lester, but we pulled through. We had been set up by one of my employees and Steph discovered who it was and then took care of it.

About six weeks later, we left for our first government job together, but it wasn't the first mission for Steph, or Moxie, as the street and the government knows her now. She went on one with the guys that trained her. We were shipped out and were to extract a hostage and break up the group that held her. We got out with a few cuts and scrapes, but Moxie reacted allergic to the bite of some tropic mosquito. It was touch and go for a while, but she was fine after a few days.

When we got back Steph had a few problems adjusting to civilian life again, made harder by the problems Joe Morelli and her sister Valerie Kloughn were throwing her way. But she managed them like a pro. Everyone here at RangeMan helped her with it, especially her partner Lil and me. And we were all so damn proud of her.

Since then she's been training her niece Mary Alice in self-defense, who in turn taught her mom, sister and some of her friends. Lula, a good friend of Steph, also received help from Moxie. Being a bounty hunter, Moxie taught her take down techniques and has been backing her up whenever she needed it.

After that she worked at RangeMan, catching skips, doing surveillance and security work, whatever we needed. In every free minute she had, she's been taking my men and me down to the gun range to show us how to throw knives and darts. It had been a major factor in the success of our mission, but she'd been the only one comfortable to throw them, so she had decided to teach us.

And now, only a few months later, she made me the happiest mercenary on earth. However, I'm not the only one to benefit from her. She made us into a group, we help and support each other now, not just work together. And it helped my company as well. We're more effective, have fewer injuries. And we all love her for it, although I hope my guys love her like a sister, because I'm the only one who's supposed to love her like I do.

Chapter 1

I woke with a smile. Stephanie was draped all over me, sleeping soundly. A brief glance at my alarm clock confirmed my suspicions. It was 9.30, way past the time when we normally woke up, but the night had been tiring. For the both of us.

I'd prepared a romantic dinner, with music and candles, even dessert. Then I'd asked her the question. And she'd said yes. The rest of the evening and most of the night was spent making love. No wonder I had slept so long.

I knew that I was grinning like a fool, but all my dreams had finally come true. Stephanie was going to be mine. We hadn't talked about the when and where yet, but I was all for eloping. That was a decision we would make together, so we'd see.

Today though, was my birthday. Stephanie didn't know this; I didn't want her to waste money for some unnecessary gift. Her answer the night before was the best gift she could have given me.

Smut ahead. Skip down to "RSRS" to avoid

It was time to get the day started, so I went to wake Steph up, shifting my hips from side to side. Stephanie didn't wake up but the movement made me hard. Damn. So I had to resort to tickling her. She woke up, but her wiggling all over the place made it even worse for me.

She looked down at me with a blinding smile on her lips. She shifted her hips a little more and before I could say anything she pushed down onto me, welcoming me into her heat.

"Morning, Ric."

I didn't dare to move. I wanted to see what she had in mind so I settled for "Morning, Babe."

She rolled her hips a little, making me groan. I wanted to take over, but this was her show. She rolled her hips again and then suddenly sat up, driving me deep into her.

"Babe."

She had a mischievous glint in her eyes and I knew she was up to something. I drew my legs up to support her back and she leaned back against them. She planted her soles firmly on the bed, spreading her wide, opening her to my gaze.

"Ric. Lay back and watch. And keep your hands to yourself."

I did as she told me, trying to get comfortable, but what she did next totally surprised me. She started by touching her breasts, tugging at her nipples, manipulating them until they stood out proudly. Satisfied with the job she had done she slowly moved her hands over her stomach down to her womanhood teasing her own flesh along the way.

She moved the tips of her fingers to her opening, caressing me as well, before settling in on her clit.

She traced circles around it, moaning with pleasure. Her hips were moving in circles, driving me crazy. And the whole time she was keeping eye contact. I wanted to grab her hips to thrust up into her, but I was enjoying what she was doing too much to interrupt her. It didn't happen often that she let herself go like this, so free of inhibitions and self-doubts.

Her left hand moved back to her breast, tugging on her nipple again, while she sped up the circles on her clit. She was moaning loudly and the bucking of her hips had me groaning alongside her.

It didn't take long before she shot off, driving herself over the edge and from the looks of it into a powerful orgasm. She threw her head back and screamed my name, the most beautiful sound on this earth. The clenching of her muscles had me fighting for control. When she came down a little she kept moving her hips. She reached around and took my balls into her hand, stimulating them while riding me. It didn't take long and she had pushed me over the edge and I was yelling her name hoarsely.

We were both breathing hard and it took a while to calm our breathing.

Stephanie was glowing. She'd never looked more beautiful to me. It seemed like she had enjoyed her naughty performance. I sure had.

RSRS

It didn't help. We had to get up or we would never get out of bed. That's when the phone on the bedside table rang. It was an internal line, so it had to be one of the guys.

"Yo."

"Yo, man." It was Tank.

"Report."

"We have a line on Kemaru. He's supposed to be at the Liberty Ballroom tonight." We had two more weeks to get him, but I would be more than happy to get him back into the system as soon as possible.

"What time?"

"Heard around 8.30."

"Schedule the meeting for 7, so that we're in place at 8."

I hung up. I had better things to do than chatting with Tank. Taking care of my fiancée for example.

"Come on, Babe. We've to get up. You up for distraction tonight?"

"Sure. When, where, who, what?"

I had to grin. She had learned a lot since she'd gone to Mexico to get training. "Meeting at 7, Liberty Ballroom, Kemaru, short and sexy. And he was driving around with enough drugs that the charges were intent to sell.

"Okay, what's the plan for the day?"

"You're free to do as you want. I've got meetings the whole afternoon, so maybe you'd like to go shopping?" I could have never imagined how much stuff this woman possessed. Sure, I'd seen it when we put her junk in storage, but I never thought it would be that much. And it had only gotten worse, but I definitely appreciated her large lingerie collection. And I knew that every trip to the mall meant a trip to Victoria's Secret, which would lead to a round of modeling later on.

"Good. I'm gonna take Mare with me. I haven't seen her much lately."

I knew why. The reason was me. We'd monopolized a lot of each others time since we'd come back from our first mission together about two months ago, but she wasn't complaining and neither was I.

"What about Lil?"

"He's got to catch up on paperwork."

"Want me to call Ella to bring up some brunch?"

"Nope. I'm gonna eat at the mall with Mare.

"Babe. That stuff will kill you."

She got up which caused me to plop out of her. She grinned and scurried into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She knew that that wouldn't stop me, but I knew that if I followed her I'd be late for my meetings.

After 45 minutes she finally emerged from the bathroom and I had to grin. She had tamed her hair as much as possible and had applied her make up, but was running around only in a towel. She slipped into the dressing room and I made my way through the bathroom. It already smelled like Bulgari. Ella had tried to introduce Steph to some other shower gel, but she had refused. And boy I was glad she did. I loved the smell that was uniquely Steph, mixed with a hint of Bulgari. It was undeniably sexy.

I went through my morning routine, which took me all of 10 minutes, dressed, and met Steph in the kitchen. She was sitting at the breakfast bar, drinking coffee and talking to Mary Lou on her cell, arranging their shopping trip.

I went over to drop a kiss on her lips, gathered my keys and gun, and left the apartment. She knew the schedule for the day and these conversations with Mary Lou could take forever. Besides, I was sure she would drop into my office before she left. That had become our ritual. When either one of us left the building we always stopped to let the other know where we were going.

I settled in to do some paperwork. The monthly reports needed to be reviewed, a part of being the boss that wasn't something I enjoyed. Steph thankfully took a lot of paperwork out of all our hands nowadays, but there were still things I needed to do myself.

Half an hour later Steph came sauntering in, a sexy swing to her hips and a smile on her face that screamed satisfied. I thought it amusing that you could tell with one glance at her if she had had sex or not. Steph considered it downright embarrassing. She had to deal with it though, as I left that expression on her face nearly every day.

She came over and took a seat on the edge of my desk, right in front of me.

"You driving yourself?"

"Nope. Mare's gonna pick me up. Before you ask, I've got the tracker in my purse and the panic button is stashed in the front pocket of my jeans. I'll call you if I'm in trouble or need help. And I'm carrying. Not as much as usual, but still." She looked at me with her big innocent eyes, batting her lashes. She was actually cute when she did that. Not that I would ever tell her, because she could be hard as nails if the situation called for it. Nobody messed with Moxie these days. I pulled her on my lap to kiss her goodbye. When we came up for air we were both breathless and Steph had a slightly dazed look on her face.

I pushed her up so she was standing and gave her a slap on her butt, steering her towards the door.

"Go, or you'll be late. The last time you were late she got all kinds of information out of Hal. You know he has no resistance when it comes to woman."

She was laughing when she left the office. The last time Mary Lou had given him the third degree Hal had been jumpy and irritate. I had had no idea what was going on until I'd had enough and called him into the office, asking him. He told me that Mary Lou had asked him a lot of private questions, innocent ones at first, about his family and friends. But then she had gone in for the kill and had asked him really private questions, about girlfriends and his sex life in general. He had even had trouble being around Steph after that. She noticed it, sat him down and explained the inner workings of Burg wives. Boy was I glad I would never get a Burg wife. Sure, Steph would be my wife, but we couldn't possibly be any further from that of life.

I settled back down to finish the paperwork when I was interrupted by Tank. He walked in like he owned the place and settled down in one of the chairs in front of my desk.

"Yo, man."

I just raised an eyebrow at him. He took a moment to study me and then broke out into a massive grin.

"Man, I can't believe it. You finally asked her?"

"Yes." I knew that I had to look goofy with a big stupid grin that broke out over my face at the mere mentioning of the topic.

"When's the wedding?" He looked like a kid in a candy shop.

"We haven't talked about it yet. We've been ... busy."

"Busy? You bet. From the look on Bombshell's face I would say you've been busy celebrating. She couldn't have gotten more than four or five hours of sleep."

"Time flies when you're having fun. Was there a reason you came in?"

"Just saw the rock on her finger. Congrats, Ric, I'm happy for the both of you. Took you long enough to admit that you love her."

"You don't need to remind me."

That caused Tank to chuckle. It had taken him, Bobby and Lester a lot of work to get my head out off my ass. It had been annoying as hell, but I was thankful. Not that I would ever tell them.

"You all set for tonight?"

"What's the plan?"

"You go in with Steph, posing as a couple. We'll cover the takedown."

"Good."

I hadn't exactly dismissed him, but Tank stood and left, leaving me with the paperwork. I worked straight through lunch, only going into the break room to get some water and two apples. I preferred to do the paperwork in one go, so it was over.

Steph came back around 6, coming directly into my office.

"Yo."

"Yo, yourself."

"Where are your bags? You can't tell me you didn't buy anything?"

She was smiling. I loved it when she was happy. That was the way I wanted her always to be. "Nope, Tank, Lester and Bobby are carrying them up to the apartment as we speak." She quipped.

"The three of them?"

"There was a sale at Macy's in the shoe department. So did Victoria's Secret." When she mentioned lingerie I knew I would forgive her everything. She also knew it. I had told her once that I have no problem with her maxing out my credit cards, as long as there was some lingerie somewhere on the list.

"You up for some modeling?"

"Nope. I've got to get ready for the distraction tonight. What about when we come back?" The modeling was my favorite part of shopping. Shopping was okay, but we had been caught once in the dressing rooms at Macy's, so now we had to be careful. Modeling in the apartment was much more fun anyway.

She gave me a kiss and was off. I finished the paperwork and followed her up. When I entered the bathroom she'd already finished her shower and was now fighting against her hair, trying to get it into a sexy up-do. I left her be and took my shower, knowing that we didn't have much time. I toweled down and went to get dressed choosing slacks and a silk shirt.

When Steph was finally ready, she looked stunning. She was wearing a backless purple dress, which showed off her tassei tattoo nicely. Not too dark, a strong color for August. And it looked great. She'd done her eyes smoky. And from the looks of it she was wearing thigh highs with her FMP. I bet she was even carrying a gun somewhere in a thigh holster.

"You ready to go, Babe?"

She looked up from her purse and smiled. "Yup, just need to finish packing my purse and I'm set."

Task completed, we headed down to the conference room to go over the plans for the evening.

Plans settled we drove over in the Turbo. She loved this car and I was thinking that maybe we could change locations after the takedown and go dancing.

I pulled into the parking lot and noticed some familiar cars, but thought nothing off it. With a last kiss I got out of the car, going around to help Steph out. She was grinning at me, but it wasn't her I-love-you-smile, it was more like a I-know-something-you-don't-smile.

We walked in and what I saw totally surprised me. There was a huge banner hanging with 'Happy Birthday, Ranger' on it. Steph was chuckling beside me.

"You?"

She was laughing too hard to answer but I had to know.

"How?"

She got herself together and answered me. "I saw your driver's license in your wallet when I took out the credit card. You remember when I lost mine? I wasn't exactly snooping, but you know, I had to satisfy my curiosity." There we went with the puppy dog eyes again.

"How did you manage to pull it off and keep it a secret?" I looked around. My family was standing there, hers was in attendance, as well as all of my friends and a lot of hers as well. Even Mooner and Dougie were around somewhere, there laughing giving them away.

"I had the help of Tank, Lester, Lil and Bobby. Oh, and Ella played a major roll in the preparations. She managed food and stuff like decorations and invitations. You know, everything I have no idea how to do, but Ella loves." She jumped into my arms and kissed me like there was no tomorrow. "Happy Birthday, Batman."

When she turned around to the crowd they started singing 'Happy Birthday'. Sally's band was playing the melody to it, and he actually was in jeans.

When they were finished everyone came up to congratulate me, an endless stream of well-wishers had nearly stopped when Mrs. Plum, no, Ellen, spotted the engagement ring on her daughter's hand.

"Oh my God, you're getting married." She screamed so everyone could hear her. Unfortunately, that started the interrogation.

"When did he ask you? When are you getting married? Should I book the hall of the Knights of Columbus? Who's going to be your maid of honor." She was shooting all this questions at Steph without even giving her a chance to get in some answers. It was like someone had started a tape.

"Stop!" Steph bellowed, stopping her mother's rant effectively. "He asked me yesterday evening and we haven't talked about it yet. And now let's just enjoy the party."

Truer words had never been spoken, but it started another round of well wishes, this time for the both of us. By the time my men reached us, Steph was in tears, but smiling like she had won the world. Looking around the room I could see that a lot of her girlfriends were in tears. Mary Lou had been one of the first to congratulate us and she had immediately started crying. Experience with Steph told me that all the tears cried at the moment were happy tears, so I didn't have to worry.

When we finally had made it through the congratulations, Steph dragged me over to a table with a big sheet cake on it. Someone had gotten hold of my baby pictures, so a copy of it topped the cake. I was sure that it was Steph's idea, as well as the thirty-three candles on top of the cake, which weren't lit yet.

"I think it's time for the presents," Grandma Mazur announced. And she came walking towards us, followed by Lester and Bobby, who were carrying a huge cardboard box with a big black bow around it. Tank and Lil brought up the rear, big grins on their faces. I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach, but there was nothing I could do. The guys placed the box on the table and I turned around to it, Steph right beside me the whole time. My guests tried to get as close around the table as possible. I looked around. Everyone was waiting for me to open it. Especially Grandma Mazur.

"Come on, open it." She urged. And the bad feeling in my stomach got only worse.

Thankfully Steph was standing right beside me, peering into the box with me. From her gasp I knew that I wasn't hallucinating. It looked like Grandma Mazur and the rest of my core team had bought everything Trenton's one and only adult toyshop had to offer.

"What's in it?" Sally wanted to know, so I pulled each item out of the box, displaying it for everyone to see.

Please let me know what you think!