********Warning! Warning! This story is for adult members. It will be sexually explicit! There will be situations with both M/F/M, F/F and M/M. Please do not read if this offends you! Sorry, I've been MIA. Real Life has been flying by with lots of stuff for my inbox. I hope that I can get back to writing again. Thanks for all of your great reviews from the first chapter and a special thanks to JenRar for betaing this story.
He wanted to hold onto that contact for as long as he could, because he knew she was about to withdraw from him. He knew it was selfish, but he couldn't help himself. He'd come to not only want her presence in his life, but to depend on it. When she withdrew from him, it was going to kill him.
He took a deep breath and began his tale.
"Restricted Membership"
Chapter two
"Revelations"
"Babe, you know that I used to do top secret missions for the government." He waited to continue until she nodded. "Well, I can't tell you anything about them, but one in particular went very badly."
"It's okay, Ranger. I'm not going anywhere."
He knew she was trying to ease him. It didn't do any good.
"I was held for three days in a prison camp before somebody came for me. I was nearly dead when a friend, who'd gone against orders, found me and got me out. His name is Jax.
"After that mission, the government decided that Jax and I had outlived our usefulness and gave us full retirement. The bond that had grown out of our time in the Army continued afterwards.
"We made our way to Miami, where he had to save me from myself. This was when I found out that my wife had fallen in love with someone else and wanted a divorce. She also wanted me to give up my rights as a father."
Stephanie was now stroking his back, trying to comfort him. He appreciated the gesture, but it was futile. He couldn't be comforted.
"Anyway, I kind of fell apart and started drinking, getting into fights. When I found myself in jail, Jax pulled some strings and got me out. He helped me find a different kind of release for my pent-up anger."
Okay, pull the band-aid, hard and fast. "Sex. With lots and lots of partners."
When she didn't pull away, he knew it was only a matter of time. "We trolled every night for a new group of women. Everything we did was about how many women we could score in one night. We didn't just find one woman a piece. We had orgies…" I let out a deep breath, "with both sexes."
Her hands stilled on his back. "Well, guess I know what you meant by 'you used to do everything'."
He had to get it out, everything, before he changed his mind. "After about a year, Jax met a woman. Synthia. He fell in love with her because she enjoyed the same lifestyle as he did. He didn't want to give up the swinging lifestyle, and neither did she."
"I was afraid that I was about to be cast aside, but no, they shared each other with me. It was a strange relationship, to say the least. A year later, they were married. Once they'd officially tied the knot, for some reason, I didn't feel right about any of it anymore."
She still had her hands on him. He couldn't believe that she was still with him. "That's when I decided that I needed to do something with my life, and started working towards building RangeMan. We drifted apart, but have always kept in contact. They still live the life. They're what people call swingers."
There was a lull in his tale, so she took the opportunity to press kisses to his back. "So why are you telling me this now?"
He sighed. Ranger never sighed.
"Because, Babe, Jax called today." He left that hanging in the air. So far, she'd handled everything he'd told her. Not so sure how she was going to handle what came next.
"Babe, Jax and Syn are a part of a restricted club. They're all swingers, and in order to gain membership, you have to be married and perform a sex act with multiple partners. It seems that two of their female members have come up missing."
He let it sink in and knew when she got the gist of what he was telling her.
"So you have to help." Her throat was dry at the thought of Ranger with another woman.
"Yes." He was dying inside as he felt the full impact of what he was telling her hit.
"Babe. I don't want to do it, and I certainly can't ask this of you."
She felt his helplessness and her heart went out to him. However, if he was going to do this, he wasn't going in without her. It went against everything she believed in and was comfortable with, but she'd be damned if she was going to lose him over sex.
"You're not asking. I'm offering."
He sat stock still, not believing his ears. "Do you even know what I'm going to have to do? Do you understand what it is that you'd have to do?"
She curled herself around him, hugging against his back. "Yes. It's just sex, Ranger. I understand that Jax saved you, twice. How many times have you saved me? It's the same. Please, I don't want you to do this by yourself. Let me help."
He shook his head to clear it, then he stood and went to the closet. When he came back he was holding the file. When she tried to take it from him, he shook his head.
"No. Tonight, we're going to go to bed. Make love. Then in the morning, I'll leave you alone while you read the file. If you haven't changed your mind, then we'll discuss it."
When she started to object, he laid the file aside and kneeled in front of her. "Babe, I need to hold you, love you. I had a plan. And in less than five hours, that plan has gone to shit. Please, the morning will be soon enough to discuss this."
Stephanie saw the fear in his eyes. Fear that this was going to change everything. She wouldn't let it. She needed him, and if she had to do this 'thing' with him, then so be it. It wouldn't change how she felt about him.
She reached for him and pulled him towards her onto the bed. Slowly, they caressed and held onto each other. Tenderness and desperation warred with each other as they made love.
When he entered her, she felt the love spearing straight to her heart. She knew this feeling was what she had to hold onto as she faced what was to come.
He held her and loved her for hours, until they both fell asleep from exhaustion.
She awoke alone, and the wretched file lay on the bedside table beside her. Stephanie knew he'd intentionally left before she woke up. He was giving her time by herself, to read the file and change her mind. She wouldn't.
The file showed two pretty women in their thirties. They'd each gone missing within weeks of each other. Jax suspected someone in the swingers club was taking them and selling them on the white slave market. He had contacts that had told him that the practice was alive and well in Miami.
It took two groups to make the despicable business happen: rich business men who wanted to buy sex on the open market, and sleezy men who were only happy to oblige. The men who had lost their wives were baffled. There was no indication that the women were unhappy, and they left without any of their belongings.
Now for the hard part. What would the roles for herself and Ranger be in this organization? That was simple. They'd go in as a married couple that were friends of Jax and Syn. They'd perform a live sex act in front of all the members. More than once if necessary. If they were granted membership, they'd infiltrate and try to discover who was kidnapping women.
She nearly gagged when she thought of another man touching her, or for that matter, another woman or man touching Ranger. She held it in, though. Could she do this? Did she have it in her to turn off her emotions and allow the invasion of her body by somebody that she didn't love?
But what if she didn't do it? Who would Ranger get? Gah. Jeanne Ellen? Probably. Oh, hell no. Stephanie wasn't letting Catwoman get her hands on Batman!
She got up slowly from the bed and made her way to the shower to wash away the thought of another woman's hands on Ranger. While scrubbing herself raw, she made up her mind. If she'd had any doubts in her mind last night, they were gone now. She was going to do this job with Ranger, show him that it didn't matter, as long as they loved one another.
Once she was dressed, she grabbed a bagel from the kitchen counter and headed downstairs to find Ranger. He was sitting at his desk with his hands steepled together in front of his face, deep in thought.
"Hi." She stood by the door and gave him a small smile.
"Hi." He watched as she fidgeted with indecision. Making it easier on her, he turned his chair and patted his lap. In two quick strides, she was across the room and curled up across his legs.
When he started to speak, she stopped him. "Ranger, I understand your reservations about this job. I also understand that you have to do it. What I want you to understand is that there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you. These women that were taken might still be alive, and we need to do what we can to find them. I'm in."
He caressed her face and was both humbled and awed with her courage. "Babe, are you sure? Once we leave, there's no backing out. I promised Jax that we'd be there tomorrow, and that leaves little time to find a replacement."
Her heart sputtered at the word 'replacement'.
"No, Babe. I don't want to replace you. I can't imagine doing this job period, but most of all, I don't want to do it with anyone else."
He hoped that he'd reassured her of her place in his life. He wanted her there permanently, and he didn't want another woman. For him, this was just another job. He'd had meaningless sex before. That's all this would be.
There was no doubt in each other's mind about the love they felt for each other. But in the back of their minds lurked the doubts and fear that their still fairly newfound relationship wouldn't survive this.