A/N: Ranger acts like a really big asshole in the chapter. It pains me to write him this way, because I am mostly a Babe. That said, please don't yell at me for it. I didn't wanna do it, but Alf made me! haha I kid, I kid. Much as I hate doing it, it works for my story, so I'm going to take Alf's advice and leave Ranger this way for now.
As always, I don't own Janet's characters. Although, since beginning this story, I have often wished Lester was all mine, because in my mind, he looks like Jason Taylor (defensive end for the Washington Redskins).
A special thanks to Alf for being my beta!
Chapter 2
Steph's POV
We played a few more rounds of Desert Island. After our one intense moment, Lester made sure to keep things light. I learned a few interesting things about him. For instance, his favorite author is Dr. Seuss; in Lester's words, "'One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.' That's genius poetry right there." I'm pretty sure he was joking.
We didn't talk about much of substance unless you count debating the pros and cons of football versus hockey. When Hal and Ram came to take over our position at the gate, we were still arguing about who would win in a fight, the Rangers' roster or the Giants' roster. I was sticking with the Rangers, but Lester insisted that Eli Manning could "kick some hockey player ass."
On our way back to Haywood, we argued about whose turn it was to type our week's worth of surveillance reports. Lester claimed he had done it the last two times; I was pretty sure he was lying. Since neither one of us could prove the other wrong, we decided to rock-paper-scissors to see who had to spend the afternoon typing and who got to do background checks. I won, so Lester had to do the typing.
At four o'clock, an hour earlier than normal, I shut my computer down and got ready to leave. If I was going to have to appeal to a woman tonight, I was going to need extra time to get ready. I told Lester I'd see him later and waved goodbye to the guys watching the monitors.
When I got home, I found two packages sitting on my kitchen table. I gasped when I got close enough to see the logos on the boxes. The larger one which I assumed held a dress, read Michael Kors. The smaller one, obviously a shoebox, had that unmistakable D&G logo on it.
I knew I didn't have time to simply stand and drool, so I forced myself into the shower. As soon as I was washed, shaved, exfoliated and moisturized, I tore into the boxes like a kid at Christmas.
My mouth dropped with my first look at the dress. It was so short that I knew it wasn't going past mid-thigh, and it was gold, looking almost like it was made out of metal. The empire waist and v-neck were going to make my meager assets look very nice.
While the dress was gorgeous, the shoes were a masterpiece. If Ella had been there, I would have hugged her for buying me such exquisite pieces of footwear. The Dolce & Gabbana gold sandals had a strap that fastened around the ankle and a four-inch heel with gold glitter. The two criss-crossed straps on the front were covered with silver crystals. They were so beautiful I almost didn't want to wear them. Nevertheless, I knew what I had to do. Oh, the struggles I endure for my job.
I rummaged through my drawers until I found the tiniest pair of underwear I owned. With such a magnificent dress, there was no way I was going to ruin my look with VPL.
I probably should have gone commando, but I didn't quite have the courage. Any time I even thought about it, I heard my mother telling me to think about how embarrassed I would be if I was in an accident and they had to cut my clothes off. Thanks to her, I've never been able to do it.
I couldn't help but let out a sigh of contentment when I slid the dress on; the expensive fabric felt wonderful on my skin. My hair cooperated and fell just below my shoulders in bouncy waves. After I applied my make-up, I took a look in the mirror and decided I liked what I saw.
I was just fastening the second ankle strap on my shoes when Lester knocked twice before letting himself in. He stopped just inside the door and did a double take.
"Holy shit," he whispered.
"Something wrong, Les?" I looked myself over and didn't see anything out of place.
"God, no. You look amazing, Steph. You're not going to have a problem with this one. I might have a problem letting her steal you away, though. You look absolutely amazing."
I giggled. "You said that already."
"Sorry. Can't help it; you're distracting."
I blushed. "That is the point. You have the mic?"
I caught Lester shaking his head to clear it. "Yeah, I've got it." He pulled the small device out of his pocket. "I think you're going to have to put it on by yourself, though. I…I…I just can't." He shoved the mic into my hands and turned to go. "I'll meet you in the limo."
I was a little disappointed when Lester practically ran down the stairs. Getting my mic in place usually ended up being an interesting experience, at least with Ranger. But then, Lester wasn't Ranger, and that was definitely a good thing.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
Lester's POV
What the hell was that? That's just the way to impress her, Santos; act like an eighth grader with a hard-on. I haven't been like that since…well, eighth grade probably.
I felt like I'd been punched in the gut when I walked in and saw Steph in that dress. I've seen her do quite a few distraction jobs, but I don't think she's ever looked quite that stunning. I had succeeded in calming myself down when I looked out the window and saw Steph walking out of her building. Instantly, I felt my dick jump in my pants. Watching the swing of her hips brought me to an entirely different level of hard.
Steph's POV
I climbed into the limo and noticed Lester adjusting himself. Trying to ignore it so I didn't make him uncomfortable, I grabbed the file sitting on the seat next to him and read up on the information we had on Katrina Simonelli. She had a long rap sheet, but her crimes were all of the white-collar variety, so I wasn't worried about this night ending with me in the hospital. Despite that, there was a ball of apprehension in my stomach. Something bad was about to happen, but I didn't know what.
When we arrived at the convention center, we made our way around the ballroom, making our presence known. We had only been there for about half an hour when I spotted our skip. I walked over to Lester, who was talking to Ram and his date, to alert him to Katrina's arrival. And it seemed when I spotted her, she spotted me. I made sure to make eye contact with her, and she appeared to like what she saw.
Lester, however, acted as if he didn't even know I was there. I could have been standing there in nothing but my tiny underwear and heels, and he wouldn't have noticed. "Go get me a rum and Coke," he said abruptly when he finally acknowledged that I was standing next to him. Then he turned Ram and Dina, his date. "You guys want anything?" When they both nodded, he told me, "Make it three." I had to resist the urge to stand and gape at him.
I stomped off to the bar and gave the bartender my order. I wasn't at all surprised that Katrina came up to stand next to me while I waited on the drinks. I pretended I was being subtle with the "appreciative" once-over I gave her. I did have to admit that she was fairly attractive.
"You look like you want to hurt him," she said. Apparently, she had seen the exchange between Lester and me.
"Most of the time, I do. God! Sometimes I wish he were a woman." My hand flew to my mouth as though I were embarrassed about what I had said. I didn't miss the spark that showed up in Katrina's eyes. I walked back towards Lester with a grin on my face. I got a perverse little thrill of knowing that the fish was almost on the hook.
I had to take a tray to carry all the drinks, as if I was a waitress. When I delivered the drinks to their intended recipients, Lester scowled at the glass of wine I had gotten myself.
"You really think you should be drinking that?" he asked. "You know how you get when you're tipsy."
I was flabbergasted. When I agreed to do this, I thought Lester was just going to flirt with some other girl and we'd fight about that. I had no idea he was going to be mean.
"I…I'll…" I stammered, trying to think of something to say.
"Take it back and get some water."
My eyebrows hit my hairline. If we weren't in a public place…But we were and we were working, so I stalked away as fast as my four inch heels would let me. I handed the wine glass and the tray back to the bartender before heading outside. I had noticed Katrina quietly observing the incident with the delivery of the drinks, and I hoped she would follow me out to the patio.
I sat down on the first bench I came to and pretended to be steamed. It wasn't that hard to pretend; part of me really was seething.
Katrina interrupted my silent planning of the speech I was going to give Lester. "This seat taken?" she asked.
I snorted. "Not like he's going to follow me."
"It's really a shame you let him treat you like that."
"I have to stay with him. He knows things about me. If I leave him, he'll tell everyone. My parents will be so embarrassed; they'll cut me off and never speak to me again."
"I bet I can guess what you're hiding." I just stared at her, acting as though I was terrified that she really did know my "secret." "You're attracted to women aren't you?" I gave the barest of nods. "It's a shame that you have to hide who you really are. And you shouldn't have to deal with the way he treats you. We should go tell him what he can do with his ignorance. What do you think?"
I fidgeted and wrung my hands and generally acted as if I was genuinely debating whether or not to do it. "I don't know. He really could make a lot of trouble for me."
"If you don't stand up for yourself now, when will you?"
"You're right. Let's do it." I let Katrina pull me to my feet. Her back was turned, so I pulled my cuffs out of my small handbag. As soon as she turned around, I slapped one end of the cold metal bracelet around her wrist.
She turned and looked down at her wrist. "What's going on?" she asked, confused. "It's a little early to be getting kinky, I think."
"You're in violation of your bond agreement. I'm here to get you back in the system."
To my surprise, she didn't fight me. She simply hung her head and offered me her other wrist. "I should have known you were too good to be true." The sad look on her face made me feel just a little bit guilty for leading her on. Still, I had a job to do, so I led her over to the shadows next to the building where Hal was waiting to take her in.
After handing Katrina over, I went back to the party, intending to tell Lester I was going home. He was waiting for me just inside the door.
"Nice job, Steph."
"Thanks." I moved to walk around him, but he blocked my path.
"Hey." Lester put his hand on my arm. "You know I was just playing a role, right?"
"I know; I just wasn't prepared for it. I thought you were just going to flirt and we'd fight." I wasn't going to tell Lester that part of my problem was the fact that I still had a "waiting for the other shoe to drop" feeling. The capture went well, so I wasn't quite sure what was going on.
"I'm sorry, Steph. Next time we'll discuss our strategy ahead of time, ok? I just figured that if I didn't tell you, your reaction would be more authentic. Women are much more able to pick up on a scam, and we couldn't afford to have this capture go south. We only had until tomorrow to get her back in the system before Vinnie would have lost the bond." Lester seemed to feel genuinely contrite for the way he treated me.
I nodded. "Ok."
"Why don't we stay and enjoy ourselves for a while? You don't want to waste a killer outfit like that, do you?"
I couldn't completely suppress my smile. "It is a pretty great dress, isn't it? Fine. Let's stay."
"Great! Let's go dance." Lester grabbed my arm and started leading me to the dance floor. As Lester pulled me closer, I looked to my left. Suddenly I knew why I'd had a hinky feeling about the whole night. On the edge of the dance floor, Ranger stood with a very, very beautiful Latin woman. She had big boobs and a nice ass and gorgeous hair all the way down to that nice ass. He had his arm around her and she was plastering herself to his side like a leech. I felt like I'd been sucker-punched.
I guess Lester noticed them, too, because he suddenly put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. "It's gonna be ok, Steph." He whispered in my ear. "Do you want to just leave?" I nodded, not able to open my mouth for fear that I'd start crying if I tried to speak.
Lester led me out the door and to the limo as quickly as he could. I think he knew I was about to lose it. The closer we got to the car, the faster the tears started flowing. The sound of our driver slamming the car door behind Lester must have been the signal I was waiting for because as soon as I heard that, I broke down and started doing the ugly cry. You know the one: your mascara smears, your face gets red and blotchy and scrunched up, and you've got a river of snot coming out of your nose. Lester just held me and rubbed my back through all of it.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, my tears slowed down and my sobs reduced to the occasional hiccup. "What did I do to deserve this, Les? I thought he at least cared a little bit about me. How could he move on so fast?"
"Sometimes Ranger doesn't always make the best choices, Steph. And you didn't do anything to deserve this. You don't deserve this, period."
Lester continued his pep talk the whole drive back to my apartment, telling me that Ranger was stupid and that any man would love to be with me. He walked me up and checked for monsters before kissing me on the forehead and telling me again that Ranger was an idiot. I got in my pjs and went to bed with the hope that I could fall asleep and forget for a few hours.
