FYI: Sorry for the POV switch guys. I really didn't want to go deeper into the Ranger angst and there's no better way to liven things up than looking at stuff from Steph's perspective. Hope you like the change!
Stephanie's POV
The last couple of weeks had been really strange. I know that Joe and I are in the on again of our off-again-on-again but jeez has he been laying it on thick. He'd taken me out to dinner eight times in this short time span and it felt as if he were prepping me for something. The first date was McDonalds. Then Cluck-in-a-Bucket, Luby's, Pinos, Chili's, Firday's, Red Lobster and last night he took me to Johnny Carino's. I just got this weird sneaking feeling that he thought I wouldn't notice the progression and that this was all leading up to some big fancy date.
I should be excited for a dress up date with Joe. Right?
Then why did this feel like a trap?
It all sort of came to a head when he had flowers delivered to RangeMan this morning. It was a big, obnoxious bouquet of roses and baby's breath. They were pretty…if you're into that sort of thing but in my tiny cubicle they only served to cramp my space and invite a bombardment of teasing from the Merry Men.
It all pretty much amounted to one big joke about Joe marking his territory.
I felt pissed on.
After a while it felt like even the flowers were mocking me.
I finally heaved the flowers from my desk and walked them outside to the service entrance. I set them just behind the door where hopefully everyone would just forget they existed. I went back inside and washed my hands of the whole morning. No one even remembered the damned things.
Out of sight out of mind, right?
Wrong.
I guess the guys decided that the disappearance of the flowers meant they could really pound into me now. They each took their turn but Lester Santos took more than his fair share. He found his way over every time a clever quip occurred to him. Not that I minded Lester's teasing too much. He had a great smile and watching him walk away almost made up for the reason he was coming over in the first place. His RangeMan-issue black cargoes showcased his perfect ass flexing and un-flexing as he walked away from his last zinger. It was practically asking to be squeezed.
Flexing and un-flexing and flexing and un-flexing…
"If I had known teasing you was such a turn on I would have been making fun of you a long time ago beautiful." I hadn't even realized that I had leaned over in my chair or that I had…OH MY GOD…I had his aforementioned perfect ass in my hand.I stammered something about having to retrieve the flowers but I still hadn't let go.
Why couldn't I just let go?
Oh yeah, maybe it had something to do with the fact that I had decided not to have sex with Joe until my spidey-sense decided there was nothing fishy going on and since the honey licking incident Ranger hadn't so much as looked in my direction.
So this is what it had come down to.
I was so sexually frustrated at this point that my deepest point of shame wasn't even my diddling last night.
It was this.
It was now.
It was me grabbing…no it seemed I was now caressing Lester Santos' exquisite ass while I had the longest fucking inner monologue of my life.
I finally and very reluctantly let go and tried to channel all this pent up energy into something more productive. I decided on anger since it was sort of my go-to.
Who did I have to blame for this?
Well Joe first of all for his fishy behavior and devious plotting. If he hadn't been acting so fucking weird it may not have come to such a desperate situation.
Ranger was in a close second for his lack of teasing. The honey-covered grinding in the alley over two weeks ago was the closest I'd come to a buddy system orgasm in a very long time.
It was time to stop playing nice and start kicking ass.
I decided to start with Ranger and with that walked away from Lester's perfect ass to bang on Batman's office door.
It occurred to me that this ass kicking could take a while so I strode back out the service entrance to find that the accursed flowers had already wilted in the sun.
For real, how long had I been molesting Santos. Didn't matter now. The damage was done and I had other things on the agenda. I set the flowers down on my desk and turned toward the hallway that held Ranger's office. When I reached out to grab the door handle I saw the bane of my existence resting on the sleeve of my jacket. It must have been on the stupid flowers when I brought them back inside. It's tiny yellow and black striped body twitched menacingly. I fucking hated bees. I tried to gently swing my arm to encourage it to fly away.
It took off and seemed to be looking for en exit but when the hall dead-ended it headed back for me. I tried turning the door handle to escape inside Ranger's office but it was locked. I started banging on the door but when there wasn't an immediate response I turned tail and started running back the way I had come. The bee was faster and I stopped dead when I saw it hovering above my face.
"Nice bee." I cooed. "Easy does it." But it must have smelled this morning's Boston cremes on my breath because it went straight for my mouth. Again.
Even seeing it drop dead after it stung my lip wasn't enough to make my anger subside. My lip had just unswollen from the last sting.
I trudged back down the hallway to Ranger's door wondering how this had happened in the first place. I should have been able to just walk right in. He never locked his office. Even though it was locked to everyone somehow this felt directed at me. He was locking me out. He finally opened the door just as I was going to knock again.
He looked down at me and half smirked.
"Steph." he shook his head as he watched my lip swell to three times its normal size.
Not Babe.
Just Steph.
A single fat swollen tear leaked down my face to land on my fat swollen lip.
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