Chapter 4 of Step Up is finally posted...sorry for the delay! It's been a busy few weeks for me. A huge thank you to my beta, Sare, for her encouragement and suggestions. Another huge thank you to all who have read and reviewed. You're the best, Babes!
Lester's POV
The overwhelming gagging sensation that usually goes along with swallowing Jägermeister caused me to pound a fist on the table as a double shot of the liquid misery swam down the back of my throat and headed south, into my stomach. I squirmed in the booth seat and squelched back a huge cough.
"Damn. Our boy can seriously hang." Vince smacked a hand down on my shoulder and whipped my empty glass off of the table to give to the waitress. "You want another one?" To my left, Ram was chuckling into his shirt sleeve.
I shook my head. "No way."
"Lightweight."
Now I was many things, but a lightweight certainly wasn't one of them. I fixed Vince and Ram with a silent, dark stare and shifted my gaze to the pile of cardboard coasters resting on the edge of the table. I let my mind wander for several moments and eventually looked back over at Vince. "Seen Stephanie?" I gruffed out.
Vince nodded towards the dance floor. Tank's back was to me, but I could clearly see two tanned, toned arms wound around his neck and a red lace-clad hip poking out from behind his left side. He and Steph shifted their stance as the song wore on, and I eventually could see Steph's entire profile as she swayed around with Tank. She looked as gorgeous as I'd ever seen her, with those mile-long legs of hers brushing against Tank's as they moved together, and her thick brown curls dusting the middle of her back as she tilted her head to stare up at him. She didn't look wasted. I knew she'd done a tequila shot with Bobby earlier, but I wasn't sure what else she'd had to drink since then. I was betting on nothing, and I was damn certain that I was right, too.
The song they were dancing to ended then, and I watched Tank exchange a few words with Stephanie before drifting away from her and disappearing into the crowd of couples as he headed for the bar. Another song immediately started up, and the beat was slightly uptempo. Heavy bass, sultry lyrics. Sexy as hell.
Now or never, Santos, I thought.
I'd been a spectator for long enough. It was time for me to pick my ass up off the bench and throw myself into the game. I turned back to face Vince. "I'm doing this. I can't fucking take it anymore, man." My voice had turned gravelly, and I sounded weird. Maybe it was from talking so loudly to the guys across the table, trying to be heard over the pulsating music. Or maybe it was a side effect from the alcohol that was now pumping through my veins, slow and sweet, making me burn for the only other person on this planet that knew me better than I knew myself sometimes.
"You sure you know what you're getting yourself into?" Vince said. He had an eyebrow cocked and a hesitant look passed across his dark, Sicilian features.
I nodded once. "I've been ready for this since the beginning of time, Romano." I slid out of the booth seat and pushed myself off from the table.
Stephanie was standing in the middle of the dance floor with her arms wrapped around her chest and her line of vision alternating between the bar and the sea of bodies grinding around her. Couples were dipping and grinding to her right and to her left. I watched as she slowly came alive under the spell the music was casting, transforming into a goddess among women. My heart began to beat faster in anticipation of what I was about to do.
My vision may have been slightly fuzzy, but my thoughts were perfectly clear. I was sick and tired of trying to come up with reasons and excuses for why I couldn't have her. In order to convince myself that she was nothing more than my good friend and partner in crime, I dated endless streams of mediocre women, with mediocre personalities and mediocre looks; with everyday, so-so, unexciting jobs. Fun, but not particularly funny. Pretty, but not all that spectacular. Nice, but not exceptionally kind-hearted.
Not one of those women would ever hold a candle to Stephanie. She wasn't even close to being mediocre. She had the biggest heart out of everyone I knew. She was strong-willed and honorable, dedicated and passionate. Her sense of humor had me practically begging daily for Bombshell Duty, just for the chance to spend the afternoon with her, laughing our asses off at anything and everything as we attempted to save the world from the scourges of Trenton.
And she took the words sexy as hell into a whole new fucking dimension. Christ.
The pounding bass thumped in my ears as I watched Steph turn her head slightly to glance back at our booth. When she saw me standing at the edge of the dance floor, looking at her, I caught a glimpse of a coy grin playing on her luscious lips. She blinked slowly and bit her bottom lip. I knew I was grinning back at her because my cheeks felt hot and tight.
"I'm a wild boy, you tryin' to tame me, baby...to where I get it from the house, can you keep me faithful?"
When Steph turned back around, I slowly started to advance toward her on the dance floor. Fuck. I could no longer deny my body the feel of hers wrapped around it. Her curvaceous hips twisted slightly as they found the rhythm of the song. She was the sexiest woman out on the dance floor, hands down. And she was alone, for fuck's sake.
Not for long.
"Said I'm tryin' get your clothes off, from what I'm seeing you look so soft...it's your body, what I'm goin' on, say you ride it, just don't fall off..."
I went up behind Stephanie and felt her stiffen slightly as my front brushed against her back. She slowly lowered her arms to her sides as my fingers brushed her curls away from her neck. I placed my lips onto her bare shoulder, and the infernal heat radiating from her smooth, bronzed skin nearly scorched my mouth. My hands trailed lightly down her arms, and when her head fell back against my chest and her eyelids fluttered shut, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that she wanted this.
"Yeah, I done had a lot of women, they tell me what they can do but can you show me, babe."
I couldn't help the groan that rumbled its way out of my chest as Stephanie leaned her entire body back against mine. I was hard and ready for her at that point, the bulge in my jeans nestled against the small of her back. She shifted against me and the movement sent daggers of heat shooting down my legs.
God, yes, my body was screaming.
My hands smoothed around her small waist, and I bent my head to speak in her ear, my lips lightly brushing the shell of her ear as I spoke softly to her. "May I have this dance, beautiful?"
Steph turned around in my arms, and when I lowered my gaze to hers, I saw that her sparkling blue eyes had darkened to deep midnight, indicating that she was no doubt as turned on as I was. She slithered her hands into my thick, tousled spikes and brought my head down to hers. Her lips were on mine then, and my self-control snapped as I kissed her back, responding with more than she gave me. Steph's tongue stroked mine as our mouths moved together for endless minutes, our lower bodies pressed tightly together with my hard cock nestled in the juncture between her creamy thighs. Holy fucking God. I have never wanted a woman so badly in my entire life. I couldn't believe this was happening.
She finally pulled away and gazed at me for a few seconds before quickly kissing me again. "Yes," she rasped against my lips. "But not here."
I fisted my hand in her curls and kept her face up to mine with my free hand. I stared down at her, searching her expression for the hint of a smile or an upward tug of her lips. Some indication that this was all just a big joke or a crazy dream. When no laugh escaped her throat and no playful grin graced her full lips, I shut my eyes, overcome with disbelief that this was actually happening, and ran my face along the smooth curve of her neck. Steph melted into me and a tiny moan from her throat filtered into my ear.
"Christ, you're amazing," I husked against her pulse point before pressing my lips to it.
Stephanie suddenly shifted her hips so that her lower half rubbed forcefully against mine. The unexpectedness of her actions caused me to hiss and grind even harder against her. She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and groaned before clenching her teeth together and gritting out, "Lester. Take me home."
"Fuck yes, mami," I breathed out.
That was all it took for me to nearly lose control. Within seconds, I had her hauled off of the dance floor and the fingers of her right hand tightly entwined with mine. We approached the booth where Bobby, Tank, Hal, and Vince were sitting, each with a bottle of beer in their hands and looking pleasantly buzzed. Ram was sipping water on the rocks and was eyeing Bobby's Corona with extreme jealousy. I was guessing that none of them saw me dancing with Stephanie, since no comments were made as they watched her and I approach the booth. I'd let go of Steph's hand once the guys were within view, and she was fiddling with the rings on her hands as we sidled up to the booth and leaned over the table.
"Hey," Stephanie announced to the guys, over the boom of the music.
"'Sup, baby?" Bobby crooned. "Ready for another shot?"
Steph smiled and shook her head. "I'm good, thanks."
Enough small-talk. "Um, it looks as though we're going to be leaving now," I said to the guys, cutting directly to the chase. I eyed Vince and nodded once to him, and he nodded back with a knowing expression. He smirked and gave me a discreet thumbs-up.
"By 'we', I hope you really mean you, the girl you've obviously been with this whole time, and that semi-hard-on you're sporting. Because I'm not ready to hit the road yet," Tank boomed. Hal and Bobby each nodded their heads in agreement.
"You picked up a chick?" Ram wanted to know, turning to me.
"Yeah," I replied. I jerked a thumb in Steph's direction and snorted with laughter. "And Steph here hooked up with some guy and wants to take him back to her apartment."
"So we'll be taking a cab," Steph concluded, smiling. "Enjoy the rest of your evening, boys."
I grinned smugly. "You're more than welcome to stay as long as you like, gentlemen." I chucked my Escalade keys to Ram and placed a hand on Stephanie's lower hip. "Miss Plum and "some guy" have a pressing engagement." I pulled her face up to mine and pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss directly on her lips. She looked up at me and bit her bottom lip before turning back to the guys.
"Yeah." Steph threw the gaping, red-faced, wide-eyed RangeMen a saucy grin and winked. "Don't wait up, guys."
With that, I began to lead her away from the table with a hand to the small of her back. Several amused hoots and hollers flowed in our direction. I even thought I heard an, "It's about damn time!" and a "Finally!" as we walked away. I smiled down at Stephanie, and she returned my grin as we made tracks to the exit doors.
Several cabs were parked out in front of the nightclub, waiting to chauffer the drunken club-goers straight to their beds after an evening of hitting the bottles. Since we were out of eyeshot from the guys, I took the liberty of backing Steph into the wall adjacent to the exit doors and using my hips to plaster her lower half against the brick.
"God, I've wanted this for so long," I managed to grit out as I pressed my hands flat against Steph's hips and smoothed them up her back.
As I entwined my hands in her curls, my mind was whirling out of control. I never thought I'd ever get to be like this with Stephanie and actually have her reciprocate the feelings. She had my hips firmly in her hot little hands and was grinding her amazing body against them. With my back to the sidewalk I couldn't actually see anyone watching us, but I felt several pairs of eyes boring into the back of my head. A couple of quick whistles and a rather crude, slurred statement from a shit-faced gentleman confirmed my suspicion that we had an audience.
"Me, too. I almost don't care that we're giving everyone a show," she breathed, a hint of a smile in her voice. "Should we start charging them?"
I snorted with laughter and gave her neck a firm bite, making her moan. "Fuck, no. The only person who gets to see you naked tonight is me." I palmed one of her tight, luscious ass cheeks and gave it a squeeze. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Laughing, Steph scooted out of my arms and led me over to the string of cabs that were waiting by the curb. We selected one, and I opened the back door for us but before we could climb into the backseat, a bearded man in a checkered wool shirt and suspenders hobbled up to the crowd near the nightclub exit doors and whistled loudly through two of his fingers. Off in the distance, a car alarm that sounded vaguely familiar was blaring away and several drivers were honking their car horns. I noticed that traffic was backed up on the street, right in front of the club.
"Somebody own a black Cadillac SUV parked a few blocks over, in front of the diner?" the guy hollered, after nearly deafening us all with his eardrum-piercing whistle. A few clubgoers shrugged and shook their heads. Several others replied 'no' and 'not me.'
My stomach flip-flopped. I let go of Stephanie's waist and motioned to the cab driver to give us a second. I slammed the cab door shut and together Steph and I approached the bearded man. "Wait a second. I do," I said to him warily. "An Escalade?"
The man turned to me and grimaced when he saw that I towered about a foot over him and outweighed him by close to forty pounds. "Well, now it's kind of a Mess-calade. Sorry, but I thought I'd cleared it when I backed out of my spot. I smashed right into the front end. You'd better come take a look." He glanced up at me and I thought I saw him grimace again. "I do apologize, young man."
Sure enough, my car alarm was wailing away and my crumpled, accordion-like bumper was lying dead near the sidewalk, like roadkill. My front left rim was bent up similar to a piece of origami and the chrome grill and hood were smush-city. One of the headlights was hanging on by a single wire, dangling just above the road like a giant yo-yo. I wanted to cry.
"Call Ram," I said on a sigh, turning to Stephanie. "I'll need my keys back."
Steph whipped out her cell and began dialing. When she'd gone to stand a few feet away to hear Ram on the phone over the wailing alarm, I got a good look at the rig that smashed my truck to smithereens. It was a Ford F-350 diesel dually, jacked up on monster truck tires and looking as if it didn't have a scratch on it.
Because it fucking didn't.
"Why isn't your truck damaged?" I asked the guy.
He shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe 'cause it's a Ford."
Hunh.
"I hope you have insurance," I gritted out. If he didn't, I swear to God that I was going to take the baseball bat in my trunk to his windsh -
"Luckily for you, I do," he replied. He handed me a business card with some numbers written down on it. "I've got Allstate, so you're in good hands." He chuckled at his own bad pun.
"Yeah," I muttered. I looked back at my truck and saw Stephanie approach me out of the corner of my eye.
"The guys are heading out of the club," she reported, above all the racket. "It looks like we'll all be taking cabs at some point tonight."
I turned my head to look at her. "Beautiful, I know that you probably don't want to hear this right now, but I think I've completely lost my erection." I shifted my gaze back to my once-flawless vehicle and felt my heart contract painfully.
Steph stared over at the wreckage and sighed. Just then, my headlight lost the gravity battle and smashed onto the street, busting into pieces and startling us both. "Same here," she agreed.
The twenty-four hour diner four blocks over from Elettra served really greasy burgers and artery-clogging cheesecake, so I figured it would be the perfect place for Steph and I to wait for the tow truck to show up outside at the curb. From where I was sitting, I had an okay view of my Mess-calade. I was trying hard not to look at it, but it was just as difficult as trying not to stare at someone with every single one of their teeth blacked out and a huge cold sore busting out of their top lip.
I watched as Steph slathered strawberry mish-mash over her piece of New York-style and forked a huge bite into her awaiting mouth. "Mmmmmm," she moaned, her mouth full. "So good."
Was it okay to be jealous of a piece of cheesecake? I decided that it was and squirted ketchup all over my burger. "Sorry about all this," I said to her. I cut my burger in half and took a bite.
Steph waved me off. "Lester, it's fine. I mean, it's not fine, but you know what I mean. I'm just glad that guy's insurance is going to take care of all this. They'll tow your car to the body shop and fix it, free of charge to you. You've got a claim number and a copy of the police report. The wrecker's on its way. Stop worrying."
Easy for her to say. Her cars were always being blown up. I glared at Steph and suddenly, she burst out laughing.
"They are so not always being blown up, Lester. I know what you're thinking."
I had to laugh. "Fine. Stolen, firebombed, flattened to a pancake, repo-ed, hi-jacked, rocket-launched, squirrel-bombed, potato-gunned, graffitied, vandalized..."
It was Steph's turn to glare. "Firebombed is pretty much the same as being blown up. And for the record, my apartment was firebombed, too. Not just my car. So there."
I continued to stare at Stephanie incredulously.
"Okay, so it's weird that anything of mine has been firebombed, hunh."
I nodded. "A little bit, yeah."
Steph sighed, resigned. "I guess this day was just going too well for us," she said angrily. "It feels like Ranger's son was born a year and a half ago. Seriously, is it still Friday?"
"Nope. Now it's Saturday." I took another bite of my burger and tried to give her a cute smile, but I think I failed miserably, with all the mashed bun and ground-up cow stuck in between my teeth. "It seems like all you and I ever do is eat together."
"Why do you think that is?"
I shrugged. "Wrong place at the wrong time, maybe?"
Stephanie smiled and looked up from her cheesecake. "How about right place at the right time?"
She was so beautiful. I took her left hand and placed an open-mouthed kiss to her palm. I grinned. "I like that better."
The idling of a diesel truck motor outside the storefront diner broke me from my thoughts and I let go of Steph's hand. I craned my neck to see out of the diner's plate glass window and, sure enough, Tiny Ted's Towing had arrived to cart my wrecked Escalade off to car heaven. Or the body shop. Whatever. Damn technicality.
I tossed a twenty onto the table and motioned for Steph to follow me out the door as soon as she'd finished her last bite of cheesecake. Outside, we approached a six-foot-four, three-hundred-pound behemoth wearing a tee shirt advertising Tiny Ted's Towing.
"You Lester Santos?" he barked to me, once Steph and I came to stand beside him.
I nodded. "Are you Tiny Ted?"
The guy smiled humorlessly. "Hunh. Funny." He rolled his eyes and whipped a carbon copy form off his clipboard. "Sign here." I took his pen and inked my signature near the bottom of the form. The guy handed me my copy and set to work. He tossed my mangled bumper into my backseat and hooked my truck up to a hydraulic lift. Several minutes later, my truck was ready to be transported. The guy climbed into the wrecker's cab and lit a cigarette.
Steph and I walked over to the open window and looked up at him. "Where are you taking it?" I asked Tiny Ted.
"At three a.m.? Back to my tow-yard. At nine tomorrow? Coleman Cadillac Buick GMC Body Center in Lawrenceville." The guy tapped his cigarette near Stephanie, causing a few rogue ashes to fly into her face. She grimaced and wrinkled her nose as the guy said, "Enjoy the rest of your night." With that, he roared off in his wrecker, dragging my poor, desolate SUV along behind it.
Stephanie put an arm around my waist and leaned her head on my shoulder. "It'll be okay," she soothed. "It'll get fixed. I know how you're feeling right now. Believe me, I've been there."
I turned to Steph and gathered her into my arms. "I'm not nearly as pissed off about my truck as I am about having our night together ruined."
Steph smiled against my neck. "I hear you."
"Yeah."
We sauntered down the sidewalk back towards the nightclub and the line of waiting cabs, hand in hand. She looked over at me and grinned. "Where have you been all my life, Lester Santos?"
I smiled back and let out a bark of laughter. "I've been right here, mami." I brought her hand to my lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.
We walked in companionable silence until we reached the front of Elettra, letting our joined arms swing freely as we strolled together. It felt good to be this way with her. Almost natural. It was comfortable. She looked over at me and smiled warmly again, letting me know she was just as at ease.
Stephanie sighed as we approached the cabs. "The Buick is still at the Japanese restaurant," she said. "I suppose we should tell the cab driver to take us back to Banzai."
"That works," I replied. I opened the back door of the nearest cab and helped Steph crawl into the backseat. I slid in after her and slammed the door after us.
"Where am I to be taking you to?" the cabbie asked us in a very thick accent, from his perch on the front seat.
"Banzai, in Hamilton Township," I replied.
The cab driver shook his head in annoyance and jammed the taxi into drive. "Thees place, Banzai. I can never eat at that restaurant weethout getting seeck. I oolways eat way too much." With that, he stomped his foot on the gas pedal, whipping all of our heads back against the headrests.
Steph and I shared an amused grin after checking ourselves for neck damage. "Sucks to be him," she whispered to me with a snicker.
"Yeah, it does," I agreed. I pulled her face to mine and pressed a gentle, tentative kiss to her lips. I looked questioningly into her eyes and waited for her reaction to what I'd just done.
Steph rolled her eyes and smiled wickedly before launching herself at me and proceeding to kiss me into a stupor. She shoved her hot, soft tongue between my lips and groaned, making me momentarily forget how to breathe as our mouths slid together passionately. When we came up for air, she gasped out, "What, you think that just because our moment in the club has passed that I don't want you anymore? You're crazy, Santos."
I tried to catch my breath and laughed aloud, totally relieved. "But I'm cute-crazy, though, right?"
"Try sexy-as-hell-crazy." Stephanie leaned back so that she was lying across the backseat and pulled me down on top of her before situating my hips between her silky bare thighs, all the while getting thrown around the cab and whiplashed by our driver with the lead foot and irritable bowel. She brought my face back down to hers and kissed me again, this time keeping the motions slow and deep as we tasted each other's mouths and became turned on to the point of insanity.
I was just about to move my hand to the lacy waistband of her panties when, "No hulluh-hulluh in my cab," came barking from up front. "Thees is a taxicab, not a brothel. If you want hulluh-hulluh, I will drop you off at Motel Seex just up the road."
No way was I slipping in between the nasty, parasite-ridden sheets at Motel "Seex" with Stephanie. It was either my bed or hers, but the way I was feeling at that moment I would have also considered the backseat of a cab. I snickered into Steph's neck so that our guy wouldn't hear me and I felt her quaking with laughter beneath me.
I cleared my throat and spoke up, "Sorry, sir. We'll stop." I lightly bit Steph's earlobe before righting myself and pulling her up with me.
"Yeah," Steph added. "We'll behave."
"Good." The cabbie pulled into the deserted parking lot of Banzai and slammed on the brakes, nearly causing Steph and I to go flying through the windshield. "Lots of babies have been made een the backseat of my cab at one point een time. I myself prefer to not mate een such a disgustingly-public place, so I get my wife and we go to the -
I immediately tossed a wad of cash up front and yelled, "Thanks for the ride! Have a good night!" before he could finish his statement. I really didn't want to hear the rest of it, and probably neither did Stephanie. I shoved her through the door of the cab and hauled ass behind her before slamming the cab's back door shut and dragging her away from it. The cabbie roared off, leaving us in a cloud of exhaust fumes.
"I think you gave him way too much money, Lester," Steph said. "He only drove us a few miles."
"Think of it this way. I paid him to not hear the end of his statement. You should be thanking me." I put my arms around her waist and ran my face down her cheek and into the curve of her neck, placing little kisses along the way.
"Mmmm. You're off until Monday, right?" Steph managed to grit out once my lips hit her pulse point.
"Yeah." My hand slid around to her butt and I pushed her lower half into mine. She rubbed herself against me and clutched the back of my head as I laved her neck. "And if I wasn't, I'd be calling out "seeck" anyway."
We finally managed to make it around to the back of the restaurant, where the Buick was parked. Steph fished around in her purse for the keys and, once she'd located them, unlocked the driver's door and slid in. She unlocked the passenger's side door for me and laughed as I climbed into the mammoth front seat.
"What?" I said, narrowing my eyes.
Steph continued to chuckle. "Nothing. It's just seeing you in Big Blue is pretty fucking hilarious." She cranked over the engine and yanked the bulbous beast into reverse. She craned her neck to see behind her and when she thought she'd cleared the curb, she proceeded to put the car into drive and we hogged out of the parking lot.
"Beautiful, this definitely isn't the kind of car a woman like you should be driving." I grimaced and looked around at the interior, feeling a bit like I'd gone back in time to a sock hop and expecting the Rat Pack to emerge from the backseat at any second.
"Okay, so it's not an Escalade," she said haughtily. "Or a Lexus. But it gets me safely from point A to point B."
"That's true. And, hey. I hardly ever drive the Lexus." My vehicular wet-dream usually stayed put in the other half of my garage, only being brought out when the mood and weather called for a little wreckless speed and sexy agility. It was obsidian black and caused women to have orgasms on the spot. Or at least I'd like to think so.
Steph rolled her eyes and smiled. "Where are we going?" Steph asked me, once we were on Hamilton.
"I have to stop by RangeMan to get the paperwork on Munson out of my office so I can work on it over the weekend. And then, I'm kidnapping you." I scooted closer to her and placed my lips next to the shell of her ear. "Until further notice."
Stephanie sighed loudly and squeezed her thighs together. She jerked the wheel to the right and growled angrily, while I chuckled triumphantly. "I'm trying not to wreck here, Lester," she ground out. She suddenly burst into laughter when I began biting her ear. "Stop!"
"Fine, fine. I'll be good." I settled back onto the Buick's bench seat and examined the shiny white vinyl on the door panels. "This thing is a real piece of work. I feel like heading over to the soda fountain and putting a quarter in the jukebox to hear Jailhouse Rock."
Steph snorted with laughter as she rounded a corner, using both arms to steer. "Only you would think of doing something like that, Lester." She slowed her speed when we approached the Haywood garage entrance and exchanged a wave with Manny as we passed under the guard gate.
"Pacheco hates the graveyard shift," I commented as we rolled through the garage, the Buick's engine echo blasting off the cement walls. "I'm surprised he waved back at you."
"Who can resist a chick in a muscle car?" Steph laughed. She pulled to a stop in her special reserved parking space and cut the engine. "I know this is crazy, but I'm not tired at all. Are you?"
I shook my head. "Nope. I slept for nearly twelve hours today. The last thing I want to do right now is go back to bed."
"I hate to break it to ya, Les, but I'm dragging you back to bed as soon as we get to your house." Steph grinned wickedly and winked. I groaned as my pants tightened again. We simultaneously exited the Buick and met around near the trunk. She plastered herself up against me and my arms instinctively went around her neck as I pressed a kiss to her lips.
"Let's make this quick," I said softly against her lips. "Come on. Upstairs." I took her hand and led her over to the elevator, passing Ranger's black Cayenne on the way.
"Hunh," Steph remarked, eyeing the black SUV. "I thought I saw this parked out in front of the hospital earlier this morning. You don't think he's here, do you?" she asked me.
I shook my head. "No way. He's definitely still at the hospital." With that, Steph and I entered the elevator and I hit the button for two, where my office was located. We kept our hands to ourselves on the elevator because I knew that Cal and Junior were both on the monitors at that moment and would no doubt see us through the tiny camera in the corner.
We got off on two and I led Steph over to my office. I unlocked the door and flipped on the light switch before rooting around on my desk for Munson's file. When I located it, I shut off my light and locked up again. I joined Steph out in the hall. "Ready, beautiful?" I asked her, smiling.
Steph bit her bottom lip and nodded, returning my grin. I pulled her up against me and brought her lips to mine with a hand to the side of her face. I kissed her, slow and deep, until she was squirming impatiently against me and whimpering into my mouth. A commotion to my left caught my attention and both Steph and I turned to face the Control room door.
To my absolute horror, Ranger and Tank were now standing outside of the open Control room door. Ranger had his cell phone up to his ear and was glaring murderously at me. Tank, still in his clubbing outfit, was grimacing and staring at the floor. At that moment, I'd have bet a million bucks that Tank was wishing he was worm food.
"Let me call you right back," Ranger barked to whoever was on the other end of his call. He snapped his phone shut and stalked toward Stephanie and I. We'd broken apart as soon as we spotted Tank and Ranger, and Steph was looking like she'd rather be on a one-way raft trip to the Turks and Caicos than standing next to me at the moment.
"What are you doing here?" I asked Ranger. "It's after five in the morning. Why aren't you at the hospital?"
Ranger looked fucking exhausted. He had dark circles under his eyes, his hair was mussed, and he had a blue hospital bracelet fastened around his wrist and his ID sticker picture still stuck to his tee shirt. Clearly he'd been asleep on the pull-out "father's bed" in Lauren Marie's hospital room before he got to h.q. "Got a call about a security breach on one of the accounts," he replied darkly, crossing his huge arms over his even huger chest. "It's settled now."
"Oh, good," I replied lamely, for lack of better words.
Ranger glared back and forth between Stephanie and I before finally saying quietly, "I want the two of you in my office. Now." He turned on his heel and began heading down the hall, towards his suite.
Shit.
Will Steph and Lester ever get to have their night together? LOL Stay tuned for Chapter 5!
** Italicized song lyrics are from Usher and Jay-Z's Hot Tottie. Cab driver's hullah-hullah stolen from MadTV's Depressed Persian Towtruck Man (YouTube him, he's hilarious!)
