Disclaimer: Still not mine

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Chapter 6

SPOV

I can't describe how good it felt waking up wrapped in Lester's arms. I could tell by his breathing that he was still asleep, so I took the opportunity to really look at him. The darkness around his eyes was gone and so was the tension that he carried around his mouth. Even when he was joking with me, I could still see the slightest firm set to his jaw. While he was asleep, all of that was gone. He looked younger and he also looked peaceful. When he was awake, he was constantly on guard. I guess that came with the job. His eyes were always scanning the area and his body held a certain amount of tension, just like his mouth. When he was sleeping, he was totally relaxed and totally sexy. Awake he was completely gorgeous, but asleep he was completely edible.

We'd talked a whole lot the night before and I really learned a lot about him. He told me about his job and about the guys who work with him. He talked a little bit about his time in the Army, but I sensed him closing up when I asked questions about it, so I moved on to a different topic. My dad was the same way. He was in the Army before my sister and I were born and he refused to talk about it too. I couldn't blame them though. I couldn't imagine the horrible things they had to witness while serving our country.

Turning my attention back to the man lying beside me, I let out a little sigh. I didn't know how I got so lucky. He was perfect and I honestly didn't know why he wanted me. I was nothing special and felt kind of frumpy next to him, but he called me Beautiful so I decided that maybe I should trust him. He looked sincere when he said it and since he hadn't pushed for sex the night before, I knew he wasn't just saying it to get in my pants. I truly felt like he was genuinely attracted to me. That thought made me both giddy and bold. Chewing on my lip, my gaze scanned his body and I knew instantly what I wanted to do.

Throwing the sheets over my head, I slowly started to slide down to the impressive tent Les was making. I wanted to give him a wakeup call that he wouldn't ever forget and was about to take him into my mouth when a sound from downstairs stopped me. I listened for a few seconds and heard the front door open and close. I rose back up to the head of the bed and shook Les.

"Les...someone's here. You need to wake up." He didn't wake up, but he moaned a deep soulful sound that made my stomach all gooey. I shook him again. "LES! WAKE UP."

"God, Beautiful that feels so good. Don't stop, Baby." OMG...he was having a sex dream about me. I heard boots on the stairs and started to really freak out. I had no way to defend us and Les wasn't moving.

"Lester Santos. Wake up, NOW!" I tried punching him in the arm but he still didn't wake up.

"Yeah Beautiful, are you ready for me to cum?" He started to say something else, but I didn't hear it because I got distracted by the group of men that entered the bedroom. I didn't know what else to do, so I screamed. That woke Les up.

In a second he was standing up and looking at the guys with his gun pointed at them. I heard him swear and stare at the men who invaded our privacy. From my place curled up in bed, I got a good look at the men in the room with us.

The first looked a little like Les. He had darker skin, the color of mocha latte, and dark eyes. He had a body of a God and his stance screamed ALFA MALE.

The man standing next to him was taller and had more muscles. His skin was dark chocolate and his head was bald. He looked like a tank. The man next to him was equally as attractive as the first two. His skin tone was a few shades lighter, maybe like milk chocolate. His short hair was dark and his light brown eyes were sparkling with mirth.

The next man in the group was the smallest, but he looked like he was the most dangerous. He was Latino with dark eyes. He had tattoos on his arms and up his neck, but what frightened me the most about him was the three tear drop tattoos under his eye. I wasn't stupid, I knew what those meant. Even though he looked scary, he was also strangely attractive. He screamed bad boy!

The last guy was the tallest of the group. He wasn't as big as the tank looking guy, but he was close. His bald head was freshly shaved and staring at me from a place of honor on his forehead was an impressive flaming skull tattoo. I thought it was a weird placement, but it worked for him. All five of those men made my hormones sit up and pay attention.

"Holy fuck. I died and woke up in the Playgirl Mansion. Maybe this is my heaven and they are my very sexy angels." I honestly didn't mean to speak out loud. I blamed the shock of the invasion for my word vomit.

I assumed since Les didn't shoot any of them that he knew them and I figured that they were some of the guys that he worked with. Once it registered with each of them, what I had spewed, they all burst out laughing.

Oh my God! I thought they were sexy before. Laughing, though, they were orgasmic. One thought passed through my mind, "I think my panties just got ruined...oops, I'm not wearing any."

The laughing stopped suddenly and I suddenly found all twelve dark eyes focused directly on me. Lester growled from beside me and I realized that my word vomit had struck again. Shit! I really needed to fix that.

"Shit, Beautiful, these guys don't need that imagery right now." I burrowed down further in the covers and tried to cover my burning red face. I prayed that I could disappear from my embarrassment.

"Guys, can you wait downstairs for us?" Les sounded a little angry. His voice was harsh and left no room for discussion or arguments. I watched, from my place under the covers, as the five guys turned and left us alone. I was still so embarrassed and I was sure that Les was mad at what I said about his coworkers.

"I'm so sorry, Beautiful. I didn't know they would show up here. I guess I slept past my alarm." He kept trying to dig me out from my bunker of covers, but I refused to budge. "Beautiful, can you come out please?" He was chuckling! Bastard thought it was funny. He did say the magic word so I huffed and threw the covers back. He smiled down at me and brushed the wild hair away from my face.

"Don't be embarrassed. You'll like the guys once you get to meet them properly. Will you please come downstairs with me?" Damn that magic word again. His face was sincere though so I simply nodded.

"Can I go to the bathroom first? I want to look half way presentable when I meet your friends." He smiled at me again and kissed my nose.

"You look beautiful right now. You could have no hair and wear a potato sack and still be beautiful to me." I leaned up and kissed his lips. No one had ever looked at me the way he did. He truly believed that I was beautiful and knowing that he felt that way made me feel beautiful.

"Clean up. I'm going to go downstairs. Come down when you're ready. I'm sorry that I don't have any other clothes for you." I stood up and glanced at what I was wearing. Big lounge pants and a T-shirt. It wasn't the most attractive outfit, but it was clean and it was comfortable.

"It's okay. I'm not trying to impress anyone except you." He beamed at me and kissed me hungrily.

"You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. You've done more than just impress me." I melted into his embrace and kissed him back. He knows just what to say to make me feel all tingly inside.

I stepped away from him and hurried into the bathroom. I heard Les walk down the stairs and then heard all the guys talking. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but it didn't really matter. I did what I could to fix myself but it didn't help that much. I wet my hair down and fixed my curls as best I could. I washed my face and found some toothpaste to brush my teeth. Well, finger my teeth. I improvised when I had to.

When I had myself in some sort of order, I took a deep breath and exited the bathroom. I walked quietly down the stairs and found all the guys in the kitchen. Les saw me first and walked quickly to my side. He gave me a panty melting kiss and then turned to the group of guys.

"Guys, this is Stephanie Plum. She's the new BEA that Vinnie hired." I smiled and gave the guys a finger wave. They all smiled back. He walked me to where each guy was standing to introduce them to me.

"Beautiful, these are some of the guys that I work with." He stopped in front of the little guy. "This is Hector. He's our tech guy." I shook his hand and smiled brightly at him. He was hesitant at first, but smiled back at me and kissed my hand.

"This is Bobby Brown. He's my partner and the company medic. We get injured and he fixes us." Bobby took my hand and placed a kiss on it.

"Nice to meet you Stephanie. Let me know when Santos breaks your heart. I'll patch you right up." He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I couldn't help but giggle. Les slapped him on the back of the head and glared at him. Seeing him do that made me laugh harder.

"Next, we have Calvin West." Flaming skull tattoo rolled his eyes and kissed my hand like the other guys.

"Call me Cal, Angel. My mother is the only one who calls me Calvin." I smiled at him and nodded my head.

"The big guy is Tank. I can't tell you his real name because he might kill me if I do. You might be able to sweet talk it out of him though." I highly doubted that. It was nice to know that my first impression was right. I thought he looked like a tank and sure enough, he was. He didn't kiss my hand, but shook it firmly.

"Last but not least, this is the idiot who stood you up yesterday. This is my cousin, Ranger." Tall dark and handsome took my hand and placed a kiss on my knuckles. His lips remained there longer than the other guys and his dark eyes stayed fixed right on mine.

"Babe." I blushed when his husky voice rumbled past his lips. God, he was sex on legs. He finally released my hand and I snuggled back into Les' arms.

"It's nice to meet you all. Les has told me a little about you, but it's nice to have faces to go with the stories." Les kissed my temple and then spoke to the guys.

"Now, you've all met her and know that I'm not dead...so you can all go back to the office. I'll be there soon." The guys laughed at Les' obvious attempt to dismiss them.

"No way man. Ranger drug us out here to make sure you make it in to work today. We don't leave until you do." Cal laughed and shook his head and Les glared at Ranger. Ranger just shrugged his shoulders.

"What was I supposed to do? You disappear from the map after your 'meeting' and then call suddenly to turn off the cameras here, and then you miss the morning meeting. What did you expect?" Ranger looked serious, but if you looked close you could see a slight smile on his lips.

"I expected you not to interrupt my girlfriend and I's first date." I think Les spoke before thinking because once he said those words, he stiffened. The guy's eyes bugged out at the word girlfriend and I began to panic.

I had just met him less than twenty-four hours ago. True, there was instant attraction and I really liked his personality, but was I ready to become his girlfriend? We had talked the night before about getting to know each other but we didn't decide on anything. I hated labels like boyfriend/girlfriend. Labels made me run, and that was exactly what I tried to do.

"Ummm...I need to get dressed and head home anyway. I'll be ready to go in a second." I pulled myself out of Les' arms and grabbed the pile of clothes that were laying by the front door. My underwear was torn, but the rest of my clothes would be fine to wear home. I ran up the stairs and locked myself in the bathroom and let a tear fall. I wasn't ready for labels, but I also didn't want to walk away from Les.

LPOV

I fucked up. I was so pissed that the guys ambushed Steph and I that I didn't think to filter my words. I could tell from the very beginning that she was afraid of relationships. She did everything in her power to steer clear of them and there I was pushing the word girlfriend on her. Fuck, I knew better than that shit. We all watched her hastily retreat up the stairs.

"Sooo...Santos. How was your night last night?" Bobby looked so fucking smug. They all knew that sticking around wasn't my normal MO with women. I fucked them, left them, and bragged to the guys about how good the woman was. That morning, I wasn't about to tell them anything about what happened between Stephanie and I.

"Fuck you guys. Why the hell did you have to fuck this up? I really like this girl and I'm afraid I just scared her off." I ran my hand through my hair and let out a deep sigh.

"Woah. Santos and 'like a girl' in the same sentence? It's the first sign of the apocalypse." Cal joked from his place behind the counter.

"No. The first sign of the apocalypse is when he goes on a second date with the girl." Tank bellowed and slapped me on the back. Fuck, I knew that I was never going to hear the end of this.

"Shut the fuck up. I can change you know. I don't have to stay the same person for the rest of my life. You guys stay here while I do damage control with Steph." I grabbed my shoes from beside the door and ran up the stairs to where Stephanie was trying her hardest to hide from me.

"I'll be ready to go in five minutes, Fuckers." I yelled to the guys and they all laughed, loudly.

I found Steph sitting on the bed in the room we'd shared the night before. She had her clothes on and she was folding the clothes that I gave her to wear. I noticed a few tear tracks and hated that I'd made her cry.

"You okay, Beautiful?" I guess she hadn't noticed me because she jumped and her eyes snapped up to meet mine. They were filled with such pain.

"I'm fine. I'm ready to go if you are." She stood and started to walk out the door. I didn't want to let her walk away mad so I grabbed her arm and spun her around to face me.

"Don't walk away, Beautiful. Please. I'm sorry if I scared you with my stupid choice of words." She took a few minutes to think about something, so I let the silence between us stretch. I could almost smell the smoke coming out of her ears and was starting to get worried. Finally she let out a long sigh and stepped into my arms. I circled them around her and held her tight. I didn't know if that was going to be the last time holding her was possible.

"I'm not walking away. I know you need to get to work, and I need to get home and check on Rex. The word girlfriend scared me, but it also excited me. I'm not ready for the label, but I would love to have the perks of dating you." She smiled up at me and I placed a kiss on her lips.

"Dating it is. How about dinner and a movie tonight?" Her smile grew and she nodded. With our personal life settled, I wanted to talk to her about the professional side of our relationship.

"Now...I'm going to talk to Ranger about taking some time off to help you with your first few skips. I don't want you going out solo until I can see what your skills are." She seemed put off by my statement, but I just smiled at her hoping she'd melt. I knew she wasn't going to like needing help, but I didn't want her to get hurt. "Can I call you after I talk to Ranger? Maybe we can pick up your guys today."

She thought for a few minutes and when I saw her eyes soften I knew I'd won. "Sounds good. But I might go after the guys that I know from my high school days. I doubt I have any problem with them. We can go after Mr. Goody together." It sounded like a fair compromise, so I smiled at her and kissed her on her luscious lips.

When I pulled away, we were both breathless and I swear I heard her whimper. My voice was husky as I spoke. "Let's go before they send up the search party again." Letting out a deep breath, she smiled and we walked down the stairs together.

The guys were standing around the front door all looking at something on the floor. When I caught sight of what it was, I rushed forward to grab it. I didn't want those fuckers looking at my woman's thong on or off her body. Bobby and Cal both had appreciative looks on their faces and Ranger and Tank were both stoic as always. Hector, though, surprised me. Rumor was he was gay, but he was admiring her thong too much for a gay man. The guys all looked at me when I picked up the thong and put it in my pocket. I smiled slyly at each of them and wiggled my eyebrows. Let them think whatever they want. I got raised eyebrows from each of my brothers.

"Be bitter bastards, she's all mine." I mumbled to them just loud enough for them to hear. I heard five mumbled curses which made me smile.

Steph came bouncing toward the door smiling at everyone. Luckily she had gone to the living room to get her purse instead of coming to the door with me. She would have been mortified if she saw the guys looking at her thong.

We all piled out the door and after locking up, I watched as the five guys squeezed into one SUV. Poor Hector had to sit in the in the middle of the backseat between Cal and Bobby. I got Stephanie situated inside my car and then pulled up beside the SUV.

"I've got to drop Steph off at home, and then I'll be in. I need to talk to you, Ranger, as soon as I get there." He nodded and drove off toward Trenton.

We followed them almost the whole way back into Trenton, but I exited before them to take Steph home. She gave me directions and when I stopped in front of her apartment building, I winced. It was an older building that had zero security. I hoped at least she wasn't staying in one of the units with a fire escape. Those were just screaming for someone to break in.

"Thanks for the ride home. I'm going to shower and then grab a ride back to my car. I forgot we left it at the diner last night." I hadn't forgotten about her car and secretly hoped that someone stole it but I wasn't going to tell her that.

"If you need a ride to your car later, let me know. I'll be happy to drive you over there." I kissed her gently as I brushed some hair out of her face.

"I'll be okay. I'll just call my dad." I knew she hated admitting that she might accidentally need someone's help. She was too independent to admit something like that.

"Okay. I'll call you a little later. Good luck picking up your guys this morning." She smiled and kissed me before hopping out of the car and running toward her apartment. I sat and watched to see what unit she went into. I was praying it wasn't one I could see, but was severely disappointed when the lights switched on in a second floor unit. I watched a familiar silhouette walk into one room and then I saw her moving around in another.

Sighing, I pulled out of her lot and headed toward the office. I knew I needed to talk to her about security. I didn't like that she was so exposed, especially being a bounty hunter. We attracted all sorts of unsavory people so she would need to understand that fact and expect retaliation. She had so much to learn and I hoped that she would let me teach her.

PSA #4 - After some extensive Google searches, I've discovered a troubling fact. There is no Playgirl Mansion. Now, I don't know about you all, but I find this unfair and quite distressing. But there is a solution. If we all stick together and write our congress people, I'm sure we can remedy this travesty that has befell our great country. Equal ogling for all should be our motto! If men can go to a huge house and see naked women, then we women deserve the same rights. If we stand united...we can achieve anything! :D