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Chapter 7.5: The friend zone? WTF?!

Ranger's POV

I pushed aside the stack of quarterly reports I was supposed to be reviewing when I realized that I'd read the same page twice. I had a business to run, but I just couldn't get a certain curly-haired Jersey girl out of my head. I'd broken down and kissed Steph last night.

Maybe I had been dropped on my head when I was a baby, because kissing my employee was the last thing I should be doing. But I could still taste her, and I knew I wanted more.

I checked my watch – 1635 – I had less than an hour before we had to leave for dinner at Babe's parents' house. I'd heard stories, so I wasn't exactly looking forward to spending an evening eating artery-clogging food and avoiding Edna Mazur's advances. However, Julie and Steph spent a significant amount of time with the Plums, so it was past time to meet them.

The reports were a lost cause, so I pulled out the file on my current pet project. So that Morelli pendejo thought it was funny to seduce Steph on the filthy floor of a donut shop and then humiliate her, not once, but twice? Add in the fact that he'd dared to speak to mija, he was lucky that I wasn't arranging his transport to one of the 'Stans.

Morelli was already on thin ice after his recent murder charge and time spent as a fugitive. Sure, he'd been cleared of the charges, but a couple of words in the right ears, and internal affairs had been only too happy to start a review of all of his cases for the last three years. He'd be lucky to pull traffic duty after this.

The IA investigation still didn't feel like enough, but Tank, Santos and I hadn't been able to think of a more fitting punishment. Except…. I felt a rush of almost feral satisfaction as it came to me. The man was by all accounts a womanizer, and a sexual predator, so I wondered how he'd feel if the tables were turned?

R&S~R&S~R&S

A couple of hours later, my feelings toward Stephanie Plum were even more confused than usual. I was used to being alternately turned on and amused in her presence, but with the exception of the Morelli situation, I wasn't accustomed to the sheer need to protect that was surging through me as I listened to Helen Plum tear down her daughter.

I'd never felt the urge to protect any woman who wasn't related to me before, but how dare that woman tell my Babe she was nothing but an easily discarded employee? I'd sworn off marriage a long time ago, and my life style didn't lend itself to relationships, so as far I was concerned Steph was the only mother figure Julie was going to get. Luckily for all of us, she was brilliant at it.

I felt a tug on my pants leg, and looked down at Julie. Shit, she'd followed me when I'd gone to check on Steph, and from the pissed-off expression on her face, she'd heard every bit of poison that woman had just spouted.

I leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Why don't you ask Stephanie if it's time to go? Didn't you want to play with the Wii before bed?"

As I watched Julie bound into the kitchen, it occurred to me that I'd just agreed to play a children's video game. But if it made either of them smile, I guess I could take one for the team.

After an hour spent playing MarioParty that I would never get back, I found myself rummaging around in Ella's main pantry for supplies. Julie's antics had worked wonders, and I was hoping a glass of wine and some of the chocolate stash that no one thought I knew about would wipe the rest of that haunted look from Steph's face.

Her sweet moans as she bit into the candy bar went straight to my cock, as usual, and I can't say that I didn't enjoy her banter. But I was so fixated on that tiny smear of chocolate that clung to her lower lip that I almost missed her next words.

The fuck? She was trying to put me in the friend zone? I had to admit that Babe had a point – she was an employee and not a playmate. Not that I would ever go there, exactly – because Stephanie Plum is many things, but she's not a piece of ass. But on the other hand, I knew I would go crazy if I couldn't touch or taste her, sometimes. I was raised to be a good man, but I had my limits.

The fact that I was still reeling from her 'let's be friends' speech was the only explanation for why I let her talk me into having Julie's birthday party at something called 'Bounce U.' I just knew that she'd bat those baby blues at me and I'd find myself bouncing around in a fucking inflatable house with a party hat stuck on my head. My enemies would laugh in my face if it got out.

At least I had the presence of mind to say no to the slumber party. There's one thing I remember from growing up with my sisters – if you put young girls in a room together, they squeal. No man should have to listen to that in his own home.

And then she bit that fucking lip again, so I found myself agreeing to consider taking Julie to visit mi familia. I love my family, and I even like most of them, in theory, but they have never understood or accepted my life choices.

While I've never regretted my decision to join the Army, two wars and God knows how many covert missions have put a lot more than sixty miles of distance between me and them. A family dinner might as well be conducted in Swahili, for all that we understand each other.

And, like I said, I was raised to be a good man, so I'd married Rachel to give Julie my name. My mother and abuelas had approved, but they still don't understand why we didn't stay married, or why I gave Julie up. A burden I'll always have to bear is that if not for a crappy twist of fate, Rachel and another man would still be raising my daughter. I've heard that Mama is happy that I stepped up, but she will never understand that the real tragedy is that Ron and Rachel were the ones that deserved to raise Julie, and they won't get to.

But, I remember how much I'd loved visiting mis abuelas when I was Julie's age, so I would be a real ass to deny her that. Thankfully, Steph refrained from pointing that little fact out to me, though I could tell she wanted to.

Since I still had those reports to go over, I got up to leave. But considering that Stephanie Plum had managed to tie me up in knots in less than fifteen minutes, I had to get a little of my own back.

So, I moved in on her until I could just feel her curls brush against my cheek. "Then I have a couple of things to say to you, Steph," I said, pitching my voice low in that way that always made her eyes darken with lust. It was a dirty trick, but you know what they say about giving information to the enemy.

"One, your mother is wrong. You're not easily replaced, and I don't foresee a time when Julie won't need you." A faint blush spread over her cheeks, and she smiled slightly as she realized that my words were sincere.

I almost stopped there, but Steph was absolutely right. I was no lap dog. "Two, keeping things professional between us might be wise, but I don't always do the smart thing where you're concerned. We'll be friends, if that's what you want, Babe, but expect me to push the boundaries any chance I get."

I had to hide a grin as I heard her fight to stay upright as I left her apartment. Game on, Babe. Game on.