Elizabeth POV

I sat in the chair, mesmerized; no, horrified by what I was witnessing. I couldn't, for any amount of money, have peeled myself out of the seat, as much as I wanted to throw myself at them both. I was rooted to the spot, white-hot anger boiling close to the surface. Ranger had let this Stephanie Plum out of his embrace, but it seemed as if he regretted it. He stood, watching her and the old lady with the walker turn away and leave. Plum looked back twice, and he was still watching. I looked at her carefully. I would never have guessed that she would be his type. She was in a pair of jeans, a tank top stretched across breasts that were unimpressive, a denim shirt pulled over that. Her hair was messy, un-styled, in a sloppy ponytail and it appears she had never graduated from the cosmetics aisle at CVS. He pulled out his phone, and I heard him ask for this Marina person he talked about earlier. He looked, wow, I guess bewildered would be the word for it.

I wasn't above eavesdropping although truly he wasn't off in a corner, just feet from me. His voice, it was mellow as he spoke. "Rina? Thank you." And then he hung up. He never did do well on the phone. I guess she knew what it was about. I wanted to know, too.

He took a step into the swarm of children and touched Julie's shoulder. "We need to leave. Now."

Julie protested, as I guessed she would. I stood then, and went over to him. "Ranger."

He looked at me with surprise. He had forgotten I was here! He made a good recovery though, and the surprise quickly faded into that damned blank look he had so often.

"Leave her. I will take her home if you need to go."

He looked at me intently, and then turned back to Julie, who was waiting patiently. He nodded, and she smiled and sat back down to enjoy the story lady. I went back to the easy chairs, and sat in the one next to his. Where she had sat.

He came back and took his seat. "Elizabeth."

I looked at him carefully. He was shaken in some way. It was subtle; it wasn't an overt emotion or anything. But I also knew I had been eliminated from his world. As if I had ever been a part of his world, I laughed to myself. The past couple of months with Ranger in my life, they had been----what? Actually what had they been, I thought? I realized suddenly other than mind-blowing sex, and damn was it mind-blowing---the man had the equipment and knew what to do with it---I knew we had never reached beyond that. The physical.

Yeah, I had agreed to it. I was still off the idea of relationships, because of my jerk ex. But Ranger never offered or suggested a relationship. We had fallen into a simple routine. The girls loved to spend time together. Once or twice a week, they would have a sleep-over. And Ranger would sometimes be a part of it. He'd usually come over late, after working at his super-secret career he couldn't tell me about, and we'd fuck like rabbits all through the night. Just thinking about his cock pounding into me was getting me wet, and that was a bad idea, I realized. I knew without a shadow of doubt that he would never be sharing my bed again.

He never was one for words. I was trying to decipher what he was trying to tell me, and all I was coming up with was an apology. I took a deep breath, and looked him straight in the eye. "That's her, isn't it?" I said quietly.

He raised an eyebrow slightly.

"That's who you are thinking about when you fuck me?"

He closed his eyes for a brief moment. For a fraction of that second there was emotion on his face, and then he closed down.

"I'm sorry, Elizabeth."

Shit. The fight went out of me. He really was wound tight about her. "Ok. Well." My voice was shaking, but I wasn't going to break down. "I'll take Julie home when this is done then, ok?" I tried to sound uninterested, aloof. It didn't work; I heard the hitch in my voice, I knew he did too.

His finger tips trailed along my arm, in some sort of apologetic dance. "Elizabeth." He sounded tortured. Well almost. Not comfortable at the very least. Good, I thought. I really didn't want to give in so easily. I looked at him, eyes hooded; making my one pathetic attempt at keeping him, although I could see it was pointless.

"If you change your mind, Ranger, I was going to suggest that we spend some time in the den tonight; I was thinking about how good it felt last time, the ottoman…." I know he got off on fucking me that way, me bent over on my knees, hugging the ottoman, his length filling me so tightly………shit. I am going to be useless. He's not ever touching me again and I am going to be strung tight, wanting to feel him one more time. Smart move, fool.

"Elizabeth," he ground out once more, his voice tight, controlled.

He got up then and walked over to the children once again. I followed him. "Tuesdays are our night," he said quietly, nodding his head slightly toward his daughter. "I'll take her when it's done."

And that was it. We were finished.

xxxx

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