Chapter 10

I was still smiling when I woke up the next morning. Ram kisses are better than happy pills, that's for sure. Pharmaceutical companies would go out of business if we could isolate whatever was in his kisses that made me feel so euphoric this morning.

Damn.

I got up, got dressed and headed out to drag some skips back to jail.

"Somebody got lucky," Lula declared. "Good for you, girl! Who was it? Sexy Santos?"

"What?" I exclaimed. "I did not!"

"You got that glow," Lula defended. "You get it on with Herbie Horsecock then?"

I was sputtering and stalling, trying to come up with some answer when Ram and Cal walked in. "Ladies," Ram said right before he leaned over and kissed me chastely on the cheek. "Good morning, sweetheart."

"Oh shit! You got lucky with GI Joe!" Lula all but shrieked. "Way to go, white girl! He's hot!"

Cal walked into Connie's desk with a loud crash. "You two… what?" he muttered.

I blushed bright enough that I'm surprised no one got a sunburn and buried my head against Ram's chest, which was shaking with chuckles. "Um, sweetheart? Something I forgot about?" he asked.

"I told you she got lucky!" Lula crowed. "Didn't I tell you?" she asked Connie.

I shook my head. "Lula, please!"

"What?" she asked.

"Stop it, please," I begged.

"Girl, I'd be putting up fliers if I got to sink my teeth into that," Lula said in a confused tone. "So what's the big deal?"

Ram shifted slightly, putting me in between him and Lula. Smart man.

"Shit man, when did this happen?" Cal demanded.

Cal, Connie and Lula were all talking at once now, and I sighed and rubbed at my head where a headache was building from the unrelenting noise.

"Stop."

Wow, one word in that tone from Ram got all three of them to shut up. Cal even snapped to attention.

"It's none of your business, but Stephanie and I have decided to start dating. The specifics of our relationship are not up for discussion, and I do not want to hear that any of you have violated our privacy or trust in you by discussing our personal life. Understood?" Ram continued in a commanding tone that made it clear that their agreement was not optional.

Connie and Lula nodded reluctantly, extremely reluctantly, but even they weren't willing to risk pissing him off.

"Yes, sir," Cal said.

"Thank you," Ram said simply. "Steph, can I take you out for a cup of coffee so we can talk?"

I nodded before snagging my purse and heading out.

I climbed into Ram's SUV silently as he held the door open for me. Five minutes later, he walked out of the Tasty Pastry with two cups and a bag of donuts.

Yeah, I could really fall for him.

I took a sip of my coffee and smiled. It had the perfect amount of cream and sugar.

"So, what happened this morning?" Ram asked after I ate my first Boston crème donut. He really was perfect, he knew I needed caffeine and sugar before conversation.

I shrugged. "No idea, really. I'd barely even said hello before Lula was off on a 'Stephanie got lucky' track, and she's got a one track mind sometimes."

"What made her think that you got lucky last night?" Ram asked.

"Got me. Only thing I can figure is that I did have a hard time wiping the smile off my face this morning, but you know as well I do that I didn't get lucky last night."

He shot me a smug grin. "I'll be happy to fix that whenever you're ready, sweetheart," he said and I felt my face flame again.

"Hey, no pressure," he said when I looked away to try to get my blushing under control. "I was just teasing."

"I know. But I can't help but blush when someone's talking about, um, sex," I told him. "I think that's why Les teases me so much, he likes to see me blush."

Ram nodded. "Do you want to tell him, or want me to?"

"I'll do it. Shouldn't be surprising since he's the one who told me the other night that you're a good guy and I should give us a shot," I told him. Ram nodded.

"We didn't talk about it and I guess it's too late now, but how do you want to handle sharing it with others?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Yeah, too late now. You may be able to convince Cal to keep it quiet, and maybe Connie and Lula for a little bit, but it won't be long before one or the other, or both, lets it slip to someone else. Plus I don't really want to hide it," I admitted.

I got a megawatt grin with both dimples at that admission. "I don't want to hide it either. Hell, I want to hire a damn plane to skywrite it over Trenton!"

I laughed. He was good for my ego.

"Go to dinner at my parents' house," I challenged. "That'll have the same effect but cost less. It'll activate the Burg grapevine and everyone who's anyone in the Burg will know by 8 pm."

"Can you keep your grandma from pinching my ass?"

"I can try, but I can make no promises."

He winced. "Okay. Just tell me when."

I nodded. "I'll check with my mom, but probably one day this weekend if you're free."

"I'm off on Saturday," he offered. "Maybe we could spend the day together before we go to dinner."

I just nodded. That sounded good to me.

"Okay, let me know if that'll work then. Do you think we'll be able to keep it quiet for three days then?" he asked.

I shook my head. Poor naïve boy. "Probably not, but miracles do happen. Depends on how scared of you Connie and Lula are, and what I can come up with to bribe them with."

He shook his head. "Should I try to scare them more?"

"Nah. I think you already did a pretty damn good job."

He smirked. "Alright, much as I really rather spend the time with you instead of having Cal try to get details out of me, I should get back to work."

I nodded and he put the SUV into drive and took us back to the office. Before he got out, he leaned across the console for a quick but highly effective kiss. "Can I bring dinner over tonight once I'm off shift?"

I released the grip I had on his shirt. "Yeah."

"I'll call you when I'm off and we can discuss what we want, okay?"

I nodded and he jumped out and jogged over to my side of the SUV. We headed back into the office, where it went instantly quiet. Yeah, they weren't talking about us.

Ram's blank face was up and he leveled a menacing look at Lula and Connie before looking at Cal. "Let's roll."

Cal instantly followed Ram out the door.

Lula and Connie stared after them for a minute. I did too. He had a really fabulous ass, and it was always worth a second look.

"Spill," Connie said once they were gone.

I shook my head. "Just like he said, we talked last night and decided to start dating. That's it."

Connie shook her head. "So you just ran into in the grocery store and decided in the produce section to start dating? Nuh-uh. Details, I need details!"

"No. We've been hanging out a lot lately, he's been helping me with getting in better shape and self-defense training and everything, and it just grew from that. And that's all the detail you're going to get. My private life is private, and just for once, pretty please, keep this private. Please." I may like Metallica more than Mo-Town, but I ain't too proud to beg.

"So how's he in bed?" Lula asked. "He looks like he'd be good!"

I shook my head. "Look, we just decided to be more than friends last night and we haven't gotten that far yet. And even when we do, I'm not going to kiss and tell. You know me better than that!"

Lula moaned. "You ain't no fun!"

I smirked. I was plenty of fun, thank you very much, I just wasn't going to share the details.

"So Connie, any new files for me?"

Connie frowned but handed over the two new files. I decided that retreat was the better part of valor and took them home to review.

Once I was there, I decided to go ahead and call Les.

"Yo, Beautiful," Les answered on the second ring. "Everything okay?"

"Hey, Les," I replied. "I'm good. How are you?"

"Fine and dandy. What's shaking, bacon?"

I laughed. "So you know how you told me I should give things a try with Ram?"

"Yeah?" he drawled, drawing out the one syllable word into at least three.

"Thanks for the good advice. I decided to take it. But if this blows up in my face, I'm blaming you!"

Les chuckled. "So you guys are together now?" He was ignoring the fact that I was blaming him if it went to hell in a handbasket.

"Yeah. We had that talk last night and decided to give it a try. He was surprised that you encouraged me to give it a shot with him, but I explained that we'd only ever be just friends."

Les laughed again and I had to smile at the sound. Maybe in a previous lifetime Les and I were more than just friends, but for this lifetime, he'd always be one of my best friends.

"Did you tell him I'd kick his ass if he hurt you?"

"Yep."

"Alrighty then. I'm happy for you, Beautiful. Just don't forget that you've got friends who love you too and who like hanging out with you. Just because you're now dating Ram doesn't mean you get to ignore us."

"Never!"

We chatted for a little bit longer and it sounded like he nearly died laughing when I explained the scene from this morning.

"Um, should I call Bobby?" I asked when Les kept laughing and I didn't hear him pause to breathe. "It's not that funny!"

"I'm fine, Beautiful," he wheezed after a moment. "And it is that funny! I'd love to see Ram being harassed by Lula like that!"

I groaned. "My grandma's going to be on him like white on rice!" That set Les off again.

"Shit, I'll have to take him off the schedule for Sunday so he can recuperate," Les choked out a minute later. "He's scheduled for monitors, but he might not be able to sit that long!"

"Kiss my ass, Santos," I retorted.

"Oh, Beautiful, you know I would if I could, but Ram's one of the best snipers around and can take me out from a mile away, so I'm going to have to pass on that lovely offer."

I blew a raspberry into the phone and Les laughed again. I was glad to know that our relationship hadn't changed any.

Les teased me for a bit longer before he finally needed to go to a client meeting. "Alright, be good," I told him.

"What's the fun in that?" was his response before he hung up.

Punk. Good thing I love him.

Ram really must have put the fear of God into Lula and Connie, because I didn't get any phone calls from my mom or any other Burg busybodies trying to wheedle answers out of me. In fact, the next time my phone rang was when Ram called me after he got off work.

"Hey, sweetheart," he said when I answered. "You want to go out for dinner or want me to bring something over?"

Hmm, that was a hard decision. Not. "Let's eat in," I replied. "I'd like a little more time before the gossip buzzards start circling."

"You sure have a way with words," he said with a quiet chuckle. Eh, it was an apt metaphor.

We discussed food and then I did an Olympic world record speed clean while waiting on Ram to pick up some Chinese food and get to my apartment. It wouldn't pass my mom's white glove inspection, but it would suffice for the moment.

It would have to, because he was knocking on the door.

I checked the peephole and then let the smiling guy with food in. He sat the food on the kitchen bar and then spun around to kiss me. "Hello again, gorgeous," he finally said in a rumbly voice a few moments later.

"Hi," I managed weakly, my heart still racing and my hormones sounding the trumpets.

Ram shot me a smug grin before he picked up the food. He'd been in my kitchen enough to know where all the stuff was at, so he just got some plates and cutlery for us. I drug myself out of my stupor after a moment and snagged some drinks just as Ram finished getting the food organized.

We ate leisurely as we chatted. Apparently Cal had been just as determined to get details as Connie and Lula, and he'd been frustrated when Ram had refused to say more than he already had about our new relationship. I was thoroughly amused at the thought of big, scary, tattooed badass Cal trying to wheedle gossip out of Ram. It was such an incongruous image that it made me giggle, which in turn made Ram smile.

"Yeah, it was pretty damn funny," Ram admitted. "At first. Then it got annoying."

Yeah, I totally know that feeling, dude. "Try dealing with both Connie and Lula," I said drily. "I just got the heck out of Dodge before they dragged out the thumb screws."

Ram laughed at that, his blue eyes twinkling merrily and his dimples flashing in the low light from my side lamps. I couldn't resist. Now granted, I didn't try very hard, but I also didn't think he'd object. I shifted closer and pressed my lips against his as he continued to chuckle. His laughter cut off abruptly, muffled by my lips against his, but he got on board with my new plan very quickly.

A few very pleasant minutes later, I eased away. "What was that?" he breathed.

I shrugged. "Just felt like kissing you."

I got a killer smile in return. "Well, I think you should follow those instincts more often!" he declared.

I smiled at him and then winked. "I'll take that under advisement."

"Please do."

I just grinned and went back to eating my chop suey. It took him another few seconds to follow suit. He still had a big, shit-eating grin on his face. I had a grin on my face that I'd put that smile on his face.

Once we finished eating, we put the plates on the coffee table and then snuggled together on the couch. It was great. We talked, cuddled and kissed for the next couple of hours.

I woke up when my world was in motion. "Whazza?" I mumbled.

"Shh," Ram whispered as he sat me down on my bed. "You fell asleep."

"Sorry," I said with a jaw-cracking yawn.

"Don't be," he reassured me with a gentle kiss as he tucked blankets around me. "Sleep well and I'll talk to you tomorrow, sweetheart."

I nodded sleepily and snuggled in. "'kay. You too."

I got another soft kiss goodbye and then he was gone.

Author's note: And it's official now – people are starting to find out! How long do you think Ram's death glares will keep Connie and Lula quiet?

Sorry that I didn't get this posted over the weekend like usual, but between my students graduating and MY GRADUATION, it was insane! Yep, it's totally official now, I'm done with grad school! And anyone who ever tries to take this away from me will be bitch slapped into next Tuesday by yours truly. I worked too hard and too long for it to give up without one hell of a fight!

I'm behind on replying to reviews for the same reasons, but I will! Now that I'm done with grad school and I'm about to be on vacation for two blissful weeks, I'm really looking forward to reading lots of fanfiction, writing lots, and, of course, replying to all of you. Thank you for leaving reviews, they make my day!

(Side note: if you've read Notorious Nineteen, should I ask Santa for it? Was it worth the $20 or should I wait another month or two for it to be available for a dollar at Goodwill?)

Please let me know what you think! I'll do my best to post the next chapter this weekend, but just in case… Merry Christmas to all (or Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza, or a generic Happy Holidays for whatever your beliefs) and Happy New Year to everyone!