DayDreaminDeb: You'll find out more about Psycho lady very soon. This is gonna stay a babe story. I'll be starting another story today or tomorrow that's Diesel and Stephanie (but with appearances from all of your favorite characters)!
To everyone who commented on strong kick ass Stephanie: Glad you liked it! I think being with Ranger is going to harden her up a little. I don't think any amount of training could change her luck though. She'll still be rolling in garbage and blowing stuff up. ;)
So without further ado: More story.
Standard Disclaimer applies. I love J. Evanovich and wouldn't dream of stealing her characters. I might borrow them, but as much as I wish it, they don't belong to me.
When I woke up Ranger was already awake and sititng in a chair in the corner doing something on his laptop. This was nothing knew. Ranger was always up until after I fell asleep and awake before I was. Come to think of it, Ranger was always breaking into my house in the middle of the night. I was beginning to wonder if Ranger slept at all. Maybe Ranger wasn't unmentionable. Maybe Ranger was just the Edward Cullen of New Jersey. Oh wait no. I'd seen him in the sun. No sparkles. Oh well. Still the no sleep thing had me wondering.
"Babe don't think so hard, you're gonna give yourself a brain aneurism," Ranger said as put the laptop down. He came over to the bed and kissed my forehead.
"Can you read my mind too?"
"Who can read your mind?" He seemed genuinely surprised and intrigued by this comment.
"Diesel can. I don't think he used to be able to do it, but now he can. Watch."
Diesel come in here.
Diesel opened the door and smirked at me. "What?"
Fruit! Pancakes! Bacon! Eggs!
Diesel picked up the phone and put in my breakfast order. I looked at Ranger. "See?!"
"You told him to order you breakfast?" Ranger looked like he might laugh.
"We'll I told him what I wanted." Ranger looked at Diesel critically.
"Is this for real? I can't read minds. Why can you read minds?"
"I can only read Stephanie's mind because we're so similar personality wise."
We were? That's kind of scary. I didn't think I was anything like Diesel. I looked at Ranger.
"Can you pop?"
"Pop? No. I shimmer."
"You shimmer?"
"Yep."
"Let me see."
Ranger sighed but shimmered. It wasn't really a shimmer. It sort of looked like when you can see the heat coming off of something. There was no pressure change like with Diesel. Huh. Ranger shimmered back.
"Wow. What else can you do?"
"Uh…locks…safes…I have ultra accuracy with guns, I can't really miss. A little healing. And some stupid parlor tricks."
"Like what?"
"Change my hair color, make the dice roll however I want. Pull a bunny out of a hat. Shit like that."
"Can you make your hair blue?" I blinked and Ranger had electric blue hair. I blinked again and it was normal. I sputtered a little. Whoa. I stood up and both Ranger and Diesel were looking at me. I looked down. I was naked. Crap. I don't remember getting naked.
"Oh yeah I can do that too." I wasn't sure quite what he meant by that. I jumped under the covers and hid my head. Diesel chuckled.
"I'm leaving now. You can come out." I heard the door shut and I peeked out from under the covers. Ranger was staring at me. He had a fuck me now look on his face. He stalked slowly over to the bed and pulled the covers off of me. He ran a hand down my stomach and my lady parts caught on fire. Oh yeah he can do that too. Oh boy could he ever.
Someone knocked on the door and I groaned.
"Steph your food is here." Nice of Diesel to knock, he didn't usually bother.
"I'm not hungry anymore." My stomach growled really loudly.
"Yeah okay…"
Ranger kissed me gently. "Babe you need to eat. Plus we're here for two weeks."
I got up and pulled on a bikini. My sunburn still hurt a little but I looked more tanned then lobsterish now. I shrugged on a tank top and some board shorts. "We're staying?"
"Yup. Figured we might as well have some fun. What do you want to do today?"
"Snorkle!" He kissed me again. I pressed myself up against him and heard him groan.
"Babe go eat your breakfast. I'm going to get changed." Ranger was dressed in normal Ranger gear. I guess it really wasn't beach wear.
Lula was at the breakfast table when I sat down. Hal and Tank acknowledged me with a brief grin. They were in their matching outfits again. Ranger and Diesel walked out of their rooms at the same time.
Ranger was wearing black board shorts that were slung low on his hips. He had black flip flops on his feet and his hair was falling over his forehead in a definite 'I'm a surfer and I don't care look.' His muscles bunched under his light mocha colored skin as he walked. Wow.
Diesel was wearing board shorts with Hawaiian flowers on them. Any other guy would have looked ridiculous but Diesel pulled it off. His hair was standing up every which way. His skin was tan. His muscles were big. Another wow.
I heard a crash and looked at Lula. She had dropped her coffee mug. "Oops."
Lula stood up and bent over to grab the mug. Ranger looked like he would have dropped his coffee mug if he'd had one. Lula was wearing her Bootylicious bikini.
I grabbed my tote bag and towel and we all headed out. We went to the beach and Ranger asked around until we found the best place to snorkel. Ranger rented gear and then surprised me by renting a small power boat. Apparently we were going to Molokini Crater which was about three miles out.
Ranger went into his zone while he drove the boat and we were at the Crater quickly.
The water was warm and so I just pulled on my rash guard instead of my full wet suite. The guys went in just their board shorts. Lula insisted on wearing a wetsuit. We got her shoe horned in and the rest of us got our gear on and into the water we went.
I swam next to Ranger staring at him under the water. Watching him swim was amazing. Watching Tank and Hal swim was funny. They were so big that they kind of blundered through the water like wounded manatees. Ranger swam like shark, all grace and speed and agility. I floated and darted around like an angel fish. Lula barged through the water like a ship. And Diesel was hard to pin point. Diesel was fast but he was more easily distracted than Ranger. I think Diesel was kind of a Dory fish like on Nemo…
We'd been swimming for about an hour when I saw the white tip shark. I'd done a lot of research while I was in the hospital and knew they were harmless. Apparently Lula did not realize this because she freaked out. Lula was suddenly a sinking ship. She was flailing her arms around and her snorkel had come out of her mouth because she was screaming. Tank and Hal dragged Lula's head to the surface and then dragged her onto the boat. Lula decided to sunbathe for the rest of the afternoon.
I was getting tired and I went to the surface, the guys were right behind me. Ranger helped me get up into the boat and we went back to the island. We decided to check out the hotel pools and we were all amazed. There were lazy rivers, water slides and bars that you had to swim under waterfalls to find. Ranger, Diesel, Hal and me were all sitting in said bar while Lula and Tank rode the water slide. Diesel dared me to do a tequila shot and so I asked Ranger to help. I licked the salt off of his wrist, took the shot and then sucked on the lime that was in his mouth. Wowsers.
They guys got me drunk off my ass for fun and I found that I couldn't quite walk as we tried to get out of the pool. Ranger scooped me up and carried me back the bungalow. He set me down next to the shower and smiled. Maybe Ranger couldn't read my mind but he always knew what I wanted. I stripped off my suit and grabbed his arm as he went to leave. I bit my lip and then pulled his board shorts down his hips and pulled him into the shower with me.
