Rated: M for language and some sexual insinuation. Not mine, not making any money. Written for the March 2010 PP Women's History Month Challenge and the BS St. Patrick's Day Challenge.
Operation Thaw
--Chapter 14--
After the Tango....
It took every ounce of willpower he had to walk away from her; her cheeks were flushed with desire, her eyes as dark as her dress, her taut nipples visible through the thin material. He knew she had to have felt his cock hardening as she ground her pelvis into his. "Tequlia," he ordered again and shot it down just as fast as the first three. Tank didn't say anything; just looked at him with questions in his eyes.
Before he could say anything, Lester came up on his left and slapped him heartily on the back, "Holy fuck man! I had no idea Steph could move like that. That was so freaking hot. I'm glad we do the security here. We've got to pull that tape!" Without a word, Ranger turned to his left so that Lester's arm slid off his shoulders and punched him in the face. He slipped to the floor out cold.
Tank continued to eye his reflection in the bar mirror. "What?" he growled. Tank shrugged. "I'm outta here."
"You've had too many to drive. I'll take you." He acquiesced. Tank was right.
When they were a couple blocks away, Tank spoke again, "Want to tell me whats going on?"
"Not really." He sighed. A real sigh. It was an obvious sign of his overindulgence and the severity of his issues. "I love Stephanie."
Tank laughed out loud. "Tell me something I haven't known for the last two years."
"You're an ass, you know that? You were an ass when we were kids. You were an ass when we were in basics. You were an ass when you were my commander. You were an ass when we were in the Rangers. You were an ass when I was your commander. And you're an ass now."
"Yeah, and you love me anyway, Ric. Now are you really going to explain what is going on or not?"
"Stephanie is a client of Exclusive Services. I have no idea how long. I'm assuming since she broke up with Morelli."
"Oh. I see." Tank was chuckling on the inside at Ranger's discomfort. "How do you know? Did she tell you?"
"Not exactly." He ran his hand through his hair. "She's Butterfly. She's my match."
"Explain."
"We've been corresponding as mandated by the service. I asked questions, she answered. She asked questions, I answered. A few of her answers were too Stephanie to be a coincidence. In her profile she talked about a pet hamster, her love of donuts and pineapple upside down cake and her hatred of salad. Then she described her best friend and talked about jumping off the roof because she thought she was Wonder Woman and wanted to fly. No way could it be anyone but her."
"So, that's good. You guys already care about each other, now its been confirmed by semi-scientific tests."
"If only it were that simple. A year or so ago things got uncomfortably serious between us and I told her I didn't do relationships, marriage or children. At that time I wasn't ready for anything else and she was rebounding from Morelli. She's not going to react well when she finds out that Marc Pardo and Ricardo Manoso are one and the same. No matter how I explain it to her, all she is going to see is that I deceived her."
"You love her and she loves you. You'll work it out."
"Thanks a whole fucking lot, ass."
She didn't see Ranger after their dance, but the Rangeman crew was still there. Lester came over about thirty minutes after their plates were cleared. He was sporting a new shiner. "Les, what happened to your face?"
He gave her a crooked smile, "I ran into a fist."
"You sticking with that story?"
"Yep."
"I thought we were tight?" Steph threw his earlier words back at him.
He returned the favor, "Not about this."
She frowned at him, and then turned to Shane, "Shane, this is one of my coworkers, Lester Santos. Lester, my date, Shane Doyle."
They exchanged pleasantries before Lester asked her to dance. It was a slow dance that enabled them to talk as they moved around the dance floor.
"So what was that with you and the Boss?"
"I don't know. He asked me to dance. I danced."
"Oh really? Would you dance with me like that?"
"Uh."
"Yeah, that's what I thought. What's going on with you and Ireland over there?"
"Ireland? You mean, Shane? We're friends. We were introduced through a mutual friend. We went out, we had fun. We're friends. Like you and I are friends, Lester."
"You wound me Beautiful."
"Yeah well, you see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy." She laughed as they moved off the dance floor. "You're Irish, Shane?"
"Yeah, you didn't guess by my as-Irish-as-you-can-get-name?"
"No, I had no idea. I thought all Irish were red headed, green eyed and fair skinned."
"No, not all of us. I'm what you'd call a Black Irish and that's because of my dark heart, not my complexion. In Ireland, the inevitable never happens and the unexpected constantly occurs. Kind of like you, a cuishie. My ancestors were O'Dubhghaill, or dark foreigners, invaders. Our name was shortened to Doyle.
The conversation continued amiably until she got a text from Ranger. "Don't forget our plans tomorrow. Pick you up at 11:00."
"Shit." The guys looked at her curiously. "I forgot I'm spending the day with Ranger tomorrow. Its already after 1:00. I've got to go."
Lester was intrigued, "You're spending the day with Ranger?"
"Yeah," she said dismissively, "we were playing 20 questions the other day on surveillance and he asked me to spend Saturday with him if I didn't have any other plans. Wait? Do you know what we're doing?"
"You don't know?"
"No, he wouldn't tell me."
"Hmm, well, have fun."
She gave Lester a disgusted look, gave Shane a hug and promise to call later, and walked out the door.
"She's something else." Shane commented after she left.
"Yeah, we all love her a lot. Protect her like a kid sister." He gave Shane a pointed look. "How do you know her?"
"Met her through a dating service. Guess were not going to be anything more than friends, though."
"Oh? Why's that?"
"She told me she got matched with someone else. Almost a 100% match. She figured she had to pursue it."
"She say anything else about it?"
"No. Although after seeing the electricity between her and your boss, I'm trying to figure out why she is using a dating service."
"I don't know for sure. She hasn't told any of us that she is. I do know that her last boyfriend did a number on her confidence. Really didn't treat her like the angel she is."
"Yeah, she mentioned she loved to dance but hadn't been out in years; that's why I asked her out here. Not that you would have known watching her tonight. She was amazing. Must have been some piece of shit not to ever take her out."
"You think that's bad. Her ex-husband cheated on her."
"No! What kind of a dick would cheat on her smokin' hot ass?"
Lester laughed out loud, "A Dick would! That was her husband's name." He laughed some more. "So what are you going to do now?"
"The agency sent over a couple other matches earlier today. One was a woman who just moved here from Russia to go to school. We share a couple common interests. I think I might feel her out. See how we hit it off."
That peaked Lester's interest. "Russia, huh? Sounds interesting; some beautiful women there."
"Yeah. Get this, her code name is Liberty. I wonder what that means. They give us code names based on our personality or lifestyle. My code name is Shamrock because every business venture I touch succeeds."
"Huh, well, I better call it a night too. Nice meeting you. If you're going to be friends with Steph I' sure well see you around."
As Lester left, he pulled out his cell and called Tank.
"Hey Tank."
"Lester, do you know what time it is?"
"Yeah. Of course I do, I'm still up. Got some intel on the Service. Bombshell's match Shamrock was matched to a girl from Russia, code named Liberty."
"Get Silvio on it."
"Will do."
"Lester?"
"Yeah?"
"Don''t call me this fucking early unless its an emergency!"
"Who knew you sounded like Steph." Lester was still laughing as he heard Tank hang up.
Word count: 1446 (excludes title, disclaimer, etc.)