A/N: Again, thank you to everyone who took time to review. It's the only thing that gives me the courage to continue this story.
A special thank you to the incredibly talented Kate Manoso for her help, encouragement and most of all her talent and wicked sense of humor.
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine. I borrowed them from the amazing J.E. to have a little fun.
Warnings: Sexual content, Language, Angst and Spoilers for all 13.
Learning about love – Chapter 21
Steph's POV
After my lesson with Tank and Lester, Tank told me about Ranger's orders for him to stay with me until he finished his meeting. I thought about arguing, but I knew from experience it wouldn't do me any good. Connie had called and begged me to come pick up files on some of the backed up skips. Apparently Vinnie was about to lose money, and he wasn't happy about it, which meant that he was making Connie's life miserable. I insisted on taking my own car, and Tank followed me to Vinnie's in one of Rangeman's shiny black SUV's. I was surprised when he remained in the vehicle while I went into the office.
Connie had just handed me a file when she and Lula went deathly still. Considering they did so at the exact moment I felt my hormones go into overdrive, I was pretty sure Ranger had just walked in. Rather than turn around to look, I waited in anticipation for the touch of his hand at my neck. Within seconds I felt the warmth of his fingers as they slid gently from the nape of my neck into my hair, and Ranger molded the front of his body to my back.
Placing his head next to mine Ranger read over my shoulder. "David Polluck. Petty theft; two boxes of Tastykakes stuffed into the front of his jacket." I couldn't see Ranger's face, but I could hear the amusement in his voice.
"Sounds like a match made in heaven. You going after this guy, Babe?" I shifted my body away so I could turn and look at Ranger. His lips were tilted up slightly at the corners but his eyes were carefully blank.
"Yep. Apparently this guy is too small time for the Rangeman crew." Ranger lifted his eyebrow at my sarcasm.
"Babe, you're part of the Rangeman crew."
"I am?" I'd worked for Rangeman off and on, but I guess I never really thought Ranger saw me as part of his crew.
"Of course you are. If you give up working for Vinnie and start working for me full time, you won't be doing these types of skips anymore either." I wanted to ask him more questions, but before I could say anything else Lula piped up.
"We'll have to go after him tomorrow. There's a shoe sale at the Macy's. We haven't been shopping in two months. No way we're missing this sale, girlfriend." Lula was huffing in indignation.
"I've waited all week for that sale. We're going shopping for shoes. Then we're going to Victoria's Secret on account of my man's coming by tonight, and I need something sexy." Connie, Ranger and I all froze for a second as an image of Lula in something sexy from Victoria's Secret slammed into our brain. We all stared at each other fighting not to shudder.
"She can't wait until tomorrow," Connie said. "If this guy isn't brought in today, Vinnie loses his bond. That's why I called her. Vinnie told you we were backed up on these low bonds, and for once the little pervert wasn't exaggerating."
I stood there a second chewing on my bottom lip, fighting the battle between my lust for shoes and doing the right thing. I looked up to see a slight smirk on Ranger's face, and I knew he was reading my mind again.
"Maybe we can stop by on the way to the mall. What's this guy's address?" I looked down. 113 Orchard Street. I blew out a breath. Great, clear on the other end of town, away from the mall. I noticed Ranger had looked down and read the address, too.
When Ranger's eyes came back to mine I felt myself go damp at the heat in them. He leaned close and put his lips against my ear, "I'll make you a deal, Babe. I'll go pick up this loser. You go buy a pair of those really high heels and a skimpy little outfit and model them for me when we get home." For a second, as Ranger stepped back, I could barely breathe. All I could do was stare into the dark black pools of his eyes.
"Are you sure?" Again I watched his eyes flare hot.
"Dead sure, Babe. Besides, considering his taste in food, you might run away with him, and I don't want the competition."
"Deal." I watched the heat in Ranger's eyes bank as he took the file from me. He then reached out with his free hand, and I placed my hand in his. I saw Connie fanning herself out of the corner of my eye as Ranger led me outside and into the alley along side Vinnie's building.
When Ranger looked at me, the look in his eyes made me uneasy.
"What's going on, Ranger? You had Tank follow me over here this morning, and now you've got a look in your eye that's worrying me."
"Bad vibes, Babe. My gut's telling me something's off. Have you seen anything unusual? Noticed a tail?"
"No, only Tank."
"I need you to do me a favor, Babe. I need you to let me keep someone with you while you and Lula shop at the mall." I didn't argue with Ranger. If I'd learned one thing since I'd met him, it's that Ranger's usually right, and once he sets his mind on something, he's not going to budge. Remembering what Lester had said about Ranger rarely needing things from anyone, I agreed.
"As long as whoever it is doesn't plan on coming into Victoria's Secret with me to pick out that outfit."
I saw a flash of gratitude in Ranger's eyes just before he leaned in.
"About that outfit, Babe."
"Mmmm?" I found myself pinned with my back against the brick wall. Ranger's eyes locked on mine as he slowly molded his hard body against my curves. Never taking his eyes from mine he shifted against my center, watching as my eyes blurred. Slowly he lowered his mouth to mine, eyes open the entire time.
I could feel the heat of Ranger's breath against my parted lips as he whispered, "Really high heels, Steph. Very skimpy outfit." I didn't have a chance to respond as Ranger's mouth took mine with a hungry ferocity.
I whimpered as his tongue touched mine. I squirmed, trying to bring his body closer. Ranger slid his leg between mine, and I moaned as his hand slid up under my shirt to teasingly brush across my hardened nipple. When he ended the kiss, I let my head fall back to rest against the wall behind me. Taking my move as an invitation, Ranger immediately began placing hot kisses along my throat, working his way up to my ear. I could hear his ragged breathing and the sound added another layer of excitement coursing through my veins.
"Babe, we need to stop now or I'm going to take you back to the apartment and finish this." It took a second for Ranger's words, groaned into my ear, to penetrate the fog that covered my mind.
Taking a deep breath I looked into Ranger's eyes as he pulled back. Without realizing it, my hands had pulled the leather strip loose that held his hair back. My fingers were buried in his silky hair, my body had involuntarily been thrusting against Ranger's hard thigh between my legs, and my breath was coming in short choppy little pants.
As reality returned, I could feel the heat rising in my face, and I looked away. Ranger's hand went gently to my chin turning my gaze back to him.
Seeing my embarrassment, Ranger gave me the almost smile then leaned down to give me a short hard kiss.
"We can't," I finally panted out. "Connie and Lula will kill us if I miss the shoe sale and this guy isn't brought in today."
"I'll tell Tank what's going on. He's not going to be happy about mall duty. I think maybe I better wait until I'm in my car and call him." I leaned foward and looked around the corner of the building as Ranger's eyes cut to Tank who was still sitting in the black SUV across the street.
Suddenly my mind cleared. "Wait a minute. Are you freaking nuts? You have to get someone to go with us who is not Tank. I am not going into Victoria's Secret with Lula and Tank."
"Relax, Babe, I'll order him to wait outside the store." Ranger's eyes were crinkled up at the corners, and I could tell he was amused.
I huffed out a breath. "Fine, but if Lula starts running to the window and yelling, 'What do you think about this one,' to Tank and holding up a thong, I'm going to tell her you volunteered to take her on her next lingerie shopping trip." I laughed as the amusement fled from Ranger's face to be replaced with a mild look of horror.
"Babe." And he was gone. I watched as Ranger angled himself behind the wheel of the shiny black Dodge Ram and drove off and then went to find Lula. I had some shopping to do.
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"I still can't believe that shit-breath, asshole, dumbfuck, pecker of a mall cop arrested my ass."
"He didn't exactly arrest you. He detained you." I had spent the last 10 minutes of the drive trying to calm Lula down.
"Detained my ass. He put cuffs on me, didn't he?" Well, technically he tried to put cuffs on her. Between Lula flapping her arms around and Tank coming into the store to tower over the mall security guard, he never actually got the cuffs on her.
"Lula, you put a thong in your purse and walked out of the store."
"Yeah, but I wasn't going to steal it or nothing, I was just taking it out to show my man. Besides, this is all your fault."
"Say what? How is it my fault?" The shock of Lula's accusation caused me to look over at her. When I looked back up, I had to slam on my brakes to keep from running a red light.
"You told Batman to make Tank stay outside the store. How was I supposed to see if he liked it or not? And don't tell me I could have bought it and taken it out to show him. If he didn't like it I would have had to go back in and return it, and you know I hate that return shit. All that stupid paperwork and showing your driver's license and all that crap. Hun-uh. I don't take that bus. So it's all your fault I got arrested."
"Lula, he didn't arrest you. He detained you. Besides, once Big Dog and Carl got there they straightened it all out," I pointed out.
"Yeah, but only because that there Big Dog guy didn't want me telling no one about how he likes to wear women's underwear."
"What?"
"Jackie diddled him once, and she said he had on a pair of red silky women's underwear." I stared at Lula. Tank beeped the horn behind me, and I looked up to see the light was green, and I took off into traffic.
"I'm just saying it was all your fault. They threatened to never let me come back. Can you believe that shit?"
"You're just lucky they didn't charge you with attempted murder," I said, trying to hide my smile.
"I didn't do nothing."
"You wrapped a thong around that security officer's throat and almost choked him to death."
"Huh! It was an accident. I lost my balance, and I was just trying to grab him to keep from falling." I could still see that poor man laying on top of Lula on the floor of Victoria's Secret; a hot pink, extra large thong wrapped around his throat, his face buried in Lula's extra large bosom, and Tank glaring down at the guy like he was going to kill him. Carl and Big Dog and I had laughed until tears ran down our cheeks while we watched the security camera's videotape in the manager's office.
I could feel my lips start to twitch again at the images in my head. I'd conned the guys into letting me take the videotape back to Rangeman to make a copy, and I couldn't wait to share it with Ranger tonight. After I modeled the outfit and my great new FMP's, of course. On second thought, maybe we'd watch it tomorrow.
I was still thinking about the night ahead as I dropped Lula off at Vinnie's and headed back to the apartment with Tank following close behind.
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Shopping bags in hand, Tank and I had just stepped off the elevator onto the fifth floor. I hadn't been able to reach Ranger on his cell phone, and I wanted to find out from Hal if he had checked in to say when he'd be back.
The minute we walked into the comp area we could hear Hal's voice loud and urgent.
"Ranger's engaged panic. Repeat, Ranger has engaged his panic button."
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A/N: I thought about leaving the story hanging here, waiting to post more tomorrow. Actually, I thought about posting each of these last several chapters one at a time, waiting for the reviews and dragging it out. I just couldn't do that to all the fabulous readers who have so kindly read my story and taken time to post their reviews! So I decided to post the rest of the story all at once. I hope you all like it. Please, please, please take time to review the story and let me know what you thought of it. Thank you again for those of you who stuck with my story from the beginning of 72 hours until the end of Learning about Love. I hope you've enjoyed them both. Keep in mind, please, they are my first attempts at writing anything, and I need to know if you liked them enough that I should try another.