Disclaimer: Not my characters, except Anton and he seems to be more trouble then good! Alpha males! Yikes!

Notes: Sorry for the short break, plague of doom went through my house and wiped everyone out. Still fighting it off a bit myself so have patience with me por favor! (Ha and I thought I'd never have a use for my Spanish! Ranger porn...er I mean fanfiction...yeah...) I hope the tone of this chapter matches the others, I hate having to break like that but RL happens to the best of us right?

Kind of a short chapter today, and probably tomorrow to if I can get the rest of 37 written tonight before I crash. I'm trying to wind this up in the next 5-8 chapters so I can work on some of my other stories, I don't want this to drag on too long when my muse keeps throwing me new ideas! ; )

I tried to explain here some subtle reasoning for why Stephanie is so damn on-again/off-again in the books, because seriously that girl by book 21? Even I want to smack her! -_-

It might raise some eyebrows but, I can tell you from experience my Italian hubby can always tell when I'm in baby making mode...even if I fail to notice! XD

Huge thanks to all the readers and reviewers, I cannot believe how much response this story has gotten! It makes me feel amazing, you truly have no idea! Thank you, Thank you, and Thank you Again! :D

This chapter is Rated M...in fact lets just assume that ANY chapter from here on out, henceforth, and all that jazz; if R/S are in the same room they're going to probably fornicate like rabid ferrets...and if they don't, well you can bet your ass they're both thinking about it!

Saucy wenches...

Chapter Thirty-Six

Stephanie's POV

I blinked at him and he nodded slowly cupping my face with one hand, his fingers lacing through mine where the handcuffs had us entangled. "Yes babe, this is forever, now what did you want to discuss?"

I let my eyes slide away from his gaze and his face hoping to clear the fog in my brain. God, I wasn't sure I even remembered. My whole body was still tingly and twitchy all my muscles felt relaxed enough that I could slide off Ranger's lap and right into a puddle on the floorboards at his feet. Oh yeah, I was feeling very, very happy. I know I had questions for him, there were the whole reason I'd started this—but I was feeling a little too fuzzy to concentrate still. I needed to get off him, that would probably help I reasoned. Ranger's grin ramped up and he rolled his hips again. "Already got off babe, but give me a minute and we can do that again…"

I dropped my head against his chest and groaned.Forget wizard, the man was a machine!Probably sent from the future to take over the world.Step one was obviously give Stephanie earth-shattering orgasms turning me into total mush, I wasn't clear on step two, but I was positive step three was total world domination.

Oh, domination… wait! No!Crap.

I was doomed.

Ranger snorted, wait snorted? And dipped his head forward and started working up the side of my neck again forcing a shiver up my spine that hardened my nipples to rock hard points and shot heat straight between my legs despite the fact that just seconds ago I'd felt completely sated. Fuck. This man was like a drug, and I been an instant addict from the moment we'd met. I shook my head grasping his shoulder for support as best I could with one free hand because this was never going to work, not like this I needed serious answers, my life depended on them, maybe Julie's too.

I tried to crawl off of him and back into my seat and Ranger's forearms locked around my waist dragging one of my own arms behind my back with the bracelet trapping me against him. "I can't—" I blew out a breath feeling him lick his way up from the hollow of my throat to nibble my ear while my head tipped back, "think like this an—" I moaned, "this isn't…ah….ah…Jesus…Ranger…"

"Carlos," Ranger said dragging me back firmly into his lap.

"Carlos..." I tried to push up off him again only to have Ranger use his arms wound around my lower back to pull me back down in a very intriguing thrusting grind that sparked the aftershocks still tightening sporadically in my belly into overdrive. I felt his stomach muscles tighten against me, and other parts of his anatomy go rock hard and bit my lip pushing up with my thighs digging my knees into the sides of the seat where they still framed his hip. Ranger let me rise a few inches before his arms tightened again forcing me to sink back down burying him again, this time he felt like granite between my legs. My internal muscles clenched, pleasure zinged out through my limbs and I was starting to think this distraction thing wasn't so bad...it felt, I moaned rising over him again, pretty incredible actually…

I forgot my objections and started moving over him in more of a syncopated rhythm letting him pull me back down harder and faster every few thrusts before adding a little tight roll of my hips stimulating the super sensitive bundle of nerves above where we were joined again. Ranger stopped pulling me down against him, his hands moved from my back and were now framing my hips steadying my position as I rode him into the seat gasping and moaning with every rush of sensation to the ceiling.

I locked my free hand around his shoulder, the other around his forearm as high as I could reach and then I lost myself in a very different kind of 'zone' one with lots of heavy panted breathing, and a few cursed exclamations from Ranger, or maybe from me actually, I wasn't that sure anymore. My tempo increased to somewhere just shy of desperate and it felt like my shaking thighs might give out right when I really needed them to drive me over that perfect edge…

"So close," I gasped breathless and then he was lifting me with both hands and jerking me back down again following the rhythm I'd abandoned as my legs started to tremor with exhaustion. I tightened and tightened squeezing him until it was Ranger that bit his lip, his head falling back against the seat with a frantic curse and a soft whimper that sounded like surrender as he ground my body against him hitting me with the first waves of orgasm like a freight train rolling through my veins.

My lungs seized up, my muscles tamped down around him in a blistering firestorm, I cried out in wordless pleasure, and startled surprise and collapsed boneless against Ranger's chest as I came apart and my spine simply refused to hold me up. Ranger grunted rolling his hips beneath me, brushing my nub with each hard grind of his hips while he groaned desperately against my neck, growling words of love and my name against my ear and clutching me to him as he found release inside me again.

We sat perfectly still, both of us sort of shaking and trying to remember how to breathe for several long minutes.

"I really do need those answers." I finally managed, the words muffled and slurred almost drunkenly against his neck. Then it hit me. Oh shit.

"Ranger, that was twice," I licked my lips afraid to lean back and see his face when it hit him. "and we didn't use a condom."

"Okay," Ranger said, like he was still waiting for me to tell him what the problem was.

What?! My brain screeched. Who was this man and what had he done with Batman?! I sat back slowly, and stared at him. "I thought you didn't do stupid things like babies and marriage, what happened to a condom and not a ring?"

"I'm an idiot." Ranger said, "as soon as you say yes there's going to be a ring on your hand."

Holy shit! I must have been doing a fish impersonation because Ranger used his index finger to lift my chin. "I'm not sure I'm ready to be a parent…"

"Babe, what about Julie?"

"That's different!"

That eyebrow rose.

"Well it is! Julie's a kid!"

"Relax babe, you're not ovulating right now."

I blinked. Then I blushed ten shades of red and started looking around trying to cover my embarrassment.

"Babe, what are you doing?"

"Clearly, I'm trying to find the invisible label that gives you this information…"

Ranger grinned and tipped my chin up to face him. "Babe, I've kept track of your cycles for almost two years."

I just stared at him trying to convert that information into something my brain could understand. What came out was: Ranger knows when I have PMS? Yikes, were my mood swings that bad?!

Ranger shook his head. "I'm observant babe, all those times you broke it off and then got back together with Morelli," he hesitated.

"Yeah…" I said. I didn't think I was going to like where this was going one bit.

"Most of the time you broke things off a week before you're cycle and got back on with him was when you were ovulating." He said it so bluntly, so matter of fact that for almost thirty seconds I just sat frozen in his lap.

Then the indignation caught up with me and I slapped his chest with one hand. Ranger didn't even flinch. "That's Ridiculous! Nobody Knows that! I didn't want Morelli like that!"

"Like what?"

"Marriage, and babies!" My mother wanted that, me married to Joe with 2.5 babies and a burg house. I shuddered and tried to cross my arms before remembering that I couldn't. Damn Handcuffs.

"Babe, why did you get back together with Morelli so many times?"

I didn't really want to think about that, it still made my stomach hurt.

"You don't even know why. He wasn't supportive, he wasn't convenient because he was always pushing you to do things you didn't want. He lured you back in with sex, and nine times out of ten when you were the most fertile, you folded. Hormones are powerful things."

I opened my mouth to shout No! and then stopped. Oh my god, what if Ranger was right? "Stupid Hungarian hormones," I growled, they'd been jerking my around like a yo-yo for years! "So you're not trying to get me knocked up with a bat baby?"

Ranger's fingers trailed up my bare arms. "Not at this moment, but if you want to revisit this topic in about 14 days you let me know."

Oh Jeeze. I'd think about this later, it was simply too bizarre to contemplate on top of everything else today. "I can't believe you keep track of things like that!" I could feel my face flushing again and looked for something to distract myself until it went away. I pulled the edges of my dress back up over my chest where it kept slipping down with one shaking hand frowning at the material which simply refused to stay. I reached around my back and felt around before frowning at him again. "Did you break my zipper?"

Ranger shot me a wolf grin.

I frowned. "That's so not cool Batman, how am I going to get back into my hotel?" Getting arrested would probably ruin my plans!

Ranger just looked at me. "Are you going back to your hotel?" The line of his mouth had gone hard and tight again, and the little stress lines at the corners of his eyes were back.

"I have to go back," I traced my fingers over the lines beside his temple trying to smooth them with my fingertip. Anton would be back tomorrow, and we had mere days left before we moved against the Vikhrov family that originally put the contract out on Julie and me, and I still had to figure out how the hell all those other people were involved—if they were involved, and how.

"Trevino has you running background on hits for him." Ranger said without preamble. I sucked in a breath, suspicion confirmed. Damn. Hits for who? The Government? Ranger didn't say. "But you already knew that didn't you?" Ranger continued, he was starting to sound a little angry again.

I nodded very slowly staring at his chest. "I started to suspect it was something like that with these last files." I admitted and then I frowned and leaned back away from him chewing that over and not meeting his eyes. Shit. Now what was I supposed to do? Confront Anton?Ignore it?I couldn't do that…and I couldn't go this alone.

"Babe, Trevino is a dangerous man. He's not someone you want to pair up with, he tends to get the people around him killed." The blank face was back when I glanced at him, but it didn't reach his eyes. Ranger's eyes were smoldering with barely contained anger. "I'm sure there's nothing he'd like more then to turn you into his own personal assistant, pretty soon he's going to have you pulling the trigger."

I bristled. "I would never…" but hadn't I? Oh God. I blanched. "That was to protect Julie!" I shot back shoving away from his chest as far as his arms would allow. The car was suddenly feeling pretty small for this conversation. I had an unbelievable urge to pace, probably the Italian genes. "I didn't have a choice. They were in the house…" I stopped biting the words off. It was self-defense, or well Julie-Defense, though honestly Batman Jr. had proven once again to be more than capable of defending herself that night.

"Babe?" Ranger leaned into me catching one of the thick strands of hair and tugging it lightly between his fingers. "If someone was after you or Julie and you got to them first that's self-defense. And my moral compass doesn't have any problem with that. The law doesn't argue that. I'm so damn proud of you babe, I always knew you were stronger then you thought. Everything you've done—you amaze me Stephanie."

God I loved hearing those words from him.

"I amaze you?"

Ranger nodded once. "I miss the curls." He said suddenly, almost conversationally, while winding one chunk of smooth chocolate tresses around his index finger. I frowned trying to look up at my own head, but it made me feel sort of cross-eyed. Considering some of the horror's my hair had undergone over the years I wasn't missing the curls all that much myself. At least it wasn't yellow, or rainbow colored.

"I thought you said my hair was scary." I said.

"Babe," Ranger's mouth twitched. "You've never been scary,"

"Oh?" I tried to raise one eyebrow but I could feel them both go up in tandem again. Damn. "You told me my morning look was scary. You said, and I quote, looking a little scary babe." Ranger's lips twitched at my impersonation. I'd cross my arms over my chest if I wasn't still handcuffed to him. I'd also once told him I was using my 'morning look' as a new form of birth-control. Ranger hadn't seemed all that deterred.

"Babe I was trying to remind myself not to rip that tank top off your body and ravage you, it was completely see through…and it had nothing on this dress…"

Oh Boy. Distract, Divert, Change the subject! "I have a gun," I said. "I'm supposed to be threatening." That didn't come out petulant at all I swear.

Ranger shot me a wolf grin. "I'm not feeling particularly threatened, but I like to live dangerously."

I rolled my eyes. "What am I supposed to do? No one's afraid of Stephanie Plum! Wonder woman never had these problems." I bit out feeling a tiny rise in my heart rate, this time hinting at my own returning frustration. I hated being backed into a corner, and this was one hell of a corner to find myself in! "People keep coming after us Ranger. I just want it to stop. I don't want to have to look over our shoulders every five minutes wondering what's coming at us next."

What looked like hurt flashed through Ranger's expression, but I couldn't be certain as it was gone in the blink of an eye. He reached into his front cargo pocket with his unrestrained hand and pulled out a little silver key in two nimble fingers. I watched as he uncuffed first my hand rubbing his thumb briefly over the sharp red line marring my wrist his fingertip resting for a moment against my pulse beating frantically under my skin, and then he removed the second bracelet from his own wrist and offered the cuffs back to me draped over one hooked finger.

"We." Ranger said.

Something warm fluttered in my chest. I took the cuffs closing my hand around them. "What do we do Ranger?"

"You trust me, babe. We're gonna get through this. You want answers I'll tell you what I can." He helped me slide back over the center console and into my seat. "I assume you won't go to Rangeman?"

"No,"

"Will you take me to where you're staying?"

"Are you wearing a tracker?"

"My phone has GPS. I told Tank I was offline, and I am babe. I'm all yours until we're done with this."

"Okay, but if Tank and Lester kick in my door and handcuff me I'm never speaking to you again!"

Ranger nodded once and I started driving. He settled back against the passenger seat and seemed to do his 'zone' thing. Twenty minutes later he instructed me to pull into an upcoming CVS Pharmacy two lights away.

"What for?" I asked, even though I'd already changed lanes.

"Safety pins, for the back of your dress." Ranger said.

Oh, I hadn't thought of that. "Thank you," I said.

"And condoms, lots of condoms." Ranger grinned.

and, Oh boy. There went my hormones again.

TBC...