Now that things were mostly wrapped up with Izzy's undercover investigation, Ranger had gone back to his roots and upgraded to a much fancier hotel. Something I assumed came complete with a wait staff, a five-star rating, and most notably, around-the-clock room service.
A major part of me wondered what kind of bartering chip I'd have to play in order to take advantage of the room service because something told me Ranger's prices still ran pretty steep. In fact, the more I considered it, the more I realized that maybe that had been his brilliantly devious plan all along. Entice me at the end of all this with a fancy hotel, seduce me with the stellar room service, and boom! Suddenly I'd be back in Trenton completely under his spell again.
C'mon here. We all know it wouldn't be that hard to accomplish. After all, I have always been a real sucker for room service. Like a real sucker. Even if I was still trying to convince myself I'd developed some sort of semblance of willpower since I'd relocated. Pretty sure that was wishful thinking…
"I smell smoke."
The familiar comment broke through my momentary zone-out session and blindsided me with a bit of nostalgia.
"Nice hotel," I blurted as we pulled up to the fancy building, still trying to reign in my thoughts.
"They weren't exactly eager to take us back at the last one considering all the busted-out windows and residual bullet damage." Ranger glanced over with the hint of a smirk. "Can't say that I blame them."
Oh goody. Ranger humor.
I rolled my eyes as we parked the car and made our way up to the front desk where I tried not to notice the young girl behind the counter looking like a dog salivating over a bone. Good grief! Ranger wasn't that good looking. Hell, the man was pushing forty.
I glanced over at him just to reconfirm my assessment before quickly deciding I was a big, fat idiot. Who was I kidding here? The man was freaking gorgeous!
I swallowed back my momentary bout of lust as we made our way over to the immaculate, glass elevators. "What floor, Rambo?" I asked, hoping like hell my silly side would mask any other side that was currently trying to surface.
"The top. Penthouse." His mouth twitched.
"Gee, and here I thought you'd finally found a sense of modesty."
He shrugged. "Guess a tiger can't change his stripes."
I let the remark tumble around in my head for a moment as the elevator silently ticked away the ascending floors as we passed them. Mostly because there was something about it that rubbed me the wrong way. Good chance it was probably that something having to do with the fact that this tiger had changed his stripes recently. In subtle ways maybe, but the changes were still there. It was something I hadn't been expecting on this trip. Or ever really. Which was really bugging me.
Ranger may have written the book on gray area, but at least he consistently lived by it. Right, wrong, or indifferent, the man stuck to his guns. Both literally and figuratively. Yet for some reason it felt as if some of that book had been rewritten since the last time I'd seen him, which gave me the odd and unsettling feeling similar to a floor falling out from under me. If I was going to survive this encounter, I needed to regain a strong foothold again here. And fast.
"You still have the Turbo, right?" The question just kind of fell out of my mouth before I had a chance to stop and filter it. I think I was hoping to find something to reestablish some normalcy, especially since so much of this trip had been like an episode straight out of The Twilight Zone.
Ranger made a face. "Babe."
What now?
Oh.
Oh!
"No, that's not what I… I wasn't referring to…" My mind, and no doubt Ranger's, immediately flashed back to a rather…interesting experience we'd shared once in his drool-worthy car. It made my insides tingle in some very specific places. It also made my cheeks flush with the heat of a thousand suns.
"That car should be immortalized," Ranger muttered with a not-so-subtle wolf grin.
"Oh, good grief! Knock it off. I was just curious if you still had it is all."
"Babe, I will own that car until the day I die. As long as there is even the remotest possibility of a repeat experience."
My cheeks flushed again as something caught in my throat making me sputter. Oh boy…
The doors slid open, and we made our way down the hall to the suite where Ranger whispered some magic words to let us in. A trick he managed seemingly without the use of the necessary keycard.
Show off.
After a brief tour through the spectacular rooms, I took a seat on the plush couch and stared at the scenery outside the window. "It's nice," I commented to no one in particular.
Ranger entered the room a few steps behind me and watched from a distance, the expression on his face completely unreadable. As always.
I raised my eyebrows his direction. "What?"
"You have that look."
"Pretty sure I don't have a 'look'," I countered. "This is just my face."
"Babe." Another smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.
A bout of silence lingered between us a while after that, and I could feel myself start to go a little antsy. Muddied thoughts tumbled around in my head as I mindlessly fiddled with a string on my shirt. Then I dropped my gaze to my feet to prepare for the difficult words I felt still needed to be said.
"Guess this is just about the part of the story where Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle finally say their goodbyes. Go their separate ways."
Ranger stared at me a long moment before giving a subtle shake of his head. "You've never actually seen it, have you? The movie with the Hepburn chick?"
Damn.
It wasn't my fault. Honest. Every time I tried watching the stupid thing, my body relaxed and my eyes closed involuntarily. In fact, the darn movie worked better as a sleep aide than any pills I'd ever taken. "It's kinda long," I confessed. "And besides, from what I recall of what I have seen, the Higgins guy is a real asshole. I mean, why does she even bother hanging around and putting up with all his pompous shit anyway?"
I felt the couch dip next to me. "Not a lot of logic to it, is there?" He paused. "Could be the point. Maybe she sees through all his shit and for some crazy reason likes him in spite of it."
Or crazier still, maybe she actually liked him because of it.
Huh.
Funny how it was starting to feel like we weren't just talking about the movie anymore.
"So…what?" I asked. "She sticks around then? Puts up with his unreasonable expectations and overbearing ways? And of course they probably fall madly in love, right? Happily ever after and all that fairy tale crap?"
"Nope."
The answer caught me off guard. I turned and raised my eyebrows. "What do you mean nope?"
"They don't fall in love. She leaves."
Huh. No kidding. "Somehow I find that hard to believe considering an ending like that would probably make for the lamest musical ever."
He didn't give an answer to that. Instead, Ranger moved from his perch on the couch and went and stood by the window, staring outside like he was contemplating the deepest secrets of the universe. I wondered what he saw.
"Not indefinitely," he finally confirmed. "But long enough."
"For what?"
"For reality to sink in."
"And just what kind of reality might that be?" I scoffed. "That she needed his money? That she couldn't make it on her own?"
He turned away from the window, his eyes locked and focused intently on mine. "That they were good for each other. Here he'd always thought he'd saddled himself with some lame charity case, taking on the ridiculous girl out of pity or maybe just because he was bored. But somewhere along the way… At some point it was… She was…"
"A good friend?" I offered, slightly taken aback by the big, strong badass struggling for words.
"Let me ask you this," he countered. "Does a 'good friend' make you feel like the oxygen's been sucked out of the room when they leave?"
It was a scarily valid question. One that was treading dangerously close to home.
My mouth went a little dry in panic, so I shrugged in a last ditch act of self-preservation. "Depends on the friend."
"Are you trying to make this difficult?"
"Are you?"
In a movement so fluid and quick, I was suddenly pulled to my feet and kissed so thoroughly, I not only saw stars, I'm pretty sure I saw the whole freaking universe. Galaxies, shooting stars, supernovas. In one singular moment, my world and everything in it exploded.
"This," his voice echoed in my mind as he rested his forehead against mine. "This has always been easy."
And it was.
A weird, complicated easy.
At least that's what I kept telling myself. Because whether it was from that earth-shattering kiss, the thought of the five-star room service, or the fact I was so tired of fighting the millions of hormones that always sparked to life any time Ranger shared any kind of space with me, I gave in. I kissed back and let go.
And for the next six hours, I was very glad I did.
A/N: My apologies the fat lady has not sung on this little project just yet. A few more chapters to go, and considering I've written some of this chapter one-handed while rocking a newborn with the other, I make no commitments as to when that will be. But be encouraged that it WILL be. Especially with the continued motivation from friends. Thanks for that. Your support has and always will be invaluable.
