All familiar characters belong to Janet. Mistakes are solely mine.
I opened my door before Stephanie had a chance to dig her key out. The camera feed from the garage showed that she had kicked the front tire of her POS in anger before she'd stormed towards the elevator to come straight up to Seven. The fact that she bypassed the lobby had me preparing to diffuse a serious mood heading my way.
"Car trouble?" I asked, in the beat it took for her to realize that there's no door in front of her to pound on or open manually.
"No," she finally said. "Cop trouble."
"Morelli or a different one?"
She pushed past me and dropped her shoulder bag on the sideboard.
"You have to ask?" Was her reply.
"Yes, since you had a capture scheduled for today. Anything could have happened while you were out of the building."
"Which you would've been notified about immediately, so you know it has to be Joe infecting my happy place."
"Should I go shoot him now, or would you like to tell me what he did before I hunt him down and take him out?"
The job ahead of me - to make her feel better - is appearing easier than I'd first anticipated, since a little smile toyed with her lips before she stretched up to kiss my mouth.
"You're a good guy," she said against my lips.
"I'm not, but I like that you continue to think so, Babe. What happened?"
She took a step back and turned as if to walk to the kitchen. "You know, now that I've had time to calm down a little, it's nothing. I took care of it. It's fine."
She didn't make it more than a step. I curled my arm around her waist, turned so I could sit her on the sideboard next to her bag, and stepped between her knees so she couldn't sidestep me or my questions.
"How about we let me be the judge if it was nothing or not?" I suggested, though she'll say later that I ordered or persuaded her to talk.
"Fine. I was thinking I deserved a sticky bun from Italian People's bakery after catching my skip, with zero issues just for the record. I was even going to bring you back a coffee and a loaf of that whole-gross-wheat bread you like, but I lost interest in anything except turning Joe into fertilizer or at least a quadriplegic if I didn't have enough time … "
"He had to have been more of an asshole than usual to have you forget about being in a bakery."
"He was. I saw him looking far too interested in Valerie," she admitted. "On paper, she's who he should've been interested in from an age and family goals standpoint, but even in high school when she was the Plum 'good girl', she wasn't a notch he wanted. So him trying to chat her up now I guarantee was just to tick me off when she or someone else told me about it. And boy did it work! I shoved him away from her and threatened him with everything from my knee to my gun if he screws with my sister or her marriage."
I didn't think anything showed on my face, but I felt Steph's hand cup my jaw and she stared directly into my eyes, holding nothing in hers back.
"I know what you're thinking …" she whispered, which made the moment feel even more intimate and intense.
"No one knows what I'm thinking," I reminded her.
"So you didn't just wonder if I 'accosted a police officer' - his accusation, not the way I see the altercation - because I was jealous he was hitting on Val instead of propositioning me?" She asked, keeping my face where she could scan it for any hint of a reaction.
My silence spoke for me.
"Let's get a few things straight right now," she told me, adding a second hand to her hold on me so I couldn't turn away. "I don't love Joe, I seriously doubt I ever did. I DO NOT want him anywhere near me, let alone in the vicinity of my bed ... that place is reserved solely for you. And I came straight here afterwards because I needed the only man I do want and love to tell me I wasn't overreacting in defending my sister's honor by telling the jerk to keep his words, hands, and everything else far away from my sister. I'm not Albert's biggest fan, but he loves Val and the girls with every dopey inch of his Kloughn body. She barely survived a divorce from a medium-grade ass like Steve, she couldn't handle the mind games a vindictive-Morelli would subject her to."
I mimicked her hold on me and captured her face in my hands. I closed the inches between us and kissed her like my literal life depended on it, because it did just flash right before my eyes when I briefly questioned her motives for threatening the asshole.
"Hmmm," she murmured in satisfaction when I let her tongue and lips go. "How could you think for even a second that I'd be interested in that kind of crazy, when I've found peace here and enjoy kisses like that from you any time I can get you alone?"
"People are always afraid to lose what they love the most, Steph."
"I get that, but try to remember that you and I are oddly similar, so all that love and fear you feel … I do too towards you."
I finally felt comfortable enough to grin. "And what do you think we should do about that?"
She pretended to think about it. "Well, first I think we should head on in there," she said, pointing the way towards the bedroom, "so I can work off my anger in a healthy - and no doubt calorie-burning - way with you, which means I can get two sticky buns tomorrow. After that, we just have to stay together forever to prevent either of us from suffering a loss. Oh … and if you could ask Hector and Cal to harass and maybe even threaten Joe daily so he'll rethink the wisdom of targeting my family to mess with me, I'd really appreciate it. A quick death is too good for him, and although he's always denied it the two of them scare the shit out of him."
The relief I felt propelled my body into action. In one move, I lifted her and slung her over my shoulder in a fireman's carry, and started down the hall. First, I'm going to make sure she's saying and/or moaning my name for the next hour or two. And then we'll get busy securing that Morelli-free forever.