Title: Those bloody questions!
Chapter 3: Sleeping beauty
Author: Ann
Rating: (G to NC-17): G
Spoilers/Warnings: None
Summary: Stephanie meets Rangers family
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine except Aurelia, I just play
with them
Huge thanks to all the lovely reviewers! Thanks for waiting! Hope you like this one. It is a bit short, but more to come. Review please!
Sleeping Beauty
I was driving my car to a neighbourhood that was new to me. Aurelia, Ranger's sister, had explained to me how I could find the family house. I couldn't help but feel extremely curious. I was about to see where Ranger grew up and meet some of his family. Mmm, family… Oh SHIT! FAMILY! His parents could be there! And how would I introduce myself? Hi, I'm Stephanie, a colleague of Ranger… Mmm, I wasn't exactly a colleague… Hi, I'm Stephanie, I'm going to look after your son… No way that I would ever say that! Hi, I'm Stephanie, I'm a friend of Ranger… Mmm, sounded okay. Nice and neutral. Oh, hang on, he probably wasn't called Ranger there, I think his sister called him Ricardo. Okay, a little practise: Hi, I'm Stephanie, I'm a friend of Ricardo… Hi, I'm Stephanie, I'm a friend of Ricardo… Hi, I'm Stephanie, I'm a friend of Ricardo…
"Hi, you must be Stephanie, Ricardo's girlfiend." What! How did that happen?
"No no, Ran…Ricardo and I are just friends." Shit shit shit! I guessed it was Aurelia that had answered the door, but I wasn't sure.
"I'm Aurelia, please come in." She smiled like she didn't believe one bit about Ranger and me just being friends… I seriously hoped Ranger would never find out about this conversation, my life would be in danger!
"Let me introduce you to my parents and brothers and sisters." Eek! The whole family was here! Quick, check my hair, straighten my clothes!
"Everybody, this is Stephanie, Ricardo's…"
"Friend!" I squeaked quickly before I once again could be introduced as Rangers girlfriend. I looked around me. I saw an older couple sitting next to each other on a large couch, and several people were scattered around the room. Also, I spotted some children playing in a corner and I heard a cat meowing. Oh my, I was never going to remember all these names.
"Hi." I said to everybody and tried to smile and look nice.
"Hi, I'm Javier, Ricardo's brother." He was really good looking, I guessed about 5 years younger than Ranger.
"Hi, I'm Cora." Sister, around the same age.
"Hi, I'm Ariel." Brother, same age.
"Hi, I'm Vera, partner of Cora."
"Hi, I'm Clarisse." Sister, younger than Ranger.
"Hi, I'm Judith, I'm the wife of Javier, and the oldest boy there is Sam, our son"
"The other 2 kids are from Vera. The boy's name is Marcus and the girl's name is Sofia."
This came from Aurelia. I was dazzling with names, and couldn't say for sure who was who apart from Aurelia. Then the older lady got up and walked towards me. She grabbed my hand and placed it into both her hands.
"Hello dear, my name is Juanita. I'm Ricardo's mother. And that wonderful man there is Carlos, Ricardo's father. It is a pleasure to finally meet you." Eh, finally? She had definitely something mischievousness in her smile, and I instantly realized where Ranger got his wonderful smiles from.
"Nice to meet you, you have a wonderful house." Burg upbringing.
"Thank you, dear."
"Now, let me take you to Ricardo," Aurelia said. I felt myself blush a little at that, I don't even know why. It sounded like we belonged together naturally. Javier chuckled and opened his mouth to say something no doubt embarrassing for me, but a firm look from Juanita made him swallow his words. I smiled thankfully at her and followed Aurelia out of the room and up the stairs. The house was large, but looked homey and friendly. It was painted in warm colours of yellow, red and greens and had a lot of natural light coming in through windows. On the top of the stairs was a long hall with several doors. Aurelia poked her head around the third on the right and smiled at what she saw. She motioned for me to come and I walked towards her, feeling very nervous suddenly. Ranger was a light sleeper, trained to wake up at any and all sounds and to be ready to fight. I had no idea what his reaction would be to me being there. Probably not too good. But Aurelia seemed very confident, because she started speaking to me.
"Come on, Ricardo sleeps here." Oh dear God, just kill me now, because he is surely awake now.
"Eh, I don't want to wake him up…" Lame, I know, but I had the feeling that as long I didn't really see him, I hadn't been here and this wasn't real.
"Oh, no worries darling, he won't wake up." Mmm, she sounded very sure.
"Why?" Aurelia smiled the same smile as her mother and Ranger.
"I drugged him, he'll be out for another couple of hours." Wow, she's got guts!
"You drugged him?"
"Yep, he's out like a light. Come on!" Okay then, here I go.
I stepped into the room and stopped as soon as I saw him. He was lying on his stomach and he had kicked down the blankets to his waist. The muscles in his back were looking very masculine and I spotted the top of his black boxers. His left foot was sticking out from under the blanket and his arms were laying on each side of him, bent at the elbow, hands next to his head. His face was turned towards me. His hair was loose, lying on the pillow. He looked adorable, cute, sweet, wonderful, sexy and still incredibly dangerous. I felt a warm feeling rise in me. I slowly walked towards him and knelt down before him. My hand got a life of its own and it went through his hair. He felt warm but nice.
And then he opened his eyes...
