Okay first of all I want to apologize right away for any spelling or grammatic errors that can (and will) appear in this story. I'm using the fact that I'm Swedish as an excuse ;) Other than that I hope you will enjoy it! Oh and this is my very first fanfic, so go easy on me. Well this is the first chapter, there are moore coming. Enjoy / Sannaoo

Disclaimer : I don't own any of the characters or the plot, it's all Janet Evanovichs'. I'm just borrowing them from time to time.

Spoilers / Warnings : No major spoilers, maybe some hints from TBO but nothing big.

"You gonna eat those?"

"What do you think? Of course I'm gonna eat those!" Lula and I were at McDonald's for what was supposed to be a quick snack, but ended up being lunch involving almost everything on the menu. At least for Lula. But that didn't stop her from making a move on my fries.

"Ey come on girl, I'm a big woman I need more fries than your skinny ass to feel full". For a second there I almost burst out laughing, only Lula would say such a thing while having a super sized bag of fries in front of her.

"You know normally I'd give you the rest of my fries, just to be nice, but today…no way! It's my birthday so I have the right to eat every last one of them"

"That's what I hate about birthdays, everyone starts demanding things" Lula said and rolled her eyes. "But however, that reminds me" she brushed some salt of her fingers and bent down to her bag. She unzipped it and pulled out a small envelope with a bow around it. She handed it over and said "Happy birthday girl". I took the envelope and smiled at her

"Thanks Lula, you know didn't have to". We both knew that we didn't have to give each other anything, but we also knew that both of us are like 5 year olds on Christmas morning when it comes to presents. I ripped the enveloped open and pulled out a gift certificate for 50 dollars at Macy's. That was one of the things a liked best about Lula, for a lot of people a gift certificate would seem like a bad and impersonal gift. But she knows that every girl loves to shop, and who does your shopping better than yourself, therefore it's a perfect gift.

I looked up at here and smiled my biggest smile "it's perfect!" She just winked at me and said,

"I know! And you know what this means don't cha?" Of course I knew.

"SHOPPING!" We finished eating up our food then when out to the car to head for Macy's. All the skips and bad guys just hade to wait until I had found my perfect gift.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

After a few ours we had tried on I don't know how many pairs of shoes with fuck-me-heals, too-much-cleavage-dresses and the ugliest outfits we could find, you know just for the fun of it, but I still hadn't found my present. When we got to the lingerie's Lula stopped and turned to me.

"When was the last time you bought yourself a pair of hot and sexy undies?" Wow, now let me think about that.

"Well have long have you got?" I said as a hint to the zillion of years it felt like it had been since I bought a pair of fuck-me-panties instead of shoes. "I guess it goes all the way back to the Dickie days" I finally admitted with a deep sigh.

"Oh girl you gotta be kiddin' me!" Lula shouted out, a few people around stopped and looked at us. "Well that does it! You are buying panties, no questions about it!" she said and started to roam the shelves. At first I wasn't so sure but then it hit me, why not? Why shouldn't I pamper myself a little bit? Just because I don't really have anybody to show them to doesn't mean I don't have the right to wear underwear that makes me feel hot and sexy. Yep, sexy lingerie's it is. And besides… Morelli and I aren't completely off, even if we're not completely on either. And all of a sudden a sexy Cuban popped into my mind, mmhm wouldn't mind letting him take a look at... oh my god! What was I thinking? I shook my head and pushed Ranger out of my thoughts before I started to blush and get hot flashes in the middle of Macy's.

"How about these?" Lula snapped me be back to reality and held up a neon yellow thong with a zipper in the front. I shook my head.

"Too much porn star." I started to check out the different shapes and forms of panties and bras that were hanging on the shelves and thought to myself – hey this is fun! I should do this more often.

"You say it goes all the way back to the Dickie days" Lula said after a while "how come you never bought Super Cop some fuck-me-panties?" I thought about it for a second.

"Well Joe never really cared about was between the clothes and being naked, he would just rip them off without even noticing if it was granny panties or a lace thong. So it actually felt unnecessary to spend a lot of money on it if it wouldn't even get noticed or ripped to pieces in two seconds". Lula just stared at me with a dazed look.

"You're imagining him ripping your undies to pieces aren't you?"

"Well mostly I'm thinking about his hot ass… but yeah, that too". I shook my head laughing and kept looking. After another hour we left Macy's with bags in our hands. Lula hadn't been able to resist the lingerie's and bought a few things herself. Apparently she had a hot date tonight and they might come in handy. I hade found the perfect matching bra and panties, not too sluty and not too schoolgirl. They were deep red with a little bit of decorating lace and with thong panties. The bra was a push-up that gave me a flattering cleavage. All in all I felt damn sexy in them. Mission accomplished.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

When we were on our way back to the office my cell rang. I heard the Yankee Doodle melody and already knew who it was. I flipped it open.

"Hi Joe"

"Hey cupcake, what's up?" Hmf, no happy birthday from him oh no, of course not!

"Not much, been shopping with Lula, we're heading back to the office right now, you?" I chose to ignore the non-congratulation.

"Nothing special, hey do you mind stopping by at my place as soon as possible, I would like to talk to you" Uh oh I thought to myself, another you-gotta-quit-your-job-argument and I would throw up on him. But I guess I didn't have much of a choice.

"Okay I'll stop by as soon as I dropped Lula off".

"Great, see ya then! Bye" and then he hung up.

"Super cop?" Lula asked me with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah ha, seems like he wants so talk…" Lula shook her head

"Talking never did you any good with that man".

"Tell me about it" I muttered with a sigh. We stopped in front of the office building and Lula jumped out of the car wishing me good luck and I headed over to Joes'.

As soon as I rang the doorbell he opened the door and pulled me into a hard embrace. "Nice to see you Cupcake" his voice was husky. I felt a shiver go down my spine. He pulled away and grabbed my hand, bringing me inside.

"Nice to see you too" He turned and smiled playfully at me. What was going on? He seemed so happy, happy in the way kids are when they know something you don't. Well at least he didn't seem like he wanted to have a big talk about my "risky business". I was relived, I sooo did not want to have that conversation today. But it didn't stop me from wondering what he was up to.

"You look so sneaky Joe, what's going on?" He grinned at me and put up a finger.

"Wait a second… you'll see" Then he turned around and headed for the refrigerator. Oh boy I thought to myself, this might involve food! He opened it and took out a box and gave it to me. I opened it eagerly.

"Wow Boston Crème donuts! I love them!" I smiled up at him

"I know… Happy birthday Cupcake" he kissed me on the cheek.

"You knew!" I said surprised. He laughed at me.

"Of course I did! Did you really expect me to forget your big day?" he tucked a string of hair behind my ears.

"Well you're a man… men are masters at forgetting things like birthdays, Valentines Day and anniversaries, you know all the things that matter to women"

"Well I didn't forget. But wait, the donuts isn't everything" he said and walked into the living room.

"You mean there's more?" I yelled after him. He reentered the room with a present in his hand and gave it to me.

"Awe you're so sweet". From the outside it looked like a CD, you know flat, square shaped and hard. A CD is good, always appreciated and should be fairly easy with me. I was curious to see what CD he had gotten me and started to rip the paper. When I saw the cover I froze… it was Linking Park.

"I know you love rock, so I thought this must really be something for Steph" Joe smiled at me. Rock – yeah, this piece of rap-metal-shit – NO! I mean come on, rock is Metallica or Aerosmith, not this crap. Who invented the rap-metal genre anyway? Then I realized he was waiting for my response… waiting for me to say I love it. Shit.

"Uhm yeah I love rock" I blurted out, giving him a quick kiss and hug. "Thanks a lot" when I let him go I quickly shoved a donut in my mouth to cover up my loss for words. And because I really wanted a donut.

"I knew you'd like it!" he smiled and ruffled my hair.

"Mhaha" I laughed insecurely and nodded. He took a donut out of the box and started to eat.

"You know, I really wanted to take you out to dinner tonight, I have thought about it for days. But then this stupid work thing came up that I really have to go to. It's in New You" he really did look disappointed.

"But, if you want to, I have already made dinner reservations for tomorrow night to make up for it?" He looked anxiously at me.

"That's a stupid question, of course I'd like to go!" That was actually kind of sweet of him.

"Okay good, I was hoping so. Because there's really something I need to talk to you about" He looked more serious now. Shit, here comes the "risky business talk".

"What about?"

"We'll take it tomorrow night. Now I really have to get back to the office, and I'm guessing so do you." I nodded and rose from my spot on the table where I had been sitting. "So I'll pick you up at seven tomorrow?"

"Yeah sure, that sounds good" Then he picked up the box of donuts and handed it to me and we made our ways out to the cars. Just as I was about to get in behind the steering wheel Joe yelled,

"Hey Steph!"

"Yeah?"

"Where something nice" then he jumped into his car and drove off. I shook my head and stepped into the car. "Linking Park" I said to myself. That dinner better make up for it.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I stepped into the office and saw Lula behind the filing cabinet, actually working for once. Connie was deep into her computer, probably playing Pinball or something. When she saw me come in she drew her attention from the computer.

"Hey Stephanie, happy birthday" she said and gave me a smile. "Sorry I haven't got you anything, if you want I can call my uncle and have him arrange something? You want anything special?

"Ah, no thanks Connie, I'm good!" A present from Connies' family is not something you should strive for, unless a dead horse head in your bed is exactly what you want. Yes, she's that kind of Italian.

"Ey what did Morelli want with you?" I could hear Lula ask from behind the cabinet. "He tried to talk you in to settling down again didn't he?"

"Actually no he didn't, he wished me happy birthday and gave me some donuts and a CD."

"He gave you donuts?" Lulas head popped up. I nodded. "Well what are you standing around there for, hand 'em over!" I picked up the box and gave it to her. "Oh yeah Boston Crème, the best kind!" she sat down on the couch and dug in.

"So he remembered your birthday, not bad, " Connie said. "What CD did he get you?"

"Uhm.." I hesitated. They both stopped and starred at me. "Well, he got me Linking Park" I stated and tried to look normal. They looked at each other then burst out laughing.

"And he actually things you like that shit?" Lula said with too much donut in her mouth.

"Yep, and I'm not a but to break his bubble. But he also wanted to take me to dinner tonight but some work thing got in the middle. So were going out tomorrow instead.

"I thought you already hade plans with Mary Lou tonight?" Lula asked

"Yeah, but he doesn't know that, and now he's feeling guilty 'cause he can't take me out tonight, so tomorrow we're going somewhere fancy." The girls smiled sneaky at me.

"Well you gotta get something for that lame CD" Connie said and we burst out laughing again.

"Yeah I know. But hey, have you got any skips for me today?" She turned around and picked up a file.

"Just Mooner, things are going slow now." Just as she reached over to give me the file she stiffened and her gaze traveled to something behind me. I could here Lula inhale quickly, the next thing I knew a worm big hand settled in the back of my neck. All the tiny hairs on my neck stood at full alert and I no longer needed to look.

"Got anything for me today Connie?" Ranger said, leaning in letting his body brush up against mine slightly. I could smell his Bulgari and I felt my knees go weak. DAMN did he smell good. He reached over and grabbed the file in my hand.

"Lucky you have Mooner as a regular, otherwise you could have some trouble paying your rent Babe." he teased. Just as I was about to fire something in return Connie turned back to us handing him two files. As he flipped trough them he began to say "Hey Babe, I…" But before he got any further I had already taken my chance and turned around and walked out of there as fast as I could. Oh shit! Did I just walk out on Ranger? I knew that was stupid. You don't walk out on Batman if you want your life intact. I just couldn't stand the smell of Bulgari on him any longer; I could have jumped him if he had gotten any closer. Now I just prayed he had more stuff to do in there so I would have time to drive away before he got to me. But why hope? Five steps out the door and I felt a hand grab my arm and jerk me around.

"Thought you could walk out on me Babe? Well guess what, no one walks out on me" he pulled me close and pressed his hard body against mine. I could feel his breath against my ear. Oh boy this was not going well. But then he pulled away from me and started to walk away.

"I need your help on a job"

"Distraction?" that really was the only thing I could help the RangeMan's with, dressing like a slut, tricking skips into thinking I was so horny I could do it right there on the spot. Until I got them outside and Ranger and his men cuffed them up and hauled their sorry asses to the station.

"Yep, two days from know, you up for it?" he stopped and looked at me. After that I don't know what the hell got into me but all of a sudden I took a bold step towards him and said

"Yeah Ranger… I'm always up for it" putting an extra meaning into the last words. His eyes went dark and time seemed to stop for a few seconds. Then he grabbed my shirt pulling me into the alley between the buildings, pinning me to the wall.

"You shouldn't teas like that Babe, it's not good for you" he whispered against my mouth. And then he kissed the living daylight out of me. I wasn't slow to answer him, kissing just as eagerly. When I felt his hands pulling my t-shirt up, letting his hands roam freely over my stomach I gasped for breath, and when his hands reached the swell of my breasts I knew I was a goner. I also knew I shouldn't be doing this, it was so wrong. I still hadn't worked out my guilt problems over Morelli, but then why did this feel so damn good? Just as I asked myself that he pulled away, his breathing uneasy – oh so I wasn't the only one affected by this, nice to know. "Remember Babe, two days from know". Then he was gone. Leaving me there in the alley all shook up and with swollen lips. I seriously gotta stop letting him do this. It wasn't good for me. Well it was good… but not good. You know what I mean.

I don't remember Stephanies actual age so I simply guessed.

And all you Linking Park fans out there, sorry! don't take it personal ;)

Oh, and all you who wants moore of Ranger... have patiente!