All familiar characters belong to Janet. Mistakes are solely mine. Warnings for a little mild bedroom fun.

Being back in the states and only twenty minutes away from Trenton should have me feeling relieved and excited, but all I feel is a deep sense of unease. If someone suddenly shouted 'Incoming', I'd already be braced for the hit. I know I should've informed Tank that I made it back, though months later than I'd intended to, but I didn't. The only thing I can focus on is seeing Stephanie. I prayed like hell that in the better part of a year that I've essentially been on the run, Rangeman hadn't updated all her trackers to ones I can no longer trace.

My unease turned to concern when I realized I'd be outside Trenton if I followed where the dot placed Stephanie's bag and car. I was confused when it brought me to a large home on the outskirts of Pennington, New Jersey. As illogical as it sounds, if she moved out of her crappy apartment, I should have been told about it despite being out of communication range to hear from anyone, let alone someone from home. More vital information is if she did, why didn't she move into the Rangeman building? A more palatable thought is that I'm about to crash an apprehension, which would explain why she's here. I can't recall anyone she knows living in this area.

I saw her car in the driveway and got out to inspect it. No RangeMan or Lula riding shotgun. Her bag isn't inside as if she'd had to rush out after someone. It appears that she'd parked for the night, except she was settling into the wrong place. I scanned the area for threats as I approached the front door. If I rang the doorbell instead of breaking in and this is a takedown, an element of surprise usually works in our favor. I kept my hand on my gun and pushed the button.

A catalog model wannabe answered almost immediately, likely not even checking to see who was at his door before unlocking and opening the only thing standing between him and danger. The immediate danger to him being me right now.

I pressed my gun into his forehead before he could react. "You have two seconds to tell me who you are and where Stephanie is before I kill you."

His dark eyes opened wide, and his pupils suddenly dilated though he didn't appear particularly frightened. I don't know what the fuck is going on here, but clearly my presence is unexpected though who I am isn't a total surprise. I lowered my Glock but didn't return it to its holster yet.

"You're him, aren't you?" The man said to me. "Stephanie's Carlos? She has been out of her mind with worry believing you had been killed."

"I am hers and obviously I'm not dead. Who the fuck are you?"

"I am Kyril. Stephanie's husband … on documents only," he was quick and definitely wise to say.

"Her what?" I barked.

"It's not what it appears," he assured me. He opened the door wider and gestured me inside. "Please, allow me to explain. Stephanie was just doing me an incredible service; she doesn't deserve any of your anger."

"My woman will never need to be protected from me. I protect her. Always have."

He nodded. "Good. That is what she has always claimed, but I was concerned. Please, have a seat while we talk."

"I'll stand. Now talk."

He smiled as if recalling an inside joke. That pissed me off further.

"Stephanie is always saying how direct you are."

"If you want this conversation to go without bloodshed," I warned, "you'll stop telling me about someone I know better than myself."

"Right, right. You'll have to excuse me. I find myself in an extraordinary situation and it is critical that I do not mess this moment up for my dear friend."

"I'm listening."

"There are details she will want to be the one to share with you, but I wish to tell you what a good person your Stephanie is. She offered to marry me so I could stay in your country. You see, my Carlos lives here in this New Jersey state, and I couldn't bear to leave him. Stephanie understood how much it hurts to love someone so completely, and she made mine and Carlos' life by agreeing to provide a cover one for us until I can get my papers and issues with my family back home sorted out."

"You're gay?" I asked.

"Yes. A fact I've known since I was a mere four-year-old boy. I have been hiding it ever since. Loving someone so much like myself is frowned upon where I'm from. I'm very much in love with the man I hope to make my husband one day, but my family does not know anything about this side of me. Saying I was staying here to marry a woman I absolutely adore bought me some time. If I married my Carlos, I may have been able to stay in your beautiful country, but my family would have turned their backs on me, and my country may have even wanted to bring me home just to kill me. Stephanie needed some cover of her own, so we agreed to an unconventional union."

"Why does Stephanie need 'cover'?"

"She will want to tell you everything herself, but I will say that she wanted to believe that you somehow survived and would come home to her, but that atrocious mother of hers was doing everything in her power to force her to move on. Telling her mother and also that obnoxious cop - I must confess I do not care for that man at all - that she was marrying me, gave her peace finally. Stephanie wanted you home and resented anyone saying that you may never return. The polite way to repeat how we came to an agreement is that she was never going to agree to see or be with a man who wasn't you."

I heard a door open to my left and the reason I continue to breathe joined us. "Oh my God! Ranger?!"

I turned and there she was, looking as beautiful as always though pale enough to have me concerned that she's about to pass out.

"Breathe, Babe."

The order came out as easily as if I'd only been away from her for an hour. She went from not breathing at all after seeing me alive and in front of her, to breathing much too fast. She started to hyperventilate, choking out the same five words over and over again which further complicated her breathing.

"It's not what you think. It's not what you think. It's not what you think …"

The guy, Kyril, took a step towards her. While I know on some level that they are friends and he's worried and wants to help her, there's no fucking way he's getting close enough to comfort her when I'm here.

I was crossing the room and catching her shoulders in my hands before I even realized I had moved. "Look at me, Stephanie."

It took a few seconds, but I physically felt the moment she lifted her head and her blue eyes met mine for the first time in close to a year.

"That's better," I said softly. "Just breathe in and out slowly. I'm not going anywhere."

"But I need to …" she whispered, once again taking on a pasty complexion and scared expression.

"You can tell me everything that happened as soon as I'm sure you won't go lights out on me. Kyril already told me the important part."

"I'm … sorry," she said in-between gulps of air.

I felt a presence beside us. "She will go to her grave without admitting this to you, but she loves you, Carlos, in a way that almost killed her. I'll go surprise my love and give you two some time and space to talk. For Stephanie, I am so thankful that you are home and came for her. She needs you."

Without another word, he was gone. I want to hate the guy, maybe torture him a little for having the time with Stephanie that I'd missed out on, but my gut says he's exactly what he claimed to be … a friend and someone who protected her when I couldn't.

I took a deep breath myself before I was able to speak. "Stephanie, you have nothing to be sorry for. I'm the one who should be apologizing. If I could have contacted you to let you know I was alright, I would have."

She calmed down as I was talking, and I finally got to hold her the way I've been dreaming of.

"I thought you were dead," she whispered into my chest where my arms had her pinned.

"I'm sorry," I said again. "You would have been in danger if they learned who and what you are to me."

"They?" She asked, curling her own arms around my body tight enough to cut off circulation to my extremities.

Less than eight hours in the states and I'm already making mistakes. Stephanie will always pick up on what I can't or don't want to talk about.

"The only detail that's important involving the 'they' is that I had to hunt every last one of them down before I came home so I never have to leave again. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

I drew back to watch the emotions flicker across her face. "Yes, but I'm having a hard time believing it."

"If you never believe another word I say, Babe, trust that the only reason I would have purposely stayed away from you is with the intention that I never have to leave you again. I'm officially retired. Or more accurately … the only calls I'll be getting will be for my opinion or training advice."

"No more going in the wind?"

"Only if it involves me and you on a yacht during an island vacation. My life is in your hands, not the government's anymore."

Her mouth dropped open in shock right before she threw herself at me. As we sank down onto the couch, her mouth covered mine. The sensations are even better than I remembered. She scooted herself onto my lap and all I could think about was getting inside her … until I felt a thin band of metal against my cheek. Her fake-wedding band.

I broke the kiss and turned to glare at it. "I can't do this in another man's house," I told her.

"Only this side is Kyril's," she said, swallowing hard. "I live on the other side of the duplex. If Grandma or anyone else comes over to visit, we meet in here so no one will know that I live in a completely separate apartment under the same roof."

"It doesn't look like a duplex from the outside."

"I know. Tank helped me find it and also finance my half of it. He didn't tell you?"

Now she was back to looking worried.

"I haven't spoken to him yet. I was going to let him know I'm back once I reconnected with you."

"Then how did you know where to find me?"

"Trackers. Some technology never has to be upgraded. So, Tank knew about this plan of yours?"

"Don't be mad at him. I told him because I didn't want him or the guys to think I was betraying you or giving up on the fact that you would be back. I convinced Tank with my very real fear that I'd kill my mother if she tried to ambush me with a blind date again or gave another random guy my cell number. I wasn't going to forget you, and I sure as hell wasn't about to try with another guy … except for Kyril. He also loves a 'Carlos' that he was scared he'd lose. If life as I knew it was over - or just put on hold indefinitely - I thought I could at least give him and his man the happy ending I didn't get."

My chest hurt hearing just how devastated she'd been with my absence.

"If it'll make you feel more comfortable, I had Mary Lou do that online officiating thing so we could skip the kiss the bride part," she was telling me. "Kyril kissed his Carlos and I hugged Mary Lou and cried because I thought if I ever got married again, it'd be to you. I'm happy for however I could help them be together, but I wanted to be happy too."

"You're an amazing person, Stephanie," I told her, kissing her again but only briefly because I know I won't be able to stop.

When I pulled back, her eyes were looking sad again. "I really missed you."

"I know. But now I'll be around you so often, you'll be wishing for the last few months back."

Instead of laughing like I'd anticipated, she held my stare even while two tears escaped and slid down her cheeks. "I'll never wish for that kind of hell again. I know you must've been in a worse place, but truth is … I didn't feel much like a person when you were away … amazing or otherwise."

"I'm here now."

"Make no mistake, I'll kill you myself if you ever leave me again."

"Duly noted," I said, slanting my head and taking her mouth again.

She opened hers immediately and I finally felt like I was home as her tongue moved against mine. I stood up with her still in my arms and attached to my mouth until I had to question where to take us.

"Your place?" I asked, not recognizing my own voice.

I wanted to be inside her and surrounded by her skin, scent, and sincerity more than I wanted to breathe.

She pointed at the door she'd first walked through. "Through there. Down the hall there's another door … my technical front door. My bedroom is the last room on the second floor. Carlos' niece is going to move into my side once I'm no longer needed."

"You'll always be needed."

"By you? Hopefully yes. The happy couple and their family? Probably not. And I should warn you, I haven't done this," she said, moving her hand between us, "since I was saying goodbye to you. I hope my parts still work."

I smiled for the first time in a year. "No worries on that front. Not only have I missed this just as long as you have, I've always had ways of making you talk ... along with a few other things."

I felt her shiver and was glad I haven't told anyone where I am. I need this time with her, and I wouldn't be responsible for my actions if someone interrupted us. I barely noticed her current living quarters except that it has light walls and mostly gray furniture. Her bedroom is what I paid attention to, especially her maple dresser and the matching hardwood nightstand on her side of the bed.

They're clearly brand new, no hand-me-down furniture anywhere I could see. I'll have to give Tank a raise for taking care of my woman properly, after I kick his ass into next year for not somehow getting word to me about what was happening on the home front. It would have irrevocably fucked-up my mission when I needed every ounce of my focus to be on staying alive and making sure I'd stay that way once I was home, but some things a man deserved to know.

If I'd had any doubts about Stephanie's motives or claims, this room would have ended them. The few pictures she has of us together, ones of me that were taken covertly, and those from the shore of me, Steph, and Julie when my daughter visited last, were covering every flat surface.

When I went to set her gently on the bed, I saw the pair of my dog tags I'd given her years ago dangling from the bedpost closest to her pillow.

"No one's been in this room except the guys who moved the furniture in," she said into the shadows of the room. "Not even Mary Lou. I wanted it to be just our place if … when … you came home."

"It's our place wherever we are, Babe."

I don't say shit like that very often, but I mean it.

"Are you going to back up that statement, Soldier?"

"All night and well into tomorrow morning at the very least. I missed you more than you know, and I plan to make up for our lost time."

I wasted none of it getting her clothes off. I've lived, dreamed, and remembered these times with her, and I need to relearn every inch of her body … slowly and thoroughly. Once I was able to let her mouth go, promising myself that I'll get back to it shortly, I skimmed my lips down her throat. I paused and smiled against her skin when I felt her pulse jump in response to me.

But when my hands moved to her breasts and then suspiciously slid an inch below them, I frowned. "Did you lose weight?" I asked her, reaching over to the side of the bed to turn on the lamp there.

She tried to cover herself up with her hands and by sitting up, but I wasn't letting her shield her body or her thoughts from me.

"Jesus, Ranger. You told me you love me before you left and swore you'd come home to me. Although you did warn me about how long that could take, I didn't hear from you for eleven months and fourteen days. Did you think I'd just pretend life was great and not worry at all about you? Everything you like is still here," she said, not meeting my eyes. "Besides, you're the one who was all about health. You should be happy I lost a few doughnut pounds. Plus, you don't hear me complaining about your body having a good ten pounds of extra muscle on it. Don't think I didn't feel the difference."

I circled her ribcage with both hands. "This isn't muscle, it's bone. You need to eat more."

She relaxed under my hands and even laughed a little. "I think that's the first time you've ever told me to eat more. And I'll get on that just as soon as you get on me."

I must be more exhausted than I thought because she managed to get out of my hold and somehow ended up being the one on top, straddling me. She was twice as enthusiastic trying to get my clothes off me than I was removing hers, but when I attempted to shift her in order to offer assistance, she stopped what she was doing and put her hands on the waist I'd just been hand-measuring.

I also stopped what I was doing and laid back to enjoy the show. She is correct. Her breasts are still there, and her stubborn stance is making them stand out even more, begging for my undivided attention.

"Do you know what I told myself every day, hell every hour, when you were gone?"

As much as her nipples were calling to me, I put my hands on her back and urged her forward so I could simply hug her.

"I'm sorry, Steph."

"I'm not … not in the way you're apologizing for anyway. I told myself that if … when … you came home, I wouldn't let anything stand in our way again. That includes your clothes. They're coming off. Unless you can get yourself naked faster, let me do my thing."

"I told you to never believe I'm dead until you see a body," I reminded her.

I had repeated that minutes before we parted months ago.

"Yeah, well, turns out that's easier to nod an agreement to when your body is still lying next to mine. When I haven't heard from you for weeks, then months, I started to give up hope of ever seeing your body again."

I kissed the top of her head. "I'll always come back to you."

"When you can. It's those other times I worry about. Now, where were we?"

She didn't wait for me to answer. My t-shirt was history, and my cargo pants weren't far behind as soon as my boots and socks were dealt with, which she did let me help her with. I was glad I had changed out of my cammies before I tracked her down or the government may have had a thing to say about how she was treating its property.

While I had a long and drawn-out body worshipping session in mind, Stephanie was set on a different approach … sudden and satisfying. For round one anyway. She lifted herself up to kiss me and when I was distracted by what her tongue was doing, she reached down and wrapped a hand around my dick, stroking twice before sliding her body down onto me. She had me changing my mind about my plan for our evening. A quick appetizer was what we both needed before moving onto the main course and then my favorite dessert.

My hands went back to her breasts as she moved. But it was only minutes before I couldn't take being inactive any longer. I gripped her hips and drove mine upwards when she was coming back down. I held myself together until I saw her eyes roll back and her bottom lip disappear between her teeth. That's when I rolled us, lighting the fuse of the explosives that ignited inside us both.

She hooked an arm and a stronger-than-it-looks leg around me when I tried to move off her. I had added twelve pounds of muscle, working out being my only form of stress relief when I wasn't in the field, so I know I'm too heavy for her body to support. But she isn't letting me go even for her comfort's sake. I stayed where I was, buried deep inside her, and just took her with me as I flipped onto my back. She claims she isn't a cuddler, but what she's doing now would show that to be a lie. She's burrowing into me like she wanted to climb right underneath my skin.

I lifted her hand to my mouth as our breathing started to return to normal. "I'm going to call in a few favors and get Kyril permanent citizenship and you two an annulment ASAP, and then it will be my ring you're wearing for the rest of my life."

"For my life too, but it's already yours," she told me, pressing a kiss to the bare skin over my heart. "Kyril's ring is engraved on the inside with a honey pot sporting a 'C' initial because he calls his Carlos 'honey' so often it's a little nauseating. And this one," she flexed her left hand that's still being held by mine, "has two movie titles circling the inside … 'Batman Returns' and 'Batman Forever'."