Okay, so here's the chapter everyone has probably been waiting for. I don't know why it is with these characters (meaning the Steph, Ranger and the Merry Men), but from the first story I decided to write, it was important for me to keep the stories sensual, yet clean. Hopefully, I've accomplished that here. I still wouldn't read it at work or around children ((wink)).
Like sentries, Bobby and I remained on the bed, talking, and watching over Lester until he woke.
My breath stalled in my lungs when he shifted, then let out a sigh. Slowly his eyes opened, and he blinked as he stared blankly at the wall.
"Les?"
He turned his head to look up at me. The expression he wore had my heart clenching in response. Devastation and hurt were still openly visible on his face. Slowly, he pushed up, to sit between me and Bobby. He reached for Bobby's hand and gave it a squeeze, then he turned his attention to me. He released Bobby's hand and placed both of his on either side of my face, holding me in place as he lowered his mouth to mine.
His lips were soft, as he pressed them against mine, gentle at first, then a bit firmer. He swiped his tongue along the seam, begging. Love and devotion coursed through me, and I opened, desperate to give him what he needed. On a moan, he deepened the kiss until we were both needy and panting.
When he pulled back, he pressed his forehead to mine as we both struggled to breathe. "Please, Sienna. I want you so bad," he whispered.
This was it. This was the moment that would officially change everything. Funny, now that it was here, I realized I wasn't the least bit frightened or worried. My only focus was on taking away his pain in whatever manner I could. Without another thought, I nodded.
"Thank God," he whispered, then once again dove back in for another kiss.
Within seconds, he shifted, placing me between him and Bobby. With deft hands, he worked his way beneath my blouse, pulling it loose from my skirt. A second set of hands, slid around from the back, grabbed the hem of my blouse and tugged. On instinct I lifted my arms, allowing Bobby to pull my top free of my body.
Lester paused, his eyes gliding over me in a gentle caress. "Beautiful," he whispered. "But I want to see all of you."
"Then do it," I replied without hesitation.
Bobby reached down and unzipped my skirt, then almost painfully slow, Lester eased it down my legs until, I lay between my two men in only my lilac laced bra and matching thong.
"You are gorgeous," Bobby murmured as he pressed a kiss to the base of my neck.
"Absolutely, stunning," Lester said, then mouthed the flesh right above my knee. Dueling sensations rocked me as the men began their twin assault on my senses. Soft kisses turned urgent and needy as together the three of us forged into uncharted territory. Gentle touches gave way to exploring fingers, and greedy mouths until I was mindless with need.
I hadn't been convinced that we could make it work between the three of us. After all, writing about a threesome was way different than experiencing one for real. I quickly realized, none of it mattered. Every one of those doubts disappeared with the light of the day, giving way to only love and desire as the dark of night befell us.
Repeatedly, we came together that night, supplementing broken sleep with a desperate need to erase Lester's nightmares.
When the alarm went off at five, I woke to Bobby pressed against me, his arousal evident against my back. "Good morning," he whispered.
"Good morning," I replied.
"Lift your leg, sweetheart."
I did without hesitation, then gasped as he made us one. "God. Don't you two ever get tired?"
"Not when you're around," he said as he bit down on the skin at the base of my neck, marking me.
My arousal, which had been mostly dormant only a moment ago, flared to life once again.
I really did try to remain quiet and let Lester sleep, but the moment I let a moan slip, his eyes popped open. For several long seconds, he watched us, and I noted how the green in his eyes deepened, when they settled on where Bobby and I were so intimately connected. "Starting without me?" he said, his lips tilting into a slight grin.
"I-I thought you needed to sleep," I gasped.
"There will be plenty of time for sleep, cutie. Right now, I want to play."
Later, after I had showered and dressed, I was in the middle of making breakfast when, a now freshly showered and dressed Bobby walked out of the bedroom, his boots in his hand. He dropped them next to the door, then eased onto the stool at the breakfast bar. "You didn't have to make breakfast," he said as he reached to pour a cup of coffee.
"Lester hasn't eaten since lunch time yesterday. He and you both need the nourishment."
He leveled a look at me that brokered no room for argument. "You're going to eat too, Sienna."
I nodded. "I will. I promise." I glanced toward the bathroom. "Les in the shower?"
"Yeah," he replied as he toyed with his coffee cup.
"He still seems as if he's in a bad place."
"I know," Bobby replied.
"Are you as worried about him as I am?" I asked.
"Yeah," he repeated.
I slid the eggs on a plate, then paused to look at Bobby. "You know him better. Be honest. Do we have reason to be as worried as we are?"
For a moment he remained silent, then slowly he shook his head. "I want to tell you no, but the truth is, I don't know. What happened yesterday dredged up a lot of bad memories for him."
His admission, along with what I knew he was omitting, sent an arrow of fear shooting through me. "We shouldn't leave him alone yet, should we?"
"I don't think it's a good idea," he replied.
My heart clenched at the thought of Lester doing something impulsive or self-destructive, in some desperate attempt to rid himself of the pain he was feeling. I cut my attention back to the bathroom door. "We're going to need help. Please, call Ranger."
Ranger came down to the apartment and the three of us sat with Lester to discuss the situation a bit more. Despite his protest, we decided, since he was off duty until cleared by the therapist, for the immediate future, we would take shifts, so he wouldn't be alone. Bobby took the first shift to watch over Les and I went up to Five to work. If Bobby was called out on an emergency, then I would come down to stay with Lester. I could work from our home office, if necessary. Otherwise, we would switch at lunchtime.
As I stepped onto the control room floor, Steph spotted me from across the room. She pushed up from her chair and followed me into my office. "Ranger said Les is still pretty upset," she said.
I nodded. "Enough that Bobby and I weren't comfortable leaving him alone."
"I take it Bobby's with him now?"
I nodded again. "I'm going to relieve him at lunch time so he can get some work done."
Steph slid into the chair opposite my desk. "Ranger has his therapist coming today. Hopefully, he'll be able to start helping the guys."
"Speaking of which," I said. "How's Ram, Woody, and Raphael today?"
"Woody and Raphael don't seem to be too bad, but then neither had direct contact with the decedent. Tank said Ram had a rough night sleeping. Apparently, the incident sparked some long dormant nightmares for him."
"Les, too," I replied. "He was up and down most of the night."
Steph shot me a knowing smile. "From the glow you're wearing today, I'd bet nightmares weren't the only thing keeping him awake."
Heat climbed into my face, and I glanced at the door, to make sure nobody else was within hearing distance. "Am I really glowing?"
Her smile widened. "You are, but don't worry, you're not the only one who ends up with that fucked into satisfaction glow."
My eyes widened at her statement. "Oh God, and these guys notice everything."
She rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it and they love to tease me whenever Ranger isn't around to kick their asses."
"I didn't need to know that," I said.
She shook her head. "Most of them don't know you that well, yet. So, you're probably safe for a while and with everything that happen with Les, I promise nobody will say a word, right now."
"I guess that's good," I replied.
"It is, but what's even better is that you overcame your fear," she said.
"Yeah, well…my fear of commitment suddenly paled in comparison to what Lester was trying to deal with."
"Love has a funny way of putting everything in perspective," Steph observed.
"No kidding," I said. "All I could think about was trying to give him comfort in any way I could. Honestly, it was all a lot easier than I thought it would be."
"So, curious minds want to know." She grinned. "How were they?"
"Absolutely amazing," I sighed, sounding like a lovesick teenager as I did. "They're both incredible lovers. Generous and attentive."
Her grin grew. "I had a feeling they were probably a lot like Ranger." She cocked her head to the side and her look turned curious. "So, what's next? Are you going to move in with them?"
I shook my head. "I think the apartment might be a bit small for the three of us. Especially, since I'll need a quiet space to write."
"There's a two bedroom on Six that is empty. Maybe the three of you could take it."
"Maybe." I leaned back in my chair and considered the option. "Can you check with Ranger and see if it would be okay?"
"Sure." She shrugged. "I doubt it will be an issue, especially since you're making his cousin happy."
"Good," I said. "Once we get Lester through this, I'll have the conversation with the two of them and see what they think."
It's hard to believe eight months have passed already. Eight of the happiest and most satisfying months of my life. Ranger is a great boss, who despite his hard outer appearance, has an immense amount of patience with and respect for, his employees. He also has a genuine willingness to explore new ideas for improving Rangeman. Honestly, I only see those qualities adding to the bad ass, tough persona he exudes to those outside the building.
Stephanie has become a close friend who has taught me a thing or two about living and working among so many men. Though she's really excelled at teaching me how to go for what I want and not give a shit what others think.
After spending additional time with her and learning more about her past, I'm awed by what she's overcome to become the person she is today. She'll tell you it's all Ranger's doing, but she'd be wrong. Yes, Ranger and the guys create an amazing support system of positive energy and love, but even with all the support in the world a person has to want to change. She's done that and so much more. With her help, I've learned to take a page out of her playbook and stop worrying about what the world will think. Nobody but me has to live my life and damn it, I want to be happy.
Speaking of happy, it took a few weeks to get Lester or Ram to produce a genuine smile and even longer before they returned to their old selves. Thankfully, neither man ever appeared suicidal, and both willingly worked with Ranger's therapist. I'm not sure about Ram, because he doesn't really talk about incident much to us, but Lester still suffers from the occasional nightmare. Though with each passing month they become fewer and less severe.
Lester, Bobby, and I moved into the two-bedroom apartment on Six where we made the second bedroom our home office. It doubles as my writing space and dressing room, since there was no way the three of us were going to fit all our clothes into the master bedroom closet. I have to say, my men have taken a very active interest in my writing. Especially, when it comes to helping me figure out logistics of certain activities or scenes. They have no compunction in availing themselves to the cause and because of it my writing has only grown better as I no longer need to imagine how a particular scene would work.
At Lester and Bobby's continued prompting, I eventually researched the pros and cons of marriage vs having a commitment ceremony. Only, I couldn't get past the fact that if we chose the marriage route, one of my men would be left out. In my mind, that simply wouldn't do.
So, on New Year's Day, with Lester's family and select members of Rangeman present, Bobby, Lester and I held a commitment ceremony in the big conference, turned reception room, on One.
Choosing the commitment ceremony route, of course created a paperwork nightmare. With the help of Ranger's lawyers, we took all the necessary legal steps we had to take to make sure none of us would be left out of important situations or decisions. Such as, if Lester or Bobby, God forbid, ended up in St. Francis. Me completing, and them redoing their medical proxies covered that issue.
Honestly, I thought it would be a huge nightmare changing my name again. After all, it would have been the fourth change in nearly as many years, but true to their word, with Rangeman's connections, I am officially Sienna Santos-Brown, though I still write under the name Stapleton.
Recently, we've begun talking about starting a family. I'm pretty sure that subject was spurred by Steph's surprise pregnancy. Despite her voiced phobia at having kids and being a mom, she and Ranger seem incredibly happy with the idea, and in turn, Bobby and Lester are excited to be Uncles. I'm sure that alone was enough to get them thinking about having children of their own. Add in Lester's mother continually asking when we're going to give her grandchildren and the scene was set. Since it's another situation where I'm worried that one of my men will be left out. At this point, we're still navigating the details and obstacles that will come with that decision.
Jenny has remained a good friend of mine and has taken great joy in telling me, I told you so, every single chance she gets.
Ruger, has completely settled in at Haywood. He's even moved from guarding me and patrolling the control room floor, to actually riding patrols with Cal and Junior and on occasion, Lester and Ram. I'll be forever grateful to my men and to Ranger and Tank for allowing me to bring my baby back with me from Indiana.
The rest of the men have been super supportive of both my position as office manager and of my relationship with their friends and brothers in arms. True to Steph's word, as they became more comfortable around me, most of the men have shifted from flirting to teasing me whenever they think they can get away with it. Honestly, it only makes me feel more accepted and loved.
Ram continues to teach me how to shoot and handle a weapon and is thrilled with my progress.
Hector has begun showing me self-defense with knives. While Cal is teaching me kickboxing and Raphael is expanding my knowledge of Jujitsu. I can't remember a time when I've been in as good a shape physically as I am right now. Maybe that's why Lester and Bobby have become much more accepting of my training. Seeing how healthy it's made me, combined with knowing that they really do hold my heart is possibly what made all the difference.
While the men have me doing all this training, the reality is, I rarely leave Rangeman alone. When I'm working, then its only for the occasional emergency supply run, lunch with Stephanie and sometimes her friends, or the very rare sales call. When I'm off duty, I'm almost always with either Lester or Bobby. Still, I know the men feel better about me being able to defend myself, should the situation ever arise. So, I don't complain…too much.
Hell, just as Steph predicted, I've even gotten used to the idea that my guys track my movements outside the building. In a way, it helps me feel protected and secure because I know no matter where I am they have my back.
I have to say, never in a million years would I have thought I'd find such a fulfilling life inside the walls of a seven story, non-descript building in Trenton New Jersey. Though, I can honestly say, it really isn't the type of building that makes a home. It's all about who's inside it that really counts and right now, at this point in my life, this is my family. Which means this is my home and there isn't any other place in the world I'd rather be.
That's all folks.
I just want to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who has liked, followed, commented and completely supported me in writing this story. Like I said at the beginning, it was started on a writing prompt challenge by a fellow author. Yet, somehow it kinda took on a life of its own and may well fall out of the norm for fan fiction. So, thank you again to everyone for the support. I am grateful and humbled.
Sienna (Michelle)