Notes ... so, last weekend was weird ... and I threw a lot of people off ... so, why not add to the confusion ... this may or may not be safe for work ... thanks as always for reading and reviewing
Standard disclaimers always apply
11 If Handcuffs Could Talk
By Marilyn (Ranger Hunters) and Kevan
Uploaded by Alfonsina.d
Releasing Rav (Mal)Leaning back against one of the tables in the breakroom, I crossed my arms and held up a handcuff key.
Rav's expression, wary as he watched me approach, shifted to unreadable. His dark eyes flicked to the key, then settled on my face.
It had been four hours since Bobby handcuffed Rav to the refrigerator. Four hours was a long time but Rav was stubborn—and pissed. Several of the guys had offered to unlock the cuffs, but he hadn't been willing to agree to their price. I couldn't blame him. Some of the prices asked had been demeaning, some exorbitant, and some downright dangerous. Put a bunch of alpha-male mercenaries together and nothing comes without a price. Nothing. It's just that the currency is seldom money. Most of us have plenty of that. Plus we're all adrenaline junkies, and most of us have a pretty warped sense of humor. Put it all together, and Rav's chances of getting someone to help him for a reasonable price were slim.
My currency is different than most of the guys. I deal in knowledge. Sometimes it's state secrets and classified documents; sometimes it's simple curiosity. In this instance the latter. I've been curious about Rav since he started working at RangeMan a year ago. No one knows much about his background, other than that he and Ranger worked together sometime in the past. Doing what, no one knows or will say. He and Az showed up together, and Ranger paired them up—unusual for two new guys. Within a couple of months, Ranger was giving them most of the wild-ass-crazy stuff that no one else really wanted to take. Given the guys who work for RangeMan that's saying something about how fucked-up those assignments were. Not necessarily the toughest assignments, or even the most dangerous, just the way-beyond-looney-tunes ones. There were rumors that Rav once kicked Ranger's ass on the mats in a couple of minutes, and that Rav and Az were lovers. But no one knew for sure or, if they did, they weren't saying, and I was intrigued. I'd gone looking but had been able to dig up very little. Rav is straight up sexy and I'd love to find out if he's willing to play.
I'm also good at seizing opportunity. This was opportunity.
"Let's make a deal," I told him.
His dark eyes stayed fixed on my face.
"One question. One answer. One key." I held up the handcuff key, reminding him, and smiled. "I ask one question. You answer it. I unlock those cuffs."
For a long minute, I thought he wasn't going to reply, much less accept my offer. He studied me, dark eyes roving over my body, assessing, looking for an answer to a question only he knew. When he finished his perusal, his gaze returned to my face and he licked his lips.
"Okay, Malware. You unlock the cuffs. Then you ask your question and I'll answer it."
I laughed. "And why would you answer my question if I've already let you loose?"
"Why would you let me loose if I've already answered your question?" he countered.
I nodded, acknowledging his point. "Stand-off."
"How about if I sweeten the offer? I'll answer your question and I'll answer a second one."
"Guaranteed complete answer, no matter what I ask. No bullshit evasion. I guarantee not to ask anything classified that will get your ass in a sling if you answer."
"Agreed."
Bingo! I would get the answer to the simple curiosity question I had started out with, but I also had a question in reserve that would cover pretty much anything I wanted to know about Rav.
He shifted to the side, twisting his hands. "Get these damn things off me," he demanded.
I chuckled. If I'd been handcuffed to that refrigerator, enduring a raft of shit from the guys for four hours, I'd be eager to get loose too. I was betting if I'd made my offer two hours ago, he'd have turned it down without knowing my question up front. I'd waited long enough for his position to get truly miserable before I approached him.
When I unlocked the cuffs, he grabbed them and shoved them in his pocket, then walked over to the sink. His wrists were scraped and bloody from where he'd jerked on the cuffs, trying to get free by ripping the door handle off. After washing the blood off, he dried his wrists and hands with paper towels.
I winced. A couple of those gashes were deep. "You need to have Bobby look at those," I said without thinking.
Rav froze and looked at me as if I'd suddenly sprouted horns.
Shit. Yeah. Bobby was the one that handcuffed him. Bad idea.
"What's your question?"
"What did you do that Bobby owed you payback?"
"Second question?"
"Don't know yet. Need time to make sure it's a good one."
He studied me for a minute, long enough that I thought again that he might not answer after all.
"How about if I show you instead of telling you? It's better with the special effects."
Special effects. I hesitated. I can take care of myself; I wouldn't be working at RangeMan if I couldn't, but I know Rav can probably wipe the floor with me if he wants to. "Is this going to involve blood, broken bones, or pain on my part?"
Rav's smile was a good one. And sexy. It was also slightly predatory. "No. In fact, I think that—unlike Bobby—you'll totally enjoy it." He wadded up the paper towels and tossed them into the trash. "You off duty Sunday?"
"No, off Friday and Saturday this week. Why?"
"Dinner. Friday night at twenty-hundred. Our house. It'll be more effective if I show you there." He started walking out of the room.
"Wait! Your house? Where the fuck is that? What's the address?"
He laughed. "You're the computer genius. Figure it out."
xoxoxoxox
Friday night and finally I'm on my way to Rav's house—or, more accurately to Az and Rav's house, they owned it jointly—for my answer. It had taken me the best part of a day to track down the address, which sort of pissed me off. I'm usually better than that. On the other hand, they'd covered their tracks well, and impressed even me. I was still in the process of trying to uncover more details on their history, but it was slow going. Almost all their military records were off-line meaning they had been involved in highly-classified, covert, and sensitive, if not illegal, operations, which in itself told me something about them. The military doesn't trust that information to computers knowing there are people like me in the world who like nothing better than to circumvent their security and rummage thru data. Unlike me, some of those people make a habit of leaking that data to the press. I, on the other hand, have spent some very enjoyable time screwing with the press. It's a question of boundaries and scruples. They have none and sometimes innocent people get hurt, caught up in the feeding frenzy started for no other reason than to give some asshole reporter their ten minutes of fame. That pisses me off.
Five days since Bobby took his revenge on Rav. Five days in which all the guys had badgered him, wanting to know what Rav had done. Bobby refused to give a straight answer, saying only that Rav's sense of humor was warped and had gotten out of hand. And the only answer Rav would give when anyone asked him what he'd done to Bobby was, "Cioppino." It confused the hell out of everyone. By this time, I really wanted that answer I'd bargained for.
I pulled into the driveway of a typical mid-size, clapboard, beach house with a steeply pitched metal roof and a covered front porch with three steps leading up to it. And a black RangeMan SUV sitting beside it. Huh. Checking the trackers was the first thing I'd done, trying to see where the SUVs assigned to Rav since he'd come to work for RangeMan had been. Nothing had been close to this location. Rav must have found a way to disable the trackers. I'd have to look into that; it shouldn't be possible.
Rav opened the front door wearing nothing but black drawstring pants, a turquoise necklace, and wide silver bracelets around both wrists. His hair was loose, something I'd never seen—and it was a sight well worth seeing. Black silk that hung to his hips. The tattooing that covered his right arm and shoulder was fully visible. I've seen Rav in lots of stages of undress over the last year, hell I've seen him naked in the showers at the gym, but that had been work Rav—hair braided back, no jewelry, badass attitude. This was unabashedly sexy Rav.
"See something you like?" he asked, his lips curving up at the corners in a tiny smile.
"Hey, if you answer the door looking like a centerfold, don't blame me for enjoying the view."
His smile got bigger but before he could reply someone inside the house yelled.
"Will you get your ass back in here? I don't know what to do with food when timers go off!"
"Come on," he gestured for me to follow him. "Sounds like Az is running out of patience. I better rescue dinner."
Az? It wasn't a total surprise. The house is in both their names, well in the name of a company they jointly own, and Rav said 'our house' not 'my house' when he told me to be there for dinner. I just didn't know what that meant. Were the rumors about them being lovers true or was it simply that they had worked together for years, knew each other well, and got along as roommates?
x0x0x0x0x
"So, food was awesome, thank you." I saluted Rav with my beer bottle as I sat back on the sofa. "Now, are you going to show me what you did to Bobby to get him so worked up that he handcuffed you to the refrigerator?"
"Did you bring cuffs with you?"
"Uh, not inside. My gear is locked in the SUV." I wasn't sure about the predatory gleam in his eyes, or the way Az's lips were twitching like he was trying not to laugh.
"Poor preparation on your part. Guess I'll have to improvise." Rav pulled a set of handcuffs from a drawer in a nearby cabinet. He stood in front of me, handcuffs dangling from one finger. They were gently swinging side-to-side. "Imagine these are yours and I just took them off your belt."
Okay, where was this going?
Rav straddled me, his knees on each side of my hips. "Here's something to think about." He looped the handcuffs behind my neck and pulled me toward him. And kissed me.
As Rav predicted, I enjoyed it. I did more than enjoy it; I loved it. I grasped his hips, pulled him toward me, and returned his kiss with equal fervor. I couldn't get enough of it—or him. He seriously knew how to kiss.
When we finally broke apart, both of us were breathing hard. I saw his eyes had dilated and darkened until they were almost completely black and knew mine would have turned emerald green.
He made a purring sound, deep in his chest. "I was right. You did enjoy it more than Bobby."
His hands framed my face, thumbs tracing over my lips. I could feel the smooth metal of the cuffs against my cheeks, the links of the chain against the back of my neck.
"How the fuck does somebody not enjoy that?" I asked when my breathing was somewhat under control and I had regained a tiny bit of composure.
Az laughed. "Bobby's straight, not even a hint of bi-curious."
"And you took his cuffs and crawled in his lap and kissed him like that?" I couldn't believe it. It had taken me about two minutes tonight to figure out Rav and Az were lovers. At work, nothing about their behavior toward each other—or anyone else—gave a clue as to their sexual orientation. Whether they were bi or gay, I didn't know, but either way Bobby, being totally straight, would have been seriously out of his comfort zone receiving a kiss like that.
Rav's smile was wickedly sinful. He released one side of the cuffs but held onto the other side, so they draped over my shoulder. "Yeah, I wanted to see his reaction."
"You knew he was straight and you wanted to see his reaction." Unbelievable. Bobby had been telling the truth. Rav did have a seriously warped sense of humor. I dropped my head back and laughed—loud. The mental image I had of Bobby Brown with Rav in his lap kissing him as deeply and thoroughly as he'd kissed me just to see what his reaction would be was too funny.
"And?" I asked when I got myself under control. "What was his reaction?"
"He liked it," Az said, "and that confused the living shit out of him so naturally Rav manages to give him a kiss every time he comes over here. One kiss only, mind you. Doesn't offend him and he kind of likes it so every time it confuses him all over again."
"Every time? How many times have you kissed him?" I asked Rav.
He shrugged. "Nine, maybe ten."
Ten times. No wonder Bobby had been looking for revenge. And, given what Rav had done to him, the revenge had been perfect. I made a mental note to congratulate Bobby. Watching it happen had been funny; knowing the whole story made it hysterical. "How did it end that first time?"
"I told him what I'm telling you. Az and I would love to have you in our bed but that's up to you. If you're not into it, there's a guest room," he pointed toward a door, "that you're welcome to use if you don't want to drive back tonight, and I'll cook breakfast." He held up the handcuffs, letting them dangle from one finger. "But whatever you decided, I'm going to cuff me and Az together tonight with your cuffs and scream your name when he fucks me."
"Wild guess. He chose the guest room."
"Yep." Rav's smile faded until it was just barely there. He watched me, dark eyes still dilated, waiting for my decision. I could feel the weight of Az's gaze too.
Guest room? What am I—an idiot? I adore women, but I also love sex with men, and the two men in the room with me right now are two of the sexiest I've ever come across. There was no doubt Az was dominant. I'd been getting little shivers all night when he looked at me; my body's way of telling me a sexually dominant male was nearby and taking an active interest in me. But Rav was in no way the usual submissive. They were not the stereotypical top/bottom. Sex with them would be anything but tame and predictable.
I reached up, took the cuffs, and looped them behind Rav's neck, drawing him toward me. "I don't do guest rooms," I told him just before my lips met his again.
x0x0x
thanks for bearing with me ... looking forward to when the world restabilizes ... we should return to regular schedule on Saturday - as always Kevan and I both thank you for reading and reviewing!