**Important A/N:** This is a mini chapter of smut. There is literally nothing but smut here. If that's not your cuppa tea, I hope that you'll just skip right ahead to Chapter 15 and continue enjoying the rest of the story. It's ready and waiting for you. You will not miss any plot if you skip this chapter. I promise.

For those who wanted a little more than the "fade to black" approach, this is for you.

Chapter 14.5

I leaned forward, closing the short distance between us, and brushed his lips with mine. It was a soft touch, fleeting and gentle. My eyes were still open, and I leaned back again to meet his gaze. I saw everything I needed to reflected back at me before I kissed him again.

He parted his mouth against me, his bottom lip pulling against mine. When his tongue licked into my mouth, I might have moaned a little. And that's when his careful control shattered like glass.

His hands flew up and tangled themselves in my hair, holding me to him. He kissed me like he wanted the air I was breathing. I arched my back, pressing closer, doing my best to eliminate every inch of space between us.

His hand slid down my back, and then back up, tracing my spine under my tshirt. His fingers traced over the clasp of my bra before he flicked it open, and then there was an abrupt chill as he pulled away from me to whip the shirt and bra off of me in one go.

My hands roamed over his chest, craving the warmth of his skin, but he distracted me before I could divest him of his shirt. His mouth trailed across my jaw to my ear, and then down my neck. His hot breath was maddening, making me writhe under his touch. He leisurely made his way to the sensitive spot on my neck and nipped at it. I couldn't help the small noise that escaped me, and that only spurred him on.

I tugged at his shirt, and when he realized what I wanted, he had to pull away to help me work it over his head. It fluttered to the floor behind me. Ranger slid a hand lower on my back, then lower still, until it slipped below the waistband of my jeans. He pulled me closer so I could feel him pressing against my center, even through all the clothes still separating us. A jolt of heat sizzled through my limbs, making me feel restless and impatient.

And speaking of clothes, we needed less of them, and fast. Ranger seemed to be in agreement as he made a small noise of frustration and brought both his hands down to work at my jeans. The muscles of his stomach twitched under my fingers as I slid them lower, and I got a little hung up exploring the ridges and planes of his body. Probably that was why I'd barely managed to get his belt unbuckled by the time he had me completely unbuttoned and unzipped.

He slid both hands beneath my waistband again. He kneaded my butt before sliding his hand to my front, but my jeans and our position meant that he couldn't get a good angle for what he wanted. He pushed me backwards, gently, until my feet landed on the floor. I took the cue to quickly strip out of my jeans while Ranger watched. By all rights, the heat in his eyes should have melted me into a puddle, but I heroically kept my legs under me. Barely.

Once I stood before him in only my panties, he grasped my hand and tried to pull me back to him, but I resisted. Instead, I dropped to my knees in front of the couch.

One of his hands cupped my cheek, and his thumb ran over my lip. "Babe."

He was laid out before me like a tantalizing buffet, chest rising and falling rapidly. My hands went back up to his waistband and tugged. "A little help, here."

He obligingly lifted his hips, and together we managed to get his cargoes out of the way. I gripped the undersides of his thighs and pulled him forward on the couch, then ran my hands around to his knees and pushed them apart so I could kneel between them. He watched me with an intensity usually reserved for a predator stalking its prey.

Lowering my mouth to him, I gave in to my baser urges. Stroking, licking, caressing. I loved his eyes watching me and his hands skimming over any part of me he could reach. Loved the feel of him and of the power I wielded. Loved the taste of him and the sounds I wrung from him.

His breathing became ragged and I felt him fighting not to thrust his hips while I worked him with my mouth and hands. I swirled my tongue around his head again, lapping up the pre-cum that seeped from him. Then I closed my lips more firmly around him again and sucked. Hard.

"Steph." My name was a strangled groan, and I paid attention to the warning in his tone. "Come here."

I crawled back up his body, settling back down to straddle him again. I rocked my hips against his, craving some friction. He growled low in his throat. The feel of him hot and hard beneath me was nearly maddening, and then he rolled his tongue over my nipple and my vision went dark at the edges.

"Please," I panted.

"Please, what?" His voice was rough but annoyingly calm, so I rocked against him again. He retaliated by scraping my nipple with his teeth and I nearly passed out.

I fought to catch my breath, but it was a losing battle as long as he was doing those wicked things with his mouth. The fingers of one hand were at the hollow of my hip, sliding just under the band of my underwear, and then back out. Back and forth. My own hands tightened in response, trying to pull him closer to me.

Finally, the hand that had been teasing me moved to my center, and he stroked me through my wet panties. I made an embarrassing sound in the back of my throat. I shifted my hips again impatiently, trying to bring his fingertips back where I needed them, but then suddenly we were standing. Well, Ranger was. He lifted me with his hands under my butt, and I wrapped my legs around his hips.

"Where?" he demanded. He liked for me to choose. Oftentimes my choice was the first available surface, but in deference to my still-healing gunshot sound, I figured we'd better play it safe.

"Bed," I mumbled against his mouth. His tongue stroked against mine, hot and demanding, while he carried me into the bedroom.

It had been awhile - a few months? - since I'd been with Ranger. Every time, I somehow managed to convince myself that at least pieces of our time together had been a fever dream. Surely no one was that good.

But Ranger was.

He laid me gently on the bed and lowered himself on top of me. He planted open-mouthed kisses down my throat. His erection lay thick and heavy against my stomach, painting my skin with the warm wetness of his pre-cum. His fingers toyed with one of my breasts in an imitation of what his mouth was doing to the other. But we both knew that was just a pit stop to his final destination.

He gripped the backs of my knees and shoved them apart, making room for himself between my thighs. He hadn't even touched me yet, and synapses were firing all across my body. Little fireworks were already going off, everywhere. At the first touch of his tongue, my hands fisted in the sheets. At the second touch, I started to worry that this was going to be over embarrassingly quickly. I tried deep breathing, and when that didn't work, I tried holding my breath. None of that was enough to stop my internal clock's countdown to detonation, which apparently was set to approximately 10.5 seconds when Ranger was at the controls.

Ever fiber of my being was still pulsing with each heartbeat by the time I managed to drag my eyelids open to see Ranger leaning over me. His smile was satisfied, but his piercing gaze spoke of barely restrained lust. That was enough to bring me back to myself. I reached my hand down between us and had the pleasure of hearing his breathing hitch.

"Condom?"

He rolled over to reach into a drawer in one of the nightstands. He came back with the packet between his fingers, but his other hand smoothed gently over the bandage on my stomach. "Are you sure?"

As outrageously and aggressively as Ranger flirted, when it came down to it, he always made me confirm my choice. The gunshot wound was an added consideration this time, but no doubt he would've asked anyway. And my answer was the same as it always was.

"Yes."

I snatched the condom from his hands and carefully tore it open, then took my time in rolling it over him. By the time I was done teasing, he'd somehow ended up flat on his back with his arm thrown over his eyes. I grabbed his forearm and dragged it away, and he lifted his head for a searing kiss.

No sooner had I made a move to climb on top of him, than Ranger flipped me over and had both of my wrists pinned above my head with one hand. I closed my eyes against the exquisite stretch as he filled me, but I knew from experience that he wouldn't let that stand for long.

"Look at me."

Only when I obliged did he begin to move. He relinquished my hands, which I ran up and down his back, over his arms, into his hair. I wanted to touch him anywhere and everywhere at once. My fingers sought, gripped, scrambled for purchase - anything to help me climb this wave higher and higher.

Our breath mingled. Ranger licked at my lips. It was all too much. And yet wasn't enough. Until he slid a hand under my butt and angled me up for him. He shifted his hips, pressing against me in a new way. My awareness narrowed to our connection, and I struggled to breathe for a moment while I crested the wave, and then I cried out when it crashed.

Ranger continued to move inside me while I rode the wave down, and then he picked up his pace. I wasn't sure if he was prolonging my orgasm or if each shockwave that rolled through me was a new one. Just when I was thinking that I couldn't take any more and would have to beg for mercy, Ranger stilled. He groaned his release and I felt his muscles tense and then slowly relax under my hands. He kept just enough weight on his forearms that he wouldn't crush me.

We stayed entwined while we both worked to catch our breath. Ranger, having far better aerobic capacity, was the first to recover and he gently lifted himself off of me and came to land next to my hip. He ran his fingers through my hair.

"Babe," he whispered.

I smiled.