~21~
After the first round of fast and frantic sex, they slowed down. Most of the condoms had been pushed off the bed during their activity, but by the end, Steph had a few stuck to her back. Ranger peeled them off of her when was holding her in his arms, while letting their heart rates get back in the normal range. Steph was laying with a smirk on her face and he leaned over and gently kissed her. "Babe, what's with the smirk?" "Just happy that I finally got you in my bed. Going slow was good to start with, but you moved way too slow." He started to tickle her and that started another round of lovemaking. This time, they went much slower and relished in the feel of each other.
By the next morning, they had gone through a good amount of the condoms and in the morning, Steph picked up the ones that were left and put them back in the bag. Ranger raised an eyebrow and she said, "I'm seeing what's left and trying to decide if I want to keep them or give them back to the guys." "Babe, I'd rather the guys not know how many we used. Keep them here and I have a box upstairs that we can use when we are at my apartment." "Ok Ranger. Actually, I think I'm going to talk to Bobby about something for me that's more long term, like the shots. I can't remember to take my pills so I need a different option. Of course, it might take a few weeks or so to become effective, but then…" She trailed off and laughed at the expression on his face. "Babe, no more condoms? It's been years for me to go without. After Julie, sometimes I even doubled up just so there wouldn't be another Julie in the works." She laughed and went into take a shower. He followed and eventually they finished and got dressed.
They headed down to the control room and when they got off the elevator, they were met with applause from the guys on the floor. Steph blushed and Ranger just stood there glaring at them. "Seriously guys? Were we really that bad?" she asked. Lester came forward and said, "I think I speak for all of RangeMan when I say 'Thank you God, you two finally had sex'." She punched him in the arm and Ranger still just glared at the guys. She leaned over and gave Ranger a brief kiss before heading into her office. She shut the door and got to work, as she was going to be out of the office most of the afternoon on client visits and she had some emails to get written and sent to potential new clients. She wanted her department to become the biggest money maker of the company. Ranger smacked Lester upside the head and headed into his office, shutting the door. He had a lot of work to do, but all he could do was sit at his desk with a goofy grin on his face.
Ranger managed to stay holed up in his office until lunch time. He knew Steph was going to be out all afternoon, so he grabbed Tank and they headed out for lunch. They stopped at the bonds office after lunch to grab any new files for RangeMan. Tank made no mention of the previous night's activity, but every time he looked at Ranger, he had a smirk on his face. Ranger put up with it until they were on their way back to RangeMan. "What is up with you today Tank? Every time I look at you, you are smirking. You have something to say?" "What? No man, I'm just happy for you and Bomber. Try not to fuck it up." Ranger reached over and tried to smack Tank in the head, but Tank ducked out of the way and laughed.
Once they got back to the office, Ranger checked in with the control room and was informed about an alarm problem that the customers wanted to meet with him, at their location. He sighed and went into his office to grab some of his gear and then headed back down to the garage. Hector was waiting for him and they headed out to the customer's store. Once again, Ranger found himself being looked at by one of his guys. "What?" he said to Hector. Hector smiled and made some crude sounds and hand gestures and laughed. Ranger waited until they got parked and out of the car and then smacked Hector on the back of the head. He let out another sigh and headed into the store to find out what was going on with their alarm system. Two hours later, Ranger and Hector got back into the car. The customer's youngest employee had been messing around with the alarm system, trying to find a way around it so he could sneak in after hours and goof around with his friends. What he didn't know was that the alarm system had a video camera installed and they were able to figure out the problem quickly. What took so long was the fact the customer wanted to go over the entire system and ended up deciding to upgrade systems, so he shouldn't be mad because it will bring in more money to the company, but he was tired and wanted to get back to Steph.
~22~
Once back in the office, Ranger had a hard time concentrating. His mind kept going back to the previous night and all he and Stephanie said and did. He knew he loved her and he was pretty sure she loved him, even though neither one had said it out loud. He knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, but again, he didn't want to rush her. He came with some baggage - physical, mental and emotional. Steph loved spending time with Julie whenever she came to visit, but becoming her stepmom was a big step. Julie had been pestering him to marry Steph and the last time he saw her in Miami was right when Steph started her training. She even got Rachel involved in pestering him and so now, about once a week, he gets emails from both of them asking about Steph.
He had planned to take Steph on a tour to all of the branch offices in a few weeks so she can share some of her triumphs in getting clients with the rest of the client departments. She really had increased the revenue for the Trenton office, falling only behind the FTA area. The FTA's that RangeMan went after were very high bonds so there was no way any other area of the company would catch up to them in revenue. He opened up his laptop and started to make plans for the trip with Steph. They would start with the Boston office, then head to Chicago, then Atlanta and finally Miami. He planned to spend an extra week in Miami after their work was done so she could have a break from work. It had been about six months since she started with her training program and classes and she never really took any time off from work. Living in the building did that to some of them, but she was learning to leave things on her desk and not go down in the middle of the night to work on it. She'd taken a day off here and there, but even then, she spent part of her evening working once she came back. He planned to spend a few days with Julie while in Miami and after the last email he got from her, where she threatened to call Steph and tell her how he felt about her, he decided to not tell her or Rachel about their relationship. Let it be a surprise and show Julie and Rachel that he really could do something right with Steph. Now he just had to tell Steph about the trip. God, he hoped she has a skimpy bikini!