The next morning I slept in. I don't know why, but I knew my body needed it. It could have been the wild day at the mall when I shopped till I dropped, or it could have been the day before when some maniac tried to kill us. I'm not sure. I'm going with a combination of both.

It was also the day I was officially four weeks pregnant. That's almost a third through my first trimester and one tenth of the way through the whole pregnancy and that was a cause for celebration. Every day we got closer to the second trimester was a day we could be surer the pregnancy would not fail. Its not that I think the pregnancy will fail, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

When I did finally open my eyes I was warm and safe in Ranger's arms. His body was full against me and his face was in my hair. He was also very aroused. Usually that would be a big deal to me. Believe me, if you'd had sex with him before you'd be thrilled by it too. But today between the pressure on my bladder and the nausea, I wasn't sure I'd ever want to have sex again much less in the very near future. Besides that, until he said the words…I didn't want to.

I eased away from him and headed straight for the bathroom. If I threw up, I'd just have to deal with it. Time and urine waits for no man. Of course, I did throw up while I was peeing. God I love that. Fortunately I had taken to keeping a bowl in the bathroom for just that purpose. So when I finished I just flushed it and rinsed the bowl. It sounds gross. It is gross. But it's efficient.

I brushed my teeth and turned the water on and stripped. Ranger came into the bathroom just as I was getting into the shower.

"Oh…sorry," he said as his eyes went from brown to black in a millisecond.

"It's okay," I sighed. "Give the water closet a moment. I threw up. It probably still smells like it."

"I'll be okay," he disappeared behind the door.

I stepped into the shower and sighed as the warm water slipped over my skin. I love showers. I know a lot of women are bath girls, but I'm all about the shower. I don't put anything I just washed off of me back on me this way. I think it's a good solution.

"Mitch says Mike is coming by again this afternoon to see about those sides you guys talked about and the chocolate thing."

"Yea," I nodded. "We finished the recipes last night when I couldn't sleep."

"Where was I," he frowned.

"Out like a light," I smiled.

"I slept through you getting out of bed and leaving the room."

"Don't worry about it soldier," I smirked. "You just need to be more aware of your surroundings."

"Don't make me come in there and spank you," he growled.

"Yea, that's what you want to do," I chuckled. Sure I laughed, but my entire body just zinged to life. Nipples went to point, heat went to belly, moisture to do-dah. Zero to one second, I was ready. That's what it's like to be around Ricardo Carlos Manoso especially when you know that anything he promises you, he can and will deliver on…at least when it comes to pleasure.

He opened the shower door and stepped in naked. No he stepped in nekkid. For those of you who aren't up on the distinction, let me enlighten you. Naked is being without clothing. Nekkid is being without clothing and being up to something. You get it? I knew you would.

"What are you doing," I raised a brow.

"I need help washing my back," he said innocently.

"Right," I said with narrowed eyes. "What about your stitches?"

"I've got a big plastic bandage thing over it so I can shower." He smiled, "okay now?"

"You need help washing your back," I shook my head.

"I do," he blinked.

"Riiiigggghhhtttt," I smiled.

"I'm not going to try to seduce you. I promise."

"Does he know that," I said looking down at the erection bobbing between us.

"He's been informed," he said dryly.

"Uh-huh," I nodded and dipped my head under the flow of water.

Ranger stepped under the other shower head and sighed. "This is the best shower on the planet. When we bought the house I had no idea how much I was going to love his shower."

"Me either," I admitted as his backside bumped mine. I grinned and reached for my shampoo. "But it's a great shower."

"You know I've been thinking about some of the things you said."

"I've said a lot of things over the years Ranger. I'm a bit of a talker. You're going to have to narrow it down a bit."

"Right," he said reaching for his own shampoo. "I was thinking about what you said about the house not being yours. You don't feel like it's your home?"

I sighed, "I was a little hasty and a little bitter at the time. I love the house. It is more you and than me but over time it will become more of both of us. It's fine."

He frowned, "but I want it to feel like your home now."

"I know," I sighed and turned to wrap my arms around his wet and soapy body. "And I appreciate it. But I think…well, as soon as I feel like we're really forever it will probably feel more right. At least Rex's ashes are here."

"And the Def Leppard stuff is in the rec room downstairs," he said helpfully.

"That's a start," I smiled. "If all else fails, the bean will do the trick."

"Yea," he sighed. "Come on…wash my back while I still have the strength to say no to your advances."

"Ha…you couldn't say no to my advances," I laughed. "If I advanced on you, you'd cave like a wounded gazelle."

"I most certainly would not," he said in shock. "I would tell you firmly, but politely, no thank you. I can't do that."

"You would," I raised a brow.

"I would," he assured me and batted his eyes at me.

I shook my head. He was full of crap. He was teasing me and he wanted to have sex for sure. He was seeing if I could say no. I can say no. Part of me was tempted to take him up on that very clear dare. But I had the bean to consider now. I needed the words.

By the time Mike arrived at almost three with a battalion of Rangeman employees as his escort Mitch and I had tested all the side dishes we were going to suggest and retested the chocolate thing as well. Okay, we did the chocolate thing because we wanted to eat it. The side dishes were honest-to-God test products though. We had also prepared a boatload of food since we knew Mike was travelling with a caravan.

"Hi guys," I smiled accepting hugs from all of them and redirected them toward the kitchen where the food was set out buffet style. Mitch made them drinks and Ranger directed them to various places to sit around the house. After we ate and the guys loaded the dishwasher and did clean up, they went downstairs to play pool or bowl or whatever they wanted while Mike, Mitch, Lester, Ranger and I stayed in the kitchen to go over the products.

I dug out my copy of his menu with all of my changes and passed it to him. "Okay, you've tasted or had someone else taste the side dishes for you." I smiled.

"Wait, he didn't taste them all," Ranger frowned.

"Some were healthy," I said with a twitch of my lips.

Ranger blinked at Mike like he was an alien. "You're one of them."

"One of them," he blinked.

"One of those junk food junkies like Stephanie used to be."

"Used to be," Mitch guffawed. "I've got news for you dude. She's still a junk food junkie. She just eats the crap you eat too."

Ranger rolled his eyes.

Mike laughed, "I don't like vegetables much. They have to be pretty well disguised."

"That's just wrong," Ranger shook his head. "Well, I had some of everything for lunch and it was all delicious."

"It was," Lester nodded. "I'm not big on vegetables either."

"I was the guinea pig," Mitch grinned. "If I liked it, we knew it was good stuff."

"Good point," Mike said watching me put together the chocolate thing. "I can tell you already that I'm more than willing to taste this one."

"Me too," Lester said and I saw a little drool.

I laughed as I worked putting together three of the desserts. I didn't make one for either Mitch or I as we'd already 'tested' two of them ourselves. I finally put the dishes down in front of the men. "Okay, there are no nuts or nut products in this dessert. So it's safe to serve to any customer including those with nut allergies. The cake or brownie or whatever you want to call it can be prepared in advance. Everything else you only have to heat or whatever depending on what you want to do. I made the whipping cream from scratch, but you can use something already made to save time and expense."

Ranger took a careful bite and his eyes lit up, "this is really good. It's not too chocolate. I can taste the vanilla and the caramel with the chocolate."

I grinned at Mitch.

"Marry me," Mike sighed.

I laughed.

"She's already married," Ranger said dryly.

"Besides I have dibs," Mitch raised a brow at Ranger.

Ranger shook his head at him, "one of these days Mitch. One of these days…"

Mitch just grinned.

Mike took the revised menu from me and studied it thoughtfully as he ate. "This is really perfect. The balance is incredible. I can't fucking believe I paid someone a fortune to do this for me the first time and all I got was this," he tapped the menu. "Then you come along and this is brilliant." He sighed, "When I become a mogul, you'll be famous."

"Why will I be famous," I frowned.

"You're going to get credit for your work."

"I didn't do it for any other reason than to help you."

"You know," Ranger said with a twinkle in his eye, "if you want to thank her, you could name this dessert after her."

Mike nodded.

"Oh hell yea," Lester grinned. "Chocolate Stephanie…dude, you'd sell a million of these to the guys that come to your place."

"I would," Mike said thoughtfully.

"I think you should go with something that fits your current menu," Mitch said with a slight smile from where he was leaning against the refrigerator. "Why don't you call it Bombshell Blast?"

"Done," Mike said scribbling the words on the menu after crossing out chocolate thing. "This is perfect. You guys are great. You should come by the restaurant tomorrow and see how it's coming along."

"We may do that. I have another therapy session and we were going to swing by our new building while we were out. Steph do you want to pick me up after therapy and we'll go look at real estate," Ranger grinned.

"Sure," I nodded.

"We'll be there…as long as our bodyguards let us," Ranger nodded toward Mitch and Lester.

"I'm sure we can work it out," Lester said. So I'll take you to therapy and wait there and then they'll come by and pick you up and then what?"

"Then we'll all go out to our site and then to Unit," Ranger shrugged.

"Sounds good," he nodded.

"Great," Mike said happily. "My chefs are dying to meet Stephanie and pick her brain."

"You know the weird part is that she's only been cooking since last summer," Lester said with a slight smile. "Before that all she could really do was make a pop tart in the toaster."

"I don't believe you," Mike said incredulously.

"It's true," I smiled. "I was pathetic. I only ate fast food. It was bad. Then I bought my house and took some cooking classes and voila."

"She's like a sexier Rachel Ray," Lester grinned.

"Thanks Les," I laughed.

"Dude, keep it up and I'm calling Marina," Ranger warned.

"Try," he grinned. "She's in Tokyo."

"Ass," he muttered.

I just smiled.

We sat around talking for a few more minutes and then headed downstairs to join the other guys. They were discussing how we needed to have the next big Rangeman party there.

"We're planning on it," Ranger nodded. "I thought we'd do something this summer, like over Memorial weekend. We have the indoor pool and the outdoor pool. Who knows, we may actually fire up the yacht."

I just shook my head. "If we don't get the indoor pool fixed, it's going to be moot."

"Yea," he frowned.

"I'll call the pool repair place in the morning," I smiled.

"Thanks," he grinned.

I bowled a frame or two before Ranger decided that he wasn't sure it was good for me to bowl in my delicate condition. I would have argued with him, but the worry on his face seemed so genuine. So I went to the pool tables and played there for a while. Of course, with Ranger's healing wounds there was very little he could do. He spent most of the evening sitting in a comfortable leather chair with a glass of some amber liquid chatting with Mike.

Things were going great and then I yawned.

Mitch froze at the pool table and then made his shot. "Okay, we need to get Mike home safely and secure the perimeter. Let's do this thing."

The guys seemed to mobilize all at once and headed up the stairs. "Hey," I called after them frowning. "I was winning."

Ranger dropped his arm around my shoulders. "You yawned."

"So," I shook my head.

"Your caretaker determined that you were tired and therefore the party was over."

I sighed, "Geez, it's like having two husbands."

"Only it's not," he said meeting my eyes with his serious gaze.

"Don't panic Ranger, I only meant that he was bossy and controlling like you not that I was going to hop into the sack with him."

"Not funny," he shook his head and started for the stairs. "That is so not funny."

I put my pool cue up with a grin. "I thought it was funny," I muttered to myself.

I was just starting up the stairs when it sounded like a combat zone outside. I could hear gun shots and the sound of small explosives. I could hear swearing and yelling. I ducked in the corner under the curving staircase and just stayed where I was.

Ranger appeared at the top of the stairs with a look of blind panic on his face.

I just gave him thumbs up. He came running down the stairs and grabbed my hand as he came hauling ass by and headed straight for the bowling alley. "You want to go bowling now," I said in shock over the racket outside. He hustled me down the lanes and through the opening that I knew led to storage. He waved his key ring at a bottle and a small panel opened. He stuck his hand inside onto a screen and another door opened. He grabbed my hand again and we went into a tunnel.

"Stay put," he said softly. "I mean it Stephanie. Do not move."

"Where are you going," I frowned.

"To make sure my men are okay," he said softly.

I grabbed his hand, "do not make me a widow."

"Not a chance Babe," he said and kissed me roughly before heading back out.

It was a long time before anyone came to get me and when someone did, it was Mitch. He pulled me up off the floor and into his embrace. "You're all right?"

"I'm fine," I assured him. "Was anyone hurt?"

"Hal's on his way to the hospital. Tanks got him. We think it's minor. They didn't make it on the premises, but it was scary."

"They were coming in?"

"They're after someone that was here."

"That narrows it down," I sighed. "Where's Ranger?"

"Talking to the cops," he said. "He told me to come and make sure you were safe and to take you upstairs. He doesn't want the cops to even know that you're onsite."

"Why," I frowned.

"He's trying to protect you. He doesn't want you to have to be up all night when you're already tired."

I sighed. "You know, I'll be 31 in October. At some point you're going to have to treat me like a grown up and let me make my own decisions."

"Yea, well…it won't be while you're pregnant," he said with a smile.

"Thanks," I shook my head and started up the stairs to the next level. I know that's where I was going, but the dizziness overtook me and that was that.