Chapter 8

"Wow, this place is so cool," I said while entering the unique looking restaurant with Lester. The walls were covered with plants, brightly colored flowers, and even animatronic animals. While I was staring at some of the animatronic monkeys who were hanging out in a tree I realized that I could hear the sounds of rainfall throughout the restaurant.

"Glad you like it," Lester stated as we sat down at our booth.

"How did you ever discover this place?"

"About a year ago I read a review about it in the newspaper. Bobby came here with me to check it out, but I haven't been back since.

Our waitress, a pretty brunette in her mid twenties, approached our table to take our drink orders.

"Do you like red wine Steph?"

"Yes."

"Can you bring us a bottle of your best red wine?" Lester asked the waitress.

The waitress walked off to get our wine and I went back to looking over the menu. I was trying to decide between steak and a bacon cheeseburger when I felt Lester's hand skim up my arm.

"Hey," Lester whispered when I looked up into his beautiful hazel eyes.

I just smiled at him and our eyes stayed locked for a moment. Our silent moment was broken by the waitress bringing our wine.

"Are you both ready to order," she asked.

"I think so," Les answered, looking at me.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I confirmed.

"I'll take the mushroom burger with a green salad," Lester told the waitress while folding up his menu.

"I'll take the bacon cheeseburger with French fries please," I ordered.

"Alright, I'll get those started for you," the waitress stated while collecting our menus.

The second the waitress walked off Lester's cell phone rang. "I'm sorry Baby, I have to take this." Lester walked off towards the restrooms. I guess he wanted some privacy. Well, now I was curious to know who he was talking to. While I was wondering about the person Les was talking to I found myself really checking Lester out. He was tall at what I would guess to be 6'2'', he had short, spiky light brown hair, darkly tanned skin, broad shoulders, and firm muscles everywhere. I also started thinking about how funny and sweet he is when he turned and looked right into my eyes. I could feel my cheeks flushing bright red. I gave him a finger wave and looked down at the table, pretending to be very interested in the wine list.

Lester slid in next to me at our booth. He suddenly looked distracted.

I reached over and touched his bicep, "Hey, is everything okay?" I asked softly.

"Yeah, just work stuff," he said turning to look at me. "After dinner do you mind if we take our dessert back to my apartment? I need to go over some new information I just got with Tank."

"Sure," I answered and suddenly found Lester's handsome face very close to mine. He gently leaned in and kissed me. I moved my hand up to the back of his neck. As quickly as the kiss started it was over.

The waitress was placing our dinners in front of us and Lester just grinned at me. I've never seen a Merry Man blush before, but I'm pretty sure his cheeks had a red tinge to them. Interesting.

Chapter 9

On the drive back to Rangeman I was lost in thought about the raspberry cheesecake that I couldn't wait to eat when Lester picked up my hand. He intertwined our fingers and set our hands together on his thigh while looking straight ahead at the road.

"Les?"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you mind if I turn the radio on?"

"No, go ahead," he mumbled while still looking straight ahead at the road. I don't know if he was focused on his driving or distracted by whatever the phone call was about earlier at the restaurant.

I turned the radio on low and found a song I liked.

"I love Journey," Lester said looking at me for the first time since we had gotten in the car.

"Me too," I answered and relaxed back against the seat of the SUV. The rest of the ride to Rangeman was in comfortable silence.

We entered the elevator in the parking garage and Les placed his hand on my face, "You can go on up to my apartment and I'll be up in a few minutes." He removed his hand from my face and gave me the keys to his apartment.

As I took the keys fro his hand I asked, "Is there anything I can help with? Any paperwork or computer searches?"

"No thanks Baby. You go on up and enjoy your cheesecake, I'll be up in a few," Lester said smiling at me.

When I entered Les's dark apartment I placed the cheesecake in the fridge. As bad as I wanted to scarf it down I was going to wait until Les came back. I let out a long yawn and stood on my tippy-toes for a big stretch. "Oh yeah," I said, remembering Les's awesome bed. I'll just lay down for a few minutes, I said to myself. I settled into the softness of the bed and drifted off, dreaming of raspberry cheesecake.

The next thing I know Lester is waking me up. "Hey Baby," he whispered, laying on his side wearing only a pair of pajama bottoms.

"What time is it?" I mumbled while closing my eyes again.

"It's 2 a.m. I'm sorry I was gone for so long."

"Hmmm. Is everything okay now?"

"Yeah, nothing you need to worry about Baby."

"Hmmm, is it okay if I stay here tonight?" I asked while snuggling into Lester's muscular chest.

"Yeah," Lester whispered in his sexy voice and kissed me on top of my head while wrapping his arms more tightly around me.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of the shower running. I had a nice full body stretch and walked out to the kitchen to make some coffee.

I smelled Old Spice and turned around to find Les standing behind me clad only in a towel. I swallowed hard.

"Cheesecake for breakfast Beautiful?" Lester asked while opening the fridge.

"Uh, yeah sure," I stammered out.

"Something wrong?" Lester asked concerned.

"No, nope, everything's fine."

We had our breakfast of cheesecake and coffee in silence. When we were finished I went into the bathroom to freshen up and Lester finally put some clothes on.

"Would you like a ride back to your apartment Steph?"

"Yeah, Rex is going to be mad at me," I said smiling.

Les grabbed my hand and we walked towards the elevator together. As soon as the elevator doors opened Ranger stepped out.

I dropped Lester's hand and moved towards Ric. He opened his arms and gave me a tight hug, actually lifting me off the ground.

"I missed you so much."

"Babe."

"Ranger."

"Les," Ranger stated while staring Lester down.

"Where are you off to Babe?"

"Um, my apartment."

"I can take over from here Santos," Ric stated while wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

"Uh, you know, I think maybe I'll just call my Dad," I stammered out while moving away from Ric.

Time stood still while Lester, Ric, and I all looked at each other.

"Babe."

"I have work to do, I'll see you guys later," Lester stated with an angry tone and stalked off to the stairs.