Standard disclaimers, blah, blah, blah. Too bad no profit is being made from this little endeavor, ah well.

To Deb, Jaime, Kate Manoso, Luisa and Melody you have been amazing and inspiring, and yes, once again in alpha order. Thank you.

Stephanie's Gamble

By Alfonsina

Chapter 19 ♣ May Part 3

The next day he sent me an e-mail that was marked high priority. It asked one question. It read, "Do you think all guilty pleasures have to be illegal, immoral or fattening? Come up to seven at noon to discuss over lunch."

After I read that line, my face turned red and I got all hot. I had to stand up from my desk and get some water from the break room. I wasn't sure what I thought about that. I mean, it had been drilled into me from the time I was a kid that anything that was fun was off limits. If it was fun it was going to lead to trouble, the confessional and probably some form of consequence.

For the immoral part, lord knows that when I was with Morelli, there was always the undercurrent of guilt that we weren't married and you didn't do certain things unless or until you were married. Besides, I am pretty sure we did a lot of things that would have been on the banned list even if we'd been married; good thing I didn't know where that list was or I'd have been in trouble for sure.

Illegal well that was probably some of the breaking and entering I'd done and just not been caught. I had only investigated Ranger's apartment the one time. It was a guilty pleasure because I'd only found the one pair of boxers and those set off a long series of fantasies.

Fattening? Actually I'd been lucky that the fattening part wasn't catching up with me, yet. But if given a choice between low fat and good for you versus high calorie and incredible flavor, there was never a contest. Yep, fattening was definitely a good time.

After I got my breathing under control and my heartbeat to slow down I returned to my desk. There was nothing to worry about. This was just a 'discussion' with Ranger. Usually his discussions actually had words; that is unless he wanted to 'talk' about something outside of the bonds office, which meant he wanted to kiss me. Since I wasn't working for Vinnie at the moment, there were no 'talks' or 'discussions' in the alley and I missed the contact.

I tried to get a couple more searches done and even set my appointment alarm for noon to make sure I was there. The next thing I knew it was 11:45. Where had the time gone? I gathered my courage and headed to seven.

The lunch had been provided by Ella, of course. She was better than most restaurants, faster than most take out, and probably the healthiest choice around. It was two gorgeous salads with some kind of vinaigrette dressing and lots of healthy goodies like chopped almonds and dried cranberries. I hated to admit it, but it was wonderful.

After lunch Ranger asked me the question, "Do you really think all guilty pleasures have to be illegal, immoral or fattening?"

"Yep. I was raised that way so for me it's true."

"Such a sad, limited view of the world, Babe," he said with a grin.

"Want to change my mind?" I asked. The words tumbled out of my mouth before I realized what I was saying and probably what I was offering. As soon as I said the words I wanted to take them right back. I had just opened myself up to who knows what and this could be extremely dangerous to my morals and scruples. Fudge.

"I thought you'd never ask. I promise to be gentle and cause no rumors," he said with a smile. Crap. He must have heard the conversation with Tank back in January. Was nothing around this place private? Probably not, considering the phone taps, microphones and cameras just about everywhere and since he was the Wizard, he had access to all the feeds all the time.

We cleared the table and I thought we were going to go back downstairs to work. Instead he went into the kitchen and pulled out a gigantic old vegetable juicer, it was a Champion. He walked to the freezer and pulled out some bananas. He opened a cabinet and got a couple of small bowls and pulled two spoons out of the drawer.

"You feel like something better than ice cream, Babe?" he asked.

"Probably nothing is better than ice cream Ranger, except for chocolate or chocolate ice cream," I said.

"Well, that falls under the fattening portion of 'illegal, immoral or fattening' doesn't it?" he asked with a smile.

"Duh. Of course. Everyone knows that the really good stuff is really the bad stuff, if you know what I mean," I replied. I was mentally sticking my tongue out at him.

"Not everything that is rich tasting and that melts in your mouth is fattening, Babe."

Oh God. I hoped my face hadn't turned brilliant red.

He took the skins off of the bananas, put one of the bowls under the juicer and then put the first banana down the feed tube. Out came this yellowish white stuff that looked a lot like frozen yogurt.

The first bowl filled with one banana. He changed bowls and put the next one down the shoot.

"Let's take these to the living room, Babe," he said as he handed me one of the bowls and a spoon.

I followed him out of the kitchen into the living room. We sat next to each other on the sofa.

I was a little hesitant about how good a frozen banana could really taste. When anyone in my family or I froze bananas it meant that banana bread would be the offering, not some kind of a frozen dessert. I was stalling and he knew it, so he took the first bite. When he didn't die and didn't gag I thought it would be safe enough for me to try. Wait, this was a man who survived on twigs and berries; of course he wouldn't gag.

He was watching so I knew I was going to have to give it a try. I closed my eyes before the spoon went into my mouth. I was surprised. It was good. It was really good. It was rich, it was creamy. It was beyond words. Oh my god. I lost the power of speech and the ability to open my eyes. I kept them closed and rolled the stuff around the inside of my mouth and just let the flavor go everywhere.

I finally opened my eyes to see Ranger looking intently at me.

"So, I take it that this didn't live up to your expectations?" Ranger asked with a broad smile.

"Are you kidding me? I mean, if I hadn't seen it I wouldn't have believed it was possible. This is just a banana, right? You didn't put anything else into that machine did you?" I asked in awe of what was in the bowl before me.

"It's just a banana. Nothing more and nothing less," he said.

Wow. I've got to get myself one of those juicers. Wonder what they could do with frozen pears?

After it was gone, and I was looking for more of it, thank you very much, he spoke.

"Babe, not all pleasure is guilty. Just remember that," he said with a wink.

"I guess not." I thought. That was definitely something to think about.

I helped him clean out the machine and tidy the kitchen and we headed back down to the office.

♣♣ ♣

It was time for me to do the vocabulary lesson thing with Hector and follow it with range time.

Prepping Hector for the TOEFL reminded me of studying for the SAT exams in high school; long and boring but a necessary evil. When I had looked over the materials initially I knew this stuff was going to be important to him, but I really sort of thought he'd do a class somewhere to prep. Ranger's scheduling and client needs didn't make those things possible, so I continued to be pressed into service.

I decided to put myself back on the throne as Czarina, yep engage full denial mode. Scepter, tiara and throne, I couldn't forget about the skimpy outfits on the cabana boys, could I? Denial was the only way I was going to get through 'alone' time with Hector and keep my hormones in check.

We'd had another little 'talk' about that weekend and miscommunications. He promised to leave the cameras on, it had been an experiment he said. He also promised to keep his hands and his lips to himself, at the least at work. That didn't stop him from pressing his legs up against mine when we were 'working' in a conference room; turned out Hector was a literalist and it could well be my undoing. I decided that I didn't want to be alone with him outside of work for the time being either; it was easier and safer.

Because I managed to get our time limited and pretty public, Hector buckled down and worked really hard. His comprehension levels went up each time we met. It seemed that he really was as smart as Lester had told me, probably smarter. Also it seemed he was also pretty darned motivated.

He found a place that did some of the training on line, so they could do the reading/writing bit with him but listening and knowing what he heard was better with a live person. We spent most of our time doing the auditory stuff; he could practice the reading and writing on his own.

It seemed that Hector was doing with me what I was doing with Ranger. He would look for topics of conversation where he could build his vocabulary and we could get to know each other better. Hector was trying to find common ground to build the foundation of a friendship. I liked that.

♣♣ ♣

Damn hormones. I was probably going to have to resort drastic measures. Yep, that meant exercise. I was probably going to have to exercise to keep the raging hormones under control. If this kept up, and I really didn't want to take such a drastic measure, I was going to be putting in some pretty serious gym time. The problem with me and gym time, other than actually getting there, was that there was virtually always an audience. Despite my audience awareness, or lack of awareness, sometimes I'd strip off my shirt and get down to the sports bra; then I'd remember that I was providing a free show. The guys wouldn't say anything, but they would grin at me for a couple of hours afterwards. Jeesh.

As a stop gap measure to ensure I could control my hormones, exercise or not I made sure I kept plenty of TastyKakes in my desk drawer. I decided that I also needed to have some mini candy bars that I could just pop in my mouth in case of an emergency. Tank would probably be the only other person in the office to fully understand the gravity of a chocolate emergency. The problem was if I used the stop gap too much, I'd have to go to the gym anyway. I wound up having to pop one to two mini candy bars right before each session with Hector. I also had to pop a couple if I knew I was going to be alone with Ranger. It was medicinal, really.

♣♣ ♣

Bobby was bound and determined that I was going to go to Boy Scout camp this summer. Just what I always wanted, quality alone time with a bunch of eleven year olds and a couple of 'adults' who were about as emotionally mature as eleven year olds. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why he'd want me there. I couldn't make it through the manual's table of contents without snoring.

Bobby hadn't talked about doing the whole manners thing and I didn't really want to teach etiquette to a bunch of eleven year olds. I think Ranger was trying to give me a reason to say 'yes' and teaching a bunch of boys about 'please' and 'thank you' was enough to make me make sure I didn't go to camp.

What for the love of Mike was he really thinking? One week with me and Bobby would have a bunch of confirmed bachelors on his hands. I couldn't believe he wanted to subject a bunch of little kids to that. Jeesh.

Evidently Bobby also thought that if I went as one of the 'adults', I had to be versed in some of the merit badges. OK, I was willing to work on the leatherwork or the swimming merit badges; I liked to swim and maybe I'd get a great belt out of one of the guys working on the leatherwork badge. Nope, he and Ranger decided that the Rifle and Shotgun merit badges were more up my alley. I was convinced they were wrong, and I still hadn't committed to going. I still had a couple of months to make up my mind one way or the other.

A couple of days later I was assigned to work with Bobby on the range. I hated range time with Bobby and he knew it. I didn't hate him, but he wasn't my best coach, Tank was. Tank knew how to teach me. Lester knew how to tease me and get me calm enough to shoot some decent groups. Hector knew how to off balance me and tried to keep me aware of my surroundings. Ranger set off every hormone in my body and I couldn't get a damned thing done on the range when I was with him. Bobby? Bobby knew how to push my buttons, even though he never really tried. There must have been a support group for all the ex-girlfriends he had over the years.

Bobby had been on his best behavior since the camping trip and was keeping his foot out of his mouth. Needless to say, our conversations tended to be brief and directed at whatever the subject or project at hand was. It was easiest on us both that way.

"So Bobby, are we ready to rock today?" I asked

He grinned and took the towel off the table and said, "Sure Bomber and you're just gonna love this. We are going to play with rifles today. You are going to use one of the easiest. It's called a Ruger 10/22. You need to know this stuff for 'your' merit badge."

Great. Something I always wanted to learn and something I'd wanted to 'earn'. Not.

He picked the thing up off the table and talked about how it was similar to my .38 and how it was different. After we got done with the lecture, he put out a target, at least this one was a bunch of circles; several paper men were going to lose their lives today. I did surprisingly well with it but it didn't mean I liked the thing.

♣♣ ♣

After I got done, I went back to my cube and checked in with Ranger.

"Have dinner with me tonight?" he asked. I nodded curious if I was going to be getting Mr. Manners or the Wolf. My body was voting for the Wolf, screaming its vote actually.

"I'll meet you in about half an hour on seven. I've got some stuff to finish up here first," he said before he kissed me on the cheek.

I stopped by my place on four to do some minor touching up before I met him on seven. I really had missed the Wolf and was hoping for a visit with him. Ella had already set out dinner by the time I made it up stairs and let myself into the apartment.

Tonight the table was set beautifully, as usual. There were even flowers from the roof organized into a centerpiece. What really caught my attention was the small wrapped present next to the place I normally sat.

I had just noticed the present when Ranger came out of his bedroom in nothing but a pair of drawstring pants and an unbuttoned shirt. His eyes were dancing and he was looking very pleased with himself. He knew I had seen the present, and I knew he knew I knew.

"After dinner, you can open it," he said with his eyes twinkling.

Whatever it was just had to be good. In fact, I was so excited about what it might be that I could hardly bring myself to eat. It looked too big to be jewelry and too small to be clothing. Definitely it was too small and the wrong shape to be shoes. I wondered what the world it could be. It was the right size to be a box of gourmet chocolates. That had to be it.

We made plans to go to the garden center the next day. He liked one in particular because they didn't 'force' the flowers to bloom early so they'd sell.

He said, "Some things are special and you should be able and willing to wait for them; things you force before they're ready usually don't last or live up to their promise."

Wow. Wonder what he meant by that? It was easier to take it at face value. No point in reading more into it than there was.

"So it's a reputable place then?" I asked. I was trying to keep up with the conversation and sound interested.

"The best. I think you'll like it," he said.

Dinner would have been amazing, but I was so worked up over the package I didn't notice anything I put in my mouth. I actually passed on Ella's apple pie because I wanted to get to the package.

"Are you sure you want to pass on that, Babe? You might need the sugar later," he said.

What was he meaning about that? Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Did I really want to know?

We did the basic after dinner clean up and when I couldn't stand it anymore, Ranger finally took the package and had me sit with him on the sofa.

I finally felt the package, definitely not the right weight to be the chocolate I had been saving room for, it was too heavy.

He just nodded his head to me and I opened it.

A leather bound book. Nothing printed on the side I opened. My heart started to race. It couldn't be a copy of the Kama Sutra, could it? It wasn't love poetry, was it? I really hoped it wasn't a leather bound journal, I hadn't written one since I was in high school and then I did it for precisely two days. Val found it and read it out loud to all of her friends, it stopped my dreams of ever being a writer.

The volume felt stuck in my hands and I was unable to turn it right way around. I felt a mixture of emotions; fear and excitement. Yep, that's me, a deer caught in headlights.

Ranger took it out of my hands and turned the book right way around so I could read the cover, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I was supposed to read this either in high school or college but couldn't remember doing it. Shit. This just couldn't be right, since I graduated from college I just did the magazine thing, you know Reader's Digest and Cosmo. Ok Reader's Digest when I was at the dentist's office and Cosmo was like the single girl's bible.

I smiled as I gave him a soft kiss and said, "Thank you. This is completely unexpected." No kidding, no tingling, no thrills and, probably worst of all, no melty goodness of chocolate satisfaction either. Oh well.

"You've wanted to know more about me, right?"

I just nodded. "Right. But this doesn't follow with my image for you," I started to say.

"We've already talked about me not being one dimensional character that you've just made up. That's just an image, Babe," he said. "Perception is reality to the perceiver, but it isn't necessarily the truth. I have always loved to read. I like to keep my mind active as well as my body." With that, the wolfish smile was back. God, I loved that smile.

He continued, "You know last year I was the head of the book club."

I couldn't wait and I had to interrupt him. "Wait. Mercenaries R Us has a book club?"

"It's just a regular book club."

"It just seems so out of character for you. I mean I know you read poetry from time to time but a book club?" I asked. My head was beginning to hurt just trying to imagine it.

"Babe, it isn't just me. I joined with Lester a couple of years ago."

"Lester? Lester told me that he only reads comic books that have super heroes in them or naked women. In fact he told me he prefers the ones that only have the naked women," I said.

"Actually, Lester has a degree in English literature from NYU. He tells people that he only reads the comics now because he wasn't allowed to as a kid. Do you want to hear this story or not?" he asked.

"I'm sorry. Of course I want to hear it. I just didn't think of Lester that way before. Please go on," I said with a truly apologetic sound in my voice.

"Lester and I were finishing a job in New York City and we saw Hairspray after it was over."

I couldn't stop myself, I had to interrupt, "You went to see 'Hairspray'? You and Lester saw a musical?"

Where the hell were the bylaws and the scripts I had for all these guys? It just couldn't be possible that Lester and Ranger did musicals? The world seemed to be spinning out of control.

"I actually love musicals. Where was I when you went anyway?" I asked.

"With Morelli," he said.

I looked down and all I could think to say was, "Oh."

"Anyway, Lester and I discussed keeping our minds active on things that went beyond just strategy. Lester had missed what he called 'real reading' and was looking for an excuse. I had mostly just done reading that pertained to work when I left school and had never really gotten into 'real reading'. He found a book club that was close to the office and we decided to join together. End of story," he said.

"So will you tell me about the book and the book club?" I asked, hoping I was getting my foot out of my mouth.

I had a feeling I was trying the patience of a saint and was hoping not to be martyred as a result.

"We meet about once a month to review a book we've all either just read or are reading. Everyone has to participate. It isn't like college where you have to dissect everything, I mean you can if you want, and Lester usually does," he said. Wow, he really got into this stuff. "But it can also just be what you liked or hated about a book or a character.

"It can be relaxing to just disappear into a book; sometimes the rest of the world just goes away and you find yourself completely transported to another place or time. It was how I escaped some of the stuff I saw growing up and later in the service."

"Do you want to talk about any of those things? I mean I can be a great listener if you need one," I said sincerely. I really meant it. I wanted to be there for him if and when he ever needed it. He'd been there for me whenever I needed him. That's what friends, or whatever we were, were for, right?

He squeezed my shoulder and said, "Nope. Right now everything's OK. My world is a pretty ordered place. Things are pretty much where and how they need to be; but I'll take you up on the offer if I need to later, OK?"

He placed a gentle kiss on my temple and with that Mr. Manners was evidently back. Guessed I shouldn't have gotten him to talk about his past. Oh well.

He got off the sofa and said, "Let's go get comfortable."

Huh? I was just fine where I was. I wanted to keep his mood up, I just agreed.

He took my hand and the book as we walked into the bedroom.

With a smile he said, "Take off your shoes and get on your own side."

Woo hoo! The Wolf it is! I sat up on the bed, not sure where he was going with all of this, but sort of hoping where it was going. There was no automatic 'stopping' mechanism in place. I decided that just breathing for now would work. If I had to figure out something else, I could do that when the time came. Yeah and I've taught pigs to sing 'Jingle Bells'.

He took off his own shoes and sat at the head of the bed, and turned on the lamp on his nightstand.

"The meeting when we discuss this book is next week, Thursday. Do you have plans, Babe?" he asked.

"No, no plans. Are you sure you want me there with those kinds of people? I mean I haven't done a lot of heavy reading since college. I don't know if I'd be able to keep up."

"You'll be just fine, promise," he said. "I'd really like it if you'd come with me."

Well since he put it that way I found myself saying, "I'd love to go."

There was a very soft kiss between us and then he opened the book. Wait. This isn't the way it's supposed to go! Is it? Well, maybe it is. If nothing starts, nothing has to be ended and no one gets disappointed. I didn't want to be disappointed. Did I?

He opened the book and started to read to me.

He read, "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens." Then he cleared his throat before he proceeded.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

That was it. That's all I heard. The next sound I heard was Ranger's alarm clock going off at 5:30.

"You know what?" he asked. "Bobby was right. It is kind of fun to see what it'll take to get you to fall asleep."

I groaned. I would have thrown a pillow at him but that would have required moving and I was too groggy to move.

"How much did you read to me?" I asked peeved at myself for having fallen asleep. This was kind of like the Boy Scout manual all over again. Before he could answer I said, "Sorry about that. Your voice is nice, low and melodic. I guess it's a kind of a sleeping pill for me."

"So any man's voice that is 'nice, low and melodic' can get you to sleep with him?" he teased.

I sat up at that point deciding it was time to find a pillow to launch at his head. He was doing the whole ESP thing again because he grabbed my hands and stopped me. He moved in for a very good morning kiss. I was really starting to enjoy it when his phone rang. Didn't anyone have any respect for our, I mean, his privacy?

"Be there in ten," he said curtly to the phone.

"Duty calls, Babe. If you want to go running or to the gym, you can and then you can tell me all about it when you get back," he continued his teasing as he headed to the bathroom.

"Nah. Think I'll go home and get changed. I'm working for a hard ass who has a problem if I'm late to work," I said to the bathroom door.

I headed to the fourth floor to do a preliminary clean up before I went home to finish the rest of the beautification process.

I blew a kiss at the cameras when I got to the parking garage and was off.

A/N: The banana thing does work in the Champion Juicers (I don't know if they are still made or not, but they are workhorses). I am not sure about other brands, you'll have to try on your own.

Also: If you are worried about a real and true dissection of Tale of Two Cities, you can breathe easy, it won't be happening. Promise.

Thanks for reading! Alf.