There are two brief conversations between Hector and Ranger in this part – I will not torture you with trying to badly translate them into Spanish so they will be in italics and you can just imagine they're in Spanish. :)

Warning – There is a tiny bit of smut – although I did rate this an M so perhaps the warning isn't necessary.

JE is the only one making any money. All fun for me.

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"Ranger!" Stephanie's voice was a low hiss and slightly muffled. It sounded like she had her head under a pillow.

"What's up?" I asked, knowing very well the reason for her call.

"Tattoos? I can't get a tattoo! And have you seen this outfit? Jesus! My mother will have a stroke. And Hector scares the crap out of me. He has a teardrop – I know what that means!"

She was on the verge of hysteria and all I could do was smile. I said the one thing I knew would push her over the edge.

"Babe."

I pulled the phone away from my ear before I got the full brunt of the scream I knew was coming. She did not disappoint.

I felt Lester's gaze on me and turned to look at him as I put the phone back to my head. His face held a curious expression and I could tell he was trying hard not to laugh.

"Sometimes I want to strangle you," Stephanie was saying and it sounded like she was clenching her teeth. The teenager inside me had the strong desire to ask her what she was wearing. Sometimes I'm pretty sure I spend too much time with Lester. Although he would have asked her that exact question – where I refrained.

"I have no doubt," I responded. "I probably should have told you that Hector's knowledge of English is…limited."

"You think?"

"Let's start with the first thing on your list – The tattoos will be temporary."

"Oh," she replied and I could hear some of the stress leave her voice. "I guess that's okay. What about this outfit? Underwear will not be an option. If my Mother sees me in this…."

Shit. I can't wait to see this outfit. Too bad I'm stuck on a stake out with my cousin. "Sounds like a pretty good outfit to me, Babe. And I really don't think your Mother will be hanging out where we're going so the chances of running into her are pretty slim."

She took a long breath and then blew it out slowly. "That's true. So maybe I over reacted a touch. About Hector…"

"At first glance I could see how he would be intimidating, but he hasn't killed anyone in over a year."

"Is that supposed to be comforting?"

She had a point but I couldn't do anything about it now. I'd wanted to be able to go over while he was there but had been called away on this job in Pennsylvania. "In depends on how you look at it. Listen, Hector's a good guy and he's magic with making temporary tattoos appear real. Plus he's gay so you don't have to worry about him thinking inappropriate thoughts while he's working on you."

There was a long pause before she spoke so I knew I'd convinced her. "Okay," she finally said. "But will you come over later if I can't handle it?"

"There is nothing I would love more, but I'm out of town. I won't be back until tomorrow."

"Oh." I couldn't miss the disappointment in her voice and I knew exactly how she felt.

"I'll call and check on you later, Okay?"

"Yeah, okay."

"Let me talk to Hector."

"Oh…ummm…..I'll have to go get him."

"Steph? Where are you?"

She paused again and then said in a very tiny voice, "Hiding in my closet."

I had to pull the phone away from my mouth so I could laugh. A few seconds later, Hector came on the line.

"Yes?"

"Send me a picture of her in the outfit."

"No."

"No?"

"No. This is something best experienced in person."

I did not like being told no, but I was going to trust him on this one. Stephanie in person was always preferable and this made me even more intrigued about the clothes.

"Be careful with her. Call me when you're done."

"Yes, of course."

I disconnected and found Lester staring at me with a shit-eating grin on his face. I mentally rolled my eyes and tried to cut him off before he even started. I should have known better; Lester doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut. "If you know what's good for you, you will not say anything to me right now."

"What's it like?" he asked and I let a small sigh escape. "I know you've tapped that. She's tight, isn't she? I bet she's so fucking tight you want to scream."

Jesus Christ. I don't even remember pulling my gun but I found it pointed at him and my thumb flipped off the safety. His hands were raised in surrender, but he still had that stupid grin on his face. Asshole. "If you talk about her like that again I'll put a bullet in your eye."

"Wow. That escalated quickly. You've got it bad for her. Bobby told me you did, but I didn't really believe it until now. "

I flexed my finger slightly against the trigger and Lester finally quit. "Okay –Okay," he said. "Relax. I'll stop."

I clicked the safety back on and returned the gun to its holster. We still had four hours until we were relieved and if he said another word I might actually shoot him.

Apparently, he figured that out because he was silent the rest of the shift and only spoke to me when we got back to our hotel.

"Want to get some food?"

"No," I told him curtly as I opened my hotel room door and turned on the light. I know he rolled his eyes after I slammed the door in his face but I let it go. I can punish him for that later. I dropped my utility belt and shoulder holster onto the small table in the sitting area and toed off my boots.

I flopped down on my back on the bed and closed my eyes. Turns out its exhausting trying not to shoot someone.

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"Ranger…"

"Babe," I whispered, leaning back as Stephanie swung her naked thigh over my leg, straddling me in the chair.

"Ranger, are you listening?"

"Of course I'm listening," I managed to say, although I didn't know how. I bent my head and pulled a protruding nipple into my mouth. She inhaled sharply and lifted herself up only to slide back down onto my engorged erection.

I hissed out an expletive as she began to move up and down at a torturously slow pace. I don't even know which one but it didn't really matter.

"There's something I need to tell you," she said maybe for the second time – I couldn't seem to think straight at the moment.

"Now really isn't a good time to be talking," I pointed out and licked her other nipple. I smiled when a small moan sounded in the back of her throat.

"I know," she breathed, "but it's important."

"Perhaps you should have mentioned it before we got naked."

Steph gave me a wicked smile and rotated her hips, bringing me even deeper inside her tight walls. "Probably," she agreed and then reached behind her and ran her fingers up the underside of my…Jesus. "But you distracted me with your ridiculously talented mouth."

I attached that mouth back onto her other breast and sucked hard, leaving my mark before nipping it gently with my teeth and then soothing it with a kiss. "Are you complaining?"

"No," she said and her head rolled back in ecstasy as I grabbed her hips and slammed her down hard. "Oh God," she huffed out and began moving faster and faster.

I had to make mind go blank for second so I didn't come. "What did you need to tell me?" I asked to distract myself further.

She was close. She was very close. I could feel her beginning to clench around me and her fingers were digging deep into my shoulders as she rode the length of me. "Joe and I are through," she whispered directly into my ear and then clamped down on me as her orgasm rocked through her body. That combined with her whispered confession broke my control and I screamed her name on the most intense climax of my life.

My cellphone ringing completely ruined the moment. I pried my eyes open to look for the offending sound and discovered myself alone on the bed of a shitty hotel room with my hand wrapped around my dick and the front of my pants wet sticky. Christ.

Lester was right, I had it bad. Having a wet dream like a thirteen year old boy? Jesus fucking Christ.

I grabbed my phone and looked at the display. Of course. Who else would it be? I hit the answer button.

"Yo."

"Yo yourself," she replied, her voice filled with amusement. "You didn't call me," she added but she didn't sound upset.

"You sound happy," I said.

"You sound weird," she countered. "What's wrong with your voice?"

"Nothing; It's been a long day and I'm exhausted." Or I've just had a crazy, sexy, unbelievable wet dream about you and now the sound of your voice has made me hard again.

"Alright," she conceded but I could tell she didn't really believe me. "I just wanted to tell you that we're all done and I'm ready for Friday. And you were right, Hector is a good guy."

"I knew you could handle it, Babe."

"You always know even when I don't."

"You need to have more faith in yourself, Steph."

"Yeah, probably," she agreed. "I can't wait for you to see the tattoos; they're amazing!"

"I told you Hector was magic."

"Not just with that. He knows everything about shoes and hair and did you know that he can dance? He is an excellent dancer."

I sat up on the bed. Dancer? Why would that come up? "Babe? Did you go dancing with Hector?"

"Yes. Well not really. We didn't go out – we were dancing in my apartment."

Shit. Why did I suddenly feel jealous of a gay man? At least I was pretty sure he was gay. He'd never actually said that he was but I did see him with his tongue down the throat of another man so I assumed…what if he was bi? What if…

"Ranger?"

"What?"

"You were quiet for almost a minute so I thought we might have been cut off."

"Oh. Sorry. I guess I was trying to picture Hector dancing and having a hard time reconciling the image." Yeah, the image of Stephanie grinding herself against him. I hope I didn't have to kill Hector when I got home.

She laughed in my ear and I had to smile. Steph had a great laugh. Her whole face lit up when she laughed. "Yeah, I can see how that would be a challenge."

"May I ask what brought about the dancing?"

"Well when we got back from the mall with the boots…"

"Wait, you went to the mall? With Hector?"

"Yeah. The outfit needed shoes so we had to go get shoes and Hector found these incredible boots at Macys that are just perfect but I've never worn anything like them before so I wanted to practice walking in them and then I thought maybe we might have to dance at the bar so we practiced that too. Since the outfit is so…revealing and the boots are so high, I needed to learn how to move without showing the entire world my private bits."

She was babbling and I was trying to imagine what kind of boots and what the outfit consisted of and what she looked like in both of them and how long it would take me to get her out of all of it.

"Ranger?"

"What?"

"You were quiet again. Is something wrong?"

Shit. What was wrong with me? "Sorry. I guess I'm more tired than I thought. It sounds like you found a way to work around the language issue."

"Well, Hector understands a lot more English than he lets on so we figured it out. Will he be there Friday?"

Really? How interesting. Sounds like I needed to have a talk with Hector. "No. Not this time."

"Oh," she said and that was definitely disappointment.

"Listen Babe, I gotta go but I'll be back tomorrow and we can go over details then."

"Alright….are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. I'm good. I'll talk to you tomorrow." I disconnected and immediately dialed Hector. He answered half way through the second ring. I spoke in English to see what he would do.

"How did it go?"

There was a short pause and then he answered me in Spanish.

"Good. Stephanie is ready."

"So the mall, huh?"

"She needed shoes."

"I heard you are an excellent dancer. Do I need to be worried?"

"No, my friend. You know she's not for me." Okay good. I had to check. I decided to see if I could convince him to send me a picture again. I knew he took some. He always took pictures of the tattoo work he did.

"I know you took photos. Are there any with these boots that needed to be practiced with?" He laughed and I was a little taken aback. I don't think I've ever heard Hector laugh. Actually I don't think I've ever seen Hector smile.

"No way, brother. It will be well worth the wait."

Damn, he was stubborn.

"Thank you for today. She had a great time with you. I think you've got a new friend."

"It was fun and I like her. She has a good heart."

"I like her too." He laughed again. This might become a regular habit.

"I know, my friend. I know. And Ranger?"

"Yeah?"

"You're going to be in trouble when you see her in that outfit."

He disconnected and I swore as I got up to head to the bathroom for a shower.