AN: Several lines of dialogue were borrowed from the book Ten Big Ones – all credit for those go to JE.

#####

"What's wrong with you, man?" I glanced up from the paperwork on my desk into Ram's extraordinary silver eyes. I'd never seen any quite that color and was sure they had to be some sort of mutation. It was probably part of the reason he hardly ever used the scope on his rifle. His eye sight was astonishing; I'd never seen a more accurate sniper.

Right now his superior vision was trained on my face with a concerned expression.

"I'm sure someone somewhere has made a list but I don't have access to it at the moment."

Ram strolled into my office with a grin. "I bet it's fairly extensive too. But seriously, what's the problem? I swear I just heard you turn down Casper." He settled into the chair across from me, leaned his elbows on my desk and steepled his fingers together under his chin.

"Casper," he emphasized as if I didn't fully understand to whom he was referring.

Alyssa "Casper" McDaniels. She was a former spook for the CIA and earned her nickname in the field after a particularly dangerous assignment where she infiltrated a terrorist cell, gathered enough evidence to bring the entire organization down, including the elusive leader - and then disappeared without a trace like a ghost in the night. The name stuck and she's been Casper ever since.

Currently she does freelance work for the highest bidder. I frequently hire her to do contract work for my Boston office which is where we are now. I'd brought her in to root out an internal saboteur who had almost lost us two major accounts. I had my suspicions of the identity of the culprit, but needed the evidence. It only took her forty eight hours to get enough to justify his instant termination.

Ram felt the need to continue talking. "I mean, if I had been on the receiving end of that proposition, there is no way in hell I would still be sitting here under a pile of paperwork. I'm pretty sure I'd already be in a bed, naked and sweaty."

"Great. Now I'm going to have to scrub my eyes out with bleach and a Brillo pad to get that image out of my head."

Ram waggled his eyebrows up and down in an impressive imitation of Lester. I rolled my eyes.

"She seemed shocked that you didn't follow her out the door like a bitch in heat. Do you think that's the first time a man has told her no?"

"Probably," I said. Casper was a gorgeous woman and had men falling at her feet on a daily basis. I'd spent a night with her once and it was well justified adoration, but she just didn't do it for me anymore. Her hair was too blonde, her legs were too short and her eyes were way too brown.

I went back to my paperwork, hoping Ram would take the hint and get the fuck out of my office. I wanted to get this shit done so we could go the hell home. For some reason I was really missing Trenton.

"You know," he said, not getting a clue, "you've been in a mood since Brazil. Anything you want to talk about?" Why was he being so fucking chatty? I lifted my head again. His glinting silver eyes were giving me a knowing look.

"If I give you Casper's address and number, will you leave me the hell alone so I can work?"

"No shit? Do you think she would…"

"Yes, I do," I interjected. I scribbled the information on a scrap of paper and handed it to him. He took it from my hand and held it rapturously in his palm. "Go," I said forcefully when he didn't leave the chair. "Call her first. She doesn't like surprises and will probably shoot you if you show up unannounced."

Ram jumped up and headed for the door. "Thanks, man," he called over his shoulder and I thought I should give him one last warning.

"You might want to stop on the way and pick up some Gatorade and probably some protein bars too."

He turned back to me with a confused expression. Casper was insatiable and could go for hours. If there were marathons for fucking, she would get the first place medal every time. "Trust me," I said and then he was gone. I called down to the control room and had him removed from the rotation for tomorrow. He wouldn't be in any shape to handle a shift after a night in her bed.

I was two hours back into the overwhelming fire hazard on my desk when my phone rang and I answered it without checking caller id.

"Manoso," I said absently. There was a long pause and then Stephanie's voice sounded in my ear.

"Wow. I didn't expect you to answer."

I dropped the pen I'd been using to sign my name to what seemed like a billion sheets of paper, leaned back in my chair and found myself smiling for the first time in a month.

"Why not?"

"Oh, I don't know. I figured you were probably in some foreign country over throwing a communist government and wouldn't have cell service."

I barked out a laugh. "Reality is going to be highly disappointing for you then."

"Why, where are you?"

"Boston."

"You're right, that is disappointing. Maybe next time you should make up something exciting so the bad ass mercenary image I have of you isn't tainted."

"I'll keep that in mind. You okay, Babe? It's pretty late." I glanced at my watch. It was after one in the morning. I wondered if she was in bed and if so, I wondered what she was wearing.

"I'm good. Just got home from the Snake Pit with Hector and Lula and wanted to ask you a question."

The Snake Pit? An image of her topless and covered in mud danced across my mind and I shifted in my chair, adjusting my quickly hardening dick.

"What were you doing at the Snake Pit? Thinking of taking up mud wrestling?"

She chuckled in my ear. "No, not me. Lula."

The image of Lula topless and covered in mud quickly deflated my erection.

"I bet that was fun. Did Hector enjoy himself?" I pondered how often the two of them had been hanging out in my absence and if I should be worried about it.

"Yeah. We laughed a lot, but that might have been partially due to the pitcher of margaritas."

Ahhh. That explains the slight slur to her words.

"I think I would have needed more than a pitcher to make it through Lula mud wrestling, Babe."

"That's what Hector said!" She laughed and I closed my eyes at the sound. I love her laugh.

"So what was your question?"

"What?"

"You said you wanted to ask me a question."

"Oh yeah," she said and inhaled slowly. I could picture her lying in the middle of her bed in a tiny tank top, an even tinier pair of shorts and her breasts heaving up with the intake of breath. There goes my dick again. "Are you into three ways?"

What the fuck? Where did that come from? I had to take a breath and swallow before I could answer.

"I've been into everything at one time or another. Any particular reason you're asking?"

"Well Hector and I were talking about it…"

I was up and off my chair, unable to sit still any longer. Yep, I definitely needed to worry about her and Hector.

"…And he's had a ton of them and Lula said she used to do it all the time in her previous profession so it got me wondering if you, you know, did that."

Please tell me that she doesn't want to have a three way with Hector and Lula.

"Have you ever had a three way, Steph?" I knew she hadn't but I really wanted to see where this conversation was going to go.

"No," she said, "but…"

"You've thought about it," I finished for her.

"Yes," she whispered.

"Babe? Would we be having this conversation if you weren't full of tequila?"

"Hmmm, probably not. Do you want to hang up?"

"Absolutely not. Tell me who you'd want for partners."

"No!" she practically shouted. "It's too embarrassing."

"Tell me." If she says Morelli's name I may have to shoot something.

"No way! Let's talk about something else."

I laughed and decided to let her off the hook. The tequila would only last so long and I could tell she was starting to sober up.

"Okay, but we're going to talk about this again at some point. Want to explain what happened to the Harley?"

"Uh-oh. How did you know?"

"Tank called me this afternoon."

"It wasn't my fault!" It never is. I was just glad she wasn't on it when it blew up.

"I'm just happy you weren't hurt. Do you need a car?"

"No! I can't take any more cars from you, Ranger. They get smashed or stolen or blown up every time. I'll just borrow Big Blue from my Dad."

"Babe. I'll have Tank drop my truck off in the morning. I should be home in a week, that's not enough time for you to kill it."

"Are you joking? Your Boxter was smashed into a pancake in less than three days." That was true. I wondered if there was a pool on the Harley. It took her an entire month to destroy that.

"Take the truck, Steph. I gotta go. Be safe."

I crawled into bed just after three, cursing whomever it was that felt every single transaction needed an accompanying piece of paper. I closed my eyes, sunk back into my pillows and finally let myself conjure an image of Stephanie. Before I heard her voice tonight, I hadn't allowed myself to think of her since I'd left her to go to Brazil. I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on the job if I did so I pushed the thoughts away into the dark compartment of my mind where I stored all the things that made me lose focus.

These days that box was filled primarily with her so I let her strut out in those amazing boots and I stroked myself into an orgasm wishing she were here with those long boot clad legs wrapped tightly around my back.

When I drifted off to sleep it wasn't surprising that I dreamt of her, but what was surprising was as I was thrusting into her, watching her face as she came, Casper was there too. She was licking and suckling her nipples while I emptied myself deep inside Stephanie's core.

Fucking Hector. Talking to her about three ways. He is trying to kill me with erotic dreams.

#########

Tank called me two days later just as I was wrapping things up for the night.

"Yo."

"How's Boston?"

"Almost done. What's up in Trenton?"

He hesitated and that was never followed with good news.

"Tank?"

"Stephanie is in your apartment."

Of all the things he could have said, that wasn't even on my list of possibilities. "What?"

"She showed up at the gate fifteen minutes ago. Must have followed the GPS on your truck. I didn't know if you'd want me to intercept her so I let her go up."

"Its fine," I said and I could picture his eyes widening in surprise. I'd never had a woman in my apartment when I was there, let alone when I was hundreds of miles away. "Do you think it's just curiosity, or is she hiding from something – or someone?"

"Well, she brought that rat she calls a pet and a basket of laundry so I'm guessing she's hiding and I think I might know why."

I hoped to God it wasn't because of the cop. If he hurt her… "Care to enlighten me," I said when he didn't finish his thought.

"Word on the street is she's pissed off the Slayers."

"Shit."

"Yeah," Tank agreed. "I'm assuming you want someone on her?"

"Cal. And tell him to try not to be seen. Rotate him out with Hector until I get back." If she did spot her tail, I was hoping she wouldn't be too upset if it was Hector since they seem to have built a friendship over the past few weeks.

"Consider it done."

I disconnected and puzzled over her propensity to find trouble. The Slayers. Jesus. She was a psycho magnet.

#####

It was late when I entered my apartment and dropped my keys into the tray next to the fresh vase of flowers on the sideboard. My flight out of Boston had been canceled for some sort of mechanical issue with the plane so I drove home to Trenton in the pouring rain. I'd been up nearly twenty four hours and I was exhausted.

I made my way through the kitchen and paused when I saw the glass cage on the counter. The hamster was running on its wheel and froze when it saw me. It twitched its whiskers once and then ran for the soup can, showing me its ass as it burrowed inside. He was an ugly little thing but Stephanie seemed to love him and that made me tolerate his presence in my home. There was a gun and a flak vest next to the cage. I picked up the gun and checked the chamber. Loaded. That meant she was scared. Stephanie hardly ever carried her gun and when she did, it was never loaded.

I glanced into the living room and saw that the couch was empty – She was probably in my room and more importantly – in my bed. I couldn't stop the smile that thought brought to my lips as I made my way to the bedroom.

She wasn't on the couch in the sitting room either so there was only one option left. I hit the switch on the wall and then slid the dimmer down so I didn't wake her up with the blinding light. I leaned on the door jamb and took in the sight before me. As far as opportunities go, this just might be the mother lode.

She was on her stomach, her face plastered into a pillow. The covers were pulled up all the way to her neck and I resisted the urge to yank them down so I could see what she was sleeping in. I hoped nothing was the answer.

I watched her for a while trying not to think about how much I liked seeing her in my bed. I removed my utility belt and dropped it on the desk. She stirred in the bed and I froze, waiting to see if she would wake up. Yep, she was awake. Her even breathing had stopped and she was probably holding her breath, trying to decide if she'd actually heard a noise. I waited in the doorway with my arms crossed loosely over my chest.

It took several seconds but she finally rolled over onto her back and blinked her eyes open. She pressed her lips together in a fine line but didn't say anything.

"I'm trying to decide if I should throw you out the window or if I should get in next to you."

"If those are the only options, I would prefer the second one," she responded without missing a beat.

So would I. Very much.

"What are you doing here?"

"I needed a safe place to stay."

I moved into the room, sat down in the chair in the corner and started unlacing my boots.

"I saw the gun and flak vest when I came in. Why didn't you call me? Or Tank?"

She scrunched up her nose and pushed a lock of hair out of her face. "I knew you were out of town and I don't always feel comfortable with Tank."

I gave her a raised eyebrow. "But you feel comfortable with me?"

She hesitated with her answer but there was a small smile on her lips.

"Babe. You're in my bed."

A full smile then. "I feel more comfortable with you than Tank."

"Good to know." She sat up in bed and the covers slid down revealing her sleepwear. Damn. She was wearing one of my shirts. I felt my pants get a little tighter right at the groin.

"You don't seem surprised that I'm here," she said.

"With the exception of the seventh floor, the entire building is monitored inside and out. Tank called me when you pulled up at the gate. I assumed you had a good reason for needing the apartment so I told him to let you stay."

"I appreciate that," she said.

"I know." I stood up and headed for the bathroom. "I'm going to take a shower and then we're going to talk about you wearing my clothes."

I smiled at her gasp and closed myself inside the bathroom.

When I emerged fifteen minutes later she was facing away from the bathroom, curled up on her side and sound asleep. I slid in behind her, naked, and wrapped my arm around her stomach. She sighed and wiggled in closer to me, her ass dangerously close to my dick. It was going to be a long night.

I kissed her shoulder and closed my eyes.

I awoke to the sun shining through the crack in the drapes covering my windows and Stephanie touching my chest. She'd sprawled out during the night and was stretched out across half the bed.

"Oops," she said coming fully awake, but she did not remove her hand.

My cock was in full morning wood mode and I gathered her into my arms and kissed her with lots of tongue. She started out fully responsive and I was just about to slide my hand between her legs when I felt her stiffen slightly in my arms. I broke the kiss and pulled back to look at her. "Problem?"

"No," she said slowly. "I just had this thought about Morelli."

Anger ignited somewhere deep in my chest and unfurled out through my body until I felt my nostrils flare. Tank had told me recently that was the only indication I gave when I was angry. My nostrils flared. I hoped smoke wasn't curling out of them right now.

I counted to ten before I said anything.

"For future reference, I don't ever want to hear another man's name being said in my bed. But since we're on the subject, why aren't you in his bed?"

She at least had the decency to look chagrined. "We're sort of in the middle of a very long disagreement."

I bit back a sigh of frustration. I didn't understand why she kept up this on and off bullshit with him. I pushed her back to him a few months ago hoping she would finally figure out he's not right for her, but she just can't see that he's trying to change her into something that I didn't think she wanted to be.

"I'm seeing an unhealthy pattern of behavior here, Stephanie."

"Yeah, I know," she said, biting down on the corner of her lip.

"So what it is this? Some sort of guilt attack about Morelli?"

"No," she said right away. "And I think that's what I was thinking about. I don't feel guilty. I have in the past. Every time you kissed me or touched me or…I always got that rush of guilt after, but now…" her voice trailed off and then she leaned in and touched my lips with hers.

I wasn't even going to think about what her admission meant. I took full advantage of the invitation and thrust my tongue in her mouth, exploring every nook and cranny. Her arms slid across my waist and around to my back and then she sucked in air through her teeth when they dipped down and covered my bare ass.

"You're naked," she stated the obvious.

"So are you," I said and ripped my shirt up and off her body. She did look sexy as hell wearing it but I wanted my mouth on her nipples. I flipped her on her back and covered one with a sucking bite. She arched up off the bed, aching for more. I gave both the equal attention they deserved and then made my way down her torso with wet, open mouth kisses.

When I got to the little red lace thong she was wearing, I didn't want to take the time to remove it properly so I simply ripped the fabric and buried my face in her already wet center. My tongue darted out and teased her clit and she writhed underneath me, fisting her hands in the sheets. I moved lower and dove into her opening and then the phone began to ring.

"What the fuck?" Stephanie said when I lifted my head at the sound. "Why do your employees not want me to have an orgasm?"

I almost laughed but the murderous look on her face gave me pause. I grabbed onto her knees and spread her legs. I slid up her body and poised myself at her entrance.

"Can you be quiet?"I asked.

"What?" she responded, looking baffled.

I grabbed the phone and then plunged into her wholly just as I answered the call. She cried out at the sensation and I held my finger to my lips in a 'shhhh' motion.

"I'm supposed to be offline," I growled into the phone as I curled my hand under her ass and lifted her hips for a better position. I pulled out and thrust back in and Stephanie bit down on her lip in an attempt to keep silent.

"There was a break in at the Jewelry store on 14th street," Manny said into my ear on my second stroke. She threw her hips up to meet mine and our skin slapped together loudly.

"Call Tank," I commanded and moved inside her again. Manny was silent on the other end of the phone and I started stroking faster. She met me thrust for thrust.

"Um, Tank had an emergency with his cat…"

"Jesus," I breathed out and hoped Manny it took as, 'Jesus, Tank's a pussy' and not 'Jesus, I'm about to come.'

I rotated my hips on the next dive and Stephanie was unable to contain herself. She cried out my name on a groan of pleasure. "I'll be down in fifteen," I snapped into the phone and then disconnected the call.

She was close so I stilled inside her bringing her back from the edge. "You were supposed to be quiet," I scolded but she was beyond caring.

"Please don't stop," she whimpered and I didn't. We climaxed together. And we were loud.

I took a lightning fast shower so I didn't smell like sex when I met with the jewelry store clients. Steph was still in my bed when I came back into the bedroom fully dressed.

"Stay here," I said, kissing her quickly. "And stay naked. We're not done and I shouldn't be long." I grabbed my gun off the nightstand and headed out, picking up my utility belt along the way.

"Hey," she called to me and I looked back at her over my shoulder. "Do you think we'll ever be able to do that without being interrupted?"

"Yes. But I might have to cut the phone lines."

She was laughing when I walked out the door.