Okay, so I've been bad. It's been a long time since I updated. Real life has been kicking my ass. I've been working a lot more hours now and I haven't really had time to write a full chapter (let alone a paragraph...). But I got a guest review a few days ago that asked me to 'update now' and they've been waiting 'forever'. It seemed a little anxious, but it actually did the trick. It clicked something in me that allowed me to write this chapter. So guest reviewer, thank you for your review/ command. You truly helped me out of the funk I was in over the next chapter. This chapter is for you Babe (whoever you are)!

Not mine. I just play with them.

I always considered myself a patient man.

Cliiick.

On the other hand…

"Don't. Move." The voice in the dark said. It was low and thick. I could tell I had woke her up from a deep sleep.

There were, however, a few things that I could stand. Having a gun pointed at my boys wasn't one of them. Blinking when the light came on, I raised my hands in a nonthreatening gesture.

Stephanie had turned on the light behind her, making her glow. Her curls were wild, the tank top she wore rode up her stomach so an inch of delicious skin was showing and her shorts were riding high on her thighs.

All the blood in my brain went straight to my groin.

She bit her lip, indecision all over her face. The gun shook a little. Clearly she was comfortable with it, but probably hadn't shot at anything other than the paper man in a range. "What are you doing here?"

I grinned inside. Any sane person would've said that they were going to call the police or shot me on the spot. So of course, she would ask why. Because whatever any normal person would do, Stephanie does the opposite.

"Your grandmother hired me."

The gun lowered a little. "Hired you? What are you, a stripper?"

I chuckled. "No. She said that you'd be out for the evening." She called me to let me know this personally. I spent the better part of an hour wondering what she was doing. Was she going on a date with the grey tied bastard? Or was someone else currently warming her bed? I clenched my fist at the thought.

I didn't like that. At all.

So when the gun was pointed at me and believe me, that wasn't a picnic in the park, I felt the relief flow through me. She was home, sleeping.

And since no one had come out to check on her, she was alone.

"And you thought you'd do a little walk through?" The gun came back up to my boys. "Who are you?"

I moved my hand and she gripped the gun harder. "Easy. I'm going to reach to my back pocket…" I slowly reached around and pulled out a card. "Ranger Manoso, CEO of Rangeman Securities."

She snorted as she took the card. "Your mother named you Ranger?" She asked as she looked at it.

I grinned. "It's a nickname. Your grandmother said the same thing."

"Grandma Helen?"

"Don't you mean Edna?" The fact that she was testing me made me smile. It was cute.

"Sure. So what did she hire you to do?"

"She wants to set up a security system for your home and store." I looked at the gun she still pointed at me. "But I can't see why you'd need it."

"I don't. I got my trusty gun here."

"I can see that."

"You can go now."

"No can do."

Anger flashed on her face. "What do you mean 'no can do'?" She lowered her voice to mock me.

"I have a signed contract with your grandmother. I'm putting in the system or she pays the penalty fee." I partially lied. Sure there was the contract, but I didn't have her sign the last page with the fee. I liked Edna too much to do that to her. But her granddaughter didn't know that.

And I was ready to do anything to stay in her life. Even tell a little white lie.

"Done. I'll write you a check."

"You can…"

"Good." She started for her purse.

"…But I won't take it."

She stopped. "What?"

"It's part of the contract. The money has to come from her." I was literally making this up as I went along.

"That's ridiculous."

"Them's the breaks, babe."

She sighed morosely. "So I'm stuck with you?"

"Yup."

Stephanie's POV

"So I'm taking a day off today." I told Lula when she answered the phone. It was a few hours later after the midnight encounter with the security man. I had showered, dressed, and watched the three men standing in my living room. They were having a serious debate and Ranger had his arms crossed over his broad chest.

If he didn't annoy me, I'd think he was hot. Ranger was the tallest of the three with dark brown hair pulled back into a pony tail. His eyes were as dark as his hair and his skin looked like a well mixed mocha latte. His nose was straight, full lips and a nice body underneath the black uniform he wore.

Even his ears were perfect.

The man to his left was slightly shorter and there was a family resemblance. He had similar features, green eyes, a broken nose, and his skin was lighter. His back was to me and like every other hot blooded woman, I enjoyed the view of his ass. I'm pretty sure I could bounce a quarter off it.

The last was a full head shorter, had clear Latino features and tattoos on his neck, arms and face. My heart stuttered at the sight of the teardrops (I grew up in Trenton… I knew what they meant), but after talking to him for a minute (with Lester translating), I realized he wasn't a bad guy and my mind was at ease.

"He hot?" Lula asked.

I rolled my eyes. "It's more of a what rather than a who."

"I don't get it."

"My grandmother bought me a security system. They're putting it in today." I was stuck. There was no way I could get Grandma to take the money for the fine. She was too proud and probably thought of this as a gift.

"Hunh. Is the guy sexy?" She asked again.

Ranger looked up and raised an eyebrow. It was as if he could hear my conversation from across the room.

I turned around. "It's not like that."

"Maybe it should be. When was the last time you had your cookies munched?"

"What?"

"Exactly."

I rolled my eyes again. "Just hold down the fort for me today, please?"

"Sure can do. But we're going out for coffee so I can hear more of this story."

"Fine, but I can tell you now, there's nothing more."

"Yeah, right. Say that again with some conviction next time." And she hung up.

I turned back and Ranger was standing right behind me. "Jesus! Make a noise next time!"

"I didn't want to interrupt you."

I ignored the screaming voice in my head that want to ask how much he had heard. "What do you need?"

He grinned a little. "Hector and Lester are going to start outside. I'm going to put the system in."

"Like an ADT?"

He frowned now. "No. It's much better than that."

"Oh." She shrugged. "Fine."

"So you can go to work."

"And leave you guys roaming my house unwatched? Pff. No thanks."

His face lightened a little. Clearly he approved. My mother didn't raise an idiot. His eyes stayed on mine. "Where do you want me to put it?" He asked, voice low.

Eep.

Ranger's POV

"So why Trenton?" She asked a few minutes later. I was setting up the wires for the system. I grinned internally. We made ADT look like pussies. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"How do you know I'm not in Newark?"

"The card. There isn't an address, but you put Trenton, NJ on there."

She was observant. I liked that in a woman. "Why not?"

"I mean, of all the places you could set up shop, you pick Trenton. Why?"

"Why not?" I asked again.

She shrugged. "I'm sure New York has a higher crime rate. You could make more money."

"Sure, but there's more companies competing. Here, I'm the only one."

"Huh."

She was silent for a minute.

"Why security?"

"Are you going to ask questions all day?"

"Probably." She bit her lip. "Well?"

"Because it's what I'm good at."

She waited a minute. "That's it?"

"What more is there?"

"There's got to be a reason."

"Like, I grew up in the projects and my kid sister was gunned down by a gang and since I couldn't get into the police force, I started my own company to protect those who can't help themselves."

She paused. "Really?"

"No."

"Oh. That was a nice story, though."

"I'll keep that in mind." I murmured.

A minute later… "What are you doing now?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

I started to tell her about the computer inside the system and the mechanics of it when she raised her hand.

"Stop. Forget it. I don't want to know."

Over my shoulder, I gave her a grin. She crossed her arms over her shoulder and huffed. My eyes strayed from her's to look at the room. It looked comfortable and well lived in. I looked at her bookcase and noticed one of her books and smiled. She looked over, saw what I was looking at and rolled her eyes.

"My sister in California got that from one of her friends as a gag bridal party gift. They got pretty hairclips as well but she thought it was funny. She sent it to me to read it."

"And?" I asked, wondering what she thought of the book. I may not get out much, but I knew all about Fifty Shades of Grey.

I even understood the tie the bastard was wearing.

She rolled her eyes again. "It's a book. I read it and enjoyed it, but I don't get why people are going nuts over it."

I grinned at the opportunity to tease her. "You might like being handcuffed. You never know until you try it." I felt a tightening in my lower body of the image of her handcuffed and nude on my bed.

She blushed beautifully. "Maybe. I'll stick to 'vanilla' for now."

Vanilla was plain, missionary sex. I highly doubted any time spent in bed with Stephanie would be considered vanilla. I grinned and went back to work. She was silent for a few more minutes, and then left the room.

Even though she was being a bit of a pain in the ass with her questions, I didn't want her to leave.

"Hey man," Lester said when he came in. "Hector and I finished the perimeter."

I stood up and pushed Stephanie from my mind. "What do you have planned?"

"Lunch is ready, guys." Stephanie said a few hours later. She had kept to herself in the kitchen as we worked and now I knew why. The table was full of food.

"I didn't know what you guys would eat, so I made a little of everything." She said, looking a little nervous.

"This looks great!" Lester said, grabbing a plate and shoveled food onto it. "Thanks!"

"Si, gracias." Hector said.

Stephanie looked at me. She was a little more confident after the guys started to dig in, but her teeth were still biting her lip. "I figured you guys were hungry and you look like you have a lot more to do."

"Thanks, babe." I said quietly. Not many people would feed us. Some just wanted us out as soon as possible, or we had the other type. The lonely married women who were looking to share our beds. She did this because she thought we were hungry. That's it. No ulterior motive.

And looking at Lester stuff his face, you'd think we hadn't eaten in a few days.

This time, she relaxed completely. She even gave me a little smile.

Watching her dote on my men and give me that small, almost secret, smile, I knew I was a goner.

I was hers.