Thank you all for the reviews! Sorry I missed a day. Hope this makes up for it, its not long but it is longer than the first few chapters. Have a good week everyone!
I turned over in bed, it was dark but I could smell Bvlgari shower gel and my senses tingled indicating the nearness of a particular person.
"Ranger?"
"Hey Babe" I could hear the smile in his voice.
"What are you…." I was cut off as placed himself over me, a hand on either side of my shoulders holding him up so that his face was inches from mine.
"Don't talk" he kissed me hard for a moment then released my mouth, he had kissed me so hard it felt as if his lips were still pressed against mine, it felt amazing. My body instantly felt weak with pleasure.
"Just feel"
And with that his mouth was over mine again as his hand slid under my shirt and up my stomach. I let out a gasp as a flood of heat raced across my body and tingled in desire for his hands to embrace it everywhere. I felt his smile against my lips before his mouth left mine to travel down my body leaving warm pools of delight everywhere he kissed, desperately, passionately, intensely, with a desire of his own.
Our clothes were off in record time and my arms tightly wound around his neck pulling him closer as my fingers tangled in his hair.
"Ranger"
"Shh, my turn to do the talking"
"You're not talking"
"No, I'm feeling"
And with that he was inside me and I lost control. It had been so long since I had had a release and it had been entirely too long since I had Ranger. I had forgotten how easily he sent me over the edge, and just… how good….it felt.
I was completely satisfied and desiring more all at the same time. Ranger's body pressed against me, it felt amazing. Every muscle and contour of him was complete perfection. How could I have ever avoided this, pushed him away. The man naturally knew every button my body had and how to press it just right. He did not lie years ago when he told me he would ruin me for all men. This man ruined the mere idea of any other man. This is the man I wanted in my life. Regardless of how long it may last, I was desperate for any time I could have. My second orgasm was building and I followed Ranger's instructions to stop talking, stop thinking, and just feel. This time he matched my release but instead of collapsing into me he continued to lay kisses along my shoulders.
My alarm sounded near my ear, at first I tried to ignore it, Ranger seem to be doing just that. It got louder in my ear so I reached over to hit it and CRASH, fell in darkness to the floor, my sheets tangled around me. The impact felt as if I had fallen twenty feet. I blinked and looked around my room.
It was daylight outside and the sun peeked in through the blinds enough for me to see the mess of sheets around me… and my pajama bottoms securely in place. What the hell?
My brain came into focus and I let out a sigh. I really need to figure out this situation with Ranger.
Monday came quick, I spent the weekend rearranging my hand-me-down furniture and researching via my grandmother, the possible whereabouts of my Cinderella skip. The weekend viewings proved unhelpful in my search but Elsie from Bingo told Grandma that he had a sister in Newark but she was on vacation in Tuscany with her new aviation husband she met online who flew commercial airlines.
Today was the day I set aside to drive in to Newark and take a look around. I grabbed my stun gun off the charger and tossed it into my purse with my hairspray, pepper spray, and lip gloss.
Before I left I clipped on the tiny watch Ranger had given me, it was second nature at this point to put it on, no thought process just habit.
No reason to change that now.
I slung my bag over my shoulder and called Lula.
"I'm on my way"
"I need donuts, pick up some of those glazed swirls from the Tasty Pastry on your way. Oh and some of those blueberry filled kind and custard ones too. Why don't you just pick up one of each, Newark is a long drive, I might get hungry halfway there and there might not be no stores to get snacks at, we might starve to death."
"Newark is an hour drive and I-95 is not the Sahara desert." I rolled my eyes.
"You never know, we might get stranded. And some homeless guy could rob us. We could die without donuts to get us through the night."
"If we get stranded, you'll have your gun. You can shoot anyone that tries to get in the car. Besides, you'll have the donuts eaten before we get to the highway."
"That's not nice. I'm a big beautiful women, are you implying I eat too much? Because if you're implying that I eat too much you're calling me fat, and I'm not fat."
"I didn't call you fat, nor imply it. I was nearly stating your habits of eating donuts. I'll be right over, I'm leaving my parking lot now."
I pulled into the Tasty Pastry side parking lot the recently put in since the building next door burned down, Grandma Mazur heard it was a custody battle over the family dog. The wife got mad for the husband taking the dog so she burned down his clock shop. The clock shop and the husband moved out of Trenton, the wife kept the poodle.
Gloria was working the counter this morning and greeted me as I walked in.
"Lula preordered via telephone, she said you would be by to pick them up" She set two boxes on the counter and I groaned. If I didn't catch this skip soon I was going to be behind on my rent again. I handed her my credit card but she stiffened and went white. Without even looking behind me I knew who had come in the door with the gust of wind from the coolness it brought.
"You!"
Morelli's Grandma Bella.
I gave Gloria the run that card faster look and she regained focus long enough to swipe the card and hand me the receipt to sign.
"It is YOUR fault my grandson is living in SIN" She spat.
"No Bella, actually I had nothing to do with this one."
"You caused him years ago to create this life of sin he leads, you are the cause of my family's pain."
I sighed; I was not going to win this one.
Morelli's Grandma Bella blames me for Morelli's illegitimate child out of wedlock. Even though the child was conceived before Joe and I had even started dating as adults.
I had explained this to her two weeks ago when she cornered Grandma Mazur and I at the funeral home during the Bruicci viewing. Bella had given Grandma Mazur and me the eye. Grandma broke out in a rash from head to toe the next morning and was still seeing a dermatologist for lingering areas of redness. I hadn't had any symptoms that I knew of, though I could blame my indecisive and rotten couple of weeks on it if I really wanted to. But I was over that, I'm sure I had become immune to Bella's eye over the past few years while dating her grandson.
It was silly to argue with Bella once she got something stuck in her mind, she would never admit she was wrong. But I wasn't going down for the child; the child had nothing to do with me.
"I'm not the one that got someone pregnant, nor did I become pregnant. I am doing just fine and I am no longer involved in your life so you can just bug out of mine."
Ok, so the use of the word bug was a bit childish, but damnit I was sick of her games.
"Bug! You call me a Bug! Why I…" Bella was cut off by the fire alarm. Gloria must have pulled it; she never was one for conflict. Gloria was one of those people that would crawl into a corner, cover her ears, and rock back and forth humming to herself if things got really bad. I was actually quite proud of this reaction of hers.
I mouthed a quick thank you over to her, she nodded and I flew out the door and around the corner to my car not taking the time to buckle my seatbelt before speeding toward Lula's. If someone pulled me over they would understand the emergency. Everyone in Trenton feared Bella and her Italian eye.
As I pulled up in front of Lula's apartment minutes later and she was waiting by the curb.
"OOOOOh I like this car, this here is a sassy car. You got my order? I didn't think you could remember them all so I called ahead." she asked climbing into the car, taking the boxes into her lap. I couldn't even take a breath before she launched back into talking, "This is a Ranger car, you two been doin the nasty again? Because I want details, oh do I envy you. He has one fine ass and boy do he know how to pick out cars."
"No, I am not seeing Ranger. My car just spent too much time at the strip club and didn't make it out alive." I braced my shoulders in a protective stance and focused on the road.
"I don't want to know. Nope, I'm just gonna sit here and enjoy my donuts in quiet. You have too much pent up stress. Until you get laid I'm not talking to you." Lula took a bite of a glazed donut and stared out the front window.
"you won't make it that long, you can't be quiet, its physically impossible."
She chewed her donut and began to tap her foot, it was bugging her and I was right, she couldn't be quiet, it wasn't in her nature.
"Fine, but you do need to get laid. I don't care who it is, Ranger, Hal, hell you can screw Morelli for all I care. But you need to relax or you're gonna explode."
"I'm not sleeping with Morelli, he is getting married remember?"
"Yea, but that never stopped no one, men sleep with anything that moves if they are in the mood"
"No, not every man, just some men. And besides, I don't sleep with married men"
"Your choice, but you still need to have sex with someone"
"No. I don't"
"Ever since Morelli…"
"NO" I stopped her; I didn't want to hear it. My lack of sex had nothing to do with Morelli's new living arrangement. Morelli and I were over weeks before Giuliana, Gigi, came back into his life. And the child, well Gigi hadn't known who the child's father was so she had told her current boyfriend, Victor Vuletchi, that it was his. It wasn't until the boyfriend split that Gigi had a DNA test done and told Morelli. Morelli of course sent several DNA tests out but they had all came back conclusive, the child was his. He had briefly discussed raising the child from afar but Stephanie wasn't ready to commit to him and the child's mother wanted to be married. Morelli's family pushed and now in two weeks there would be a wedding.
The thought was almost settling, Stephanie felt a relief; yes she had loved Morelli, yes she had planned a future that included him, but after spending time in his hectic family life and dealing with his brother and nieces and nephews, Stephanie wasn't ready for all of that. And lately the spark just wasn't there, like in high school, she was simply falling out of love with Morelli….
"Fine, be that way. But you know I'm right. You need Ranger ruined."
"yea"
Lula's eyes shot my way.
"Oh you been havin sex dreams haven't you? You know what that means don't you? Your moons are aligned, its fate, you gotta be with him and you're running out of time."
I frowned. I didn't need moons to tell me I wanted to be with Ranger, I already knew that. What I needed was for someone to tell me if what I wanted was a life with Ranger, one without domestics because Ranger was not the domestic type. Ranger was my wild card.