RPOV
I am sitting at my desk at the office elbow-deep in paper-work, wishing the day was over so I can spend some quality time with my Babe. We have planned a regular date night, diner at Rossini's then a movie at the complex in the mall.
I am brought out of my day-dreams by Tank's booming voice.
"Yo, Ric, you were miles away. What are you still doing here anyway?"
"Trying to get some of this paperwork caught up. We really should hire someone to do this shit for us."
"No argument from me on that man. I thought you had a date tonight. It's almost 18:00."
"Damn! I need to get ready. We have reservations at Rossini's for 19:00. Take care of things while I'm gone. I'm off-line till 06:00 in the morning."
"Huahhhhhh!"
I ride the elevator up to 7 and enter my apartment. I head to the bathroom to take the quickest shower in history. After I am squeaky clean, I exit the shower and dry off.
I go to the dressing room next and choose my clothes for the night. I opt for a pair of black dress pants, dark blue silk button-up shirt, dress socks, and my black leather dress shoes.
I pick up my wallet and keys from the bedside table on my way out the door. It is a 18:35 by now, I need to get my ass over to Steph's.
After climbing into my truck in the garage, I hit the streets. It doesn't take me long to get to Steph's place. I pull into her parking lot at 18:48.
I walk across the parking lot and make my way into her building and up to her apartment on the 2nd floor. I use my key to let myself in.
"Babe, I'm here, you almost ready? We need to get going."
"On my way out, I am ready, I'm coming." She calls back to me from the vicinity of her bedroom.
When she appears in the living room, she takes my breath away. She is wearing a short, low-cut, deep blood red dress that hugs her every curve.
"You look fabulous, babe." I tell her honestly.
"Thanks. Our reservation is at 7 right?" She asks.
"Yes, we need to get going or we will be late." I reply.
She smiles up at me and nods her head. She grabs her purse from the sofa and we head out.
Good thing we made all the stop lights, and arrive at Rossini's with two minutes to spare. We quickly make our way to the door and enter. I tell the hostess the name on our reservation.
"Manoso, for 7:00, reservation for two."
"Yes sir, right this way please."
The hostess leads us to a quiet table in the corner, just like I like it. I pull Steph's chair out for her and take my seat with my back to the wall. Habit.
The waitress stops at our table and takes our drink and dinner orders.
"I'll have the grilled salmon and a salad please, with water to drink, and also a bottle of red wine. What would you like babe?"
"I'll take lasagna, a side salad, and garlic bread please."
"Great, I'll get these orders to the kitchen, and I'll be back with your wine in a moment. Enjoy your meal." The waitress says.
A minute or so later she returns with our wine and pours me the "tasting" sip in my glass. I lift my glass, sniff the wine, swirl it around some and finally take a sip. I nod my acceptance and she pours Steph a glass and refills mine before she walks away.
Steph picks up a breadstick from the basket in the center of the table and starts munching. She swallows her first bite, then speaks.
"This is nice. It's been a long time since I went out on a real date."
"All that is going to change now, babe. I intend on taking you out quite a bit and spoiling you rotten to boot." I tell her.
She smiles across the table at me as she continues to eat her breadstick. It is at that moment when the waitress arrives with our meals.
Steph doesn't hesitate to start to dig in and enjoy her lasagna, moaning through every bite. I groan and shift in my seat. What this woman does to me!
After we finish our meals, Steph asks.
"So what's for desert?"
I look across at her with lust in my eyes. I wolf-grin at her as I say.
"Tiramisu, to go."
As she understands my meaning, she blushes brightly. She is so attractive when she blushes.
When the waitress picks up our dirty dishes, I tell her to box up an order or two of tiramisu for us.
She returns minutes later with our dessert and the check. I quickly hand her my credit card. She returns again in a minute or so with the receipt for me to sign.
We are done now and on our way out the door within seconds, in the truck soon after, and shortly after that pulling up in her apartment parking lot.
"Wait, we were supposed to go see a movie too, weren't we?" Steph inquires.
"Later." I growl out.
I lead her up to her apartment and do my standard security check. After declaring everything is clear, I close and lock the door. Steph has stepped into the living room and is putting her purse down on the coffee table.
I walk up to her and grab her from behind. I spin her around in my arms and begin to kiss her senseless. I pull her tighter in my arms. She responds to my kisses by wrapping her legs around my waist.
I start walking us to her bedroom. When my legs hit the edge of the bed, I gently lay Steph down on the comforter. We swiftly are removing each other's clothes.
I cannot control myself any longer, I am inside her within moments. She gasps out in surprise and desire. I am bringing us both to ecstasy within a few minutes.
I gather her up in my arms and hold her close afterward. We lie quiet and still for a few minutes to regain our breath. I notice Steph's breathing pattern slow down and regulate, yepp she's asleep.
OK, since I'm off line I decide to take a nap myself. I have plans for my babe later, multiple plans for multiple rounds. I close my eyes and easily drop off.
I am jolted awake hours later by the ringing of a phone. I know it's not either on of our cell phones, they are Rangeman issue and have a particular ring tone, even though Steph has reset hers. I still know what her's sounds like. This ringing sounds more like her house phone.
Sure enough it's her cordless phone on her beside table that is ringing. Steph sits up and reaches over to answer it.
"Hello." She pauses to listen to the other end. She is scrunching her brow and listening intently. "Who is this?!"
She is starting to look agitated now. I see her face turn ashen white then tears begin to fall down her lovely face.
"Who is this! Why are you doing this? Stop it please!"
"Babe, what's wrong?"
She drops the phone onto the bed and runs to the bathroom. I pick the phone up and bring it to my ear. I listen for a moment and what I hear sickens me.
I am hearing the sounds of a woman being tortured. He cries and screams of pain and a devious laughter in the background. I try to find out who it is myself, but they hang up after hearing my voice. I replace the phone on the charger and get up to go check on Steph in the bathroom.
I knock on the door gently before I enter. I speak slowly and quietly so as not to startle Steph.
"Babe, what's wrong? Who was that on the phone? Are you alright?"
She is sitting on the floor by the toilet and has obviously been sick. She is also still crying softly. I allow her time to calm down. She takes some time to regain her composure then she finally speaks.
"That poor woman, I don't know who she was, but I know she was in trouble. That sick bastard was raping and torturing her as I listened."
"Do you know who it was?" I ask her.
"Y... Y... yes, when I first picked up I recognized the voice. I would know his voice anywhere. Sick son-of-a-bitch!"
"Babe, who was it?"
"It was Ramirez! I also recognized that sick childish laugh of his." She cries.
"I know he mistreats women, but we could never find enough evidence to get him arrested. His manager always hushes up the victims for him. We may never be able to get charges to stick to him." I tell her regretfully.
"We have to try! I have an answering machine on my phone. The next time he calls, we'll record him."
"Babe, what makes you think he'll call you the next time he attacks?"
"I have a feeling. He enjoyed it when I was listening, got him off. Of course he'll call me again. It's his sick way of having fun. He gets off on the torture of women and that's his way of torturing me!"
"OK babe, I believe you. We'll do it your way." I re-assure her as I hold her in my arms rocking her.
"Let's go to the kitchen and get you a drink, I hope you have some hard stuff, you're gonna need it." I say.
She nods her head and slowly rises, flushing the toilet and making her way to the sink to brush her teeth and rinse her mouth.
"I think I have a part of a bottle of Jack Daniels in the cabinet above the fridge. Grandma Mazur left it when she stayed with me for the weekend a few months ago." She tells me on the way to the kitchen.
I look in the cabinet she told me to and find a small amount of Jack left in a bottle. 'It will have to do', I think to myself as I pour it into a glass for Steph.
Steph looks at me with tears in her eyes again as she takes the glass from me and sips at the dark liquid. She coughs a bit as the first sip goes down. The next one, the last one, goes down smoother I can tell.
"How do you feel now?" I ask her.
"Better, except for my throat being on fire now." She giggles.
"Good, you think you can go back to sleep now? Or should I call Bobby to bring you something to help you sleep?"
"No, don't bother Bobby, I think I'll be able to go to sleep by myself, as long as you stay and hold me through the night that is."
"Done." I tell her as I walk her back to the bedroom.
We snuggle back together under the covers and I pull her tightly to me, her back to my front. I let her know before we drift off.
"We should pay a visit to Ramirez's manager tomorrow. His name is Jimmy Alpha. His office is above the gym on Stark. We'll go see him and apply some pressure."
"M'kay." I hear her reply groggily.
I chuckle to myself and tell her to go to sleep and we'll talk about it more in the morning. I cuddle up against her and draw in the scent of her hair as I close my eyes and join her in oblivion.
Thenextday ...
I woke up to the feeling of tender butterfly kisses along my neck and shoulder. I growl out loud as I wake completely and open my eyes to see Steph's bright blue ones staring back at me.
"You keep that up and we will be having breakfast extremely late this morning, babe."
"You tease." She jokes as she bounds out of bed and darts toward the bathroom, naked and making me groan again and making my dick show it's approval for her state of undress.
I jump up and follow her to the shower. How did she get the water started and get in so damn fast?! I wonder.
I open the shower curtain and join her underneath the water. 45 satisfying minutes later we are drying off and getting dressed for the day.
"Let's go talk to Alpha and get that over with. I'm really not looking forward to meeting him." Steph says after we are dressed and on our way to out the front door.
We pile into my truck, buckle up, and I start the drive over to Stark street. I park a block away from the gym entrance. We get out of the truck and make our way up the staircase turning to the right to Alpha's office instead of left to the gym.
I raise my hand and knock forcefully on the door to his office. I hear his squeaky voice reply.
"Come in."
I straighten my posture and open the door. Alpha is sitting behind his desk and when he looks up from his papers to see me, his face falls and darkens considerably. Good, he's scared!
"Ranger, good to see you. How can I help you today? Want to make a bet on the champ's next fight?" He asks.
"No. I only bet on sure things now-a-days. But I did come to talk to you about Benito."
"What do you want to know?"
"Not what I want to know, it's what he's doing again. He called Steph at her house last night while he was raping and torturing a woman. You need to get him under control Alpha. Or I will!"
"No, don't do that! Leave him be, he don't know what he's doing. He's a good kid, just has a thing for the ladies. I'll get him some help, I promise!"
"Fine. But if he ever contacts Steph again, all bets are off!"
"Yea, sure, fine, ok, ok, I'll do it."
"Please, Mr. Alpha, do it, get him the help he so desperately needs." Steph begs him after I make the introductions.
"I swear I will Ms. Plum." Alpha answers her.
"Thank-you." She replies.
I nod my head in Alpha's direction then turn us to the door to leave.
We go back out and hop in the truck. I turn and ask Steph.
"Where to now, babe?"
"I got to go by the bond's office and see if Connie has anything for me, then I'm going to have lunch at my parent's. Want to join me?" She asks with a grin.
"I'll pass this time babe, but I'll drop you at your apartment so you can get your SUV and handle your business. I have meetings all afternoon, so I'll be busy for the whole day."
"OK, Ric, drive on then." She laughs.
I drive over to her apartment and drop her off at the parking lot and her vehicle. I give her a kiss good-bye and we go our separate ways.
I think to myself as I pull away from her building. 'Till next time babe.'
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A/N : Please continue to let me know how I'm doing and if there is anything you want to see in upcoming chapters. I enjoy your words immensely. Rain (Jackie)