Chapter Seventeen
Ranger POV
Looking back, I think the moment I fell in love with Stephanie Plum was when she thanked me for making her feel safe. Not that she needed to thank me, of course. It was my privilege to protect her and that she felt safe was my reward. I would never shirk that duty and if she'd accept me, I'd gladly make a promise to love her forever.
We slept entwined that night and even as I slept, I relished the feeling of her draped over me. When dawn came, I didn't want to get up to go to the gym, but if I didn't get out of bed, I may never want to leave it again. With a slight sigh, I carefully extracted myself from beneath Steph's beautiful body, placing a soft kiss on her shoulder, and went into the bathroom to take care of business. I dressed swiftly and made my way to the third-floor gym, warming up quickly before stepping onto the treadmill for my customary eight-mile run. After the run, I lifted weights and an hour later, I decided against the normal shower in the gym's locker room, opting to wait until I was back in the penthouse. Perhaps Steph would be awake now and she'd join me in there. I felt my groin tighten as I trotted up the stairs. Checking the bedroom, I found Steph in the same position I left her. Chuckling softly to myself, I took a cold shower and willed myself to calm down.
After drying off, I slid back into the bed and gathered her against me, content to hold her for a little while until she awoke. Fifteen minutes later, she murmured in her sleep, turned to face my direction, and stretched against me, hardening me instantly. I ran my fingers lightly down her arm as she came into consciousness slowly. I felt it when she realized where she was and who she was with. When she smiled at me, my heart shattered, and it was all I could do to maintain my composure.
"Good morning," she said in that husky, first-thing-in-the-morning voice of hers.
"Good morning," I murmured, taking the opportunity to kiss her. She smiled against my lips and took the kiss deeper, moaning in my mouth. I hadn't redressed after my shower, and soon enough she was running her hands all over my body, pulling me on top of her. I tried to keep my weight off her, but she held me pressed down against her as she spread her legs to accommodate me.
"Carlos, I want to feel your entire body against me, I want you inside me. Now." Unable to resist her, I quickly rolled a condom on and slid into her, finding her wet and ready. Her gasps and moans were urging me on, as were her thrusts upwards to meet me and she ran her fingernails down my back until she reached my butt. She gripped me tightly, clenching and moaning, "faster, please." I quickened my pace, plunging into her again and again until she screamed as her climax overtook her. A few thrusts later, my voice was guttural as I groaned her name during my own orgasm.
I rolled off her and disposed of the condom in the wastebasket in the bathroom before rejoining her and pulling her to me. She kissed me before erupting into giggles. "What a way to wake up," she said. "I could get used to that."
I tightened my squeeze and said, "me too, babe." And it was only a little scary how easily that image came to me.
Stephanie POV
After snuggling with Carlos for a few more minutes, I got up to have a shower. He had already had one so while I washed, he shaved, wearing only a towel slung low on his hips.
When I got out of his amazing, oversized shower, smelling like his shower gel, he had a towel ready for me and gently patted me dry, laying kisses over my exposed skin. I had never felt so cared for in my entire life, and I had to bite my lip to prevent myself from declaring my love for him at that moment, not wanting to scare him off by moving too fast.
When we moved to his walk-in-closet, I paused when I realized the only clothing I had with me was my dress from last night. Hmm. I didn't really want to wear that down to my apartment, giving the control room private information about where I had spent the night. Carlos appeared to notice my dilemma and he said, "I'll take care of it." He went into the bedroom and came back a moment later, saying, "Ella will bring you clothes in a few minutes. She'll be discreet." He kissed my forehead.
Oh god, Ella. I had really grown close to her, and I felt embarrassed that she would know what happened with Carlos. I wasn't ashamed exactly, but since I had been alone for so many years, I wasn't used to having my business out there. Privacy had been a given, not that there was much to be private about.
A few minutes later, I heard the front door open, and Ella called down the hallway, "I took your laundry from your apartment, Stephanie, and brought some clean clothes for you too. I'll leave them here for you on the hallway table." When I heard the door open and close again, I hurried out and grabbed my clothes. Dressing quickly, I headed back into the bathroom to do something with my hair, so it wasn't a horror show all day. Carlos didn't have a hair dryer, so I towel-dried it and put it up in a ponytail. I always had a stash of those in my bag since my hair sometimes needed to be corralled.
When I was done, I went to find Carlos. Evidently, Ella had also brought breakfast for us because he was just finishing laying out breakfast, consisting of an omelet and fresh cut fruit for each of us. He had poured us each glasses of juice and everything was sitting on his kitchen's breakfast bar.
He pulled out a stool for me and waited for me to sit before he sat on his own stool.
"The guys aren't going to talk about us, right?" I asked as I dug into my breakfast.
"They better not, if they want to avoid a beating," he said. I hoped he was joking, but his face was serious. "They won't talk about us, babe. I'm sure at least some of them know we've been dating for the last six weeks, and you've never heard them talk about that, have you?"
"No," I acquiesced. I guess I wouldn't worry about it. At least I knew it wouldn't be the malicious gossip from the 'Burg of my adolescence.
"You have your field readiness test this morning, right, babe?"
I nodded. "Yep, test day is finally here. Tank has been rubbing his hands gleefully in anticipation." I laughed. "I'm going to be ready. The guys have all been helping me prepare. I'm determined to get at least 70 points in each section."
Carlos smiled. "You're going to do great. Do you mind if I come watch?"
"If you want," I shrugged. "I can't see how it's going to be all that interesting, but it's up to you."
He nuzzled my neck and kissed me below the ear, making me shiver. "Watching you kick ass is very arousing, babe, and now I don't have to take a cold shower instead of showing you how much you turn me on." If I didn't have to go to work in half an hour, I would have dragged Carlos back to his bed.
Thirty minutes later, we went downstairs to the fifth floor. Carlos disabled the elevator camera again and gave me a soft, lingering kiss in the elevator before the doors opened onto the fifth floor. He patted my butt before I walked off the elevator and then he went to his office while I went through to the control room.
I popped into Tank's office and waved hello before proceeding into my own office. I put my purse in the desk drawer I had emptied out for just that purpose, then went out into the control room.
Hal and Zero grinned at me and Hal asked, "you ready for today, Steph?"
Zero scoffed. "Of course she's ready, we've been working with her for weeks. What does it say about your own skills if you have to ask her if she's ready?"
Hal cuffed him lightly across the back of the head and said, "zip it," to Zero.
I laughed at their interplay and said, "no worries, guys, I'm ready. Then the streets better watch out!"
Thirty minutes later, Tank found me still in the control room, though by now Lester, Woody, Hal, Zip, Cal, and Hector had joined me. Hector and I had been spending some time together in his IT lair in the basement, and we'd gotten quite close. My Spanish had gotten a lot less rusty because we spent most of our time conversing in his native language. Somehow, we'd still managed to keep our newfound friendship a secret.
"Steph, you ready?" Tank asked.
"Yep, let's do it!" I was pumped. We all made our way down the stairs towards the gym, all except Hal and Zero who were on monitor shifts. I had no doubt they'd watch what they could on the camera feeds though. When I arrived in the gym, Carlos was already there and he gave me a nod, a slight twinkle in his eye.
Tank said, "if you want to get changed in the changing room, it'll be empty now and we'll make sure it stays that way."
I changed into my workout clothes and came back to start stretching on the mats. When I was done stretching, I looked around and saw all the men standing around waiting. Tank said, "ready?"
I nodded and asked, "what first?"
He shrugged and replied, "your choice."
"Pushups then," I decided.
I dropped to the mat and got into position. I looked up at Tank who had pulled out a stopwatch. When he nodded, I began and he pressed the start button. The first twenty went pretty well and then I began to lag a bit. By the end of the two minute testing period, I had managed to eke out 26 pushups, scoring seventy one, one past my personal goal of seventy and eleven more than the minimum score.
I stood up and took a sip of water from my bottle, then looked expectantly at Tank. He merely looked at me with a raised brow. I let out a sigh, then sat down on the mat with my legs extended in front of me. He said, "you can have someone hold your ankles if you want." I nodded then looked around, catching Hector's eye. He nodded and moved over to kneel in front of me, ready to go when I was.
I lay down and brought my legs up to plant my feet firmly on the mat. After a beat, I began doing the situps. I didn't dislike these like the pushups, but I didn't love them either. I managed to perform about sixty in the two minutes, which I was kinda proud of. That made my points tally for this round seventy-six, which was over my personal goal and well above the minimum standards.
Hector helped me up off the mat and gave me a wordless high-five, grinning widely as he did.
I moved over to the treadmill and all the men followed. I looked over at Carlos and he winked at me. He knew how much I hated running but he had told me every time I finished a run on the treadmill how much I'd appreciate being able to someday. I set up the program on the machine and looked over at Tank to make sure he was ready with the stopwatch. All I had to do was two miles, I kept telling myself. And in line with my seventy-point goal, I had just over nineteen minutes to do so. In my practice runs, I had achieved that so unless something catastrophic happened, it shouldn't be an issue. I started the treadmill and Tank hit the button on his stopwatch. I kept my pace steady, not too fast and not too slow. Eighteen minutes and two seconds later, I finished. I didn't know off-hand how many points that was, but I thought it was in the eighties. Tank stopped the watch, beaming, and lifted me off the treadmill and whirled me around.
"Eighty-five, Little Girl," he said in his booming voice. "Congratulations, you're nearly field-certified now."
He let me down and I did a little happy dance. All the men in the room congratulated me, giving me high fives. Lester gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek, saying, "I knew you could do it, Beautiful." I saw Carlos' narrow his eyes when Lester kissed me, but he didn't say anything. He knew Lester and I got along really well and spent a lot of time together on sales calls, but I only saw Lester as a younger brother.
Carlos cleared his throat and said in his quiet and commanding voice, "all right, men, back to work." All the men started to disburse immediately.
Tank looked over at me, then at Carlos, and smiled and shook his head. "Great job, Steph. In about an hour, we'll certify you in firearms, but I'm not worried and you shouldn't be either." He left the gym, leaving Carlos and me alone.
Carlos gathered me in his arms and gave me a hug, then kissed me on the forehead and said, "proud of you, babe."