These characters belong to Janet Evanovich. I do this for fun.

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Scent of a Woman

Chapter 10

She must have fallen asleep, because when Stephanie opened her eyes, it was dark in the room. Ranger was lying next to her on the bed, his warm arms wrapped around her.

"Carlos? How long have you been here?" She lazily stretched and yawned.

"A while."

"I'm sorry you had to come all the way back here. I know you had important things to do tonight."

"Being here is more important." He kissed her on the head.

Stephanie pulled herself into a sitting position on the bed. She couldn't look at him. "This is just what I didn't want to have happen. I wanted to do this job and not screw it up. How bad is it? Have I totally ruined everything?"

"Babe, nothing's ruined. Tank took care of everything. We are fine." He pulled her hands into his lap and rubbed her knuckles with his thumbs. "Hector and Hal told me what happened. Tank got a copy of the police interviews from the two women in the store. Babe, you sacrificed yourself for that young woman and her child."

Stephanie responded defensively. "Carlos, I couldn't let him take her. She was so scared. She could have miscarried or lost her life and left that beautiful little girl without her mother. That stupid boy was so nervous he could have done anything. I didn't have a choice. Are you angry with me?" Stephanie went stiff. She was waiting for the lecture that was sure to follow.

Ranger lifted her chin to look into her eyes. "I was scared, querido, not angry. You did the right thing. I'm so proud of you." He leaned forward and kissed her. He felt her instant relief. "Hector is worried about you." Stephanie looked up at him. "He says you're too calm."

"Too calm?" She questioned "What? Were they waiting for me to fall apart?" Her irritation grew. "Was I not enough entertainment today?" She hopped off the bed and started pacing. "That kid should be strung up for what he did today. He had no right to scare that woman and her child. He had no right to threaten the cashier. I offered him a great out. I had a plan, but would he listen? NOOO! He had to take us to his 'neighborhood'!" She made invisible quotations with her fingers as she continued to rant. "He had to be with his gang member friends… pawing and grabbing bastards." She rubbed her hands down her robe as if trying to remove a stain from them. "Then...he pushes me down that disgusting alley filled with garbage, and God knows what else, and has the nerve to negotiate selling me to Hector!" She stopped and looked at Ranger. Tears started falling down her cheeks. Now she was screaming. "I was nothing more than a piece of ass, being sold off. And for how much… $200? Noooo! Hector haggled him down to $100! I was marked down! I was rescued by God damned WalMart!" She was done, the tears flowed, and she dropped to the floor.

Ranger picked her up and carried her back to the bed where he held her in his lap. He was torn between his amusement at her last statement and his concern for her emotional state. He held her and soothed her with his hands and rhythmic Spanish words. She cried until there was nothing left.

"Carlos?" She asked in a tired, weepy voice.

"What, Babe?"

"Who had three days?"

"What?"

"Three days. In the pool for losing my car…who won?"

Ranger chuckled. "Babe, nobody won. Your car is in the garage. Hector went back and picked it up."

"Wasn't that dangerous?"

"Nobody was going to mess with Hector down there."

"I guess not. When he showed up to rescue me, even I had to remind myself he was on my side. He was scary."

"Do you feel better, Babe?"

"What do you mean?"

"You never came down from your adrenaline high after the robbery and hostage situation today. That's why Hector was worried. What you experienced today was very stressful, and tense." He stroked her hair. "Do you remember when Stiva abducted you, and I found you in his house locked up in that cabinet?"

Stephanie shivered at the memory. "Yes."

"I sent you back to Morelli's handcuffed to Tank, with strict instructions for you to remain there. But you didn't. You stormed away from Morelli, got into that old Buick, drove back to Stiva's house, waited for him to come home, and plowed into the back of his car when he pulled into the driveway. Then you backed up and hit him again."

Stephanie grinned. "Yeah, that felt great!"

"You needed the release." He paused for a moment. "Steph?"

"Mmmhmm."

"I would have paid more." He gave her his wolf grin.

She smiled back, and he leaned over for a kiss. It started as a series of affectionate pecks and slowly settled into something far more intimate and demanding. Ranger reached in between them and untied her robe. His touches on her skin were reverent and loving. Nothing like the crude and impersonal grabs from the gang earlier. She was safe now. He gave her reassurance of her worth. His Spanish words were no longer rhythmic and consoling. They were passionate and demanding. Desire rose in them both, and every inch of her body ached for his touch. Her hands pulled him close, and she wrapped her legs around his hips begging to feel his need. He was hard and she wanted him inside. She wanted to be his. Ranger could feel her aggression building and could sense her lack of self-control. She frantically tugged off his shirt then pushed him down to the bed, unbuttoned his pants, and pulled down the zipper. She was wild with lust as she pulled his pants down to his knees. He kicked them off and returned to her mouth. This was not a slow and tender moment anymore. It was all about taking back the control she had lost. The anger and fear she held onto were now pouring out in her actions and words.

"Oh god, Carlos. Take me hard, go deep." Her breath was ragged and demanding.

"Dios, Babe, I don't want to hurt you."

"I need you now! God damn it! Don't stop." Her voice was positively feral. She raked her nails down his chest.

Ranger didn't stop. He gave into her demands. His hands and mouth found her breasts, and her nipples hardened in response as he pulled and bit at them. He roughly grabbed her hips and lifted her onto his straining erection. She matched his aggression move for move, screaming as she forced herself down hard. And when it wasn't enough, they rolled without separating, and Ranger continued his assault from on top. Stephanie pulled him down to her and nipped at his skin repeatedly. There was a fine line between pleasure and pain and they crossed it several times in desperation to get closer. Her stomach muscles contracted with the anticipation of release as he pushed deeper with every thrust. She begged him repeatedly to never stop.

"Dios, Babe, you feel so good."

"Oh god, Carlos,...harder...go faster."

He increased the momentum, nearly crushing her with the pressure. She screamed, and when she came it was powerful and all consuming. He followed with his climax just as strong. They both were completely spent and became speechless as they tried to catch their breath. Stephanie curled over onto her side, and Ranger wrapped himself around her, tenderly rubbing his hand over her exposed hip and leg.

They lay still for several minutes before Stephanie spoke. "I don't know where that came from," she whispered, feeling a bit embarrassed. "I'm sorry I was so...aggressive. I've never felt that way before while making love."

"Babe, you were an animal." Ranger chuckled. "Don't apologize; I can handle that just fine. Any time you want to have angry sex, just let me know. You can count on me."

"Angry sex? Huh!" She rolled over to look at him. "Maybe you should wear protective gear next time."

Ranger looked at her confused. She lifted her hand and gently rubbed the bite marks left on his neck and shoulder. One of them was bleeding. She got a terrified look on her face, as the realization came to her that she might have similar marks. "Oh god, Carlos, do I have any of those marks on me? I have a date tomorrow with Andrew. I can't go out with marks on me like that." She jumped up from the bed and ran to the bathroom. She stood in front of the mirror searching her neck and shoulders. She relaxed when she found nothing. She returned to the bed to find Ranger laughing. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, Babe, you should have seen the look on your face. You looked like a teenager afraid her parents were going to catch her making out with her boyfriend."

Stephanie smiled "Well, it's not much different. How can I profess to be the innocent, grieving widow and show up with hickeys? I'm sure Andrew would frown on that. It would ruin everything." She slowly climbed up from the end of the bed and settled into Ranger's lap.

"I was very careful, but you didn't make it easy, Babe." He placed gentle kisses down her throat. "When this assignment is over, I will mark you…here…and here…and here." His kisses descended along her body.

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In the kitchen they found that Hal had prepared a wonderful lasagna and salad. Both he and Hector were gone.

"Hal may just give Ella some competition in the cooking department." Stephanie moaned as she took another bite. "This is fabulous."

"Babe, you keep making those noises and we'll have to christen the table." Ranger gave her another one of his almost smiles. Stephanie blushed.

"I know you said that Hector brought my car back here, but how was that possible? Wouldn't the police have taken it? I mean it was used as a getaway car from a robbery."

"When Hal notified the control room about your situation, I was patched in right away. We didn't know at first why you were being taken. With your history the possibilities were endless." Stephanie rolled her eyes. "When Tank confirmed with the Philly PD that it was a robbery and hostage situation that was taking place, I called Juniak and asked for a favor. I explained to him the need to keep your involvement and identity under wraps." Ranger smiled. "Juniak likes you. He made some phone calls to a couple of the higher ups he knows in the Philly PD, and they worked it out so that your role in the incident has been eliminated from the official reports. They have pictures of the suspect from the security cameras in the store and he's a frequent guest of the city lock up so identifying him was easy. By the time Hector got back to your car. The uniforms had received orders to release it to him, no questions asked."

"But didn't I show up on the security cameras? Isn't there video of me being carted off at gunpoint, by what's his name?"

"Taken care of, Babe."

"You guys are scary. I'm glad I'm on your side."

After they finished eating, Stephanie and Ranger cleared the table and loaded up the dishwasher. It was all very domestic. Stephanie cut herself a large piece of Ella's chocolate cake for dessert (Ranger grabbed an apple) and carried it out to the living room. The packages from the car had been brought into the house and were sitting on the small table in front of the couch.

"I almost forgot what I was doing earlier today." She eagerly opened the bags and pulled out some of the items she had purchased. She set the children's books on the table, took the dishes into the kitchen and added them to the dishwasher. When she returned to the living room, Ranger was holding the frames.

"What are these for, Babe?"

"Pictures." She smiled at her own one word answer. Ranger almost rolled his eyes. Stephanie picked up the file from the desk and carried it over to the couch. She pulled out the pictures of her son and husband and showed them to Ranger. "I want to put these around the house." Ranger took the photos and looked through them. He smiled at the ones of himself as a small child, but when he got to the picture that originally had been of Stephanie and him, he froze.

Stephanie noticed his reaction and sat down next to him. "I remember when that was taken, but whose face is that in place of yours? He looks a little familiar, but I can't place him."

"This is my brother Antonio, we call him Nico."

"You're brother? That explains why he looks so familiar. I can see the family resemblance now. Did you give Tank his picture?" Stephanie took a bite of cake.

"No, I didn't know about it. It was Santos' job to get this intel together. I'm sure he contacted my mother for the pictures."

"Does your mother live in Trenton?"

"Newark, she and my father still live in the house we grew up in. My brother is a doctor. He lives with his wife and kids in Atlanta." Ranger couldn't take his eyes off the picture. "I've never seen this picture of us before. It's from last Christmas isn't it?"

"Yes, the party at Rossini's."

"I remember you in that dress. I couldn't take my eyes off you. I thought you would be there with Morelli."

"Joe had to work that night. I went alone. You weren't at the party very long. Why did you leave after we danced?"

"When we danced, it was so hard not to take you home with me. You were back with Morelli. I couldn't…I needed to get some distance between us. I left for Miami the next day."

"I remember you were gone a long time." Stephanie finished her cake and set the empty plate on the table.

"I spent some time with Julie, worked out of the Miami office. It was easier."

"I'm sorry I made things hard for you. I didn't want that, you know?"

"It was my decision, Babe. I thought after we slept together, it would get you out of my system. I thought time away from you would change how I felt. I thought Morelli was the best choice for you. I've never been so wrong about so many things in my life."

Stephanie sat up tightly and turned to Ranger with her shoulders straight. "What about now. We've been together for the last few days. Is it wrong? Are we wrong?"

Ranger looked into her eyes and saw the fear building behind the bravado. She was absolutely the strongest woman he had ever known. "No, I love you Stephanie. Being with you is right. I only hope that I'm not being selfish. That you won't end up hurt because of us."

"Carlos, there are never any guarantees for our choices. We have to take some risk to get to the good stuff. If we hadn't done this, we would have always lived with the 'what if's' and the regret for never taking the chance. Right now, I'm really happy with you and beyond that, I'll take my chances with the hurt." She put her hands around his neck, pulled him close, and they kissed.

"Dios, Babe, I love you." He whispered against her lips.

"I love you too, Carlos." She set the picture frame aside and climbed into his lap. They spent the next ten minutes sharing tender kisses and words. He leaned her back onto the couch, and as her head came down on a pillow, she heard the rustling of plastic. "What's this?" She broke from the kiss, reached her hand behind her head, and pulled something out from under the pillow. It was a white plastic shopping bag. One she didn't recognize. "What's in here?"

"Hector brought that in from your car with the other packages. He said this is what you were originally after when you went into the dollar store."

Stephanie opened the bag and dumped out the contents…crayons, markers, drawing paper. "It is." She smiled. "I wanted to create some child drawings to hang on the refrigerator. Val always has stuff that the girls have drawn, hanging on the refrigerator at her house." Stephanie started giggling. "Can you imagine the expression on the cashiers face when big, tough, dangerous looking Hector, with his gang tattoos, showed up at the check out with crayons? Remind me to thank him. It had to be almost as embarrassing as if I would have sent him to buy tampons." By now Stephanie was laughing uncontrollably.

"I told you, Babe, my men love you."

Stephanie got her giggles under control and opened the box of crayons. "Mmmmm, smell this." She held up the box to Ranger's nose. "Do you remember getting your new box of crayons every fall before the new school year started? Val and I would be so excited on school supply shopping day. We would always try to convince mom to get us the big box of 64 crayons; it had the built in crayon sharpener on the back, but she always said that the 24 count box was plenty."

"Babe." Ranger's one word response completely implied that he was much to cool to have ever been excited over crayons.

"Oh come on, Carlos," she held up the picture of him as a young child, "you can't tell me that this cute little boy never got excited over new crayons. It's a right of passage for every red blooded American child, or in your case Cuban-American. Here," she handed him some paper. "Help me make some pictures for the refrigerator." She dumped some crayons onto the table and picked up a pink one. "Maybe you can dig way down deep to your inner child and give me an idea of what little boys like to draw pictures of. I don't have any experience with boys."

Ranger looked at her and raised one eyebrow. "That's not what I hear, Babe."

She slapped his arm. "Get your mind out of the gutter. You know what I'm talking about! I only have nieces."

Ranger gave her a look as if he couldn't believe he was about to participate in this. "Well, first you're going to have to drop the pink crayon, Babe. I would never have drawn with a pink crayon."

They spent the next half hour creating "boy pictures." There were pictures of fire trucks, dogs, and yes, a gun. Ranger even drew a stick figure of 'Mommy'. Stephanie opened the package of magnets and proudly displayed them on the refrigerator. She then inserted the photos into the picture frames and placed them around the living room. One on the desk, one on the end table by the wing-backed chair, and the one of her and her husband prominently displayed on the small coffee table in front of the couch.

"Babe, if you ever tell any of my men that I drew those crayon pictures…I'll…"

"You'll what, Batman?"

"I'll tell your mother that you like Ella's pineapple upside down cake better than hers. She'll never make you dessert ever again."

"It never leaves this room. I promise your secret is safe with me."

Ranger crossed the room quickly, picked her up, and carried her upstairs.

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Saturday started leisurely. Ranger and Stephanie laid in bed most of the morning making love, talking, and learning more about each other. She discovered that Ranger's favorite color was blue. His favorite movie was The Bourne Conspiracy (big shock), and when he was eight years old, he wanted to grow up to become a drummer. That one made Stephanie laugh. He had a wild bunch of teenage years, broke some serious hearts (again, no surprise.) and is alive today, he is convinced, only because the army changed his life. The army gave him focus, discipline, and skills.

Stephanie shared that she always felt second best to her sister Val, but in recent years, had developed a good relationship with her that garnered mutual respect for each other. Their lives and goals were so vastly different, but they discovered that each one secretly envied the other for what they had. Val was jealous of Stephanie's independence and freedom to do as she pleased, with no responsibilities to anyone else. Stephanie envied Val's loving relationship with her husband. Val had someone who thought the sun rose and set over her. Albert was totally devoted to her and would never think of cheating. Stephanie never had that with her relationship with either Dickie or Joe. After her divorce, she had discovered that his infidelity with Joyce was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to Dickie's affairs. She never had proof that Joe had been unfaithful when they were together, but she always suspected that he was still hung up on Terri Gilman. They had dated prior to her relationship with Joe, and, on the occasion that they would run into her, Stephanie would catch certain looks pass between them.

"Babe, I know how insecure you feel about yourself in relationships. Dickie and Joe were fools who never understood or appreciated what they had in you. I hope you know that I would never treat you that way. I will always be honest with you. I know our relationship is new, but we have known each other for years, and I respect you too much to ever deceive you that way."

"I know that, Carlos. You have always been honest with me. You are even honest about what you can't tell me. I understand that, and I'm okay with it. I just could never tolerate anyone withholding information that directly relates to me, or the people I love. I may need to be protected against physical harm, I expect and accept that to a point, but I don't ever want to be protected from knowing the truth. I mean it. Even if you thought it would be very upsetting to me."

"Stephanie, you have brought such light into the lives of me and my men. You may have to cut them some slack. They are very protective of you. They don't want to see you hurt in any way. But everyday they spend with you; they see more and more how strong you really are. They are learning that you are a force to be reckoned with. But they are trained to respond to protect first, and ask questions later, regardless of your opinion at the time."

"I can live with that for now. But be assured they will hear my opinion."

"I wouldn't have it any other way, Babe."

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