Chapter Six

The last restaurant was on the third floor of the hotel, with a wall of windows that overlooked the ocean. It was expensive. Black and polished with an hour long wait just for a seat at the bar. It had taken some finesse to get a table with only two hours notice. A fair amount of charm and a generous tip. Nothing he couldn't handle.

He spoke to the maitre d and tipped him too. The man nodded and led them to the quiet booth near the terrace that he'd asked for. He pulled Steph onto the bench seat next to him and eased an arm around her shoulders.

He didn't bother looking at the menu. Steph was the one who ate dessert. Loved it, in fact. Sometimes he suspected that if Steph had to choose forever between dessert and sex, she might just choose dessert.

Her body warmed and he heard the subtle change in her breathing that usually meant she was getting aroused. For a second he wondered if she'd read his thoughts. He leaned toward her and slid a hand onto her knee under the table. "Babe. What are you thinking about? Because I swear you're body temperature just jumped up a couple degrees."

She didn't answer. Didn't seem able. She took in a deep breath and let it out with a little quiver. Probably getting even more turned on by the shower gel she liked so much. Thank God for his housekeeper's taste in bath products.

He slid his hand further up her knee, flirting with the edge of her skirt. "Are you sure you want to wait for dessert?" he asked, his eyes dropping to her mouth.

Someone approached the table and the spell broke, stealing Steph's attention away. "Ah. This is why I adore these retreats. It's wonderful to see young couples so in love."

Ranger turned a hard eye on the middle-aged Spaniard in the black waiter's uniform, his annoyance only thinly veiled with a charming smile. The Spaniard didn't notice, though. He only had eyes for Stephanie.

Smart man.

He asked if they were ready to order and Steph looked up at Ranger. Maybe wondering if he was going to make her choose between chocolate and sex. Of course, he never would. He was used to playing the long game with Stephanie. Bidding his time while he waited for the right moment. It made the anticipation part of the fun. Plus, if he did try to make her choose, he wasn't entirely sure he would win.

He shrugged. "Whatever you want, Babe."

She looked down at the menu again and he could see it when temptation got the better of her. "The espresso fudge crème brulee looks amazing."

"It is one of our more popular desserts. And you sir?"

"Coffee will be fine."

"Very good, sir. And may I say, your wife is very beautiful. You're a lucky man."

Ranger looked down and was met with those stunning blue eyes of hers. "Some days more than others."

"Ah. And that is the secret to a long, happy marriage, yes? To take life one day at a time. And of course, a date now and then to keep the fires burning." The waiter beamed at them once more and nodded into a bow before he turned to leave.

Steph watched him go for a second before she looked up at Ranger again. "Do you think that's true?"

"Hard to say," he said, tracing a finger along her bare arm. "Were you able to get the room number?"

It wasn't lost on her that he'd changed the subject, but she didn't call him on it. In a small way, she looked relieved. Given the turn their conversation had taken earlier at the beach, it was probably best to avoid the topic of marriage altogether. Especially since neither of them was really qualified to discuss any kind of marriage that was happy. Or long.

Steph's first marriage hadn't been ideal. She'd been too young. Too eager to fill that role of housewife that had been laid out for her by every matriarch that ever presided over a traditional family. If Morelli was an ass sometimes, Stephanie's ex husband was the king of all douche bags. He hadn't let a little thing like promising love and fidelity to an incredible woman slow down his sex life. Which meant when she caught him on their new dining room table with her least favorite psychopath, things flamed out in a divorce that Ranger was still hearing gossip about a decade later.

Fortunately for Ranger, he'd been spared spending a significant amount of time with Dickie Orr. That was fortunate for Dickie, too. Unlike Morelli, Ranger wasn't bound to the strict code of conduct dictated by law enforcement. In Ranger's house, accidents involving broken noses happened from time to time.

His own divorce had been cheerful by comparison. The marriage itself had been little more than a formality. He'd known Rachel since high school. They hadn't been friends exactly. Didn't travel in the same circles. He'd been a bit of a loner, keeping mostly to himself after he'd been sent to live with his grandmother in Miami. Partly because he hadn't bothered making many friends. Partly because word got out that he'd gone to juvie for stealing a car back in Trenton. It had labeled him a bad boy. A title he'd worn the hell out of. Still did.

Years later, after he'd dropped out of college to join the army, he ran into Rachel in a bar one night on leave. One thing led to another. It wasn't until he'd been redeployed that he found out she was pregnant. Next chance he got, he went back to Miami and did right by her. Put a ring on her finger and sealed it in front of a judge. Stayed married just long enough to give their daughter his name.

It had been what Rachel had wanted. She found a nice guy a few years later, got married again. She invited Ranger to visit a few times a year. He sent Julie birthday and Christmas presents. It was a consolation that they were happy. It was all he could really hope for, considering.

He watched Steph for a long time, her thoughts only barely readable. He wondered idly what she needed to be happy.

Steph shifted a little in her seat, letting her thoughts circle around again. "Yeah," she finally managed to answer. "Sort of. It was some kind of shorthand, though. I don't think it was in the main hotel."

"That's possible. There are also villas, condos, and a few different clusters of cottages spread throughout the resort. What did you see?"

"C E 6."

"Sounds like it might be a cottage."

"That's what I was thinking. Do you know where that is?"

"Not yet," he said, tracing his fingers along the nape of her neck. "How would you like to take a long stroll in the moonlight? Might get lucky."

"You're still talking about the hunt, right?"

"Babe, I'm always talking about the hunt."

o o o

Steph had enjoyed her dessert with an almost indecent amount of enthusiasm. He'd been pretty entertained watching her. He inspired similar faces sometimes.

She put the last spoonful in her mouth and gagged. Ranger was confused a second before he followed her eye line. Tootie Ruguzzi was standing with the maitre d. Looked like she was making reservations. Steph had gone still beside him.

"We should do something," she whispered.

"If you get up now you'll cause a scene and it'll be harder to follow her later. Let her go. We'll pick her up again."

"But she's right there!"

"And she'll be right there again when we run her to ground," he said, stroking her neck, hoping to calm her down. "We'll do some recon. Track her the old fashioned way." He leaned into her and kissed just below her ear, feeling the hum that moved through her already excited body. "It'll be fun."

Tootie nodded to the maître d with a smile and started for the elevators. It took a good deal of Steph's will power not to dart after her.

More willpower than she had.

She wriggled out from under his arm and got to her feet. "I'm going after her."

"Babe. We still have to pay the check. By the time we're through here she'll be long gone."

"Then you can catch up," she said, and hurried for the front doors. He tried to stop her, but she was too fast. And running after her would cause the same scene he'd just advised her to avoid.

Why did she never listen to him?

He waved down the waiter and called the Rangeman control room, grateful that he'd had the foresight to tag Steph's bag, and that she was enough of a girl to have taken it with her. He handed his card to the waiter. "Run this quickly. There's somewhere I have to be."

The Spaniard frowned. "Is your wife ill?"

"My wife is fine, she just had to run ahead and I need to catch up to her."

The Spaniard finally understood and hurried away. The phone had stopped ringing while he was talking. Tank was on the other line. If Tank thought the conversation was odd, he didn't say it.

"I need Stephanie's 20," Ranger told him. "We were separated and I'd like to find her."

The line was silent while Tank checked with the control room. It was three in the morning in Trenton, but that didn't slow them down. Tank was back a full minute before the waiter. "She just walked out of the hotel's southern doors, heading east onto the grounds. Looks from satellite imaging to be a garden."

"Call me if she changes direction." He disconnected, finished with the waiter and was striding to the stairwell a few seconds later. He didn't have to push through the crowded lobby. Most people saw him coming and parted enough to let him through. One of the advantages of a dangerous image.

He waited until he had vanished into the shadows before he pulled his gun. The garden was silent. Barely visible in the moonlight. He listened for the slightest sound. A rustle of leaves. An errant breath. There was a presence up ahead. Hard to tell who it might be. He crept through the garden until he was near enough to hear footsteps. Two sets. The feet ahead paused and the figure in front of him stopped in her tracks, her fair skin and white dress shining like an apparition in the moonlight.

She went to take a step forward and he snatched her out of the air, dragging her back into the shelter of hedges. It only took her a second to recognize him. The tension went out of her and he let his hand fall off her mouth, resting it on her collar just over her breast. "That was a reckless move, Babe."

"I was being careful!"

"Not careful enough. You're alone in the dark, unguarded and unarmed."

"You don't think I can chase Tootie without you? That's insulting."

"Babe, I know you're perfectly capable of dogging Tootie or any number of targets all on your own, but the pot of gold at the end of this particular rainbow aerates brains for a living, and I like your head the way it is."

That seemed to reach her. A little more starch fell out of her posture. "How'd you even find her? I thought you said it would be hard if she had a lead like that."

"I didn't find her, I found you. I had the Rangeman control room call up your signal the second you started running."

"But the GPS unit is in my other purse."

"I moved it while you were getting dressed."

"You've gotta stop doing that."

He held her tighter, brushing his smile along her neck until he felt her shiver. "Do you really want me to stop?"

"Would it make a difference if I said yes?"

"I doubt it."

"Tootie's getting away." It was a halfhearted complaint. They both knew it. If he really wanted to, he could have easily talked her into forgetting the whole thing. Too bad she was right.

"She's only fifty feet ahead of us," he said, kissing her in the hollow between her neck and shoulder before he let her go. He kept his arm around her waist and pulled her to his side. "If we get spotted by her or anyone else, you're wasted."

"Giggly wasted or can't walk straight wasted?"

"Play it by ear."

Ranger tucked his gun away when they reached the edge of the garden. They couldn't see Tootie anymore, but he knew she was ahead of them. There hadn't been any obvious place she could have taken a detour, and the growing lights from a cluster of cottages ahead made it likely that was where she was headed.

They caught up to her on the path. Tootie was wandering slowly now that she was out of the shadowed garden. Taking her time. All they had to do was keep their distance and she should lead them right to The Rug.

Tootie paused mid step. She'd sensed their presence. She turned on the spot to look back at them. If he'd been alone he would have been able to slip into the shadows without being seen, but there was no way Steph would be able to move that fast. That left one option. Be invisible by not being invisible. He reached down and grabbed her ass.

Steph yelped in genuine surprise before she caught on, giving him a playful shove. "Be nice!"

"Oh, I'll be nice," he answered, catching her around the waist. He lifted her up until her feet were dangling off the ground and carried her to the nearest cottage, pressing her back to the front door. An inebriated new husband who couldn't even wait long enough to get inside to start taking his wife's clothes off. He leaned into Steph and nibbled her neck, hiding his face as best he could while still keeping an eye on Tootie. It was a risky play. It would make them memorable if she got a good look. If she saw them too often, she might not buy it as coincidence, even if she thought they were neighbors.

Tootie looked at them a second, and then shook her head a little and continued on her way.

Ranger pulled back so they could follow her, but Steph caught his neck. That was when he realized the shallow way she was breathing, her fists clenched to the collar of his shirt. Tootie a distant memory.

That sounded good to him.

Ranger moved into her again, and this time he had only one thing in mind. His kiss was deep and intense, his hands touching every part of her he could through the thin lace. He caught her knee and pulled her around his hip, opening her up so that he could sink into her, his hand searching up her bare thigh beneath her skirt like he'd been wanting since he'd first seen the dress. She made a little whimpering sound and he nearly lost control.

The door behind her back flew open and it was only his instincts and the arm around her waist that kept her from falling. He scooped her up and held her against him. The man behind the door wasn't in any way amused to find a pair of newlyweds practically making love against the front of his vacation cottage. "Do you mind?"

"Sorry!" Steph gasped, adding a light slur to her giggle so that she sounded drunker than she was. "I guess we got a little lost. I'm so sorry."

Ranger looped an arm around her waist with a huge grin and swept her away from the door. The man shook his head, but didn't make any more issue of it.

Ranger set her feet back on the path, an arm still around her waist. Steph was a train wreck in a lot of ways, but every once in a while, she did things that really impressed him. He didn't know how much of it was luck and how much was raw talent and intuition. Either way, he'd learned a long time ago that she could hold her own in an investigation. Sometimes she'd even have insight he didn't. It was what made her his favorite partner.

He smiled, letting his hand roam over her waist. Hell, if it weren't for the fact she got flustered so easily, she might have made a decent spy.

"Did you see where Tootie went?" she asked him, breaking his thoughts.

"Only for a minute. She turned a corner and I was about to suggest we follow her when your priorities changed." He let his eyes wander down her back, his hand moving over her ass again. "You still want to follow her? Because I'm ready to go home and pull this dress off of you."

She considered that for a moment. Probably sounded like a good idea to her too. "Just one more try. We should find out where we are. See if it matches the shorthand for Terron."

"Alright. I'm game. But it's going to cost you."

She looked up at him with a flirty smile. "Promise?"

God, she was fun.

She skipped ahead of him like she thought he was going to catch her and make her change her mind about following Tootie. He couldn't say the thought hadn't occurred to him, but there was something sexy about watching Steph on a hunt. There always had been. She came alive when she was prying open a mystery. And the triumph in her eyes when she figured it out? He's never seen a better aphrodisiac.

He caught her hand, but didn't pull her back. He just let her lead the way onto the next path of cottages that would lead down toward the bay.

There was movement ahead. Ranger caught her waist and whisked her off the path into the shadows between cottages 9 and 10, pressing her into his body. He looked down at her face in the darkness. Her pale eyes gleaming in what little light found them through the trees. He put a hand on his gun and waited. The shadow of a man crossed under the lights and came to a stop just outside of their influence. Ranger watched him carefully, too aware of the way Steph tensed. The man scanned the trees around them, and then the buildings. Then he moved on.

Steph let out a harried breath. Ranger laughed softly. Steph had a few God given talents, but handling danger wasn't one of them. She'd been a bounty hunter for a few years. Most people doing the job would have reached a certain professionalism by now. Usually became harder and just a little jaded. Not Steph. There were still ways in which she was a complete novice.

Of course, there would never come a time when she would be as good at handling danger as he was. He was special like that. Even when he had a gun pointed at his head and he knew death was an exhale away, his breathing was still slow and even, his heart steady.

There were some advantages to having lived his life. Nothing scared him anymore.

He looked down at Steph's face in the filtered moonlight. Well. Almost nothing.

He took her hand and led the way into the shadows, staying to the bushes so they wouldn't be noticed. She moved her hand to the small of his back. She was more conspicuous than he was. He melted into the darkness in his all black suit, only the slight glint of his black gun catching the light. Steph was practically glowing.

He stepped in front of her and put a second hand on his weapon. He was counting the buildings. They'd passed cottages 10 and 9. He crept up to the private yard behind 8 and then passed it by. Some of the cottages were occupied. Hard to tell if the others were vacant or if their occupants just weren't home.

Somewhere between 8 and 7, Steph's hand slipped down past his belt and onto his ass. Ranger paused, a grin lifting his face. He turned to look at her in the darkness. "Babe."

She offered him an exaggerated shrug, an innocent look on her face. "Sorry."

They both noticed that she didn't move her hand.

Ranger shook his head, fighting a laugh. Smartass.

He pushed on through the yard on 7. The cottage was mostly dark. There was some activity at the front where the living room was located. Faint lights reflecting off the windows and the light sounds from a television. Ranger pushed on, his feet making no sound through the flowing bushes. Steph, on the other hand, wasn't nearly as stealthy. He kept them at a slow pace so that she wouldn't make enough noise to draw attention.

The windows on 6 were dark. The shades drawn. No sign at all that anyone was staying there. He stepped closer to make sure the place was quiet as well as dark and didn't hear a sound.

"Guess we're in the wrong place," Steph whispered behind him. He could hear her disappointment.

"It's possible."

Steph let out a sigh. Pretty anticlimactic after following Tootie halfway across the resort. Might have just been a coincidence that she was heading this way. It had also been a calculated guess that Terron was a new alias. There was always the possibility that it wouldn't pan out.

Steph took a step back to get out of the bushes, but her foot snagged on the roots. Ranger hadn't been expecting it. He caught her too late and she pulled him down with her, landing hard on her back in the bushes with his body on top of hers. He slipped a hand under her head to protect her from the ground. He set his gun next to her and closed her in his arms, laughter rocking through him. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. It was an absent answer. Hardly any thought behind it. She had something else in mind. The moment he realized that, it was all he could think about. She was pressed against his body under his own weight, her breasts rising and falling against his chest. He leaned over her and kissed her, tender at first, and then the heat took over and he slipped his tongue into her mouth. She opened up to him and he held her tight, his hands skating over her through the delicate white lace.

She was tearing at his suit coat and then his shirt, desperate to touch him. The buttons came loose and she shoved the fabric out of the way. The lace on her bodice rubbed against his bare skin, his heart beating faster. His hands moved up her skirt to stroke her thighs where they parted to let him in.

That was the moment he realized he didn't have a condom.

After all the times he'd carried them on the off chance she'd get excited. After keeping them in his wallet, and his car, and his apartment just to be safe. Now they were so active that he was going through several a day and he'd forgotten to bring one with him because it hadn't occurred to him things might escalate this far from the cottage.

Talk about an oversight.

He tried to master his body. "We need to go home right now."

"But it's so far."

"This was supposed to be a simple night out. I didn't bring anything with me."

He could hear her frustration in every shallow breath. She struggled with something for a minute, her body moving beneath him in a way that was starting to make it hard to care about consequences. He saw the moment she gave in. She rose up until her mouth was on him, her hips pressing into him in the effort. "I'm covered," she whispered in his ear.

God. The thought of having her now, with nothing between them, made him so hard it was painful. It had been years since he'd been so tempted to go without protection. Not since Rachel. And that had been a desperate lapse in judgment that had involved a fair amount of Tequila.

There hadn't been a lot of women since then. He'd been too careful to trust more than a few. And he'd been even more careful to make sure he was never in the position again to find out one of his encounters had resulted in more than the mutual release of pent up energies.

But the idea of being that close to Steph. Of feeling his skin sliding into hers.

If she was on the pill—

"Are you sure?"

He held his breath for just a second when her lips touched his ear. "Absolutely."

He didn't wait for any more than that. Just pushed aside what little clothes there was between them. And when he filled her, she gasped in a way that ripped through any doubts he might have had.

He knew it was stupid and reckless, but at the moment it was really hard to care. There were still so many clothes between them that it was almost the only place they were touching. It heightened the sensation. Gave every long, slow stroke the power that should have been spread through his entire body.

Her response was stronger, too. Her breath thinner. Her fingers searching up his bare skin under his shirt and suit coat to dig into his back. He had to cover her mouth with his to keep her from crying out so they wouldn't be discovered.

He felt it when she came hard. He gave over to it, letting it draw him into her even deeper, his breath shuddering against her throat. Full understanding didn't come to him until he was lying sated on top of her, his body still joined with hers while they waited for their heart rates to slow.

He tried really hard not to do things that were stupid. He only seemed to make exceptions when Steph was involved. She was a bad influence on him. They were bad influences on each other.

He kissed her softly, praying to God they had the same definition of 'covered.'

And then light filled the windows above them.

Ranger froze on top of her. Her eyes were round with horror, staring up at the window where voices could be heard in vague, indistinct tones. Ranger slid a hand over to his gun.

"If we don't hurry we'll lose our table," a woman said from somewhere near the front door.

"Just one second."

The other voice was male. A definite thread of impatience. He was searching through his luggage, and when he grunted in triumph, the air was punctuated with the slide action of a Ruger SR45. Steph's eyes found his and he could see true panic there.

The lights went out and Ranger's grip tightened on his weapon. He didn't move. Not just because he didn't want to make a sound, but because he couldn't be certain what Stephanie would do if he slid out of her before they were sure The Rug was gone. They lay frozen on the ground for a full minute before he lifted off of her very slowly and started straightening their clothes. He lifted her to her feet and took her hand, leading her away from the cottage and down to the beach as fast as he could in the moonlight.