I know that last chapter was short and sweet but I didn't think it needed to be any longer - thanks to all those who left reviews. Many thanks to all of you who've added me to your alerts, it always makes me humbled to think that you want to read my stuff!
I'm changing the status of this story from now on in. There's not really any more detail than has previously been given, but as there are references and innuendos to more kinky sex (pain from pleasure BDSM) I felt the need to move to an M rating. No explicit sex will occur in this story. Stop reading now if even the idea offends (that's all it will be though, just ideas, not explicit stuff!)
The next day dawned late and lazy at the Batcave as Ranger held his forever woman in his arms.
Steph began to stir and so did a part of Ranger's body that now stood to attention (just like the good little soldier that it had been all night) as they'd spoken and acted out their feelings for each other. "Down boy" he thought. The fact that she was now stretching out her limbs and arch her back was not helping matters.
"Morning, lover." She crooned huskily as she blinked awake before twisting slightly to look at him and pulling out if his arms. Glancing down at the parts of him that were definitely wide awake she smiled sleepily. "Batman, you're insatiable, good job I'm off sugar!" she stage whispered as she quickly slid out of bed and stroked him with her finger before walking away seductively to take care of business. He missed her grin as she heard him groan out "You'll be the death of me, Woman!"
Carlos smiled as he scooted up the bed and leant back against the headboard, putting his hands behind his neck as last night danced through his head. Parts of him were sad that she'd said no to his proposal, but most of him knew why she'd made that decision and was happy to respect her for it. Despite her refusal, they'd pledged their love to each other over and over again and that was enough. For now.
He was determined that she would get to know more about him so that she had all the facts before he proposed again.
He would give it three months.
By his reckoning Mission 'Get Steph to say yes' should take no more than three months.
As it was now the end of September he'd ask her again on New Year's Eve. A happy, Cheshire cat grin replaced his almost smile as he waited for his woman to come back from the bathroom. "My woman!" he rolled gently across his tongue. Dios! That sounded so right and now that it was a fact rather than a rumour he'd put about to protect her, he knew he could never let her go again.
Soft padding noises greeted his ears before he saw 'his woman' slide back into the room.
"Hi Honey, I'm back, did you miss me?" she said grinning at the contented man staring at her naked form.
"More than you know, let me show you just how much" he replied huskily, turning slightly so that she could see just how pleased he was to see her.
"Mmmm" was her only reply as she got back between Ranger's sinfully smooth sheets and straddled his hips before leaning down to kiss him.
o0o0o0o0o
"So" said Baron "You're in charge for the rest of the week, eh?"
"Looks that way. got a text from the man himself this morning, aparently he's offline again" Tank replied smiling "He's finally gotten his head out of his ass and I think he's gonna give Bomber the grand tour of his past haunts."
"Should be interesting" Baron chuckled.
"I reckon he'll show her all of it." Tank added.
"Really? Looks like he's in this for keeps then."
"Oh I think so. 'Bout time, too. He's been in love with her for most of the time he's known her."
"Then why wait so long?"
"I think he kept wondering if she'd ever choose him over the cop. After all, he'd given her enough hints as to his feelings. New cars, access to his apartment on Haywood, a job, body guards..."
"Yeah, you think she'd have worked it out, wouldn't you. I thought you said she's bright!"
"Yeah, but he's also pulled some stupid stunts."
"Like?"
"Telling her she was a line item on his budget. Under entertainment."
"Ah."
"Yeah, exactly."
There was silence for a while as they both thought about their comrade in arms and his woman.
"Think I'll keep the team away for the time being, wouldn't want to look like we're checking up on him to make sure he doesn't blow it this time." Baron added, stroking his chin as he imagined what woud happen if Ranger caught any of his men, and no doubt he would...
Tan grunted his approval of his plan then the two men hung up and got on with running Ranger's business for him.
o0o0o0o0o
Nayeli was bored. Really bored. And when she was bored she did things that usually made Leo angry.
Today was the first month's anniversary of their wedding so she decided she was not going to make him angry. Much as she loved his feral side in their playroom she didn't want him to get nasty or violent, today was a day for playful teasing and happy, lots of happy. Perhaps later she'd let him 'punish' her anyway, she grinned as she thought of their vast array of impact the toys, her nipples started to stiffen at the idea.
She glanced at the clock, it was just after one, she had plenty of time to kill so needed to focus on something else. A gift, she'd buy Leo a gift to celebrate! He'd said he'd be home at five so she knew she could really come up with a great present. Although he hadn't told her what he was up to, she knew he was meeting with a few of their business partners to discuss their pimping interests and the livestock in their pens. Perhaps that should be her gift - a good looking girl to strap to their table might be a nice present for her man. Nah, she'd done that too recently for it to be the main present, but maybe worth considering if nothing else came up.
She looked out the floor length window that gave her a great view of the beach from where she was sitting in the lounge and pushed away the half eaten wrap she'd prepared earlier. She'd known at the time she'd not eat all of the chicken salsa with guacamole combo – too many calories – but she'd allowed herself a little indulgence, after all, today was a day for excitement and celebration.
As she tidied up her lunch into the bin her thoughts turned to certain parts of his estranged family. Why she'd ever thought Carlos was like Leo was beyond her – he was too goody-two-shoes for her tastes. So when she had a chance to cause trouble and smear his reputation she'd taken it - just for the fun of it - after all, for some reason Leo's twin just annoyed the hell out of her.
They'd all met up about six months before Ranger escaped Leo's influence and ran away and joined the army where he'd become all moral and law abiding – yuk! She'd quite liked the idea of a threesome with him in the wild days pre-army but as soon as he'd gone all respectable she'd lost all interest in taking her ideas any further.
She grinned as she remembered helping Leo puncture the condom... She idly played with her hair as she remembered the look on 'Stupid Rachel the Virgin's' face when she'd looked at the lines on the pregnancy tester kit. All the time she'd been pretending to care she'd really been laughing on the inside – oh such days of fun!
Carlos may have gone on to have lots of fancy cars and a coupla great looking homes, but he was saddled with a brat, alone, remote and boring. No way to live, she reckoned. The first time Leo had tied her down and taken his belt to her she'd nearly died in ecstasy, who knew she was such a pain slut! She lived for the adrenalin and power games they played and that was why Leo was her drug of choice and had been for so long. At the time, she'd doubted Ranger even knew what to do with his dick so when he and Rachel became an item, she saw her way to creating trouble.
If only they'd not been caught yesterday, she thought. It would have been great to leave a mark on her sainted brother-in-law's beach house. He may have the accessories needed for a great life, but he didn't seem to have anything else to go with it and for a fleeting second she felt sorry for him.
Then she sneered at the sentiment as she picked up her purse and headed down to the beach.
She'd seen a really pretty shell necklace that would go really well with the dress Leo had bought her a couple of days ago. She'd buy it then go get pampered, might even try the new jewellery craze bejazzeled, jazjewelled or whatever it was as her gift to her husband and still be back in plenty to time to prepare herself for a romantic dinner somewhere followed by some intense time in their playroom.
Not long after, she arrived at the stall that she seen a few days earlier. Damn! The red necklace she'd seen was gone and nothing else was quite right. Turning to leave she heard the sound of someone laughing. Initially she thought it was Leo but quickly realised that it was almost but not quite the same sound. Dipping behind the mirror she'd been glancing in moments earlier, she peered round.
She did a double take as she watched the scene unfold then grinned "Well, I'll be..." she muttered under her breath then backed away quickly and quietly before heading off to her favourite salon to be pampered and to think, plot and plan.
o0o0o0o0o
"Mmmm, Carlos." Steph grinned "That was delicious. What did you say it was again?"
"Nuh uh! You need to read it out loud off the menu, Babe! In some weird masochistic way I love how you butcher the Spanish language. Although I will need to teach you how to say things properly before we meet my parents but it's kinda sweet how you mangle the pronunciation with your Jersey accent."
Steph playfully giggled and because the round table was so small she reached over slightly and swatted his arm. "You're horrible!" she added giggling more, which only made Ranger tilt his head back and roar with laughter.
Steph smiled at the sound her man was making and it made her heart swell with joy then she leaned in and kissed him gently.
"I think you need to stop laughing at me and help me out here, please?" she beamed as she pulled away, waving the thick menu card in front of him.
He swiped it out of her hand and pretended to look for the item she'd just eaten. "Ok, Babe. Copy me... Red."
"Oh, come on Ranger! I think I know that word!"
"Red." He repeated again more forcefully with a glint in his eye.
"Red." Steph repeated crossing her arms and glaring at him which made him grin.
"Mullet." He said, playfully.
"Ranger!" Steph said petulantly.
"Mullet." He repeated with a smile creeping over his handsome face.
"Mullet!" she replied trying to glare and not laugh at the same time.
"Escabèche!" he said theatrically.
"Escabèche" she repeated with a flourish and a grin.
"See, it's easy when you have a great teacher, well done, Babe!" Ranger grinned "I think you need a reward for that" he added, his eyes darkening.
Steph leaned across the table. "Nuh uh! You promised me a glimpse of your past." She said seductively "before you try and suck me into your future."
Ranger kissed her on the nose. "So I did, and I'm going to keep my promise" he added raising an eyebrow as he waived for the bill. She had no idea about his New Year's Eve goal...
o0o0o0o0o
Nayeli stood in front of the mirror and admired the jewels that now adorned her lower body. She slipped on a delicate gold coloured bra and panty set that would hide the newly added sparkling adornments before stepping into her new deep crimson dress and zipping up the side. Sliding her feet into her 4" sparkly black FMP's she squirted some perfume onto her cleavage and moved to her full length mirror. She turned to gaze at the different angles of her reflection and smiled at what she saw.
A tall willowy figure stared back in a dress with tiny spaghetti straps that hugged her upper body but flared out as it reached her hips. The skirt was mid thigh length with splits that went to just below her panties but which were not obvious until she twirled, which she proceeded to do. She flicked her hair over her shoulders so that it cascaded down her back. Long, black and shiny.
"Beautiful" she heard a soft voice murmur from behind her.
"How long have you been standing there?" she asked the tall, beautiful man she saw in the mirror as he leant against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. He looked good enough to eat in his black dress pants and pale blue shirt, open at the neck so that she could see the heavy gold necklace that he wore.
"Long enough for you to have an effect on me" he growled, as he stalked over to her and rubbed his 'effect' into her ass.
She turned and laced her hands behind his neck as she pulled him into a lust filled kiss. "We need to go out to go out now, or we'll never leave" she panted as she pulled away. "I have a wonderful anniversary present for you, my sweet, but it's more of an opportunity than a tangible gift." She said, giving him a calculating look. "Let's discuss it over dinner – I have plans for us later than won't necessarily involve me speaking." She added as she cupped him through his trousers and gave him a swift, hard squeeze.
Leo growled in response and licked his lips, aroused both physically and mentally. He gathered he was in for a night of surprises. Wonderful, he thought happily as he grabbed her proffered hand and steered her out of their large, airy apartment.
o0o0o0o0o
Walking back from the beach front, their fingers entwined, Steph knew she was with the right man and in the right place. Part of her wanted to grab his ring and slam it onto her finger, but part of her was loving the effort Carlos was making to open up and let her in. She looked over at him and liked what she saw. Very much.
His baggy mid calf gray linen pants sat low on his hips and teamed up beautifully with his white linen shirt which hung open, fluttering in the slight breeze and giving tantalizing glimpses of the muscles beneath. His hair was loose and hung down behind his broad shoulders perfectly, completing the Adonis look that he mastered so easily. But what made everything so perfect was that he had left his blank face back at the Batcave and had been relaxed and playful all day. This was the man she wanted to really get to know better.
She squeezed his hand. "Thank you." She said softly as she gazed at his beauty.
"What for?" came the puzzled reply.
"For giving us a chance."
Ranger looked at his future and smiled. All day they'd teased and played and from the moment they'd woken they'd had fun and been relaxed. This was the way he wanted to be with his Babe.
The simple pale blue sun dress that she wore showed off her long legs and accentuated her tiny frame. She wore no makeup and had allowed her curls to flow freely round her face. He didn't think she'd ever looked more beautiful than she did at that moment.
Pulling her hands to his lips he kissed them gently. "It should be me thanking you. After all, you gave this total idiot a second chance."
He wrapped his arm round her neck and pulled her into his side. He heard her sigh, happily, as she wrapped her arm under his and up his back, between his shoulder blades. Kissing her hair, he continued to hold her tight all the way back to the Batcave.
He grinned to himself, he realised for the first time ever he was a very very happy man.