I use them for fun and not for profit.

Chapter 15

Ranger stood, took a long swallow of wine and set his glass on the table next to Stephanie's. He walked slowly toward her and held out his hand. She wanted to be sophisticated about what was getting ready to happen, but they both saw the tremble of her hand. He pulled her up from the sofa and clasped both his hands gently around the back of her head. His lips were incredibly soft against hers, barely touching, yet demanding a response. She tasted the wine on his lips, much sweeter than it had seemed from her glass. Her lips parted of their own accord and his tongue found its way inside her mouth. His probing was gentle, but insistent, and she responded by leaning her body into his.

He moved back, teasing her with his resistance. He broke the kiss and let his lips trail across the corner of her mouth to her cheek and then her ear. His breath was soft and his teeth easy in their bite on her lobe. Her breath was coming in short quick gasps. Her arms were around him pulling him in closer, but he kept his body from hers. He moved his attention from her ear, back across her cheek and claimed her mouth again, this time with more force, but still he kept space between their bodies. When he broke the kiss she moaned and it was a sound filled with need. He brought her face more fully in front of his and when he spoke he was so close she could inhale his breath.

"You said all night," he told her. "And I can give you all night. I've still got it in me, Babe." His repeating of her words gave her a thrill that moved though her like quicksilver. Her entire body shuddered in one long pre-orgasmic tremble. She wanted this man.

"But we're going to go slow and savor every part. It's been a long time, Stephanie, since we've been together in this way." His voice was barely above a whisper, but it made all the little hairs on the back of her neck come to attention in a very good way. "I'm going to kiss you once for every night you were with Morelli instead of me."

She turned her face up expecting another kiss, but he didn't kiss her. He lifted her easily into his arms and walked across the room to his bedroom. He set her on her feet next to the bed and lowered his head once more to kiss her. When they broke apart gasping for air, Stephanie said, "That's a lot of kissing you've got planned. My lips will be sore."

"Not just your lips, Babe." This time she did have a small orgasm and she pressed her thighs together to intensify it. She didn't have time to dwell on the pleasure, because Ranger's lips were starting new fires as he moved his mouth to the low scooped neckline of her shirt.

The sound was discordant and she didn't recognize it at first. It wasn't a sound she normally identified with a ring-tone. Ranger pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. The sound continued. His softly uttered, "Fuck," was her first indication things weren't going to continue as she'd hoped.

He pulled away and went toward his phone on the dresser. "Babe, I have to get this." She nodded and he picked up the cell phone and walked into the outer room.

She was in pain. The abrupt disjoining of their bodies, their mouths, had caused her physical pain. In the background she heard Ranger conversing with someone in short clipped tones, but she made no effort to eavesdrop.

When he came back into the room his expression was blank, but she saw the lines of tension that hadn't been there a few minutes prior. "I have to go," he said.

"Go where?" she asked. He looked at her and was quiet for a long moment before he said. "I have to go, that's all I can say. I'll be back in a few hours at the most. Will you stay?"

She sat on the edge of the bed. She was having trouble abandoning her arousal as seamlessly as he had. "Babe," he was sitting on the bed next to her. "I can't not go. I don't have that option. I'm asking you to stay. Please. Just a few hours and I'll be back."

"Yes, I'll stay." Her voice sounded weak, anemic, and she hated that. He got up from the bed and went into the dressing room. When he emerged minutes later he was dressed in a way she'd hadn't seen for a long time. All black, of course, and there was a gun at his hip. She looked down at his black lace-up boots and knew there was another gun under his pant leg, and a knife. "Will you be safe?" she asked him.

"Yes. Lester, Bobby and Tank are with me on this. It's been a long time coming and I'll be glad when it's over. Lester is bringing Rock with him. We can use the extra man."

It was the first time she'd heard Ranger use the name Rock and she wondered if he'd even realized he'd done it. He came over and pulled her from her seat on the bed and gave her a quick hard kiss, and then turned to walk away. "Ranger," she called. He turned to look. "Are you, well, I mean…are you Batman?"

He laughed and flashed her the two-hundred watt smile that stole her breath away. "Not nearly, Babe. If I was Batman, I'd tell Commissioner Gordon to go fuck himself and I'd be in bed with you. I can't say no to this call." And he was gone. She was alone in his apartment, and he was still the man of mystery.

She wandered into the living room and picked up the wine glasses. The candles from supper were still burning and she blew them out. Ella would gladly take care of the dinner mess, but she cleaned it up. She pushed the cart into the foyer and called Ella to tell her it was all right to pick it up. If Ella wondered what Stephanie was doing in the apartment alone when she wheeled the cart out, she didn't ask and for once Stephanie didn't offer any explanation.

It was early and she could probably find something to occupy her time, but she wasn't in a mood to do anything constructive, so she sat on the sofa and waited. An hour later she got up and walked into the large bathroom off the bedroom. She was assaulted with memories of her other stays in this apartment. Her clothes hit the floor with abandon as she stripped. She was in the shower, lathering every intimate part of her body with Bulgari, before she even had time to think about it.

It was 0200 before Ranger unlocked his door and entered his apartment. She was still there, he could feel it. He crossed the dark apartment and stopped at the door of the bedroom. There was a soft light coming from a rarely used nightlight in his bathroom. His mind went back to only days before when he'd stood in much the same place looking at his daughter, and her husband, in his bed.

Stephanie's leg was outside the covers and he followed the long line of thigh up to a fringe of black silk. He moved closer to see the edge of black panties almost obscured by the old worn black RangeMan tee she was wearing. He smiled at her propensity for wearing his clothing to bed. She couldn't sleep naked, something in her upbringing wouldn't let her, even when she was in his bed waiting for him to join her. It was part of her.

Her face looked worry-free in sleep. She was a mature woman and more beautiful by far than the young woman he'd trained to be a bounty hunter, but in repose she looked young and innocent, his Babe. He marveled at the deep sleep she fell so easily into. He, himself, spent most nights at a much shallower level of sleep. He could rouse her from that deep sleep. She would come awake in his arms and they'd continue where they left off, but it didn't seem right.

He'd asked her earlier if she'd wanted to sleep with him and her answer had been direct, but right now he decided he did want to sleep with her. He removed his weapons and took time to store them properly, before he pulled his clothes off and slipped under the covers next to her. His arms came around her and pulled her back into him. She curved her body into his, never waking, and he took a long deep breath of his scent on her. She'd used his shower gel. His lips curved into a soft smile as he fell into a deep and peaceful sleep.

Stephanie woke in the morning with the knowledge she hadn't been in bed alone. The smell of Bulgari that wafted from the bathroom was indication Ranger was back. She turned and saw the indention where his head had lain on the pillow next to hers. Had she slept through sex? Was that even possible? The unrelenting tingle between her thighs told her it hadn't happened. Before she could pursue that line of thought any further, Ranger walked through the bedroom door carrying a cup of coffee. He set the cup on the bedside table and leaned down to give her a long, leisurely kiss. She had a brief thought about morning breath, but his tongue in her mouth gave indication he wasn't bothered, and she forgot her concern, as she was getting seriously bothered.

He broke the kiss and straightened. "I've got an appointment with the RangeMan attorney this morning, Babe. It's related to what happened last night and then I'm busy all day. Will you come back tonight?"

"Will you promise to stay home all night if I do?"

He hesitated. "Yes. At least I think so. I plan to be here all night." She frowned at him. "I spoke with Rock last night. I won't go into details now, but he's a good man. I'm partnering with him myself until Tinley Hicks is brought in."

She noticed he avoided any mention of Naldo Montara. "I told him," Ranger continued, "if he slept with you I'd kill him, and the only way I'll be leaving tonight is if he would need me to...assist him, but that's not likely."

"Okay," she said. "I'll come back. What time?"

"I've got a dinner meeting. I'll be back by 2000 or 2100 at the latest."

"That's kinda late."

"Babe."

"Okay." She didn't mean to be grumpy, but now that she knew what was in store for her, she didn't want to have to wait to get it. She threw back the covers and followed him from the bedroom into his dressing room where she watched him slip his wallet into his pocket. It seemed natural to her to be this close to him, although it was something that hadn't happened for years. She looked around the dressing room and realized it was exactly the same as it had been the first time she'd borrowed a RangeMan t-shirt to sleep in. It was almost easy to forget time had passed.

But time had passed. Was Ranger having second thoughts? His kiss indicated not, but surely he could have awoken her last night when he returned to the apartment. She'd had fantasies, before she'd drifted off to sleep about what they could do if they pulled the drapes on his new bed and really closed the world out. Ranger of ten years ago would have rescheduled an early morning meeting to be with her. Maybe he needed time to reconsider being her transitional man.

"Why did you get a new bed?" The question popped from her lips without giving her time to reconsider the decision to ask.

He turned and looked at her for a long moment before he answered. "I found myself having thoughts of you in my old bed that I didn't want to have. You were married and I no longer wanted to look at my bed and remember."

"That was an easy solution," she said. "Just change the furniture and wipe away the memories." She was hurt. She secretly cherished the memories of the times when they were together and she'd thought, hoped, maybe Ranger did, too.

"It didn't work," he said quietly.

"Are you having second thoughts about a sexual relationship with me?" she asked.

"No. Are you having second thoughts?"

"No, but maybe I need to explain myself better. I will always want more than you can give me, but I'm willing to accept what you give me and move on. I know it was a joke about killing Rock if we slept together, because if it's not Rock then it will be someone else. I don't need to be married, but I want to be with someone, and eventually I'll find that someone."

"It wasn't a joke." His arms came around her quickly and he hauled her against him. She felt her breasts flatten against his chest and saw his mouth descending toward hers. She closed her eyes and gave herself up to the kiss. When he broke away he turned and walked from the dressing room, through the apartment and out the door without a backward glance or a word.

An hour later she was in her office. If Ranger was partnering with Rock then she was back on research full-time and that was okay. It suited her. She was aware of the normal sounds of the morning, and wafting in faintly from the break room was the smell of coffee. Her stomach rumbled and she picked up her phone and called the first floor. The call was answered on the first ring.

"RangeMan Bail Bonds, this is Lula speaking, how may I assist you?"

"I want a donut."

"Me, too. You gonna make the run, or are you too important up there on that fifth floor?"

"I'll go. How many are down there today. Is Julie working?"

"Yeah, she should be here any minute."

"Okay, I'll be there in twenty with a big box."

She disconnected and looked up to see Rock walk into her office. She gulped and felt a flash of guilt, and then chided herself for her nervousness. She'd told him she felt obligated to talk to Ranger and she hadn't betrayed his confidence. It hadn't been necessary. Ranger already had most everything figured out.

"I had an interesting evening," he told her.

"I heard you went out with Ranger and the guys on some super-secret mission."

"Well, Angel, I don't know about the super-secret part, but I did get to tag along with the RangeMan A team and it was beyond interesting."

"In what way?"

"In every way. Those guys have worked together so long they don't even communicate verbally. They just seem to know what needs to be done and they do it. I'm not sure why we were where we were, or why we destroyed what we destroyed, but it had something to do with an old favor being called in. I think Tank said the guy's name was Ramos." Stephanie paled. She turned and picked up the paper she'd discarded earlier. The headlines read 'Fire destroys warehouse in the North Ward'. She'd skimmed it earlier and one name had popped out at her. Ramos.

The warehouse was completely destroyed, the article said, and it was not known at the time of writing what was inside or who owned the warehouse. The warehouse across the street was unharmed by the fire and that warehouse was owned by Alexander Ramos. She hadn't thought of Alexander Ramos in years and she was a little surprised he was still alive. Ranger had no particular love for the Ramos family, but he'd always had a grudging respect for the old man. Things were starting to make sense now. Again, she felt a little chill run up her spine. If it was an old favor it might have had something to do with her. Ranger had pulled strings and worked behind the scenes many times to save her, she thought.

"You look pretty busy," Rock said. "Do you have time to talk?"

"Oh, I'm busy all right," Stephanie said. "I'm just on my way to the Tasty Pastry to pick up donuts for the girls in the bonds office. You want to come? I'm buying."

"Sure," he said. "I have some things to say and maybe they're best said outside the walls of RangeMan."

Her curiosity was piqued and she was sure it had something to do with what Ranger said earlier. As they pulled out of the RangeMan garage Stephanie started the conversation. "I hear I'm busted back to desk duty. Ranger told me this morning he is going to partner with you until you get Tinley Hicks."

"That's true. He's a good man, Angel. I can see why all his employees are so loyal to him."

"He said you were a good man," Stephanie said. "I didn't betray your confidence. I might have, because I thought he deserved to know, but most of it he already knew."

"He told me that," Rock said. "He doesn't know all the details of my life or that Naldo killed our father, but he understands what I plan on doing is necessary. I'll just let it go at that."

"He already knew I was no longer DEA," Rock said. "He offered me a job, Stephanie. He's looked at my work records. I have no clue as to how he accessed DEA personal and case files, but he had them. He saw that I have a lot of investigative experience and that I'm good. I'm going work in the PI part of RangeMan and if things work out like we think they will, I'll be running that department."

"Congratulations," Stephanie said. "You know what that means?"

"I'll be a permanent RangeMan employee?"

"Well, yes," Stephanie said, "but if you are the manager you'll have an office on the fifth floor. We'll be neighbors." There was silence while Rock contemplated this new fact. "I don't sleep with co-workers," she said.

Rock laughed a carefree laugh and said, "Angel, the sacrifices we make for our careers!"

"What's that mean? You can just casually toss away your desire for me in favor of your career?"

"Well, no offense, but yes." And then he raised an eyebrow in a totally Ranger-like way. "Besides Ranger told me he'd kill me if I slept with you." She glanced over at him as she pulled into the parking lot of the Tasty Pastry. He did resemble Ranger and he was a handsome man. His smile carried the wattage of Ranger's, almost.

"Buy your own damn Boston Crème," she snapped.