By the time I finished writing this chapter, it actually turned out longer than my final chapter of Gotcha, and I didn't want to cut anything out of it, so I decided to break it up into two smaller ones. All characters belong to Janet. The mistakes are mine.

Chapter 8

The day was less exciting after I finished talking to Ranger and Tank and escaped a typing plea from Lester. By the time Ranger walked into my cubby a little before five, I had the work I'd ditched earlier completed, my life for the most part figured out, and an interesting night to look forward to.

I've eaten out with the guys multiple times before, but it had usually been part of a security detail, or a quick burger on the way back from a job. But tomorrow is going to be something else entirely.

"Ready, Babe?" Ranger asked me.

I shutdown my computer right before Ranger pulled me out of my chair.

"Yep," I told him."I'm ready for anything you can dream up."

"Careful what you say to me, Steph," he told me."My dreams are very active when you're starring in them."

"I think I know what we can discuss over dinner."

"Your new commitment to health?"

I rolled my eyes and then punched him in the arm.

"Honeymoon over already?" Lester asked, sticking his head inside my cubby.

"I thought you went home a while ago," I said to him. I slid my arm around Ranger and tucked my head under his arm.

"No," Lester said."Someone wouldn't help a guy out, so I had to stay a little later. Not to make that person feel guilty or anything, but it was my idea to take you out tomorrow."

I tried Ranger's one eyebrow look, but both went up anyway.

"Really?"

"Okay, it was Hal and Bobby," Lester said to me,"but I asked you about it, so I get points for that."

"What is this I hear about you trying to get Stephanie to do your dirty work?" Ranger asked him.

Lester looked over at me with a classic Scooby Doo "ruh-roh" expression.

"Ranger tortured the information out of me," I told Lester.

"What'd he do? Make puppy eyes at you until you shoved your friend in front of the firing squad?"

"Puppy eyes?" Ranger asked.

I focused on the important part of what Lester had said.

"You consider me one of your friends?"

"Of course, I do," he said to me."What kind of stupid question is that?"

"Santos," Ranger said, his tone sharp.

"What I should have said, is that after all the shit," he said, stopping for a second when Ranger gave him a look,"after all the stuff we've been through, we couldn't be anything but."

"That's sweet, Lester," I said to him."Thank you. Now I'm starting to feel guilty for not helping you."

"Don't, Babe. You don't need to do anything more to gain their loyalty," Ranger said, tightening his arm around me and pulling me closer to his chest."That being said, Santos can't be choosy. Not many people can put up with him."

"Just when I think she has mellowed you out some," Lester said to Ranger,"you prove me wrong."

"You think I would make him mellow?" I asked Lester."I generate stress and cause nail-biting. I'm definitely not a zen-inducing kind of woman."

Lester looked at me for a beat before shaking his head.

"One of these days, Steph, you'll see just how much you have changed Ranger," Lester said, finally."Changed all of us, really."

"Who are you, and what have you done with Lester?" I asked.

I've seen Lester pissed off, being a wiseass, and also somewhat of a man-slut, but this is another side of him. I don't know why I hadn't expected it. I know every man who works here is multi-layered, and Lester would be no different. But hearing him say that he likes me for who I am, and not treating me differently because of my association with Ranger, to know that these men saw me as more than a disaster magnet or Ranger's 'woman', created all kinds of warm, fuzzy feelings in me.

"There isn't anyone like me, Steph. No one else could handle being designed this perfectly."

"Oh brother."

"What?" Lester asked."You can't handle the truth?"

"Have you run out of lines already and have to steal them from movies now?" Ranger asked.

"No. I've got an arsenal of great lines, but I didn't need one here. I'm heading home. We're still on for tomorrow?"

"Yep. You can't back out now," I told him."I already talked to Pino and he's looking forward to the business."

"Do you have an in with any other place?" Lester asked me.

"If you play your cards right, I can get you a doughnut discount and maybe free nachos at the gas station."

"No, Babe. My men aren't eating 'food' that comes from a place that does brake jobs."

I shrugged."Your loss. If you're really nice, they'll even double up on the fake cheese sauce."

"I think I'll pass on the cheese food," Lester told me,"but I'd never turn down a discounted doughnut unless it was starting to look too much like a bagel."

"Let me know when you're free," I said to Lester,"and it's a date."

"Stop doing that, Steph," Ranger said.

"Doing what? Planning my day around food?"

"No. Making dates with the people I employ."

"But you're the man I always go home with," I said, smiling up at him.

"And go to work with, have dinner with, and sleep with, too," Lester added."You should be good and sick of him by now."

"Nope. I'm not sick of Ranger at all," I told them."Must be something addictive in his shower gel."

"Babe."

"Okay, it's more than the shower gel. A lot more," I said under my breath.

Ranger kissed the loose curls at my temple which made me think he caught that.

"If you ever need a change ..." Lester said, giving me a wink.

"If you're not gone in two seconds, Santos," Ranger said, not amused,"I'll make you go away indefinitely. And you won't like how I choose to accomplish it."

Lester started backing out of my cubby."I'm not feeling suicidal tonight so I'll just be taking off now."

"He was always a slow learner," Ranger said to me, as we watched Lester make his way to the stairs.

"He's a good guy," I said."You chose well for this company."

"Some days I wonder," Ranger said."You coming with me now?"

"Yes. I did just say that I always go home with you, didn't I?"

"Feeling a little feisty, Babe?"

"Yup."

Ranger grinned at me, slipped his fingers through mine, and tugged me to the elevator. Yay! No stairs!

"That's another thing we have to discuss," Ranger said, when we stepped into the elevator.

"What?"

"Where you're going to want to live," he said.

"I thought you'd just move into my apartment with me after we got married," I told him.

"This is a serious decision we have to make, Steph."

"How do you know I'm not serious?"

"Babe, you didn't even want to live there and you rented the place."

"True," I said, when the doors opened."It is a hideous little place, but it's been my hideous little place."

Ranger opened the door to his apartment and followed me in. We walked to the kitchen and plated up the dinner Ella had left for us. My apartment sucked in comparison to this place based on Ella alone. After Ranger opened a bottle of wine and poured us each a glass, we sat down at the dining room table to eat.

"You don't have to decide now," Ranger said, picking up the conversation he had started in the elevator."It's just something we need to talk about. Do you want to move in here? Should we look for a house away from Rangeman? And when would you want to move, before or after the wedding?"

I took a bite of the roasted chicken that might have beat out my mother's, and thought about my answers.

"I used to think that agreeing to a wedding was the hard part, followed closely by planning it, but I forgot about everything else."

"It's only as difficult as you want to make it, Stephanie."

I blew out a breath."Okay, I'll take this one question at a time," I said to him."I'm already here most of the time, so it seems dumb to wait to move in the rest of my stuff until after the wedding."

"That sounds promising," Ranger said, as if me saying that somehow changed what we've been doing.

"I like living here, but I wouldn't be opposed to having someplace to go on the weekend or when you can get some time off."

"That can be arranged."

"Together, Ranger," I warned him."I'm not asking you to buy me a house."

"And if I want to buy you three houses?"

"Then I'd tell you that you're frickin' crazy. I know that you have waaaay more money than me, and I'm glad that you have been successful in everything you've set out to do, but I don't want our life to be divided into his and hers. I want it to be ours. If we do find a house, both of our names will be on the paperwork and both of our money will be invested in it."

"I had no plans on making you a kept woman, Steph," Ranger said."Anything I do, and have done, for you is because I love and care about you."

"I know that, Ranger," I told him, pressing a quick kiss to his lips."That's why I didn't really argue when you wanted me to borrow your cars. I knew you weren't doing it as a way of getting leverage to use against me."

"I don't use people like that," he said."Except for a few residents of Stark."

I smiled and pushed away from him.

We finished our dinner, and after a second glass of wine, I started carrying the dishes back to the kitchen. Ranger picked up our glasses and came with me.

I was extremely aware of Ranger watching me move around the kitchen, so I used it to my advantage. Bending over to look for the chocolate pudding cup hidden in the bottom of the fridge, even though I ate it two days ago. I stretched to reach the crackers on the second shelf so my shirt would lift up and expose a little skin along my stomach, when I could have just given Rex a few grapes from the fridge I was just in. And once Rex was set, I put my hands on my lower back, thrusting my chest forward while pretending that I was straightening a kinked muscle, when really I was doing my best to turn Ranger on without touching him. Yet. Ranger was good at using just his words to get me hot, and I wanted to see if I could get the same results with a few 'innocent' movements.

Ranger hadn't budged, and it was suddenly so quiet in the kitchen that I actually thought something was wrong. I turned to him, and was about to ask what happened - maybe Tank ESP'd something important while I was busying trying to bait Batman - but as soon as I saw his eyes I knew that I was the something important that happened. His eyes were dilated, his breathing seemed to have changed, and his mouth was set in a determined line. Uh-oh.

He took a step towards me and I was thinking that I was about to be the next meal served on the breakfast bar.

"Um, Ranger," I said, my breathing now similar to his."We can't do this in front of Rex."

Ranger took another step and was now in touching range.

"You think I don't have enough self-control to wait until we get to the bedroom?"

"Judging by the way you look now ... no," I said to him, getting less concerned about Rex the closer Ranger got.

"I would say that you're right," he said, hoisting me over his shoulder,"but I can get both of us there quickly."

Instead of wasting time complaining about him tossing me around like a sack of potatoes, I reached for his waistband, tugging his shirt out of it so I could get to the Bulgari-scented skin underneath. When my hands finally hit the mocha motherload, Ranger flipped me off his shoulder and onto the bed.

I thought we were headed straight for big O country when Ranger settled his body on top of mine, but he just cradled my face in his hands and traced it gently with his thumbs before slowly lowering his head. He continued to kiss me without touching anything else. It was sweet, but also frustrating as hell. There were a few other places begging for his attention.

After a few minutes of mouth to mouth contact - or more accurately tongue to tongue contact - Ranger lifted himself off me, losing his shirt in the process. Which made my eyes and hands extremely happy. The former looked on while the latter went to investigate. Ranger got rid of everything of mine except for my matching bra and panties. Now I was going to complain. Well, I was until he started teasing me through both, first with his fingers, then his mouth. I was squirming from the need to feel him without the barrier of material between us. That's what I opened my mouth to explain to him, but all that came out of it was his name sounding like a cross between a moan and a groan.

"Did you want something, Babe?" He asked, when he picked his head up from where it had been between my legs.

"Yesss," I hissed, because while he was talking, Ranger's hand moved to take his mouth's place, and he knew right where to touch for maximum impact."I want you to continue what you were doing, but with less clothes."

"Less clothes on me or on you?"

"Both!" I said louder than I should have, but his finger had slipped under the edge of my panties close to the promised land, so staying quiet wasn't an option.

"Haven't you heard the saying about anticipation being better than the reality?"

"Not where you're concerned," I told him.

To get him to see that, I popped the button on his cargos, quickly got the zipper down, and reached inside. Yep, commando is good. Convenient, too. Once my other hand joined the first, Ranger was repeatedly encouraged to chuck my underthings and help me work off some of the tension he had created. I could feel Ranger's lips, teeth, and tongue on every part of me he touched. And I was more than happy to reciprocate on a few harder areas of his body. We were both covered with a thin sheen of sweat when Ranger gathered me to his chest and covered us with a blanket. I closed my eyes, and the last thing I felt before falling asleep was Ranger kissing the top of my head.

The day of my bridal shower - I didn't care, I was still calling it that - flew by. Rangeman was busy between two break-ins, one on a home and another on a business, and a skip that Binkie and Ram brought in that resulted in a bruised cheek bone for Binkie and I'm guessing worse for the FTA before he got to the station. Ranger was out of the building for most of the day, checking on the break-ins and meeting Tank at another job site, and Rodriguez had been especially cruel to me today. I went to the control room kitchen for a bottle of water - I was gone for a minute tops - and I had a full inbox when I got back to my desk. This would be the perfect night to go out and have some fun. We were all going to need it.

I didn't see Ranger until he came into the apartment around five thirty while I was trying to decide what to wear to Pino's.

"Hey, Babe," Ranger said, kissing me before dumping his utility belt on top of the dresser.

"I didn't think you were going to make it," I said, wrapping my arms around him.

It was stupid. I saw Ranger less than twelve hours ago and I still missed the crap out of him. I was hopeless. Unsettled, unromantic, emotionally-unattached, Stephanie Plum was quickly changing. And I wasn't sorry to see the old me go. As much as I hated when Joe said that I should grow up, he was right. And I seem to be a lot closer to the woman I knew was hiding inside me just waiting to be let out. The woman Ranger said he saw in me five minutes after we met.

Ranger rested on his hands on my hips and looked down at me.

"I wouldn't miss this," he said."I'm waiting to see how long it takes for Santos and Ramon to get their asses kicked."

I tipped my head back."There will be no fighting tonight."

"I was kidding, Babe. They know they'll be in serious trouble if they ruin this night for you. They've all been warned to be on their best behavior. I'm going to take a quick shower while you get dressed, unless you want to be a few minutes late and join me?"

"No way," I told him."I just got my hair the way I want it, I'm not doing anything to mess it up now."

"I come in second to your hair?"

"Tonight, yes."

"The men don't care about your hair, Babe," Ranger told me.

"But I care about my hair, and that is all that's important," I said. If people were going to retell every detail of our night out, I wanted my hair to get an honorable mention.

Ranger kissed me below my ear and took a step back."Get dressed, Steph. I'll be ready to go in a few minutes."

He wasn't lying. I'd still be pulling on my clothes, or putting earrings in, and Ranger would be waiting for me by the front door. That's why I did my hair and makeup already. All I had left to do was figure out what I want to wear and put it on.

Ranger hit the shower and I went back to the closet. I knew that some of the men would be going straight to Pino's when their shifts ended, or heading here after dinner, and I didn't want them to feel uncomfortable because they were still in uniform so I went with a dressier version of casual.

I decided on a black scoop neck top with leather accents above the little cap sleeves that fit close to my body. I paired it with black skinny jeans and the boots I wore on my last distraction job. It turned out a little more on the dressy side than I intended, but I didn't change. I figured tonight did deserved a little more effort.

I stood in front of the full length mirror and checked out the finished product. I thought I looked like I belonged with the guys, but I didn't look like them. That's pretty much how I'm going to approach my impending marriage. I want to have skills like Ranger and the guys, just not so much that I lost myself trying to become them. My outfit seemed girly while still appearing like I could kick some ass if I needed to.

"You can attempt to kick my ass anytime you want, Babe," Ranger said, looking me over in the mirror."It might be fun."

I can think of lots of things to do with Ranger, but kicking his ass wouldn't figure into them. Digging my nails into it on the other hand ...

"And here I was thinking that I did a good job of wearing you out last night," Ranger said, standing against my back and kissing the side of my neck,"but you look like you're ready to come back for more."

"Uh-huh," I murmured. And then more after that.

"Never thought I'd come across a woman who was in danger of exhausting me," he said, against my ear.

"That's probably the only thing that I've never worried about," I told him.

"We can put it to the test later," Ranger told me, turning me away from the mirror,"but we have someplace to be."

I picked up my bag and Ranger locked up behind us. We took the elevator which meant that we didn't run into any of the guys until we parked in the lot of Pino's.

Bobby and Ram pulled in next to us. Guess carpooling wasn't just limited to school drop-offs.

"This has been one hell of a long day," Bobby said to us.

"I'd kill for a beer," Ram said.

"Uh, maybe you should refrain from using the word kill while we're here," I said to him."The Burg doesn't have a sense of humor, and they might not realize that you're joking."

"Who said I was joking?"

Ram and I have a developed a pretty good friendship. It started when I finally managed to get Ranger to waive Ram's punishment after the Tavish incident. It took two weeks to convince Ranger to do it, but it saved Ram another two weeks of sore muscles and monster-sized bruises, so he had been grateful.

"You'd better be. You know how much I hate getting arrested."

He grinned at me.

Bobby gave me an appreciative glance before slinging an arm around me."You really clean up beautifully, Steph," he said to me.

Ranger physically removed Bobby's arm from my person."You're lucky I'm in a good mood, Brown. Go find your own date, and keep your hands off of mine."

"You're forgetting that we asked her to dinner first," Bobby told him.

God, if they were acting like this now, I didn't want to be around when the beer and useless carbs hit their bloodstreams.