Thanks for the continued support on this short. There's still a lot of paperwork and loose ends to tie at work, but the load should ease in the coming weeks. Will try to upload as frequently as possible for all pending stories.

For those of you who pointed out that the client's identity seems to be a secret, good catch! Also, some of you picked up on possible suspects. Let's see if your guess is right once we get to the end in a chap or two. Steph seems to be honing in on suspects and returning Ranger's teasing, while Ranger seems to be more focused on his back and forth hot exchanges with his Babe.

Disclaimer: The Plum universe belongs to JE. Typos are my bad.

Stephanie's POV

Screw double take. I did a triple take when I saw the price tag of the one dress I really liked.

"That dress was made for you." Mary Anne said as she joined me off to the side, slightly out of view from the changing area and the rest of our group.

"Uh, mmm." I shrugged my shoulder in an attempt to feign indifference. She's right. It's a gorgeous deep blue dress and it fits me like a second skin. I love it! I just don't love it enough to dish several grand for it!

But before I could come up with a good, plausible excuse as to why I was going to skip out on the mother of all dresses, my cell buzzed in my hand.

Get the dress, Babe.

Automatically, my head shot up. My alertness isn't something I'm known for, yet I'm good at spotting things when I'm searching for them. When I didn't see any potential Merry Men type loiterers, I realized Ranger's team easily tapped into the security cameras of this upscale boutique. Looking around discreetly, I spotted a very well blended camera off to my right. Narrowing my eyes at the lens, I silently tried to communicate with Ranger.

Luckily for me, Mary Anne's nosiness kept her eyes glued to the notification that lit up my phone screen instead of on me.

"Did you send your husband spicy photos in the locker room?" She asked in a hushed whisper, despite the obvious interest sparking her light gray eyes.

Smirking slightly, I flashed another pointed look at the camera before I answered her.

"Yes." I enunciated clearly so that Ranger could get the full gist of it. I mean, if he gets uncomfortable, it's not my fault he's spying. Hehehe. "I mean, he is going to be the one to peel it off, so." My unbothered shrug had Mary Anne gasping audibly while Ranger sent me another text. Obviously, Ranger's tuned into the show.

His simple "Babe" reply said more than enough. I hit my mark! Take that, Batman.

Mary Anne laughed somewhat nervously. "I guess that's how you keep the spark alive, right?" Her smile seemed forced to me and her eyes turned sad. Hmm…

"Are we ready?" Mr. Client's wife asked as she worked on effectively corralling us into motion once again. The woman's got an itinerary and she's going to make sure everything gets crossed off and in a timely manner, no matter how much this unplanned shopping trip took.

"Yeah. Laura's found the perfect dress after all." Mary Anne added as she linked arms with me, guiding me towards the sales associate eagerly waiting to make her hefty commission.

With a hawk-like focus, I perused what each woman selected in hopes of gaining any added morsels of intel. Most were very conservative-ish with their choices, opting for pieces that weren't very revealing. Marissa went the opposite route by choosing a dress that was so short, I didn't even think it could possibly cover my niece Lisa, much less a grown ass adult woman like her.

When we spilled out of the posh boutique, I hung back with Mary Anne as I continued to engage her in conversation. I've gotten a good sense of all the other women, except for Mary Anne since she tends to be more on the timid side. It's easy to note that she's more of a watcher in this group dynamic.

"Laura!" Marissa's exaggerated hand gestures made my left eye twitch. Repeatedly. She just won't give it up. I'm not going to get any valuable intel from her. It's clear she's after a good time, with or without her husband. Is she our jewel thief? Not likely. Why? Because she's used to using her looks to get anything she wants. Why steal when someone will just gift it to you?

"I'm riding back with Mary Anne." I waved at the other women, indicating they could go on ahead of us. Mary Anne got held up by some personal matter earlier, instead driving herself and meeting us at the boutique about an hour after we left the hotel.

"You didn't have to do that." Mary Anne said I was sweet as she smiled warmly while leading the way to her car.

We continued to talk about insignificant things while our heels crushed against the sand dusted stone parking lot.

"Oh crap!" Mary Anne gasped in disbelief when we found a pair of massive SUVs parked on either side of her brand spanking new sports car, practically occluding it from view. "What are we going to do?" She sounded genuinely panicked.

Odd. It's literally not the end of the world that some a-holes parked way too close to your car. It's a nuisance at best, but it shouldn't be a panic inducing occurrence. Given how reduced the parking spaces are, this may not even be a targeted move to annoy the owner of such a dream ride. Hmm…

"I can get it out." I offered, automatically extending my hand for the keys before I realized that she may not want me to. I mean, I have sent a lot of vehicles to car heaven. Sure, she doesn't know that, but the universe sure does. My bad car karma is sort of a haunting legend in my neck of the woods.

"Oh, thank heavens for you." She blew out a massive sigh of relief, quickly relinquishing the key fob when she placed it in my expectant open palm without further prodding.

"Watch and learn." I teased good-naturedly as I handed Mary Anne my bagged dress. Perhaps the only good thing about having gone through more vehicles than lingerie in the last couple of years is that I've become quite adept at driving all types of cars, from the new Ranger gifted cars to my revolving door of POS after POS.

I was thankful for the donuts I skipped this past week leading up to this trip, because it was a tight, tight squeeze. Had I not been aware of the type of luxury car this is, I would have for sure dented the driver's side door when it swept upwards, nearly hitting the SUV's passenger side mirror. Speaking of the SUVs, I briefly noted that they seemed very out of place. All I've seen since Ranger and I arrived last night have been expensive, sleek car after expensive, sleek car. These, though pricey, looked more like the type of reinforced vehicles Ranger would green light to be included in Rangeman's fleet. His standards are there for specific reasons, one of them being that many of the men won't fit compact cars.

Just as the sexy car roared to life, the feeling of being watched stood out to my overtaxed senses. While pretending to gather my bearings in this sweet ride, I took advantage of my killer peripheral to scope out the area using my curly hair as an added layer of cover as it created a curtain over half of my face. It took me less than five seconds to spot the Zip lookalike nearly pulling off a perfect blend in while pretending to be on his cell.

"Gotcha." I mouthed as I lifted my head, locking eyes with the Merry Man substitute as I shifted into reverse. The poor guy paled profusely, instantly negating his golden tan, as a panicked look broke his blank face. He's sweating buckets for sure! No wonder Ranger was so at ease with letting me leave the hotel without him. Of course I'd have a tail on top of the trackers on me.

"No, no." Mary Anne shook her head vehemently when I tried to give up the driver's seat after successfully backing out of the parking space.

It was my turn to pale when she told me to drive us back to the hotel. Shit, I could literally feel the tension re-enter my body even after the glorious massage. So much can happen in the short twenty minute drive. With my luck, this thing will malfunction and burst into flames just to mess with me!

Despite my hesitation, I merged onto the two lane road sandwiched between the beautiful ocean and shrub heavy hills. Wanting to distract myself from my nerves, I continued to engage Mary Anne in conversation. Within short moments I learned that her panic was due to having totaled her previous two cars, unfortunate events that led to a very unhappy husband. To ease her, I shared that several of my modes of transportation have been destroyed over the years despite my best efforts.

"No!" Her laugh was a genuine rarity in this circle of rich housewives as I told her about the Boxster. Yes, I tweaked the details a bit just to be safe. I figured that if I gave up some embarrassing details about myself that I'd get her to fully let her guard down and trust me enough to be more unfiltered.

We were having a good laugh about it all as I neared our destination when she ultimately let something shockingly useful slip past her carefully guarded lips.

S&R

Ranger's POV

My phone buzzed as I exited the glass encased shower. While hastily drying off, I checked the incoming message. Lance, one of my contacts in this state, alerted me that Stephanie had just pulled into the valet parking area. Looks like Babe used her charm to befriend one of the women enough to isolate her. Why Stephanie wanted to zero in on one woman specifically, is a mystery Babe will have to crack for me.

"Shit! We're late, aren't we?" Stephanie huffed out as soon as she burst into the suite, shoving the garment bag into my hands as she dashed past me. Not even my lack of clothing slowed her progress. Ouch. Babe's brain tends to short circuit, just like mine, when we're in close proximity, especially when we're sans clothes.

"Babe." I called out, smirking as I watched her haphazardly kick off her heels next to the king sized bed.

"Got some potential leads!" Her voice was somewhat muffled since she had her back to me, already in the process of shimming out of her dress even as she darted into the bathroom. As the door swung closed, I got to not only confirm that she was in fact wearing a thong, but also see which one she had on. It's one I've never seen before, making me want nothing less than to drag it past her hips and down her long legs with my teeth.

Knowing my limits, I quickly dressed in an effort to stay on task. In her haste, Stephanie didn't take any clothes with her, which means she'll have to come back out to grab them. My smirk morphed into a full on grin as I pictured Stephanie exiting the shower only to discover that I purposely left her a minuscule towel to dry off. See, two can play this impromptu teasing game.

Once I hung the dress I basically ordered her to buy for tomorrow's fancy black tie dinner, I sat on the bed with my back against the ornate headboard. My eyes on the ground out in the field relayed that Stephanie had major doubts about making the purchase. I know that hesitation had nothing to do with the dress, but more with the high cost despite me reminding Babe about our 'no price' arrangement.

The wait ended after a short period. Babe has two modes in the shower. Either she's lightning fast thanks to all the years of experience having to deal with limited hot water supply in her building, or Stephanie takes unbelievably long showers. There's no real in between with Babe. Quick and efficient, or long and languorous.

Babe was already mid sentence when the bathroom door flew open, revealing the product of my careful plan: Stephanie wrapped in a barely there towel. The tiny towel could wrap around her hair just fine, yet not her body. She's got her left hand gripping the edges for dear life even though there's a good inch keeping the ends from meeting, much less overlapping, at chest level.

I raked my eyes over her, basking in the fantasy worthy visual. What starts as a teasing glimpse of the side of her right breast, gives way to tantalizing expanses of her soft, creamy flesh as the useless towel gapes open wider the closer it gets to her waist. Just a smidgen less obstruction and I'd have the perfect view of the sinful body Babe so expertly conceals under her everyday bounty hunting self imposed uniform of stretchy T-shirts and comfortably worn jeans.

"Ranger!" My gaze snaps up to meet hers through the sliding closet door mirror at the sound of her yelling my name. An even more effective way for Babe to get my full, undivided attention would be if she got rid of the towel.

"Babe." The predatory grin is back as I flick my eyes up and down her slightly bent form, still wishing for the damn towel to magically disintegrate so it can't continue blocking my view.

"Were you even listening to me?" Stephanie shot me that effortlessly sultry look that is my undoing as she straightened.

"Yes." I answered, blatantly looking my fill as the top of the towel flimsily clung to her breasts, just barely covering her nipples as it continued to hang on for dear life.

"Liar." Babe accused with a mischievous grin spreading across her kissable lips while she took a step closer to the bed.

"You calling me a liar, Babe?" I sprung into action without warning, moving with a speed many envy. In spite of my deadly accurate moves, Stephanie was a step ahead of me, darting out of reach and inside the bathroom before my feet even hit the carpeted floor. The door slammed and locked behind her before I could reach for her, an impressive strategy on her part. She's honed her moves significantly, which makes me extremely proud in every other circumstance.

I could hear her rich laugh from the other side of the door, a sound that went straight to my heart and dick.

Oh, Babe. You're poking the bear. If you want to play with fire, then you better handle the heat. This is just the beginning, Stephanie.