Everybody and everything familiar belongs to Janet. Mistakes are mine.
"This is nice, but bad," I murmured to Ranger, angling my head a bit so more of my cheek could make contact with the muscles of his bare chest.
"How so?"
"The nice part or the bad one?"
"Both. We've got time."
"That's exactly why I said spending the day in bed with you is nice, but not-so-good in a way."
His fingertips stopped trailing up and down my back and bravely started to explore my completely tangled hair.
"Explain," he ordered gently.
"I can try. This is the first time we've been able to be together like this without anyone interrupting, Joe making a scene, or our issues speaking for us. And you've even taken the rest of today off! This is big."
I can tell he grinned even though I couldn't see his face from where I'd tucked mine.
"I'll show you what's big," he teased, pretending like he was going to roll me onto my back.
But what sets him apart from every other guy is I know he's just as interested in this conversation as he is in getting inside me again.
"Trust me, there is NO chance of me ever forgetting all of your larger attributes."
Especially today, I said to myself, since I keep feeling random twinges in specific areas of my body. I'd say I'm in pretty good shape, now that I've accepted the fact that in order to run after or away from homicidal maniacs ... I need to actually be able to run. But spending hours naked with Ranger requires marathon-level training. I can feel muscles I didn't know I had.
I burrowed into him a little more and felt him harden as a result. Not that he wasn't ready to go another round at any time.
"Let's follow your train of thought out of this tunnel before I get too distracted. You're talking like today should be considered a holiday just for all our stars, planets, and body parts aligning."
I poked him in the ribs. "I'm trying to be serious here. This really is a freak occurrence. I'm not counting all the times we had to decide if it was worth starting something in my or your bedroom we might not have been able to finish while we were on the job or hunting down a psycho after hours. You may remember one potential sexy moment was ruined when Grandma heard me accidentally tackle you."
He tugged on a curl so I'd look up at him. "That wasn't an accident. You intended to take down whoever had broken in, and it was an impressive tackle. I'm still proud of you for that move alone."
"Fine ... it was only an accident because if I'd known it was you, I wouldn't have reacted that way."
"What would you have done then?" He asked.
Probably something like we've been doing since I got off the phone with Val, but he doesn't need to hear that.
"Anyway, another potentially life-changing moment was screwed up because Joe started banging on my door ..."
"When we're in bed, Babe, can you refrain from mentioning the names of other men?"
"Joe's not a man, he's a past life mistake. I guess what I've been trying to say is that it's really nice to just be with you, in any way you want to interpret that, but I don't want to give up the peace I'm feeling right now ... for work, other people, or an emergency. And I'd like for it to last longer than a couple hours."
"I can't promise lifetime peace, Steph, but I will rework my schedule to include more time with you in it. You're not the only one benefiting from some down time. I plan on taking full advantage of you living here."
"That sounds promising."
"I guarantee that you'll enjoy every minute of it. Since today is ours alone, what would you like to do with the rest of it?"
"Exactly what we've been doing ... talking, relaxing, cuddling, doing more than cuddling, and not worrying at all about tomorrow or about who's going to ambush me when I go back to my apartment to pack it up."
"I'll take care of that. Santos and Hal's 'friendly' who can do more rivalry has gotten out of hand, but it'll prove useful in loading up all of your things and bringing them here. You can stay in the building so no one will ambush you except for me ... and maybe Ella bearing a congratulatory 'Welcome to the building' cake."
I smiled up at him. "Now those are the kind of sneak attacks I could get used to. You and cake are two of my favorite things."
He kissed the top of my head. "Play your cards right and we can combine the two tonight."
I flung my leg over his and let the rest of my body follow suit until I was using him as a mattress.
"I love you, you know," I whispered, like somebody would hear and snatch the words away from me.
"I do know, Babe. Even when you couldn't say the words out loud, I knew."
"Because you're Batman and see, feel, and hear all?"
"No. It's because I know you and I learned early on that the only thing bigger than your heart is your sense of loyalty to the few you've allowed into it."
