I have been dragging things up off my hard drive and a lot of the things I have posted have been angsty and sad. So, something different! According to notes I have, this was the third thing I wrote in the fandom, so it was probably just before Book 7, so 2000 or 2001. I think it was part of a challenge, along the lines of "write something that involves sex but is G-rated" not sure I quite hit the brief with this, but, well...

I had Ranger take me to the office with him in the morning - he wanted to turn in some FTA receipts before going to visit his lawyer about yet another financial matter and I wanted to meet MaryLou, Lula and Connie for an afternoon of recreational shopping. Since he had no take-downs scheduled for the day he was dressed as Wall Street Ranger - ribbed black silk turtleneck, loose charcoal wool slacks, black Italian loafers, long black cashmere coat. He also wore silver mirrored sunglasses and supple black leather gloves that accentuated his big hands and long fingers.

Ranger drove the big BMW in his zone, completely alive, completely aware of all the other cars, all the other drivers, the buildings we passed, pedestrians on the street - which is not to say he made very good company for anyone in the car. It gave me the chance to watch his hands on the wheel and to see how precise his movements were, slow but sure, in perfect control, just like earlier in the morning when . . .

Ranger chuckled and flashed me a quick smile. "Good thing you aren't the one driving, babe, your mind seems a bit far away."

Damn him, he knew exactly where my mind was.

He pulled up in front of the office and he got out of the car, his head turning in a quick sweep of the area. Whatever he saw – or didn't see – satisfied him and he came around the car to open my door for me and we both got out. Before Ranger opened the office door I could hear MaryLou, already inside, chattering away with Connie and Lula. At our entrance, or rather at Ranger's entrance, the conversation stopped dead.

Ranger gave them all a friendly smile, and walked over to Connie's desk to hand her his body receipts. Behind his back, MaryLou fanned herself with her hand.

Business completed, Ranger turned back to me, and kissed me lightly on the lips. "Later, babe." He nodded to the audience. "Ladies."

"Huhn." Lula said, hands on hips. "That how Batman kisses?'

"He can do better," I said, before I really thought about it.

Ranger stopped, halfway out the door, and turned around to look at me, eyes hidden behind the mirrored lenses. He was an intensely private person and I hadn't wanted to embarrass him, especially in front of a group of women who liked to drool over him. What we had between us was new and both unsettled and unsettling. More than friends, definitely. Lovers, on the way to … something?

The slow smile he gave me showed me that I wasn't in trouble, or at least not the kind of trouble I thought I might have been in.

He was partly silhouetted in the doorway, the bright cold winter day making his outline perfectly clear, standing directly facing us. His arms were loose by his sides and he raised them a little away from his legs, palms out, fingers wide. We all watched as his gloved hands flexed - open, close, open.

"Babe," he said in that deeper-than-normal half-growl I had only heard before when he whispered erotic things in my ear during sex. "Come here." That voice had the same effect on me now that it had during sex - I felt shivers running up and down my spine and across my skin.

I took two steps toward him, which put me in the center of the room. He held up his hand for me to stop. Slowly he walked towards me, stopping a few feet away. Then he walked in slow, predatory circles around me as I stood still, his eyes moving up and down my body, taking in every inch of me, lingering at all my curves, noting the pulse starting to beat harder in my throat.

With each circle he came a little closer to me. He was deliberately turning himself on, his eyes getting warmer and darker, taking me and all the other women in the office along for the ride. The next time he circled my body he was even closer and I gasped as his body brushed against me as he turned around me so that we stood face-to-face.

I reached up and took his mirrored sunglasses off, folding them into my top jacket pocket, so that I could see his warm brown eyes. He took my hands in his and I jumped at how cold his gloves were. He pulled my hands down to my sides and then slowly ran his hands up my arms to my shoulders and up my neck and then back down to my waist, gently but inexorably pulling me against his solid body so that we touched all along the lines of our bodies. When we stood so close we were trying to breathe the same air, he lips touched mine with just the lightest pressure. I gasped into his mouth and the pressure became firmer, more demanding, as his arms came around me and he slowly bent me backwards, so that I had to grab his shoulders for support.

He kept the kiss, deepening it with his lips and tongue, until my knees buckled with pleasure and I couldn't stand and his arms around me were my only support. Slowly he leaned back up, bringing me with him and running his hands back up my body, from my waist to my shoulders. He reached into my pocket and took his sunglasses back out, flipped them open and put them back on.

"Ladies," he said in that deep growl. And then we all watched him turn away and walk out the door.

It took several minutes before any of us could breathe or swallow.

"Geez, Steph, do you guys do that every night?"

I cleared my throat "That? That was just a kiss."

~ finito