Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I
don't own.
A/N: This one's rated as Adult Content, so be
warned....
Ranger Moments ~ Just Friends
Timeline: Takes place
somewhere in the series around To The Nines
It was a Wednesday, and I was standing outside the Bonds office facing off with Joe Morelli. Joe was a plainclothes cop with the Trenton Police Department and my off-again/on-again boyfriend. We were tentatively on-again, but we were standing on quicksand and sinking fast.
"I don't want you working with Ranger," Morelli said for the umpteenth time. Ranger Manoso is my mentor and my friend. Awhile back, Ranger and I had a close encounter of the orgasmic kind. Morelli and I had been broken up at the time and Ranger made me an offer I didn't want to refuse. When we got back together, Morelli never asked and I never told. But he wasn't a detective for nothing....I'm pretty sure he figured out that Ranger and I had been intimate. He wasn't crazy about me working with Ranger before, but these days he was adamantly against it.
"It's my job," I said. "Ranger works here too, you know."
"Cupcake, Ranger doesn't work here because he needs the money. Ranger works here because you're here."
Just then, the purr of a high-performance engine could be heard rounding the corner. Ranger pulled up behind us in a glossy black Porsche Turbo 911. He opened the driver door and angled out, walking by us as he went into the bonds office to collect new files. As he was passing me, Ranger reached out and playfully tugged one of my curls. I turned and smiled at him and when I turned back, the look on Morelli's face was dark and dangerous.
"I really hate that guy," muttered Morelli.
If I rolled my eyes any harder I'd give myself an aneurysm. "Oh, get a grip," I said. "The Italian Stallion is jealous?" Ok, so I was mocking him a little, but I was really getting tired of this conversation.
Morelli pulled me to him and hugged me. "Not usually, but there's just something about him that bugs me where you're concerned."
I pushed back a little and leaned up to lightly kiss Morelli. "You have nothing to worry about. Ranger and I are just friends." Just then, Ranger walked out of the Bonds office. He nodded to us as he went to his car, got in and drove away.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I had picked up my last skip and decided to call it a day. I was dead-dog tired and a hot shower, Ben & Jerry's and Ghostbusters were calling my name. I opened my door and reached into the pitch-black apartment to flip on a light. As I stepped into the room, I nearly had a heart-attack.
"Yikes!" I yelped as I spotted Ranger sitting in my living room with his elbows on the chair arms and his hands steepled in front of him. He was dressed like a GQ cover-boy in a black suit, with a black dress shirt and black striped tie. And if the vibes coming from him were any indication, he was not happy. I was getting serious deja-vu here - reminding me of a similar situation when I had made a deal that all but ruined me. Then it was because I had hung up on him, now I wasn't sure of the problem. I put away my jacket and bag and turned to him. "What are you doing here?"
Ranger hadn't taken his eyes off of me since I opened the door. His gaze was intense and the anger radiating off of him could have heated my apartment for the month of December. He watched me walk into the room, but stopped me in my tracks with a raised eyebrow and a quiet, "Just. Friends?"
And here is one of the main differences between Joe Morelli and Ranger Manoso. When Joe got mad, he got loud with lots of arm waving, yelling and throwing things. When Ranger got mad, he got quiet - not that he was chatty on a good day, but there was no yelling, arm waving or any of that - just an intensity that vibrated through the room and an undercurrent of menace that made smart people check their shorts. "Is that what this is about?" I asked. "You heard Morelli and I talking this morning?"
Ranger nodded. "Is that what you think, Babe? That we're just friends?"
"We aren't friends?"
"We're friends," he said. "But we're not just friends."
I knew we had an attraction going, and we'd had one spectacular night of mind-blowing sex, but Ranger had made his stand on relationships very clear and his casual attitude since then had led me to believe that there was no room for anything other than friendship.
"So, what are we then? We had sex one night and since then you act like it never happened. In fact, right after it happened, you acted like it never happened. If I remember correctly, you said that your life didn't lend itself to a relationship and I should work on mine with Joe." A muscle in his jaw twitched and he gripped the arm of the chair so hard his knuckles turned white - pretty serious since his skin was so dark. "I'd say that qualifies us as pretty much just friends, wouldn't you?"
"If that's what you think, maybe you need a demonstration on how much more than friends we are." He stood up and loosened his tie as he walked toward me. Lula and I used to joke that Ranger had the Eye of the Tiger. Now that I was on the receiving end of that look, it didn't seem like such a joke. He peeled his jacket off and the black shirt molded to his shoulders and biceps in a way that made my mouth run dry. He stalked toward me and I stood my ground, but it wasn't easy. My fight or flight response has always leaned more toward flight. I knew Ranger would never hurt me - I wasn't afraid of that at all. What scared the crap out of me was that he had the power to make me forget I valued commitment. After our last time together, he had said to go back to Joe, but in order to do that I had to make myself forget what it was like to be intimate with Ranger. When Ranger touched me, I didn't know or care about anything else except that he didn't ever stop.
Ranger put his hands on my hips, and pulled me up against him. He snaked an arm around my waist and pressed us together so that I could feel the hard heat of him against my stomach. "Does that feel like just a friend to you?" he whispered as he leaned down and nuzzled my neck. He started sucking softly and kissing below my ear making me gasp with the sensations.
"N-No," I stammered.
"How 'bout this," he whispered as he brushed his lips against my mouth. When I responded, he deepened the kiss rubbing his tongue against mine. Kissing Ranger is an experience all on its own, but this time there was something different. Some urgency or...something that isn't usually there. I felt his hands move over me, not rough but firm, kneading my ass and traveling up my back into my hair.
He walked me backward as he was kissing me and I was surprised when my legs hit the side of my bed. Ranger kissed me deeply and I felt the release of my bra clasp. His fingers were gentle as he rolled my nipple and his mouth traveled down my throat. I must have lost a few seconds, because I don't remember when he took my shirt off but the next thing I knew his mouth closed over my nipple. I swayed slightly as he suckled, bringing his hand up to tease and play with the other at the same time. My hands went to his hair, my fingers combing through the dark, silky strands. He brought his mouth up for another kiss and slowly lowered me onto the mattress, following me down until he had settled between my thighs.
Ranger thrust against me lightly, "Would just a friend do this?" he whispered against my neck as he nibbled and licked a path to my earlobe.
"Nuh-uh," I managed to say in between kisses. I ran my hands under his shirt, pushing it out of the way so that I could touch that fabulous 8-pack. I went to unbutton the shirt to take it off, but Ranger stopped me.
"No, not yet," he said and started moving his mouth down my neck, across my shoulder and back to my breasts. I'd made myself forget this part of being with Ranger. Ranger didn't fuck - he made love. He paid attention to the little things, like an intake of breath when he touched a sensitive spot and he loved to kiss. Ranger kissed everything - a lot.
He popped the snap on my jeans and slipped his hands down the back, skimming over my butt as he slid them down and off. He smiled at me as he fingered the strap of the purple thong I was wearing. "Cute," he said.
The smile turned just a little wicked as Ranger slid down farther and kissed my belly button, flicking his tongue over it playfully. He hooked his fingers in the straps of my thong and pulled it off. "Ranger," I said, half-laughing, "what are you doing?"
He pushed my legs apart, wedging those muscular shoulders in between. "I'll give you three guesses, Babe," he said with a sexy grin, and then lowered his mouth to me.
And this is the other thing I made myself forget about being with Ranger. He was the only man I'd ever been with who could build an orgasm. He started out slow, teasing and touching. And as he went on, I could feel the warmth and the sensations spreading up my spine. When the feelings started getting more intense, and I tried to pull away, Ranger wrapped his hands around my hips and held me. He would back off and let me calm down and then he would start again. Two, three maybe four times he would take me to the edge and then back, each time being more intense than the last. The feelings got stronger and my body temperature got hotter and just when I was on the edge of screaming he pushed me over and the room dropped away. My vision ran in colors and the waves just kept coming and coming until I finally slipped into darkness.
I opened my eyes to find Ranger lying between my legs with his arms folded across my stomach and his chin resting on them. I pushed a lock of hair away from his eyes and he smiled at me. My hand dropped down to the collar of his shirt and I realized that he was still dressed while I was naked. "Ranger?"
"Shh," he said and he moved up my body until we were face to face. He touched his forehead to mine and whispered, "Someday, Babe."
I looked into his eyes and realized he was right. Now was not our time, but eventually it would be. I nodded a little and said, "Someday."
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