Any Man Of Mine - sade meeks (top young adult novels txt) 📗

used her as bait to catch a psycho before." Lula put her hands on her hips and turned to face off with Tank. "Or is the problem that I came up with it instead of Batman over there?" Lula jerked her head in Ranger's general direction. "I can plan the hell out of this." I snuck a glance at Ranger out of the corner of my eye. His face indicated amusement, a slight lift to the corners of his mouth, eyes focused on Lula.

"Go on," he said to her. I had to give her credit. She didn't hesitate more than a moment as an indication of her shock before continuing.

"Hell, now you're talkin'. We could have her join The What and do a number with us. She wouldn't be on stage alone; some of you could be in the audience. He gets to come out of hiding to hear Stephanie sing; he gets caught. She wouldn't have to go anywhere on her own; the band would be with her the whole time." As she spoke, Lula walked around my kitchen, arm flapping increasing the more into it she got. When Tank opened his mouth to speak again, she stopped and faced me. "I think Stephanie should decide."

Oh for the love of HoneyBuns! Why me?
"Whatcha say, girlfriend? Gonna go with me on this or what?" Lula gave me a look that clearly said there was only one answer she was willing to hear.

"I – I – I-" Before I could formulate a way to extract myself from a no-win situation, Ranger did it for me.

"Let her think on it, while you two go enjoy the concert this evening. We'll meet and talk about it more tomorrow; nothing can be done on it tonight anyway." Ranger glanced at Tank, some silent communication taking place, and Tank stepped up to Lula, took her arm, and moved her towards the door.

Lula looked mutinous for a moment but a single look from Ranger quelled whatever sort of retort she was considering. After a glance at Ranger, Ram fell into step behind the departing Lula and Tank. Ranger turned to me as the door clicked shut.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want, Babe."

"Are you kidding? Lula would kill me if I didn't. As much as I don't like the concept of getting up and singing again- hell, I didn't want to sing in the first place - she's right about one thing - it wouldn't be the first time I've been used as psycho bait."

"Babe."

"Ranger," I rolled my eyes at him. "I'll tell Lula tomorrow that I've agreed and then the planning can start. Can we just let it sit until then?"

"What are your plans for the rest of the night?"

"Depends, I suppose. Who is on duty tonight?"

"Ram's down in the lot."

Damn! I need something to take my mind off Lula's plan and he's got someone else guarding my body tonight. I thought it, this time I'm pretty sure I didn't say it. What I did say was "oh."

"You sound disappointed, Babe. I could send him back to the office if you were going to come back to Rangeman with me or if I was going to stay." Ranger glanced toward the living room where the shopping bags had been dumped unceremoniously once Tank finally let us into the apartment, spilling out all of Victoria's secrets. I hoped Ram had been too distracted to notice the plethora of lace and silky fabrics piled in the middle of my apartment. I did not need another one of Ranger's Merry Men to know what I had bought – bad enough Tank knew. "You could always model that pink number there for me," he continued, taking a step closer to me.

"Oh no," I said. "Ju-Ju-Just because you paid for it doesn't mean you get to see it. It doesn't work that way."

Ranger cocked his left eyebrow slightly, an almost smile ghosting his lips. "Babe." His voice, a rich combination of husky desire and amusement, sent a chill traversing my spine.

I worried my knees were going to give out from the sound of his voice alone. Thankfully, they continued to function and I, instinctively, took a step backwards for every step he came forward until my back was against the wall and my front was against Ranger. Softly his lips found mine, almost tentatively. I responded, deepening the kiss, desire welling up with a force so strong, it nearly took my breath away. I pulled back, breaking the kiss, panting slightly – and I hoped, attractively – trying to regain both my ability to breathe and my equilibrium. Oh, who am I trying to kid? I haven't had my equilibrium around Ranger since the first time we kissed.

Ranger's hands worked their way down the length of my arms and he laced his fingers through mine, pulling us closer together as he trailed small kisses from just below my left ear, down my neck to my collar bone. I shifted slightly and turned my head in the other direction, seeking cooler air as the temperature around us had increased significantly. Presented with the other side of my neck, Ranger treated the right side to the same delicious course, only in reverse.

As his lips found mine again, he moved our arms upward until he could pin both my wrists above our heads with one hand and he brought his other hand down to dance lightly on the now exposed skin of my side where my shirt had ridden up. The slight tickling sensation caused me to jump and wriggle, which eliminated even the slight space there had been between my body and Ranger's hard, well toned, muscular body. It's a good thing Ranger was supporting me because my knees finally gave up the ghost and betrayed me, turning completely to jelly.

Just as I was wondering if our clothes would spontaneously combust from the scorching heat being generated, Ranger's cell phone rang. He broke the kiss, leaned his forehead against the wall next to my head, and blew out a breath. Keeping my arms pinned above us, he used his other hand to flip open his cell phone and brought it to his ear. "Speak!"

I could hear Lester's tinny voice coming through the small ear piece on Ranger's phone. "Sorry to interrupt you two, boss…" I heard him begin and felt my face flush even redder if that was possible. I had completely forgotten about the cameras being on since we were in a Code Red situation.

Ranger growled. "Santos. This had better be good." Slowly he brought our arms back down, kissed me gently on the forehead, and went to sit down on my couch as he listened to whatever else Lester had to say. As soon as I figured I could walk without looking like I'd been on an extended sea cruise and hadn't regained my land legs, I headed for one of the only two places in my apartment I knew were not in view of the cameras – the bathroom. Sitting on the edge of the bathtub, I did my best to regulate my breathing and calm my heart rate. Once that was accomplished, I stood up, splashed cool water on my face, opened the bathroom door and EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

"Ranger! You are going to give this girl a heart attack, you know that? You need to learn to make some noise when you move around." So much for having lowered my blood pressure, it just went shooting through the roof again! He had been standing right in front of the bathroom door and scared the beegeebbers out of me.

"Sorry, Babe. Get put together for a stake-out. We leave in 5." Ranger turned back around, punched a number on his cell phone and was immediately issuing orders to Ram about the change in plans. He looked over at me. "4 minutes, 30 seconds. Move it!"

That got me moving. I wasn't sure what was going on exactly, but as far as I could tell, two of the Rangemen had taken sick with what sounded like food poisoning and both Ranger and Ram were needed to fill their spots on an important surveillance shift. I was going along for the ride apparently, since I couldn't be left alone. I doubled timed it, gathering up my black bag, a trashy romance novel by my favorite author, Dawn Douglas, raided my cupboards for all the portable snacks I could find, and grabbed a hooded sweatshirt in case the evening turned cold, although I couldn't imagine my body temperature would drop down far enough for that for several hours after the encounter I'd just had with Ranger. Pausing a moment to screw up my face and stick out my tongue at Lester over the security camera in my foyer, I got to the door just moments after Ranger did. I think I might have seen him shake his head slightly as I turned back from the direction of the camera but I couldn't be positive.

"Only you, Babe, only you."


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Two hours later, I had finished the Dawn Douglas book, which had actually kept me from trying Ranger's patience with my bored ramblings. I didn't know what I was going to do now though. I wasn't needed as another set of eyes, so I leaned back and closed mine. If I fell asleep, all the better. A girl can never have too much sleep. Instead of sleep, the inside of my eyelids seemed to become a sort of movie screen with various images projected on it. Ranger pressing me against the wall, his lips on mine. The hero and heroine of the romance novel locked in a half-dressed passionate clinch. The hero was replaced with Ranger. Suddenly I was in the place of heroine.

His hand wrapped itself in her flowing black curls and he pulled her closer to him, claiming her mouth with his own. She felt his rock hard muscles flex as his other hand found its way among the petticoats and skirt to the section of her thigh that was bare and trailed a delicious path up to her …

WHOA! My eyes flew open and I reached for my bottle of water, downing most of it in one long drink. Ranger glanced briefly in my direction, his attention most likely drawn to the sudden movement. I gave him what I hoped was a convincing, but knew to be weak, smile and he turned back to his surveillance. I leaned back and closed my eyes again. It was as if my mind's eye had simply been on pause and now resumed. Again, I sat up. Okay, this isn't going to work obviously. One of the reasons I love Ms. Douglas's writing is the clear imagery that stays with you but this was just a tad bit inconvenient. Of course, it didn't help matters that we had been abruptly interrupted back at my apartment. The two hours spent reading hadn't dampened my body's response any. If anything, my overactive imagination had added unnecessary fuel to the fire. If I didn't get my mind onto something else, I was likely to do something really extreme and probably embarrass myself even more than usual.

"I smell something burning there, Babe. Deep thoughts?"

Oh, you have no idea. "Sort of. I was thinking about embarrassing moments." Which was true enough. The embarrassing moment I'd been thinking about hadn't happened yet, since I hadn't crossed the gear shift console and kissed Ranger to within an inch of his life – or mine.

He stared at me a beat. "And?"

"I wondered what