Everyone familiar belongs to Janet. The mistakes are mine alone. Happy Valentine's Day a little early.

"You may want to turn around," I advised Ranger, five minutes after he surprised me by being inside my apartment when I'd come home.

Ranger's been busier than usual this past week and we'd planned to meet at Rangeman and hopefully have dinner together if he didn't get called to handle another business crises, so bumping into him in my kitchen after my own sucky day of chasing down even suckier people was a surprise. And not an altogether pleasant one since I now know he'll be in Boston tonight.

"Why?" He asked.

"I'm about to cry and I know you really hate watching me do that."

I looked one more time into the heart-shaped box of chocolates he'd given me in apology for having to postpone our Valentine's Day. It should've put me in a better mood. It didn't. Karma is a real bitch and she clearly picked today to get back at me for every bad thing I've ever done. All the cute little brown candy wrappers are still in the bottom of the box, but the actual chocolate is missing ... every friggin' piece of it.

"Damn it," I said, showing him the lack of sugary, fatty contents. "I'm going to kill Lester. I really mean it this time. You left this unattended in the control room, didn't you? Santos is like a handsome Hoover. You turn your back for a second and he's got everything scarfed down. The jerk still owes me two boxes of emergency Tastykakes I'd had hidden in my desk drawer."

"I had the box with me the entire time."

"Then where the heck is my chocolate?" I tipped the box out onto my kitchen counter. "It's empty. You should go back to the store and get a refund. Or, better yet, kill the head of the company for false advertising and for falsely getting my hopes up."

I was only half joking. I had a really crappy day, dragging in two guys that have me questioning evolution on what's supposed to be 'the most romantic day of the year'. And now I know I won't see Ranger again for at least a day or two once he leaves here. Not only did I want that chocolate ... I really, really needed an entire box of it.

"I should've skipped the conversation and explanation and just dragged you straight into the bedroom," I continued, still in a major mood. "That would've been the only way this day would have improved. But look ... you're still dressed and will be leaving soon, and I get to picture someone else enjoying the Valentine's Day candy meant for me."

"Stop sulking, Babe."

"I'm not sulking ... I'm pouting. They're different."

He stepped closer and slid his hands up the sleeves of my Rangeman sweatshirt, resting his palms on my shoulders. "The box isn't empty."

I gestured towards the mini-mountain I'd pushed the wrappers into.

"It is," I told him, since he was apparently having trouble seeing that for himself.

"You could thank whoever made your chocolate go AWOL for adding a year to your life. I've heard the additives and artificial colors and fake flavoring in the fillings could kill you."

"Maybe ... but I would've risked certain death for every ounce of it today."

"I have something better than chocolate."

"You do, but I'm going to need a minute to mourn my would've-been-totally-worth-it calories before you jump me."

"I wasn't referring to sex, but I do see that in our immediate future."

With Ranger, sex is always on the table ... or in the shower, on the couch, in a bed ...

"Are you listening to me?" He asked.

"Yup."

"What did I say?"

"That I look hot, even in jeans and a sweatshirt?" I asked.

"You do, but I actually told you to pick up the cover of the box."

"Why?"

"Just do it, Stephanie."

"Uh-oh, my full name is joining the conversation. I'm being annoying, aren't I?"

"More stubborn than annoying."

That's just one of the many major differences between Morelli and Ranger. My Man of Mystery makes it a point never to call me names even if it's only agreeing with what I call myself.

Because he is so perfect, and I know how freakin' lucky I am to have him in my life, I stopped pouting and kissed him full on the lips before distractedly picking up the cover of the stupid chocolate box.

"These would've been really good. I can tell just from the label."

"Look underneath the inside lip of it," he gently ordered.

I did ... and almost dropped it. There attached to the corner by my left thumb where I didn't see it when I first opened the box, and wouldn't have noticed it now if he hadn't pointed it out to me, was a beautiful ring with an eye-blinding diamond perched on it.

I put the cover down on the counter and backed away from it just like I would have if I'd seen a giant man-eating spider or a grenade minus its pin.

"Oh God ... holy crap ... Jesus Christ!" I said to myself in a rush.

"Any other curses you need to get out of your system?" Ranger asked me.

I can tell by the tilt of his lips that he's amused, but I took his question seriously.

"Fucking hell!"

A short bark of laughter escaped before he controlled it.

"Are you done?" He asked, pulling me to him with one hand while retrieving the ring with the other.

I inhaled and exhaled a few times to steady myself. "Yeah. Is that an engagement ring?"

"Technically, it's my grandmother's engagement ring, but I had the original diamond replaced with one I thought suited you better. I was going to do this over dinner tonight, but now I won't be here for it."

I only heard one word of that. "Grandmother?" I asked, looking twice as horrified now. "As in a grandmother who is going to hate me now for tricking her favorite grandson into marrying me?"

"You're thinking of Morelli's grandmother. Mine is the woman who fifteen minutes after meeting you pulled me aside and warned me that she'd personally smack some sense into me if I let you get away."

"She really said that?"

"It was in Spanish, and her word choice was more ... colorful, but that was the gist of it."

I looked at the antique-style white gold ring that had tiny diamonds and delicate scrollwork following the band which started at the base of the huge diamond at its center. He picked up my left hand in his and slipped the incredible piece of Manoso history onto my ring finger. My protests were halfhearted at best now.

"I'm not really a hundred-carat kind of girl," I told Ranger, eyeing the round-cut stone currently sparkling at me in a totally mocking way. "I'm not even a 1/2-carat girl. I suck at being engaged."

"Then you're going to have to suck it up real fast, because I want you engaged to me. And we both know I always get my way in the end."

I paused and really studied him ... from the dark eyes that appeared frighteningly serious at the moment, the full lips which remained relaxed yet aren't smiling, to the stillness of his big body. He looks ready for battle ... and I'm what he's fighting for. Shit. My heart and all the things attached to it may have just melted a little.

"You really want to marry me, don't you?" I asked. "You don't want to just stay a committed couple?"

"I haven't pinned down why giving you a ring is important, but I know I want to. I knew you'd be upset about my having to leave town again, and probably more than a little annoyed about the missing candy, so there's a two-pound box of chocolate truffles I had flown in from Switzerland on the nightstand in your bedroom."

"You actually stashed junk food in my room? You're not messing with me, are you?" I asked, taking my eyes back off the ring that really did look okay on my finger.

"Not this time. I'm not stupid. I wouldn't screw with your food twice."

That made me smile and also had me wrapping my arms around his neck. "I love you."

"I was expecting to hear you say that once you saw the ring."

"You did?"

"No, not even a little," he told me, circling my waist with his arms and cupping my ass with his linked hands. "I was sure you'd wet yourself just before you passed out. You held up surprisingly well."

"Gee, thanks. If I'm going to be married to you, I'll have to have nerves of steel."

"I'll take that comment as your official agreement that we're going through with this."

"We are ... unless you change your mind."

"I won't. And you'll deal with me and everything else just fine, Babe. I'm not worried."

"I am ... terrified in fact, but I'll get over it. You said the chocolate is in the bedroom ...?"

"Yes. Right next to the bed."

"We don't have a lot of time if you still have to pack a bag before you head to the airport, so what are we waiting for?" I asked.

"This," he said.

He slanted his mouth over mine and proceeded to seduce me with his lips and tongue. I think he caused a hiccup in the stratosphere when he broke contact a few beats later.

"Still in the mood for candy?" He asked me.

"Huh?" I said, debating whether my lips are tingly or if they're completely numb and my body is what's suddenly tingling.

"That's what I was waiting for."

He tossed me over his shoulder and double-timed it into what won't be my bedroom for much longer. Our romantic Valentine's Day would wait, but this couldn't.