"I'll take that bet, Babe."

"Okay. Starting now."

She hung up the phone and wondered what the hell she'd just gotten herself into. A bet with Ranger, over who could make the other beg first today - on Valentine's Day. She was unattached and ready to play, or at least she thought so until she sat here considering her first move. Ranger was an expert strategist. She might be in trouble.

Her first move was going to be eating the Boston Creme donuts on her counter. She had to get her hormones under control. She'd need to be strong to battle the forces of Ranger's hotness.

She pondered her second move as she was about to lick the cream off her fingers. Inspired, she grabbed her phone and snapped a close-up of her finger with the creamy goo about to touch her tongue.

Kind of gross, but it should give him a visual of other things. She sent him the pic via text, with a caption "Yum - creamy filling."

She decided she'd pepper him with more texts throughout the day, and went about taking the pictures to save and use.

She dug through her drawers to pick her sexiest VS lingerie. After a quick change and hair fix, she laid on her bed and snapped her pic. She studied it, seeing her curly hair spread out, her profile (so you couldn't see her face directly), and her black, nearly see-through baby doll top. It was a winner.

She snapped one more from the waist down, catching a glimpse of her garter belt and her upper legs where the stockings met the garter belt.

And finally one more of just her hands handcuffed to the shower rod.

When she was about to head out, finally ready for the day, she saw a text from Ranger.

I prefer to eat my cream mixed with Plum pie.

OMG. She felt a tingle and suppressed it. She drove to the bonds office, trying to focus on her skips today.

She thought she might need to strike back, and sent her garter pic, with the caption "Home of the Plum pie."

She blushed to herself at what she was doing. She might pass out from nerves and excitement and they hadn't even really started.

Not a minute later, she had her response back. She sat in her car in front of the bonds office and stared dumbly at the picture on her phone. A picture of dark faded jeans, unbuttoned, and half unzipped, with the caption "Coming soon to Plum pie."

Did Ranger just send her a pic of his ...? He usually wore black cargo pants so maybe it was just a stock photo off the internet? She had spent a lot of hours thinking about that part of Ranger, dreaming about what it would be like, and maybe seeing it soon?!

When she managed to get out of her car and into the office, she talked to Connie and Lula on autopilot. Grabbing her new file, she walked out and ran into Ranger. Bending down to pick up the file she'd dropped, she came up facing dark blue faded jeans. OMG, she shrieked in her mind, her face on fire.

When he gave her a tug to help her up, she looked up at him and bit her bottom lip.

"How's it going, Babe? Doing okay?"

"Umm, yeah. Hanging in there."

"I have a meeting at 11:00. Want to get lunch after?"

"Okay, sure."

"Come to seven?"

"No! Umm, I mean, I've been craving Pino's. How about that?"

He smirked at her immediate denial of lunch at his place. Wise move. "Okay, Babe. See you soon." He bent down and gave her a fast, nipping kiss. "Stop biting it."

When he went inside, she mentally banged her head on the wall. He'd mostly taken the defensive until now, only responding to her moves. But he'd won that round, and she knew it. She touched her lips, but she'd gotten a kiss out of it.

She got to her first skip's house and nabbed him quickly, since he was a regular and knew the drill. With her receipt in hand, she sped home to change for her lunch date. She had a plan, and it was a good one.

Thirty minutes later, she walked into Pino's and saw Ranger already at a back booth. She slid in next to him instead of across from him.

"A little cold out for a skirt, isn't it, Babe?" he asked eyeing her semi-mini skirt.

"I was in the mood, so I went with it," she said, reaching for the menu she didn't need, knowing it would cause her skirt to ride up just a little. But enough for him to see the tip of shiny black poke out from under it. She heard him make a sound that sounded an awful lot like a growl.

She knew he thought it was the lingerie from earlier. They ordered and she made a point of leaning into him so he'd feel the hardness under her skirt. She wasn't disappointed when his hand landed on it under the table.

"Babe?"

She just raised her eyebrows. He pushed her skirt up slightly, looked down to confirm his suspicions, saw the gun and thigh harness, and let his eyes close and head bang against the wooden booth.

"You okay, Ranger?"

"Yeah," he ground out.

She smiled to herself, and enjoyed her meatball sub. Loudly. Based on his constant shifting around during lunch, she'd say she won that round.

She ran home to change again, because yes it was way too cold out for a skirt, and was back on the road for her second skip. She was parking at the button factory, where the skip worked, when her phone buzzed.

Holy Batman - be still her heart, she thought. There was a picture of Ranger at the Rangeman gym, all sweaty and shirtless and ripped. Front and back, because he'd somehow managed to line it up with the mirrored wall. He must have decided no caption was necessary, and she agreed.

Ugh. Okay. She pulled up her profile lingerie shot, and went with a caption "You're all energized, but I'm all ready for bed." Send.

Ten minutes later, having struck out at the button factory, she received another text. Captioned "Bed sounds good" was a picture of wet, obviously just showered Ranger on his bed with a towel slung low around his hips.

She closed her eyes and tried not to rub her legs together.

She fired back a text without thinking, "You look as wet as I am."

She grabbed the picture she'd printed at her apartment when she changed, drove to Rangeman, parked in the garage, ran up the five flights of stairs, peeked around the corner into Ranger's office, and left the handcuff pic, with her handcuffs on top, on his desk. She was in and out in under five minutes.

She stopped short when she walked in to her apartment and saw the GIANT pink bag. Inside she found lingerie in every color and design imaginable, with a note - "Wear one of these to dinner tonight?"

Does that qualify as begging, she wondered. It's asking, for sure. Hmmm.

She chose a single pair of hot pink VS tiny lacy boy shorts and put them on. Then she leaned over the towel rack and somehow managed to get a picture through the mirror of just her back and her ass in the minuscule cover. She sent it with, "Ready for dinner."

Not long after, she heard her locks click. She'd tossed on a t-shirt (one of Ranger's) and was rooting around her kitchen for chocolate anything. She turned in time to see Swat Ranger walk in, eyes dilated black. She grabbed the counter for balance because the power of Swat Ranger never failed to get her worked up, and he knew it. He looked like he was about to pounce on her as he eyed her outfit, clearly liking the idea of her in his shirt. He dangled the handcuffs from his finger.

"Babe. Maybe we should call a truce."

When she just continued to stare at him, not because she wasn't willing to negotiate but because she was entirely mush and incapable of speech, he pushed forward. "If not, I'll beg. You win. I'm begging. Please let me have you."

She could only nod. And grab onto him when he reached her.

Later, she told him she'd still had more ammo to use against him. He told her to save it, he couldn't take any more today.