Warning for lemony goodness.

~oOo~

Chapter 9: NY, NY – Steph's Gift to Ranger
Stephanie's POV

I woke up to the delicious smell of coffee. Thinking back to the night before, I grinned appreciatively when Ranger walked into the bedroom.

"Morning, Babe. I was just heading in to wake you up."

"Mmm, what time is it?"

"Eleven. I wanted to let you sleep in later since we were up so late last night—" he paused as he wiggled his eyebrows naughtily "—but we have somewhere to be at twelve thirty."

I yawned and stretched my entire body, causing the sheet to slip down.

Ranger growled and stalked towards me. "Babe..."

Laughing, I pulled him down to me for a kiss. Breakfast was forgotten as he nestled his thighs between my legs, leaning on his forearms to kiss my lips. I tangled my hands in his hair, forcing his lips tighter against me, and wrapped my legs around the back of his thighs, rubbing my bare center over the bulge in his jeans.

"Take those clothes off, Carlos. Please! I want you inside me."

He growled deep in his chest, and before I could blink, he was back on the bed beside me, wearing nothing at all. We began kissing again, his lips demanding against mine. We separated, gasping for air, and I took him by surprise and flipped us over. I immediately turned sideways and took his growing erection in my hand. My tongue darted out to catch the first drop of precome on the tip, and he hissed with pleasure when it slid into the slit for a second before I swallowed as much of him as I could take. My hand stroked the part I couldn't fit in my mouth.

Suddenly, he grabbed my ankles with one hand and tugged my feet toward his head. "Straddle my face, Babe," he said in a sexy voice.

I moved one leg over him, sitting up on my knees with his cock still buried in my throat.

I moaned when his tongue first made contact with my lips. The vibrations from my throat must have turned him on, because suddenly, he had his nose and tongue buried deep between my thighs. Our passion was matched as we took what we needed from each other. He sucked each of my lips into his mouth, nibbling with his teeth and then soothing the bites with his tongue. I reached down to fondle him and could feel his balls tighten. I backed off a minute, barely brushing against him.

"Dios mio! No more, Babe! I want to be inside you when I come."

He gave me a slight push that flipped me over to my back, and then in the space of ten seconds, he was kneeling between my thighs. He sank into me with such force that I had to make sure to brace myself on the headboard so as not to break anything. He slid into me, getting harder and faster with each stroke, until we both exploded into pieces, our breathing ragged and harsh.

After I'd caught my breath, I spoke. "Where do we need to be?"

"I made reservations for lunch. Then I thought we could do something of your choosing."

I felt my hands moving up the hard planes of his stomach, feeling his eight-pack abs. "What if I want to stay here for lunch? I want my dessert first." I grinned, feeling naughty.

He moaned and said the one word that had so many meanings, "Babe," before his mouth came down hungrily on mine. We spent the next few minutes letting our lips and tongue show just how much we wanted one another—again.

Suddenly, a thought shot through my head. I sat up quickly, breaking off mid-kiss. "Oh! I forgot to bring your gift!"

He looked over at me, his eyes roaming up and down my bare chest. "I think you have, Babe."

I laughed. "No, not that. I had a gift for you back at home, already wrapped and everything..."

Ranger smiled. "Check the drawer, Babe. I had a feeling you might want it while we were here, so I put it in the bag when I came up."

I jumped off the bed, ignoring my lack of clothing, and ran to the drawer he'd indicated. There it was, clumsily wrapped in the silvery paper with the tag that read "Carlos" on it. I walked slowly back to the bed, suddenly feeling shy. Holding onto the box, I climbed up and slid under the sheet, pulling it up and tucking it in under my arms so I was covered. Finally, tucking my chin to my chest, I handed him the box.

"Babe? What's wrong?" he asked quietly.

I sighed. "Just a little shy." I didn't tell him I was worried that he would think I was some kind of slut for letting someone do this.

"Babe, I'd never think you were a slut. Relax," he crooned softly.

Sliding the ribbon off the box, he tore off the paper and then opened the lid to find the leather-bound book. Lifting it out of the box, he saw the picture underneath and groaned softly. I knew what he was seeing and felt myself blush. I was naked, lying on my stomach. I had myself propped up on my elbows so my nipples were covered by the mattress, but my breasts were otherwise in view. The camera was off to my side, so I had my head turned to face it, my hair draped in curls around my face. You could see the curve of my ass perfectly from the side, and my knees were bent, my feet pulled back and toes pointed. I had a sexy smile on my face, and my eyes were half closed. I remembered thinking of Ranger and his touch to get that sexually-satisfied expression on my face.

"I spent a month trying to figure out what to get you for our anniversary. I mean, what do you get Batman, the man who has everything and has the money to buy anything he wants?" I peeked out of the corner of my eye and saw his glance hadn't strayed from the picture in front of him. "I talked to several people, including Tank, Lester, and Bobby. They gave me ideas, but none of them felt right. Mare and Val didn't really have any ideas, either. Finally, I talked to Lula."

At this admission, he barked out a laugh.

I laughed with him. "I know, I know. Scary, isn't it? Anyway, she told me about boudoir photos. She said boudoir photography is a way to let your inner and outer beauty be captured in a comfortable and relaxing environment. Then she broke it down and said it would be like giving you classy naked, or almost naked, pictures of myself." I paused, nervous again because he wasn't saying anything.

"So I called and spoke with a woman in Texas that Lula had heard good things about. Turns out the woman travels regularly to New York for work, so I arranged to meet her a couple of months ago when she was up here. She was great and made me feel right at ease. We made an appointment for her to come back out a month later to take the pictures. Lula and I spent hours shopping for the right clothes to wear. Last month, when you were gone to Boston, Lula and I came here to New York for the weekend."

He interrupted. "Ahh, that's where you were. I knew you'd gone somewhere, but I figured if you'd wanted me to know, you'd have told me."

I smiled at him and continued. "So yeah, I spent a couple of hours at a nice hotel with her taking my picture over and over again. I didn't want to be presumptuous about which, if any, of them you would like. I chose my favorite to get actually printed as a photo for the wall," I said, pointing to the picture in his hand. "Then I worked with Lula and Christine, the photographer, to pick out the top thirty and had those made into a book. The rest of the pictures are on the CD in the box. It's no big deal if you don't—"

My voice was suddenly cut off by his lips on mine. He kissed me tenderly for a moment before releasing me. "You are beautiful and sexy and spirited. How could I not love it?"

I blushed and he stroked my cheek with his palm once before setting the picture down and opening the book. When he saw the first picture, he groaned, moved the box, and set the book down beside him. Then he reached over and gently grabbed my wrist to pull me over in front of him, settling me between his legs. He picked the book up again and opened it so both of us could look.

"I want you to see how beautiful you truly are, querida. I want you to feel me against your back so you can feel the reaction you have on my body."

I nodded, unable to speak due to all the emotions swirling around my mind.

We stayed like that for an hour. Ranger took his time studying each picture, and after every single one, he tilted my head back and leaned down to kiss me slowly and tenderly. There were several pictures of me wearing one of his dress shirts with nothing else, the buttons undone either completely or down to my navel. There were even a couple of me wearing his black silk boxers and no top, my arms folded precisely so they covered my nipples, but not my full breasts.

One of my favorites, although I wouldn't admit it for anything, was the one he had the biggest reaction to. It was the last one in the book. I was on my back at the edge of the bed. My head was mostly over the edge, my hair falling down to the floor. My knees were bent, and the heels of the FMPs I was wearing were holding my legs up, spread slightly apart. The photo was shot from the end of the bed up over my head, so my naked breasts were right there in full view. I had pinched and teased my nipples so they were pointed and stuck straight up. One of my hands was cupping my breast. The other hand was resting lightly on my lower belly, my fingers teasingly pulling the hair below. From the camera angle, you couldn't see much, but you could see my face and where my hand was resting.

Ranger sat staring at that picture for several minutes without speaking or moving. Then he put closed the book, put it back in the box, and moved the box to the nightstand. He reached back to wrap his hands lightly around my waist, picking me up and moving me beside him on the bed.

He leaned down and began peppering my mouth with a kiss between each word. "You...are...the...most...gorgeous...woman...I've. ..ever...seen."

His lips moved down my neck to my breast and stopped right before my nipple. "Your breasts are made for my hands. I see them and I ache for you. My mouth wants almost nothing more than to take the tip and nibble and lick."

He then showed me exactly what he meant, his teeth scraping against me, pebbling my nipple, and then his tongue came out and swirled around it.

After that, no words were needed. He continued his movements down my body, his tongue dipping down into my navel and swirling around before heading down farther. He kissed his way around to my hip, his fingers rubbing my inner thighs. As he made his way down my leg with his lips and tongue, his fingers stayed away from my center. When he reached my toes, he nibbled on one, sucking it for a minute, before scooting and taking my other foot in his hands and bringing one toe of that foot into his mouth. Then he made his way up that leg toward my aching core.

When he finally allowed himself to touch me there, I cried out his name, on the verge of an explosion. "Carlos, please!" I whined. I needed him inside me.

He chuckled softly and whispered, "Not yet," before slowly dragging his tongue down my wet folds. He ran it up and down several times before it darted into me. When he pushed it as deep as he could, his nose was buried against my smooth skin.

I writhed on the bed under him, and he moved one hand to my hips to hold me down. His other hand moved up my leg, and suddenly, I felt two of his fingers slide into me while his tongue slid up to circle my clit. His fingers moved in and out, curling to hit the perfect spot, before he added a third, filling me with his fingers. My breathing quickened and I began to buck hard against his fingers, trying to force as much of him inside me as I could.

"Come for me, Babe," he growled, just before he scraped his teeth across my sensitive clit.

His words and the feel of his teeth on me sent me hurtling over the edge into bliss. I cried out and tried to close my legs, but he stilled me by moving the hand from my hips to a leg and pulling it back apart, stopping the movement of his fingers only once I'd stopped shaking from my orgasm.

In one swift movement, he was up off the bed. He grabbed my ankles, dragged me to the edge, and pulled my legs up to rest my ankles on his shoulders. He buried his cock deep inside me in one hard thrust, and we both screamed at the feeling. He moved in me like that for several minutes before pulling one leg off his shoulder and setting it down so I could rest that foot on the floor. Then he began to move faster into me, the new position getting him deeper inside me than before.

"Oh, God, I need to come," I gasped.

He reached down and began rubbing my already-sensitive clit with a single finger. Less than a minute later, I nearly shot off the bed as I screamed his name when I came, and he exploded into an orgasm inside me. He slowly lowered my other leg and crawled up the bed beside me, pulling me farther up to lie with him.

As he crooned to me in Spanish, his soothing voice calmed me. The last thought I had before sleep claimed me was that I was a damned lucky woman. Carlos had planned the perfect celebration for the one-year anniversary of our first date.

The End

(Check out the sequel, The Great Birthday Hunt!)