Sparks Fly

Chapter One

Stephanie

I had been officially working for RangeMan full-time for about a year. I had blown up, flattened, smashed, or otherwise destroyed several vehicles in that time, but there always seemed to be a new one waiting for me next to Ranger's Turbo, and today was no exception.

As Vince pulled around to drop me off before heading back out on a surveillance shift, I let out a sigh. Ranger never made a big deal about loaning me cars, but every time I blew mine up I was certain it would be the end of his tolerance. He assured me that would never happen, but honestly, I had just about reached the end of my rope with my car curse. Regardless, I was now out a car, and until the insurance money came in I might as well use the loaner. The fact that my loaner had leather seats and that new-car smell was a burden I was willing to bear.

Figuring since I was already here, I might as well head up to the 5th floor of RangeMan and start plowing through my never-ending pile of searches. As the elevator dinged open on 5, I heard the guys start yelling and clapping.

"You put on a nice show this time, Bomber!"

"I hear they found pieces of your Pinto two blocks away! That must be a new distance record!"

I felt myself turning pink and rushed over to my cubicle as the guys continued their little pick-on-Explosion-Girl session. I had a TastyCake hidden in the back of a drawer that would make this situation much easier to bear. Lester came over and leaned against my desk.

"You ok, Steph?" He looked genuinely concerned, even though I knew Les was the biggest joker of all the Merry Men. I gave him a small smile and a shrug.

"I'm fine, really. Bobby came with Ranger and checked me out. Just a couple bruises. The car blew when my back was turned, and when I turned to look I tripped and fell onto the sidewalk."

"Any idea who it was this time?"

I let out another sigh. "No, and at this point I'm not sure I want to know. My life is so full of crazies, I just want to pretend for awhile that they don't exist."

"Sometimes that's all you can do, Beautiful. One foot in front of the other. If you want, I can take you out in my new truck." He waggled his eyebrows at me. "It's got a smooth ride, and I can promise it won't blow up."

I laughed, feeling a little better. I knew Les was just kidding, but it's nice to pretend I'm still an attractive, single woman sometimes. Especially after a morning of picking gravel and dirt out of my hair while staring at the smoldering remains of my Pinto.

Les took off to finish his shift at the control room, and I turned back to my work. Something was bothering me about the current file I was looking at, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It was a case for Ranger, and I wanted to feel like I was the one helping him out, for once. I spent the rest of my morning trying to find a promising lead, but kept coming up blank. Finally, frustrated, I gave up and headed to the break room to scrounge up lunch.

I was chatting with a few of the guys, trying to convince myself that my turkey and swiss on wheat was really a well-disguised meatball sub, when Ranger walked in. He grabbed a salad and a bottle of water from the fridge, gave me a look that I couldn't decipher, and walked out. Excusing myself, I hurried out of the break room to follow Ranger to his office. I wanted to go over the file with him again and see if he had any ideas I hadn't thought of. Ok, maybe I was also rewarding myself for being so good about lunch with a nice view. What can I say; a shower massager only goes so far.

"Yo." He's always so verbose.

"Yo yourself," I replied, dropping the file on his desk. "I wanted to talk to you about the Moreno file. My searches are all coming up blank. I'm convinced it's a cover, because his history only goes back about five years. Past that, there's nothing. I can't figure out what game this guy's playing. I was hoping maybe you could give me some direction, because right now I'm at a loss."

"Honestly, Babe, we're not too sure what Moreno's after either. He's been around, asking questions about RangeMan. He doesn't seem to be a threat, but something seems off. The fact that he has no history beyond five years ago just confirms that. At this point, there's not much more we can do until he gives away his motive." Ranger's blank face slipped for a moment and he looked worn out. I walked around his desk and he pulled me onto his lap. I turned to face him, reaching up with one hand to touch his temple.

"You look exhausted. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be adding more work to your pile. Is there anything I can do?" That was a testament to how grateful I was for his help this morning. Volunteering for more desk duty is not typical behavior for me.

He pulled me closer and brushed his lips against mine.

"I can think of something..." I leaned in and let out a soft moan, pressing closer against his chest. He deepened the kiss and I completely forgot that we were in his office in the middle of the workday. I shifted around to straddle him and his grip tightened, one hand on my back, gripping me to him, the other hand wrapped in my hair. My hand slid down his torso, moving to pull his shirt off. He growled and rolled his hips against me, letting me feel exactly what he needed. I got his shirt off and went to unbuckle his utility belt. He stopped me, pulling it off and setting it aside. He lifted me up and laid me on his desk, leaning over to keep contact with my lips. His shifted, moving down to grip my hips, then he was pulling my shirt off. We were both breathing heavy and there was no denying the fire that had been lit in such a short time. His hands were everywhere at once, and his eyes were anchoring me in the moment. As we kissed I couldn't keep my hands from wandering over his chest, up to his shoulders, and down his back to feel his muscles tensing as he pressed against me. All I knew was if I didn't have Ranger inside me in the next two minutes, I was going to implode. Apparently he felt the same way because he ended the kiss to reach down and pull off my black cargoes and boots, toeing his off at the same time and kicking them against the opposite wall. I leaned up to pull his cargoes down and got a big reminder that Ranger always went commando. I reached down to stroke him and he froze, closing his eyes and clenching his jaw. Abruptly his control snapped and he grabbed my hands, pulling them up and holding me against the desk. He leaned back down and kissed me hard, his tongue invading my mouth as I felt him slide inside me. I let out another moan and he pulled back a little and thrust in to the hilt, pressing against me in all the right places. I could already feel myself spiraling towards the edge.

"Ranger... more..." I moaned, running my nails down his back as I watched his eyes darken. He let out another growl and I felt him start to lose control. As I felt myself falling over the edge with him and began to scream his name, he swallowed my scream with a kiss and I felt him push into me one last time. I felt the warmth spread inside me as he gripped my hips even harder. He rocked against me, drawing out the orgasm so I swear I saw stars.

As his body stilled he kissed me gently, and I reached up to run my fingers through his hair that had fallen out of its tie in all the heated rush. His eyes closed briefly and when they opened I swear I saw an expression on his face... it looked almost like – but then he pulled back to stand up straight, pulling me up to lean against him as we got our breathing under control.

I heard him let out a soft chuckle.

"Shit, Babe, I'm not going to be able to focus in here the rest of the day."

I smiled and looked up at him.

"Yeah, well, at least you aren't the one who's going to need to request a new file on Moreno. I don't know how I'm going to explain this."

"Tell them you dropped your TastyCake on it."

I smacked him on the shoulder and stood up to try to put myself back in some semblance of order. I was pretty sure my hair was a lost cause, so I yanked it back using Ranger's leather tie. It was his fault, anyway. I flounced to the door and glanced back to see Ranger looking at me with a bemused smile. I gave him a finger wave and exited, shutting the door behind me. At first glance, nobody seemed to be standing around outside his office door laughing, so I thought maybe we'd pulled it off with nobody noticing.

I hid in my cubicle the rest of the day, finishing up Rodriguez's pile of searches and completing a few of my own for a couple of low-level skips. Finally deciding it was time to head back to my apartment, where I had some leftover Pino's with my name on it, I stood up and headed to the elevator. Unfortunately I had to walk past the control room and several of the guys. As I walked by them I could swear they went silent, and I when saw Hal in the control room, he took one look at me and turned bright red. If that didn't completely tip me off, as I walked past Lester's cubicle he grinned and started what was undoubtedly some smartass remark. Hurrying by, I reached the elevator and turned around in time to see him leaning out into the hall. I flipped him off and just as the elevator doors were closing, I heard the other guys bust up. I rolled my eyes to myself and flipped off the camera in the elevator for good measure, but I had a smile on my face anyway. It was worth the teasing to give my shower massager a night off, and despite starting the day with a terrible explosion, I thought it had ended with a great one.