Everyone familiar belongs to Janet. As always, the mistakes are mine. Warnings for a little bit of mild smut.

Shit. I'm awake ... again. This is the third night in a row where I've only managed two hours of sleep before I find myself wide awake with no obvious reason why. I flipped on the lamp by my bed, and like I've done on the other nights like this one, I thought about calling Ranger. I didn't, though. He'd probably take a two A.M. phone call as a sex request and I'm not sure I'm ready to go there yet.

Sex with him is beyond spectacular, but how I feel when he goes back to his life shortly after, isn't so great. I can now admit that I love him, and in a lot of ways he loves me, but we haven't been able to sync our feelings yet. Maybe someday.

Although I wasn't asleep, and I'm mostly coherent, my phone ringing sent my heart into terror tempo. Late night - in this case, very early morning - phone calls are never good. I didn't even pause to see who was calling me, I was too busy thinking of what could potentially be wrong with Grandma to pay attention to the screen.

"Why is your light on, Babe?"

I relaxed instantly. I should've known. If I was trying to avoid calling Ranger, he'd eventually reach out to me.

"What are you doing in my lot?" I asked him, counteracting his question with one of my own.

"I asked you first."

I sighed. Arguing with him is a waste of time and breath. He always wins.

"I can't sleep," I told him.

"Why?"

"If I knew the cause, I'd be able to fix it. So ... what are you doing hanging around outside my apartment building? I know you enjoy morning workouts, but this is early even for you."

"I was coming back from a job and thought I'd check on you."

"You weren't going to let yourself in and stare at me while I was sleeping, were you?"

"No."

He denied it, but that's exactly what he'd been planning to do. A strange warmth started in my chest and flowed outward. How many men would be content just to look in on the woman they claim to want without even trying to tip the situation in their favor? None that I know of besides Ranger.

"Well ... you don't have to break in tonight," I told him. "If you want some company or need to talk, I'm here and awake with nothing to do."

As soon as the words were out, I wanted to kick myself. Way not to bring sex into the conversation, Stephanie.

"I know what you meant. I'll be right up."

Before I could get myself untangled from my blanket to open the door for him, Ranger was already inside my apartment and standing in the doorway of my bedroom. The hall behind him was dark, and so was he ... dressed in full Rambo gear. I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for whoever his 'job' had been tonight.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "No cuts, bruises, or bullet holes?"

"No one was injured.

I let out the breath I'd been holding. I'd felt relief up until he stepped into my room and unclipped his utility belt. I was having major anxiety flashbacks of when he'd done the same thing after we'd made the DeChooch 'deal'. I'd freaked for nothing back then, this time I wasn't so sure it was nothing.

He shrugged out of his jacket and dumped that and his belt on my bedroom chair before coming to sit on the end of my bed, my blanket-covered feet touching his hip.

"What's wrong?" He asked me.

"Nothing."

"Then why aren't you sound asleep right now? I usually have to wave doughnuts and coffee under your nose in order to get even one of your eyelids to crack open."

He was right about that. I hate to wake up. Now I hate going to sleep because I know I'll just be up nine hours earlier than I'd like to be.

I shrugged. "I don't know why I keep waking up. No one's trying to kill me. My life doesn't suck anymore than it usually does. And my car is still alive, so I don't have to worry about coming up with money for a new one. I should be breathing easy, instead I feel wired."

"Morelli giving you trouble?"

"Nope. We've reached the acquaintance stage in our break up. We can say hi and bye without wanting to kill each other."

I wanted to end things as friends, and so far we've been mostly able to.

"What about you?" I asked him. "Anything exciting go on tonight?"

"Same as any other pick up. Spoke to an informant, then waited outside the location for the guy we were after."

"You didn't go out alone, did you?"

The thought of Ranger having no one watching his back made my stomach knot up.

"Tank was with me."

"Is he waiting downstairs for you?"

I'd invite him up too if he was, even knowing I'd be fueling the reputation I already have among the people who live here. Entertaining two men in my apartment, in the middle of the night, will no doubt have Mr. Morganthal propositioning me again.

"Tank's on his way to the PD, then home. I knew I was stopping here once we were done, so we took separate vehicles."

Which brought me back to my original question.

"Why were you coming here?" I asked him.

"To make sure you were alright."

I felt my bones melt hearing the concern in his voice. I've learned from paying close attention to Ranger's behavior that after a dangerous job, or when he's been out of town, he always tracks me down to see for himself that I'm okay, as if he was afraid that whatever he'd been involved in would've somehow touched me.

"You know, you're really sweet when you're in the mood to be," I told him, then wanted to take the 'sweet' part back when he leaned over to unlace his boots and pull them off.

Once those were gone, he ditched his socks, shirt, then the cargo pants. He left on his boxer/briefs, but I already knew what was inside them, so he didn't have to take those off for me to get hot all over. At the rate my heart is pumping now, I definitely won't be able to sleep again until sometime next year.

"Ranger ...?"

He tugged the blanket from my hands and slid under it, pulling me into his arms.

"Relax, Babe. I'm just going to get you to sleep."

Yeah, and I knew his preferred way of doing that, too. At least I thought he was going to seduce me, but all he did was wrap his arm around my shoulders and force me to lay against his chest, while he ran his fingers through my curls and massaged my scalp. I didn't think my head was an erogenous zone, but all kinds of things are also waking up.

Unfortunately, Ranger really was just trying to get me to sleep, but I wasn't ready to conk out ... not yet. I've never been able to come right out and say what I wanted from him, so I used my body instead. I turned my head just enough so I could press my lips to his bare chest, and lightly skimmed my fingers over the muscles of his stomach.

Though my kiss and touch remained soft, Ranger reacted as if I'd just swallowed him whole. His body went still - his 'on alert' mode I call it - and his hand momentarily fisted in my hair before he made it go slack.

"Steph?"

"Yeah?" I said, getting a little braver.

I ran my fingertip across the waistband of his underwear before sliding my nail underneath it to scrape along his lower abdomen. I was teasing him ... and I was also enjoying the hell out of it.

"You move your hand any lower," he warned me, "and you'll regret it."

I read between the lines on that one. I removed my hand and lifted my head to meet his hot stare.

"I promise, I won't regret anything we do tonight," I told him quietly, allowing him to see the truth of my words.

I'm not sure what will happen later on, but I know I want this night with him.

"If you're serious, it'll be a lot longer than tonight," he said to me.

So I'm not the only one who felt this time was different. Maybe there is a future for us after all.

"I'm dead serious," I said. "Now what are you going to do about it?"

I'm either really dumb or really smart for challenging Batman. I decided on smart when he peeled my t-shirt off me and took his time sliding down my panties. I swear there wasn't a place on my body his mouth hadn't kissed. My breasts were damp from his mouth and felt slightly chafed thanks to his long past five o'clock shadow ... so were my thighs. Ranger found them - and what was between them - extremely interesting judging from how much time he spent below my belly button.

When he deemed two orgasms enough for me to be ready for him, his underwear disappeared and he slid into me. He paused to give me time to adjust, since he isn't a small man in any capacity, but I didn't need it. I crossed my ankles over his perfect ass and lifted up my hips to get him moving. I squeezed all the muscle I have control over - internal and external - around him, and that finally broke his restraint. I hope Mrs. Karwatt's a heavy sleeper so she won't be knocking on my door tomorrow wondering what the heck I've been doing in here. If Ranger hangs around in the morning, maybe I'll let him get the door so she'll understand.

The smile from that thought remained as Ranger filled everything ... my body, my senses, and my mind. Everything was focused on him and on what he was doing to me. I should've been embarrassed by my actions while he was moving deep inside me, but whatever I did just spurred him on, so I refuse to be ashamed of my participation.

After an even better orgasm than the first two, he carefully lowered his big body down to mine, covering me completely until our breathing returned mostly to normal. When he went to roll off of me, I tightened my arms and legs and went with him, so I'd be sprawled across his chest.

"Wow," I whispered into it.

He smiled against my hair. "That would describe it."

"I went from not being able to sleep, to now thinking I'll never leave this bed again."

"If I believed you'd stay here just like this, I would make it happen," he told me.

"Okay, so forever may be stretching it a little, but I can definitely see us not getting out of bed until late tomorrow. We need our rest after all."

He kissed the top of my head and ran a large, warm palm from my shoulder blades all the way down over my butt, then back again.

"Get some sleep, Babe, because you're going to need every second of it when we wake up again."

He pulled the blankets back over us and I tucked my head under his chin. I was asleep a few minutes later ... with Ranger under me, the scent of Bulgari enfolding me, and a sleepy yet satisfied smile on my face.