RANGER

by Samantha Leal

  “That bad?”

  “Yes.”

  She didn’t elaborate and he didn’t press. She ate a few bites and then looked over at him. Jennifer could feel the man’s dark eyes on her and she waited for him to say something.

  “Are you here for the bride or groom?”

  “Bride, ugh, definitely the bride.”

  “You don’t like the groom?”

  “He makes her happy. That’s what’s important.”

  “So what you really mean is that he’s a pompous jerk,” he laughed.

  “Are you here for the groom?”

  The man chuckled and nodded.

  “That I am. My name is Charles, yours?”

  “Jennifer, nice to meet you.”

  Jennifer finished her drink and looked over at the bar, debating if she wanted to leave to get yet another one. She found herself attracted to the tall, handsome man and he seemed to be interested in her as well. Before she had time to act first, he excused himself and headed to the bar. Walking back with the drink in each hand, he looked devastatingly gorgeous. He placed her drink in front of her nonchalantly. His hair was a bit longer than was the fashion at the moment, ending at the collar. It had a slight wave to it and was almost pitch black. His skin had an olive tone and his eyes, when focused on a person, were hard to hold a gaze with. They were just so intense.

  “Thank you. I think I should slow down, I am starting to feel a bit of a reckless smile on my face.”

  “There is a smile on there, and it is beautiful. If you were mine, I would make sure you smiled like that every day.”

  Charles leaned in close, but instead of going for a kiss, he just asked her if she wanted to dance. His face was beside hers, his words whispered gently into her ear. She tingled with the non-touch, his hot breath playing with her sensitive earlobe.

  “Sure,” she said, trying to play it cool, while a wave of heat washed over her entire body.

  2

  Jennifer took another gulp and set her glass down. They had long since abandoned their hijacked seating in favor of a more subtle bench of to the side of the venue where they could enjoy some light conversation. The liquid courage helped her hands shake less as he led her out onto the dance floor once again. The quick beat they had risen to was almost immediately replaced with a slow and steady love song that pulled all the couples, including them, in closer. His hand grabbed her around the waist and pulled her near. She gasped as his hands settled just below her hips and her front was pushed against his hard, and apparently very athletic, body.

  He moved her around slowly, but she was already breathing quickly from his touch. Her hands encircled his neck and she looked up at him with clouding green eyes. Jennifer could feel her body heating up, both from the vodka, as well as from her carnal reaction to his proximity. There was just something about the way he held her and looked at her that made Jennifer almost swoon. She couldn’t be sure, but she sensed it was more than just the alcohol. The song was over too quickly and she disengaged her arms almost reluctantly as he led them off the dance floor.

  She moved back towards the table and decided she needed to sit down anyhow. Her knees were a little wobbly, though she blamed it on booze. Her mother was coming out about the same time and waved to her as Charles sat back down next to her. His chair seemed closer and he was definitely leaning towards her just a little more than was usual.

  “So what are your plans Jennifer?”

  “Stay here as long as I have to and then get some studying done. What about you?”

  “Studying? So you are in college?”

  “Yeah, upstate.”

  “What are you studying?”

  “Law. I plan to work pro-bono.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I would rather help people than make money.”

  Charles did not see a need for a distinction, but he nodded empathetically nonetheless.

  “Well, I guess we all have to ‘follow our bliss’, as they say.”

  Jennifer looked down at her plate, unsure of how to take his comment, and feeling the effects of the alcohol more strongly than ever. She gaped when she saw her sister on a small stage about to give a speech. She had completely forgotten that she was supposed to give one as well. There was no way she was going to get up there in front of all of those people at this point and give a slurred speech though. She ducked her head slightly and looked around to be sure no one else had located her. Spotting her mother and seeing that she wasn’t looking, Jennifer got up quickly. Walking towards the front of the building, she checked around and then pushed open the door to the coat room and stealthily slipped inside. She figured this would be a safe place to ride out the speech portion of the party.

  Breathing out a sigh after a moment, she looked around at the rows of coats, numbered tags stuck to most of them. Hearing the door open behind her, she was pleasantly surprised to see Charles when she turned around.

  “Why did you run off?”

  “I am supposed to make a speech and I really don’t think I am in any condition for it at the moment. Trust me. It’s better for all of us if I sit this one out.”

  “You don’t seem that drunk to me.”

  “I am not drunk, just really really really tipsy,” she laughed.

  “Ah, so I shouldn’t get try for a kiss then huh?”

  “I am really just a little tipsy,” she quickly amended.

  Charles came closer, closing the door behind him as he advanced. Jennifer took a step back and found her back against the wall. The man may have asked, but he sure didn’t wait for an answer as he bent down to touch her lips with his. Jennifer was surprised by his boldness, but her lips instantly responded to his. As they kissed, he pulled her in close like he had when they were dancing. The flush over her body was no longer tied to anything other than him.

  Against any objections that may have lingered in the back of her mind, her body pressed hard against his. She molded her soft curves around his taut, muscled chest. His hands went gently to either side of her head and pressed her against the wall. The move pinned her in front of him as his every move seemed to telegraph the electric attraction he also had running through his system.

  Jennifer was lost to this man who seemed to engulf her with his strength as he stood against her. She whimpered and could feel herself responding in her own ways, both above and below the belt. She could hear applause in the other room and it reminded her that she was at her mother’s wedding, making out with some random rich guy in the coat room. Her hand pushed against his hard chest and he reluctantly yielded when she repeated the motion.

  “Stop, I’ve got to go.”

  “The reception just started Jennifer…”

  Her hand was firmer on his chest, even as one of his started to cup her small breast. Jennifer wanted to stay right there, but she did need to go. His lips captured hers once more and silenced her protest. The hard knot in his pants pressed against her quim and she instantly felt a surge of fluid inside her, readying her love tunnel for his penetration. Her body was running on autopilot and demanding more. Jennifer wanted the man right then and there. She was ready to give it to him as his hand started to ascend one of her thighs under her dress, but thankfully someone came in the small room and disrupted the strangers from doing something they may have regretted.

  “Hey bro, it’s time to get out there. Dad wants you.”

  Samuel looked at his brother a little strangely as he finally caught a glimpse of the woman his body had been hiding. His older brother was a bit of a horn dog and whenever he disappeared, he could almost always be found in the company of a stunning woman.

  “Come on, that can wait.”

  “Alright, I will be right out. Go.”

  Samuel snorted, sounding like he was laughing as he walked back out. The mood was completely killed and Jennifer touched her lips as the man asked her to stay.

  “Please, stay right there. I will be right back.”

  Jennifer had no intentions of doin
g that and slid out of the country club’s back door the first chance she got. She was just focused on getting out of there without being seen. Suddenly she didn’t want to deal with any of it. She didn’t want to be around at the wedding and she definitely did not want to be banging some random guy in a coat room. The whole thing was just not like her and she wanted to get back to her mom’s house to relax and let her head clear.

  Her mother was going to be moving in with her new husband soon and there were still a few things that Jennifer needed to get out of that old house. There were a lot of memories in her childhood home, but she could understand why her mother had to sell. It was just going to be hard for Jennifer to let it all go. Everything was changing so much and now her emotions were being messed with by the appearance of this mysterious rich guy.

  3

  Jennifer stepped out of the shower at her mom, Darla’s house. With the wedding behind them, her mom and her new husband, Ryan, would be on their honeymoon for a couple of weeks, so Jennifer planned to stay there for the rest of her break from school. Finals were the next week, so she had most of the week to get all her things together and put them into storage before she would have to hit the books. As she rubbed the mist off the mirror, she heard a noise coming from downstairs. She stuck her head out of the door and wrapped a towel around her body.

  “Hello?”

  Jennifer waited. She figured it was her sister, though she didn’t hear anything else. Walking towards the stairs, she looked down and saw someone’s back in the kitchen. Jennifer froze, unsure what to do. Her hands went to the towel and clutched it to her chest. At that moment the man turned around and smiled at her.

  “Hi, you must be Jennifer.”

  The guy walked towards the bottom of the stairs. Although she was definitely alarmed, something about the man’s calm demeanor put her at ease. Come to think of it she vaguely recalled her Mom saying that she had given the house keys to someone or other. She had given them to an assistant or something.

  “What are you doing in my mother’s house?”

  “Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I didn’t think anyone was home. I needed to pick something up for your stepdad, Ryan. You know, work stuff for when they are off in the South Pacific.”

  “Oh, okay. How do you know who I am?”

  “I figure you are his new stepdaughter and um,” he said, averting his face,” your towel is slipping.”

  Jennifer looked down to see the top of her small breasts edging the hem of the towel. She quickly pushed the towel back up. She could see mirth in his eyes as he tried not to look. She could also see lust. She realized then that he was the same guy who had caught her in the coat room with Charles. Her eyes looked down at herself and she quickly started to back up towards her room to get dressed. Her cheeks were red and she could feel the blush going down her neck and chest.

  “Well sorry to bother you. I will be on my way now Jennifer.”

  She did not look back as she fled into her room and shut the door. She figured the guy must be some personal assistant or someone close enough to Ryan that he was invited to the wedding. Her day was not turning out to be as peaceful as she had hoped. After she heard the door close downstairs and she was sure he was gone, she went and bolted the front door. Jennifer did not need any more uninvited guests.

  Jennifer spent the rest of the day and into the night going through her old things. Cleaning out her old closet was like going through a time capsule. Helping herself to the full liquor cabinet, she decided to take a break with a glass of wine as she looked through some old photo albums. As she sipped the wine and felt waves of nostalgia wash over her, she had a crazy idea. She wished there was a way that she could just buy her mother’s house. This place was where she grew up and it held so many happy memories, it just killed her to think they were selling it. But what could she do? After all, she didn’t have the kind of money it would take to buy it. On top of it Ryan seemed to be pushing the issue of the sale. Jennifer thought that maybe it was because he didn’t want his new wife to have a way out. Or maybe she was just feeling protective – or paranoid.

  But she thought that Ryan was controlling and getting rid of Darla’s house would be like a guarantee for him that she couldn’t leave him. At least that is how Jennifer saw it. Jennifer never said a word though. How could she tell her mom that the guy she was going to marry might be rich, but he was also a class “A” jerk? Jennifer was sure that his son’s would be no better. She wasn’t looking forward to having to meet more rich assholes. She was sure that they had just as little class as their father did. The thought of holidays with the three of them looking down their noses at her was almost more than she could bear. Jennifer knew that she would have to get used to this new situation eventually, but at the moment Christmas was still eight months away. She could afford to maintain her morose outlook about it for a while yet.

  Jennifer stewed about the wedding and then she stewed about where she was going to live after she got out of college. It had all just changed so fast and she was finding it hard not to blame her new stepdad Ryan. Before she left for college, her mother was dating some other guy entirely. Then, the next thing she knew, she got a phone call from Darla telling her that their mother was engaged. On top of that, it was to an entirely different guy that Jennifer had never even met, let alone knew anything about. There was a slight sadness mixed with a fair amount of irritation because Jennifer felt like she was losing her mother and gaining three pompous men in return. She knew she had not even met her new stepbrothers yet, but she was already convinced they would be jerks.

  She tried to spend the rest of her break relaxing. She knew the material for the finals pretty well already. She wanted to visit with some of her friends that had decided not to go off to school, or had gone to college locally. Her friend Cindy was working at a local club, The Highball, so she went down there to get a few drinks the next evening. The more time they spent talking about old times the more homesick Jennifer became. Still, they had a good time dancing and laughing, just like old times. It turned out that her mother had left her a couple of messages while she was dancing. By the time she saw them, she was on her way home anyhow and didn’t bother checking them. Had she taken a minute to listen to the voicemails, she would not have been surprised to find the front door unlocked when she got back to the house.

  Jennifer walked in slowly and paused, listening to see if she heard anything. By this time she was getting almost used to random people appearing in the home. It did belong to her mother and she just had to deal with her penchant for giving out sets of keys.

  There was a light on in the back by her mother’s room and as she walked back there her hands found a glass vase to use, just in case. Having grown up in a safe neighborhood, and knowing her mom, she wasn’t too worried really. As she got closer, she could hear the shuffling of papers, but despite her feeling it would just be another random friend of her mother’s, it took her a moment to get the courage up to peer around the corner to see who it was. This was the downside of the free room and board.

  Jennifer came around the door with the vase in front of her and, although relieved, was still shocked when she saw that it was her mother.

  “Mom! What are you doing here? I thought you were on your honeymoon for the next two weeks? It’s only been three days.”

  “I know baby, but Ryan had a merger deal that ran into some sort of trouble unexpectedly, so he wanted to get back and take care of it. I guess we’ll take the honeymoon later.”

  Jennifer could see that her mother was hurt, but that she would never admit it. Her mom was all about appearances. She wanted everyone to think that it was all okay, even if it didn’t feel ok for her. Once again, Jennifer was not going to upset her fantasy world.

  “So what are you looking for?”

  “Oh, just papers on the house. Ryan wants to have his lawyers look at them and find a buyer as soon as possible.”

  “I don’t understand why you have to rush everything
. It is not like you guys need the money.”

  Darla looked back at her daughter and shrugged.

  “You know how Ryan is. He likes to get stuff done, no procrastination. That’s why he has been so successful.”

  “No, actually, I don’t really know ‘how he is’ at all. All I know is what you tell me. I have only met him twice mom.”

  “I know dear and he suggested that you come by and have dinner with us soon.” She said evasively. “I see that you met new your brother Charlie. I was so happy to see you two getting along.”

  “Wait, what?” Jennifer felt the blood drain from her face.

  “I saw you and Charlie at the table talking. He’s your new stepbrother, well one of them. He is the oldest and his younger brother stopped by after the wedding. Maybe you met him too?”

  Jennifer’s heart rate increased dramatically and she felt like her throat was closing up. While she couldn’t speak from shock, her mind screamed for her to answer. She needed to say something to fill the void. And to find out if what she said was true. Jennifer could not imagine that the man who had his hands all over her at the wedding and whom she kissed so passionately was really her new stepbrother. How could that be?

  “The one I danced with at the wedding is my new stepbrother?”

  “Yes. One of them. I swear dear, it is like you are not even listening sometimes.”

  Jennifer leaned back against her mother’s bed. Darla turned around with some papers in her hands and waved them like they were the winning lottery ticket. Apparently she had been searching for them for a while.

  “I just don’t understand why you have to sell the house. Maybe I want to buy it.”

  “Oh now Jenny, don’t be dramatic. I know you will miss it, but you don’t want this house.”

  “But this was the house that we all lived in. Dad lived here and if you sell it, it will be like losing one of the last pieces of Dad.”

  It was finally said. Jennifer was finally able to voice what she had wanted to say for a while. Her father had been gone for 7 years and her mother didn’t even say his name anymore. Jennifer’s older sister wouldn’t talk about him either. They acted like he had never existed and Jennifer just didn’t get it. She knew that was just their way of coping, but she couldn’t be that way. She wanted to hold on to the house. She felt like it was all she had left of him.