Hard Eight (Stephanie Plum 8)

“You didn't think the debt would be paid that easily, did you?”

“Uh-oh, is this the part with the handcuffs?”

“I don't need handcuffs to enslave a woman,” Ranger said, kissing my shoulder.

He kissed me lightly on my lips and then dipped his head to kiss my chin, my neck, my collarbone. He moved lower, kissing the swell of my breast and my nipple. He kissed my navel and then my belly, and then he put his mouth to my . . . omigod!

HE WAS STILL in my bed the next morning. He was pressed next to me, his arm holding me close. I woke to the sound of the alarm on his watch. He shut the alarm off and rolled away to check the pager that had been placed on the nightstand, next to his gun.

“I have to go, babe,” he said. And he was dressed. And he was gone.

Oh shit. What did I do? I just did it with the Wizard. Holy crap! Okay, calm down. Let's examine this more sanely. What just happened here? We did it. And he left. The leaving seemed a smidgen abrupt, but then it was Ranger. What did I expect? And he hadn't been abrupt last night. He'd been . . . amazing. I sighed and heaved myself out of bed. I showered and dressed and went into the kitchen to say good morning to Rex. Only there was no Rex. Rex was living with my parents.

The house felt empty without Rex, so I packed myself off to my parents'. It was Sunday and there was the added incentive of doug

hnuts. My mother and grandmother always bought doughnuts on their way home from church.

The horse kid was galloping through the house in her Sunday School dress. She stopped galloping when she saw me and her face grew thoughtful. “Have you found Annie yet?”

“No,” I said. “But I talked to her mom on the phone.”

“Next time you talk to her mom you should tell her Annie's missing stuff at school. Tell her I got put in the Black Stallion reading group.”

“You're telling another whopper,” Grandma said. “You're in the Blue Bird reading group.”

“I don't want to be a blue bird,” Annie said. “Blue birds are poopy. I want to be a black stallion.” And she galloped away.

“I love that kid,” I said to Grandma.

“Yep,” Grandma said. “She reminds me a lot of you when you were that age. Good imagination. It comes from my side of the family. Except it skipped a generation with your mother. Your mother and Valerie and Angie are blue birds through and through.”

I helped myself to a doughnut and poured out a cup of coffee.

“You look different,” Grandma said to me. “I can't put my finger on it. And you've been smiling ever since you walked in.”

Damn Ranger. I noticed the smile when I brushed my teeth. It wouldn't go away! “Amazing what a good night's sleep can do for you,” I said to Grandma.

“I wouldn't mind having a smile like that,” Grandma said.

Valerie came to the table, looking morose. “I don't know what to do about Albert,” she said.

“Not got a two-bathroom house?”

“He lives with his mother, and he has less money than I do.”

No surprises there. “Good men are hard to find,” I said. “And when you find them, there's always something wrong with them.”

Valerie looked in the doughnut bag. “It's empty. Where's my doughnut?”

“Stephanie ate it,” Grandma said.

“I only had one!”

“Oh,” Grandma said, “then maybe it was me. I had three.”

“We need more doughnuts,” Valerie said. “I have to have a doughnut.”

I grabbed my bag and hiked it onto my shoulder. “I'll get more. I could use another one, too.”