his descent.
“Watch the last step,” he warned as he reached the bottom. “It’s a bit steeper than the others.” He would have turned and offered her a hand, had he been willing to risk even that much contact. He wasn’t. Not at the moment anyway. He was sporting quite the raging hard-on. Again. And was growing concerned that the condition was going to be permanent as long as she was around. The solution, of course, was to end their less-than-strictly-business working relationship as soon as possible. Which was his goal, of course.
His thoughts strayed again to the third floor. To the huge, king-size bed he’d had specially made. It was built into a frame set directly on the floor and was covered in blankets and linens of various weaves and textures. There were pillows of all sizes, scattered everywhere. Panels of sheer curtains and netting hung from the ceiling, shrouding the bed in a filmy mist of ivory and pale blue. He rarely slept there, but when he did, he enjoyed the reminders of some of the places he’d been. Nepal, Peru, Indonesia.
Now he was picturing her there, beautifully splayed amongst the plush pillows and Egyptian cotton. The use he could make of some of those cushions, arching her body just so, getting caught up in the way her skin would look, so creamy and smooth against the bold jewel tones and exotic weaves.
“So,” she said, a bit of wonder in her tone as she lightly hopped off the last step. “You really do have a Bat Cave right here in Gotham City.”
He kept his back to her and his twitching erection from view. He walked over to a computer monitor, pressed a button so a keypad eased out of the console beneath, and typed in a series of pass codes. Lights came on in the cabinets surrounding the lab part of the room, and the countertop glowed a cerulean blue. A large screen was revealed over the desk and shelving units when wall panels slid apart. Incongruously, there was a pinball machine at one end of the panel of high technology, and Pac Man at the other. Smiling as he watched her take it all in, he pulled a small kit from one of the cabinets and flipped it open. “Why, yes, Girl Wonder,” he said, “yes, I do.”
He held out his hand. “Know anything about fingerprinting?”
She absently dragged her gaze back to his as she handed him the stemware. “Mostly about how not to leave any behind.”
He shouldn’t grin at that, but he did.
She didn’t peer over his shoulder when he turned and placed the glass on the countertop. Instead, she came to stand directly beside him. “I pick things up pretty quickly, however.”
“That much, I knew.”
Now it was her turn to smile. “So,” she said, “where did a former assistant district attorney/current adrenaline junkie part-time jewel thief learn how to process fingerprints? I won’t ask where you got all the expensive toys.”
“My partner, Mac, used to be a detective with the NYPD. As for the electronic gadgets, that’s also Mac’s specialty.” He brushed lightly over one set of prints, then carefully placed a piece of specially treated, clear tape over the powder. “The computer system is Rafe. If you want to know anything about anything, or anyone, he’s the guy. Given enough time, he can uncover anything. If he can’t find it, it’s not out there to be found.”
She leaned over to examine his actions more closely, and a waft of spicy lavender scent tickled his nose, among other things. “Which makes you the bankroll guy, I’m guessing,” she said.
He wasn’t insulted by the remark. Mostly because it was true. “Initially, yes. The company funds itself now.”
“Big buck clients?”
“Smart investments. We don’t charge for our services.”
That gave her pause. Good. He discovered he liked shaking her up, being unpredictable. Lord knew she was often that for him.
“Interesting way to run a company that’s not a charitable foundation.”
“Yes, I thought so myself.” Smiling, he went back to work. He motioned her to follow him over to another small table, where he peeled off the fingerprint tape and processed it.
“You have access, I assume, to some kind of fingerprint database.”
“We do.”
“So, if John’s shower and champagne companion is in that database, that means she’s not likely to be your run-of-the mill Susie Secretary.”
“Or Dora Desk Clerk,” he teased, making her roll her lovely green eyes. “Highly doubtful that’s the case anyway. I don’t think Reese would stop in the midst of a full-scale deal meltdown to have a little fling with the hotel receptionist. Whoever was in that shower with him is, at the very least, involved in some aspect of his world. Whether it’s the part that’s a little shaky on legalities, I don’t know. But the timing of this meeting certainly suggests it is.”
He scanned the image into the computer, then sat back and keyed in the information to start the system searching. Once it was running, he swung around in his chair to look at her. Not surprisingly, she was presently looking over the various tools and equipment lining tables, walls, and a large lab center. Knowing Felicity, she either had a photographic memory, or some kind of recording chip buried in her earring. He certainly wouldn’t put it past her, anyway. In fact, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to revamp the entire setup down here after this was over. He’d have Mac rewire the entire security system. Mac had been bugging him to update to a newer technology anyway.
He glanced at the computer screen, then turned his attention fully back to her, and contemplated the fact that he was already planning a complete security overhaul designed specifically to keep out the very woman he’d invited in. He could say it was all about keeping his enemies closer, but that was a lie he wouldn’t even pretend to tell himself.
“So, if we find this woman, then what?” she asked, still wandering around. She wasn’t poking into anything, or even touching anything, but he doubted she was missing much anyway.
“We dig up as much information on her as possible. Then we find her.”
Felicity looked over at him. “Find her. In a city of millions.”
“You track things a lot smaller than people.”
“But there aren’t generally a million or so of them running around. And we have to do this before the piece leaves the country. Either you have access to a lot more data than even I could imagine, or you know more than you’re letting on.”
“I’m pretty well connected.”
She held his gaze for a moment longer, looking as if she wanted to say something, then went back to wandering around his office and lab space. “You say you don’t use this place often? A lot of gear here for the occasional user. Nice toys, too,” she added, with a quizzical glance in his direction, as she walked past the pinball machine.
“Helps me think. It’s a left brain-right brain thing.”
“Not a stunted childhood thing?” she asked, smiling this time.
He smiled back. “Oh, no, that, too. Definitely didn’t get enough toys growing up. But then, who does?” He gestured to the rest. “As to that stuff, well, we have the means to own some pretty nice gear. So, it’s not a bad thing to have it when you need it.”
She
