- Hot Pink Steele
by NewSue
Thanks to Lauryn, the Beta Goddess! Usual disclaimers apply.
Steele was pulling on a black turtleneck when he heard the door
buzzer ring. He continued dressing and tucking as he walked to
answer it. He opened the door, and saw Laura standing there.
She was wearing the tightest, sexiest black cat burglar outfit
he'd ever seen - and considering he used to work with Felicia,
that was saying a lot.
"My, my, my, Laura, you take my breath away."
His eyes traversed her every curve.
"Good evening to you, too, Mr. Steele," answered Laura
with a bit of annoyance and a hint of color in her cheeks. She
followed his gaze to the silver zipper on her chest and pulled
it upwards slightly. "Damn thing slips," she muttered
under her breath.
"Do come in, I'm almost ready." He noticed what
looked like an oversized comic book in her hand that said,"Atomic
Man - The Saga Continues" in bold print. "What's that
you've got, Laura? A little reading for the stakeout in
case my conversation wanes a bit, hmmh?"
"No, I brought it over just in case. I didn't know if you'd
be ready on time and I . . . ."
"Laura, I am *always* ready."
"Yes, Mr. Steele," she looked him up and down appraisingly
as if to turn the tables, "I'm sure you are."
Steele cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Laura, I thought
they stopped making Atomic Man comics when the show went off
the air."
"They did. This is a fanzine."
"A what?"
"It's a continuation of the story using the characters in
Atomic Man written and illustrated by a fan. There are lots of
them. I'm on a "pass around" mailing list I
got from the Atomic Man Fan Club."
"But it's written by an amateur?"
"The writing is very good, really, often better than the
original series and very much like an episode except . . .."
she broke off.
"Except what?"
"Well, in the series he often worked together with an attractive
blond woman named Electrona to fight crime and save the world.
There was quite a sexual tension between them but they never
really got together."
"Sexual tension with Atomic Man, now that defies credulity!
Who could be attracted to him?"
"Electrona was! The heat between them was . . . palpable."
She was blushing again. "You could really feel their mutual
attraction."
"De gustabus non est disputandum."
Laura frowned at him and continued. "Well anyway in the
fanzines, it's different."
"You mean they . . . consummate their relationship?"
"Oh, yes, sometimes quite . . . graphically," Laura
avoided his eyes in discomfort.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," he said moving closer
and using one finger to tilt her chin so he could look into her
eyes. "Perhaps," his voice got lower, "You'll
find this comic is . . . inspirational." Laura
pulled away just a fraction of a second before his lips could
descend on hers.
"My idea is that you should finish getting ready, Mr. Steele.
And, hey, it's a little chilly out there, do you have an extra
black jacket I could borrow?"
Steele sighed raggedly."Of course, Laura, I have two black
leather jackets in the closet, go grab us each one while I fill
up my cognac flask in the kitchen. You'd better cover
up, or I'll be watching you instead of the painting we're hired
to protect."
Laura entered his bedroom and when she slid open the glass closet
doors she was amazed at the sheer quantity of men's clothing
it contained. She found the first leather jacket quickly. She
was arduously moving hand tailored suits aside to search for
the other when she discovered it. A hot pink terry cloth robe
hung there and practically shouted, "damn fool!" to
Laura. There was a woman's robe in his closet!
He must have a girlfriend, she thought, or at the very least,
a fairly regular lover. He certainly had gotten more subtle about
his liaisons in recent years. He hadn't flashed a woman
in her face for quite some time and deep down she had
to admit she had thought or hoped she was the only one he was
seeing. How could she have been so stupid, so naive? The other
black jacket was next to the robe and she threw them both angrily
to the bed. She bent to examine the offending item more closely
when Steele came back into the room.
"Find everything all right, Laura?" Steele was
saying as he walked through the door. When he saw what Laura
was looking at he froze in his tracks. She stared up at him,
her eyes filled with anger and disappointment.
"Laura, it's not what it looks like. I can
explain."
She closed the closet abruptly and swept up the jackets, throwing
the larger one at him. "Don't bother, it's none of my business,
anyway. I found everything. Let's go. It's getting late."
"But Laura, do you really think that I would have sent you
into that closet if I were hiding something from you?"
"Maybe you wanted me to find it to save your having to explain.
After all, you aren't very good with words, are you?"
"Laura, it's perfectly innocent! I . . ."
"No need, Mr. Steele. I have no hold on you and I don't
want one. We are a team professionally and that's all,"
Laura ground out through clenched teeth.
"If we have a mere working relationship than whom have I
taken to dinner and a movie every Saturday night for the
last three months?"
"But we never did anything more." Half under her breath
she added, "Thank God!"
"Not for my lack of trying. And I would make sure you wouldn't
regret it," he added hotly after hearing her whispered comment.
"If this is the part where you talk about your "needs"
don't bother."
"I'm not surprised. My needs have never concerned you! But
listen to me woman, when would I have time for this imaginary
lover, hmmh?"
"Your lover must be very low maintenance not to want to
see much of you on the weekends. Perhaps you share her with someone
else." Laura could almost feel herself growing claws but
it felt so good to hurt him back.
"If I share you Laura Holt, it's with your bloody agency!
Listen to me!"
"Later. Let's just go. Oh, and stop at the convenience
store. I need some chocolate."
The museum curator who hired them felt it was an inside job so
they had to sneak into the museum to avoid alerting security
to their presence.. Two paintings on traveling exhibit
had been stolen on consecutive Friday nights and the suspected
target for tonight was "Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe."
Steele regarded the work with undisguised admiration. "Lovely
painting. It was rather controversial in it's day." It was
a scene of a nude woman picnicking with two well dressed Frenchmen
in the foreground and a maid dressed in white was in the background.
"It was considered quite vulgar," Steele continued.
"The nude was too contemporary, too real. No ethereal nymph,
but a woman of flesh and blood.."
Laura looked at the title. "'Luncheon on the grass?'"
"Yes. Very good, Laura. Your French is better than I remembered.
It was painted in 1863 by Manet."
"You mean Monet, the French impressionist?"
"No, Edouard Manet, also French. He was a fashionable
Parisian, a painter of modern life. This work set the stage for
the advent of Impressionism."
"Why is the woman naked when the men are both clothed?"
"Begs the question - who's for lunch, eh?" His eyes
glimmered with amusement and something more as he looked at Laura.
They settled in behind a sculpture for a long night of surveillance.
Laura took out a chocolate bar and started ripping into it with
a vengeance. "Laura, I know when you eat like that,
you're angry, let's talk."
"I am *not* angry! I'm just hungry."
"It's just like that night we were eating Mexican after
Derek made the pass at you. I know you're fuming about the bathrobe.
If you would just listen to me, I could explain."
Laura stopped chewing for a moment and looked at him. She swallowed
and then dug into her bag for a Twinkie which she slit open soundlessly
with her Swiss army knife.
"Go on," she said.
"The night your house blew up I set your clothes out to
be cleaned while you were in the shower. I was hoping you would
rest for a while until they were returned so I sent the
doorman out to the nearest store to buy a ladies' robe
to hold you over. When he came back with hot pink, well, I sensed
it wasn't your color. And you were in quite a mood as it was,
if you recall." He smiled softly. "Luckily, you had
already found some of my clothes to wear so I never told you
about it."
"Why did you save it?"
"As a memento of the night that despite being filled with
loss brought us closer together."
"Yes, it did, didn't it?"
"Hmmh, yes. And I keep it hanging there hoping someday you'll
stay at my apartment under different circumstances and wear it."
"I guess we can't completely rule it out." She began
eating her twinkie slowly and sensuously, savoring each morsel
of the creme filled snake cake as she looked up at him with mischief
in her brown eyes.
"I don't know how you Americans can eat that processed garbage
full of chemicals! A museum is the place for a good cognac,
perhaps some digestive biscuits, but NOT a twinkie!" he
said indignantly as he tried to distract himself from the mental
images forming as he watched her eat. If only we'd stopped at
an Italian bakery on the way. You know the old Sicilian saying
- leave the Twinkie - take the cannoli," Steele joked.
"I prefer Ring Dings myself but they only sell Drake's products
on the East coast. Sometimes Frances sends me a few. Hostess
Big Wheels are too inferior to consider, but I can handle an
occasional Twinkie."
"Oh, I am sure you can. On a much larger scale, of course,"
he replied in a quiet husky voice. As she reached the center,
the cream filling gushed out in a burst and left a small amount
on her upper lip. As she licked her lips with her tongue, Steele
could swear his upper lip was sweating. "Allow me,"
he said as he moved in to kiss away the remaining filling. The
kiss was an intensely passionate one. Teasing and tasting turned
into devouring. Unfortunately, it was interrupted all too soon
by a noise alerting them they were no longer alone in the room
with the painting.
The End
My list included the following items:
Atomic Man Comics
Hot Pink Bathrobe
Dejeuner sur l'herbe
Twinkies
Swiss Army Knife
Steele quoting from "The Godfather"
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