by J. D. Robb
‘Leonardo.’ Beaming like a fool, Mavis ran her gold-tipped fingers through his tight, shoulder-length curls.
‘Babydoll.’
Eve managed not to gag as they cooed at each other, but she did roll her eyes. She was stuck now, without a doubt. Mavis was in love again.
‘The hair, it’s wonderful.’ Leonardo ran loving fingers, the size of soydogs, through Mavis’s streaked mop.
‘I hoped you’d like it. This . . .’ There was a dramatic pause, as though she were about to introduce her award-winning schnauzer. ‘Is Dallas.’
‘Ah yes, the bride. Lovely to meet you, Lieutenant Dallas.’ He kept one arm around Mavis and shot the other out to take Eve’s hand. ‘Mavis has told me so much about you.’
‘Yeah.’ Eve slanted a look toward her friend. ‘She’s been a little light on details on you.’
He laughed, a booming sound that made Eve’s ears ring even as her lips twitched in response. ‘My turtledove can be secretive. Refreshments,’ he stated, then whirled off in a cloud of color and unexpected grace.
‘He’s wonderful, isn’t he?’ Mavis whispered, eyes dancing with love.
‘You’re sleeping with him.’
‘You wouldn’t believe how . . . inventive he is. How . . .’ Mavis blew out a breath, patted her breast. ‘The man is a sexual artist.’
‘I don’t want to hear about it. Absolutely don’t want to hear about it.’ Drawing her brows together, Eve scanned the room.
It was wide, high ceilinged, and crowded with flows and streams of material. Fuchsia rainbows, ebony waterfalls, chartreuse pools dripped from the ceiling, along the walls, over tabletops and arms of chairs.
‘Jesus,’ was all she could manage.
Bowls and trays of glittering ribbons, tapes, and buttons were piled everywhere. Sashes, belts, hats, and veils crowded with half-finished outfits of shimmering materials and studded bodices.
The place smelled like an incense farm married to a flower shop.
She was terrified.
A little pale, Eve turned back. ‘Mavis, I love you. Maybe I haven’t told you that before, but I do. Now I’m leaving.’
‘Dallas.’ With a quick giggle, Mavis grabbed her arm. For a small woman, Mavis was amazingly strong. ‘Relax. Take a breath. I guarantee Leonardo’s going to fix you up.’
‘That’s what I’m afraid of, Mavis. Deeply afraid.’
‘Lemon tea, iced,’ Leonardo announced with a musical lilt as he came back through a curtain of draping simulated silk with a tray and glasses. ‘Please, please, sit. First we’ll relax, get to know each other.’
With her eye on the door, Eve edged toward a chair. ‘Look, Leonardo, Mavis might not have explained things, exactly. See, I’m—’
‘You’re a homicide detective. I’ve read about you,’ Leonardo said smoothly, snuggling on a curve-sided settee with Mavis all but in his lap. ‘Your last case generated a great deal of media. I must confess I was fascinated. You work with puzzles, Lieutenant, as I do.’
Eve sampled the tea, nearly blinked when she discovered it was full-bodied, rich, and wonderful. ‘You work with puzzles?’
‘Naturally. I see a woman, I imagine how I would like to see her dressed. Then I must discover who she is, what she is, how does she live her life. What are her hopes, her fantasies, her vision of herself? Then I must take all of that, piece each part of her together to create the look. The image. At first, she is a mystery, and I’m compelled to solve her.’
Unashamed, Mavis sighed lustily. ‘Isn’t he mag, Dallas?’
Leonardo chuckled, nuzzled Mavis’s ear. ‘Your friend is worried, my dove. She think I’ll wrap her in electric pink and spangles.’
‘It sounds wonderful.’
‘For you.’ He beamed back at Eve. ‘So you’re going to marry the elusive and powerful Roarke.’
‘It looks that way,’ Eve muttered.
‘You met him on a case. The DeBlass case, correct? And intrigued him with your tawny eyes and serious smile.’
‘I wouldn’t say I—’
‘You wouldn’t,’ Leonardo continued, ‘because you don’t see yourself as he does. Or as I do. Strong, valiant, troubled, dependable.’
‘Are you a designer or an analyst?’ Eve demanded.
‘You can’t be one without the other. Tell me, lieutenant, how did Roarke win you?’
‘I’m not a prize.’ She snapped it, then set her glass aside.
‘Wonderful.’ He clasped his hands together and almost wept. ‘Heat and independence, and just a little fear. You’ll make a magnificent bride. Now to work.’ He rose. ‘Come with me.’
She stood up. ‘Listen, there’s no point in wasting your time, or mine. I’m just going to—’
‘Come with me,’ he repeated and took her hand.
‘Give it a chance, Eve.’
For Mavis, she allowed Leonardo to lead her under and around falls of material and into an equally cluttered workstation on the far side of the loft.
The computer made her feel a little better. Those she understood. But the drawings it had generated, which were pinned and tacked to every available space, made her heart sink.
Fuchsia and spangles would have been a relief.
The models with their long, exaggerated bodies looked like mutants. Some were sporting feathers, others stones. A few were wearing what could have been clothes, but in such outrageous styles - pointed collars, skirts the size of washcloths, unisuits snug as skin - they looked like participants in a Halloween parade.
‘Examples for my first show. High fashion is a twist on reality, you see. The bold, the unique, the impossible.’
‘I love them.’
Eve curled her lip at Mavis and folded her arms. ‘It’s going to be a small, simple ceremony, at home.’
‘Um.’ Leonardo was already at his computer, using the keyboard with impressive skill. ‘Now this . . .’ He brought up an image that made Eve’s blood chill.
The dress was the color of fresh urine, ringed with flounces of mud brown from its scalloped neck to its knifepoint hem that dripped with stones the size of a child’s fist. The sleeves were so snug Eve was certain anyone wearing it would loose all feeling in their fingers.
As the image turned, she was treated to a view of the back, dipping past the waist and trimmed in floaty feathers.
‘. . . is not at all for you,’ Leonardo finished, and indulged in a deep belly laugh at Eve’s blanched skin. ‘I apologize. I couldn’t resist. For you . . . just a sketch, you understand. Slim, long, simple. Only a column. Not too delicate.’
He continued to speak as he worked. On the screen, lines and shapes began to form. Sticking her hands in her pockets, Eve watched.
It looked so easy, Eve mused. Long lines, the most subtle of accents at the bodice, sleeves that came to soft, rounded points just at the back of the hand. Still uneasy, she waited for him to start to add the gingerbread.
‘We’ll fuss with it a bit,’ he said absently, and again turned the image to show a back as sleek and elegant as the front, with a slit to the knees. ‘You wouldn’t want a train.’
‘A train?’
‘No.’ He only smiled, flicking a glance up at her. ‘You wouldn’t. A headdress. Your hair.’
Used to derogatory comments, Eve ran her fingers through it. ‘I can cover it up if I have to.’
‘No, no, no. It suits you.’
Her hand dropped in shock. ‘It does?’
‘Indeed. You need a bit of shaping. I know someone—’ He flicked that aside. ‘But the color, all those tones of brown and gold, and the short, not quite tamed style is very good on you. A couple of snips.’ Eyes narrowed, he studied her. ‘No, no headdress, no veil. Your face is enough. Now, color and material. It must be silk, of a good weight.’ He grimaced a little. ‘Mavis tells me Roarke will not be paying.’
Eve’s back went up. ‘It’s my dress.’
‘She’s dug in on this one,’ Mavis commented. ‘Like Roarke would notice a few t
housand credits.’
‘That’s not the point—’
‘No, indeed not.’ Leonardo smiled again. ‘Well, we’ll manage. Color? I don’t think white, too stark for your skin tone.’
Pursing his lips, he went to his palette key and experimented. Fascinated despite herself, Eve watched the sketch turn from snowy white to cream, to pale blue, to vivid green and a rainbow between. Though Mavis oohed and ahed over several choices, he only shook his head.
He settled on bronze.
‘This. Yes, oh yes. Your skin, your eyes, your hair. You’ll be radiant, majestic. A goddess. With it you’ll need a necklace, at least thirty-inch length. Better yet, two lengths, twenty-four and thirty inches. Copper, I think, with colored stones. Rubies, citrine, onyx. Yes, yes, and carnelian, perhaps some tourmaline. You’ll speak to Roarke about the accessories. ’
Clothes never meant a damn to her, but Eve caught herself yearning. ‘It’s beautiful,’ she said cautiously and began to calculate her credit situation. ‘I’m just not sure. You know, silk . . . It’s a little out of my range.’
‘You’ll have the dress at my cost, and for a promise.’ He enjoyed watching the wariness come into her eyes. ‘That I will be allowed to design Mavis’s dress as your attendant, and you will use my designs for your trousseau.’
‘I haven’t thought about a trousseau. I’ve got clothes.’
‘Lieutenant Dallas has clothes,’ he corrected. ‘Roarke’s partner in marriage will need others.’
‘Maybe we can make a deal.’ She wanted that damn dress, she realized. She could feel it on her.
‘Wonderful. Take off your clothes.’
She snapped back like a spring. ‘Okay, asshole—’
‘For the measurements,’ Leonardo said quickly. The look in her eye had him rising, stepping back. He was a man who adored women, and understood their wrath. In other words, he feared them. ‘You must consider me as you would your health provider. I can’t design the dress properly until I know your body. I’m an artist, and a gentleman,’ he said with dignity. ‘But Mavis can stay if you feel uneasy.’
Eve tilted her head. ‘I can handle you, pal. If you get out of line, even think about it, you’ll find out for yourself.’
‘I’m sure of it.’ Cautiously he picked up a device. ‘My scanner,’ he explained. ‘It will measure you very accurately. But you have to be naked for a true reading.’
‘Stop snickering, Mavis. Go get us some more of that tea.’
‘Sure. I’ve already seen you naked, anyway.’ Blowing kisses to Leonardo, she headed off.
‘I have other ideas . . . about clothes,’ Leonardo said when Eve narrowed her eyes. ‘The underfoundation for the dress, of course. Evening and daywear, the formal, the casual. Your honeymoon is where?’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it.’ Resigned, she took off her shoes, unhitched her jeans.
‘Roarke will surprise you then. Computer, create file, Dallas, first doc, measurements, coloring, height, and weight.’ After she’d tossed her shirt aside, he stepped forward with the scanner. ‘Feet together please. Height, five foot nine inches, weight, one hundred and twenty.’
‘How long have you been sleeping with Mavis?’
He rattled off more data. ‘About two weeks. She’s very dear to me. Waist twenty-six point two inches.’
‘Did you start sleeping with her before or after she told you her best friend was marrying Roarke?’
He stopped cold, and his brilliant gold eyes glittered with temper. ‘I am not using Mavis for a commission, and you insult her by thinking it.’
‘Just checking. She’s very dear to me, too. If we’re going to deal on this, I want to make sure all the cards are faceup, that’s all. So—’
The interruption came in fast, and came in furious. A woman in skintight, unadorned black burst in like a comet, perfect teeth bared, lethal red nails curled into talons.
‘You two-timing, back-stabbing, mother-fucking son of a bitch.’ She made her leap, rather like a gorgeous mortar locked on target, and with a speed and grace brought on by pure fear, Leonardo evaded. ‘Pandora, I can explain—’
‘Explain this.’ Turning her wrath on Eve, she swiped out, barely missing scooping Eve’s eyes out of their sockets.
There was only one thing to do. Eve decked her.
‘Oh Jesus, oh Jesus.’ Leonardo hunched his huge shoulders and wrung his ham-size hands.
Chapter Two
‘Did you have to hit her?’
Eve watched the woman’s eyes roll back, then roll forward. ‘Yeah.’
Leonardo set down his scanner and sighed. ‘She’s going to make my life a living hell.’
‘My face, my face.’ As she teetered back into full consciousness, Pandora scrambled up, patting her jaw. ‘Is it bruised? Does it show? I’ve got a session in an hour.’
Eve shrugged. ‘Tough luck.’
Jumping from mood to mood like a crazed gazelle, Pandora hissed through her teeth, ‘I’ll ruin you, bitch. You’ll never work on screen, on disc, and you sure as hell won’t get a runway job. Do you know who I am?’
Being naked under the circumstances just added to Eve’s mood. ‘Do you think I care?’
‘What’s going on? Damn it, Dallas, he’s just trying to fit you - Oh.’ Hurrying in with glasses in both hands, Mavis stopped dead. ‘Pandora.’
‘You.’ Obviously, Pandora’s supply of venom wasn’t running low. She sprang at Mavis, sending glasses crashing, tea flying. In seconds, the two women were wrestling on the floor and tearing at each other’s hair.
‘Oh, for Christ’s sake.’ If she’d had a stunner on her, Eve would have used it on the pair of them. ‘Break it up. Goddamn it, Leonardo, give me a hand here before they kill each other.’ Eve dived in, pulling at arms and legs. She gave Pandora an extra elbow jab to the ribs for her own enjoyment. ‘I’ll haul you into a cage, I swear to God.’ For lack of anything else, she sat on Pandora and tugged over her jeans to get her badge out of the pocket. ‘Take a good look, you idiot. I’m a cop. So far, you’ve got two counts of assault. Want to go for three?’
‘Get your bony, naked ass off me.’
It wasn’t the order but the relative calm with which it was delivered that had Eve shifting. Pandora rose, brushed her hands meticulously down her black skin suit, sniffed, tossed her luxurious mane of flame-colored hair, then aimed a frigid glare with heavily lashed emerald eyes.
‘So, one at a time’s not enough for you anymore, Leonardo. You scum.’ Sculpted chin lifted, she cast a scornful look at Eve, then at Mavis. ‘Your appetite might be increasing, darling, but your taste is deteriorating.’
‘Pandora.’ Shaken, still wary of attack, Leonardo moistened his lips. ‘I said I can explain. Lieutenant Dallas is a client.’
She spit like a cobra. ‘Is that what you’re calling them now? You think you can just toss me aside like yesterday’s news, Leonardo? I say when it’s over.’
Limping a little, Mavis walked to Leonardo, slipped an arm around his waist. ‘He doesn’t need you or want you.’
‘I don’t give a damn what he wants. But need?’ Her full lips curved into a nasty smile. ‘He’ll have to tell you the facts of life, little girl. Without me, there won’t be any show next month for his second-rate clothes. And without a show, he’s not going to make any sales, and without sales, he won’t be able to pay for all that material, all that inventory, and that nice, fat loan he took from the leg breakers.’
She took a deep breath and studied the nails she’d chipped. Fury seemed to fit her as cleanly as her black skin suit. ‘This is going to cost you big time, Leonardo. I’ve got a busy calendar for the next couple of days, but I’m going to find a way to squeeze in some time to have a chat with your backers. What do you think they’ll say when I tell them I simply can’t lower my standards to walking the runway in your designs? Inferior as they are.’
‘You can’t do that, Pandora.’ Panic was in every word, a panic Eve was sure was
for the glowing redhead like a fix for an addict. ‘It’ll ruin me. I’ve put everything into this show. Time, money—’
‘Isn’t it a shame you didn’t think of that before you picked up this little piece of navel lint?’ Pandora’s eyes narrowed into sharp slits. ‘I think I can manage to have lunch with a few of the money men by the end of the week. You’ve got a couple of days, darling, to decide how you want to play it. Get rid of the new toy, or pay the consequences. You know where to reach me.’
She went out with the exaggerated glide of a model, and punctuated the exit by slamming the door.
‘Oh shit.’ Leonardo sank into a chair and covered his face with his hands. ‘Her timing is perfect, as always.’
‘Don’t. Don’t let her do this to you. To us.’ Near tears, Mavis crouched down in front of him. ‘You can’t let her run your life anymore, or blackmail you—’ Inspired, Mavis sprang up. ‘It’s blackmail, isn’t it, Dallas? Go arrest her.’
Eve finished buttoning the shirt she’d pulled on. ‘Honey, I can’t arrest her for saying she’s not going to wear his clothes. I can go haul her in for assault, but she’d be out almost before I closed the door on her.’
‘But it is blackmail. Everything Leonardo’s got is tied up in the show. He’ll lose everything without it.’
‘I’m sorry. Really. It’s just not a police or security matter.’ She dragged her hands through her hair. ‘Look, she was hot and pissed off. Hopped on something from the look of her eyes. Odds are she’ll calm down.’
‘No.’ Leonardo sat back in the chair. ‘She’ll want to make me pay. You must have understood we were lovers. Things were cooling off between us. She’s been off planet for a few weeks, and I considered our personal relationship over. Then, I met Mavis.’ His hand found hers, gripped. ‘And I knew it was over. I spoke with Pandora briefly, told her. Or tried to.’
‘Since Dallas can’t help, there’s only one thing to do.’ Mavis’s chin quivered. ‘You have to go back to her. It’s the only way.’ She added before Leonardo could speak, ‘We won’t see each other, at least not until after your show. Maybe then, we can pick up the pieces. You can’t let her go to your backers and ditch your designs.’