“I’ll
bite,” I said. “Why vote down women’s membership?”
Now Nikki
smiled. She rose smoothly, crossed the space and sat on the couch facing me. At
some point, the zipper on her skirt had moved from just above the knee all the
way up to her hip, showing off a very generous amount of leg.
She arched
her back as she leaned towards me, presenting a fabulous view of cleavage. It
was completely intentional, she was trying to distract me. I didn’t know why,
and until I did, I felt justified in looking where she wanted me to look. After
all, she was taking the time and effort, it would be rude not to look.
“On your
way here, you ran into Theresa, did you not?”
“Sure, I
guess.”
Nikki
rolled her eyes. “You know, Dumpling, for a supposedly observant detective, you
have difficulty with salient details.”
“Yup,” I
said, continuing to leer down Nikki’s blouse, letting my eyes slide to her leg.
“Really,
Matthew, must you be so obviously distracted?” Nikki chided.
“Yup.”
“The young
redheaded woman.”
“The one who
decidedly didn’t fit the standard physical or behavioral model for Fairhaven
Club. Decided glimmer of intelligence, but she’s not as good at hiding her
contempt for people as she thinks. You let her wait on any of the big wigs and
even they’ll figure it out eventually no matter how good she is at showing legs
and cleavage.”
Nikki
blinked, then the smile went from simply flirtatious to genuinely fond.