Lynne Heitman - First Class Killing

I set my notes on the coffee table. Shadows from the fire danced on the rug beneath it, clearly visible through the glass top. It was hard not to show my frustration. I’d already spent the entire afternoon with her, I had a long drive back to Boston, and I was bumping up on a deadline. Harvey was right. This was my last shot at her. If I were ever going to get what I needed, it would have to be now. I ran through my options. Offer up the rest of the names I had stolen in LA? It wouldn’t be enough. She understood that her programmer was her biggest vulnerability. Threaten to take the idea to her competitors? That was an empty threat. The only way to get what I needed was to play her game.

“What would I have to do to get you to trust me, Angel?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“The rent is due, my credit cards are maxed out, and I’m out of money. I need to know what it will take. Whatever it takes, I’ll do it.”

She looked at me with a satisfied smile as she stretched out and rubbed her feet together, feline style. She understood what I was doing, and she liked it.

“There might just be something you could do for me.” She grabbed a strand of her hair and looked at it, as if inspecting for split ends. “Tell me, Alexandra, have you ever fucked a boy on the first date?”

“A boy?”

She shrugged. “A man. Have you ever put out on the first date, just because you couldn’t keep your hands off him?”

“No.”

“Have you ever been in a threesome?”

“I’m not as adventurous as you.”

“Have you ever had sex with another woman?”

“I like men.”

“Men are pigs.” She said it dismissively, as if it were a scientific fact. “Cocks with wallets is all they are. Or wallets with cocks if you like that better.”

“Your sample is skewed. The men you do business with might all be pigs, but-”

“What type is that?”

“Those willing to pay for sex.”

That brought one of her whoops of delight. “Oh, doll baby. You really do need to learn the ways of the world. There isn’t a man alive who isn’t about one cocktail away from blowing everything he has in his life for a secret poke.” She winked. “Especially if it’s with me. I don’t care who or what he is, I’ll lead him to the trough, and I guarantee you, he’ll be snout deep in all that forbidden fruit before you know it. Men are easy. It’s women that are hard. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because they’re so much smarter. Like you for instance.” She pulled her legs up underneath her and went up on all fours. Then she started toward me, doing a slow, seductive tiger crawl across the couch. Her hands and her knees sank down into the soft cushions so that when she was right next to me, it was hard not to tumble into her.

Angel up close was such a vivid presence, she was almost too much to take. Her size. Her scent. The way her eyes shone. Tristan had said it best. She was always hungry, and I was just figuring out how famished she seemed tonight. She was almost purring. “You never answered my question.”

“What was-”

“Have you ever been naked with another woman?”

“I’ve never had sex with another woman.”

“But you’ve thought about it, haven’t you?”

I was trying to stay a step ahead of her, trying to figure out what answers she would want to hear. But in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help thinking that I had started something I wouldn’t be able to stop, something that wouldn’t go well for either one of us. “Maybe.”

“That’s what I thought.” She curled her legs beneath her and sat back, which had the advantage of moving her half an arm’s length away. “When you close your eyes alone at night in your bed, you think about it, don’t you? About the way a woman’s lips would feel touching your skin or a tongue that knows what it’s doing, all warm and wet and exactly where you want it.” She started moving her hands over her own body, caressing herself. “Does this get you hot? Because I’m all hot now, sugar. I think you should stay here with me tonight.”

She pushed closer and put her hand on my thigh. I watched her do it. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t pull away. I felt her fingers through the fabric of my jeans. It didn’t turn me on. It didn’t feel erotic. It felt like business.

“If I stayed with you tonight, you would introduce me to your programmer?”

The heat was coming off her in waves. I imagined I could hear the blood racing beneath her skin. She was revving. “Put your tongue in my mouth right now,” she said, “and I will give you whatever you want.” She tried to kiss me. I turned my head. When her hand began to creep into forbidden territory, I put mine over it.

“You know, Angel, I keep trying to treat you with respect. I keep trying to maintain a professional relationship with you, because you say that’s what you’re about. But the truth is, you’re a whore, plain and simple.”

She pulled away. I turned to find her staring at me. Then she pulled her hand off my thigh. “What did you just say?”

“I’ve come to you with a good marketing strategy. I’ve provided you with important proprietary information from your most aggressive competitor. I’ve even screwed a man for money because you said to. I’ve done everything you asked and more. What’s your response? You will only trust me if I have sex with you. I’m beginning to think you have trust issues.”

“Did you…did you just call me a whore?”

“You think like one, you act like one, you make decisions like one. You hate yourself like one. That’s why you can’t trust me. You can’t understand anyone who would give you something and not expect sex in return.”

She was still kneeling on the couch next to me, holding perfectly still. The only sound in the room was the hissing of the gas fueling the fire. She didn’t seem horny anymore. She seemed speechless.

“So what happened to you? Were you molested by your father? Raped by your brother? What was it that turned you into such a cliché? Or do you even know?”

“You’d better stop right there.”

“Am I hitting close to home? You like poking around in other people’s psyches and you’re good at it. It’s probably what makes you good at your job. But when the game turns around, you run. You’re scared.”

“I’ve got nothing to hide.”

“All you do is hide. Behind your big tits and your makeup and your fancy clothes and your money. You’ve had fun dissecting me and making me strip for you. Come on out here into the light and show me what you’ve got.”

“Ooh. Are we going to play doctor now? Should I stretch out on the couch for this part? I’d much rather stretch you out. I could make you forget all about men.” She tried to sound sultry, but she was off her rhythm.

“That’s not going to work with me. I want to know about you, but I don’t want to have sex with you. Can you grasp that?”

“Why?”

“Because I want to do business with you. You know better than anyone how important it is to understand your client. I’m trying to understand you.”

She stared for a long time before letting her shoulders relax. She put her elbow up against the back of the couch and rested her head against her hand.

“Nothing,” she said.

“Nothing what?”

“Nothing happened to me. I saw the way the world worked and I made a choice. That’s all.”

“How does the world work?”

“When I was fifteen years old, I had to take a job in a department store after school, because my daddy was such a dumb bastard that he couldn’t support his own family.”

I recoiled slightly, the way I always did when I heard one person call another one dumb, and especially someone they were supposed to love. But I also thought that maybe, just maybe, this could go in the direction I wanted it to.