In Death 02 - Glory in Death

hair de jour was rather tame, a glittery gold fashioned in what was called a half-swing. One glistening side curved to her ear while the other half skimmed her shoulder.
    She'd only worn perhaps a half dozen varied earrings -- and all in her ears. A distinguished look for Mavis Freestone.
    She stepped out of a torrential spring downpour, handing a speechless Summerset her transparent cloak strung with tiny lights, and turned three circles. More, Eve thought, in awe of the hallway than to show off her skin-hugging red body suit.
    "Wow."
    "My thoughts exactly," Eve said. She'd hovered near the hallway waiting, not wanting Mavis to face Summerset alone. The strategy was obviously unnecessary, as the usually disdainful butler was struck dumb.
    "It's just mag," Mavis said in reverent tones. "Really mag. And you've got the whole digs to yourself."
    Eve sent Summerset a cool, sidelong glance. "Just about."
    "Decent." With a flutter of inch-long lashes, Mavis held out a hand with interlinking hearts tattooed on the back. "And you must be Summerset. I've heard so much about you."
    Summerset took the hand, so staggered he nearly lifted it to his lips before he remembered himself. "Madam," he said stiffly.
    "Oh, you just call me Mavis. Great place to work, huh? You must get a hard charge out of it."
    Unsure if he was appalled or enchanted, Summerset stepped back, managed a half bow, and disappeared down the hall with her dripping cloak.
    "A man of few words." Mavis winked, giggled, then clattered down the hall on six-inch inflatable platforms. And let out a sensual groan at the first doorway. "You've got a real fireplace."
    "A couple dozen of them, I think."
    "Jesus, do you do it in front of the fire? Like in the old flicks?"
    "I'll leave that up to your imagination."
    "I can imagine good. Christ, Dallas, that car you sent. A real limo, a classic. It just had to be raining." She whirled back, sending her earrings dancing. "Only about half the people I wanted to impress saw me. What are we going to do first?"
    "We can eat."
    "I'm starving, but I've got to see the place first. Show me something."
    Eve pondered. The roof terrace was incredible, but it was raining furiously. The weapon room was out, as was the target range. Eve considered those areas off limits to guests without Roarke's presence. There was plenty more, of course. Dubiously Eve studied Mavis's shoes.
    "Can you really walk in those?"
    "They're air glided. I hardly know I've got them on."
    "All right then, we'll take the stairs. You'll see more that way."
    She took Mavis to the solarium first, amused by her friend's dropped-jaw reaction to the exotic plants and trees, the sparkling waterfalls, and chattering birds. The curved glass wall was battered with rain, but through it the lights of New York gleamed.
    In the music room, Eve programmed a trash band and let Mavis entertain her with a glass-shattering short set of current favorites.
    They spent an hour in the game room, competing with the computer, each other, and hologram opponents at Free Zone and Apocalypse.
    Mavis did a lot of oohing and aahing over the bedrooms, and finally chose the suite for her overnight stay.
    "I can have a fire if I want?" Mavis ran a possessive hand over the rich lapis lazuli of the hearth.
    "Sure, but it is nearly June."
    "I don't care if I roast." Arms out, she took long swinging steps over the floor, gazed up through the sky dome, and plopped down on the lake-sized bed with its thick silver cushions. "I feel like a queen. No, no, an empress." She rolled over and over while the floating mattress undulated beneath her. "How do you stay normal in a place like this?"
    "I don't know. I haven't lived here very long."
    Still rolling lavishly from one side of the air cushions to the other, Mavis laughed. "It would only take me one night. I'm never going to be the same." Scooting up to the padded headboard, she punched buttons. Lights flickered on and off, revolved, sparkled. Music throbbed, pulsed. Water began to run in the next room.
    "What's that?"
    "You programmed your bath," Eve informed her.
    "Oops. Not yet." Mavis flicked it off, tried another, and had the panel on the far wall sliding open to reveal a ten-foot video screen. "Definitely decent. Wanna eat?"
    While Eve settled in the dining room with Mavis, enjoying her first full evening off in weeks, Nadine Furst scowled over the editing of her next broadcast.
    "I want to enhance that, freeze on Dallas," she ordered the tech. "Yeah,