In Death 13 - Seduction in Death

She was a cop, a damn good cop, under the direct command of a woman she considered the ultimate in examples.
    She'd learned so much in the past year. Not just about technique, not just about procedure, but about what made the difference between that good cop and a brilliant one.
    About what separated the ones who wanted to close a case from the ones who took it a level deeper, and cared about the victim. Who remembered them.
    She knew she was getting better at the job every day, and she could take pride in that. She loved living in New York, seeing its face change and shift as you moved from block to block.
    The city was so full, she thought. Of people, of energy, of action. While she could go back and sit in that homey kitchen, she'd never be content living there again. She needed New York.
    She was happy in her little apartment, where the space was all her own. She had steady comrades, good friends, a worthy and satisfying career.
    She was dating, well, sort of dating, one of the most incredibly handsome, considerate, sophisticated men she'd ever known. He took her to galleries, to the opera, to amazing restaurants. Through Charles, she'd been exposed to not just another side of the city, but of life.
    And she lay in bed at night, staring at the ceiling and wondering why she felt so lonely.
    She needed to pull out of it. Depression did not run in her family, and she wasn't going to be the first to spiral down into it.
    Maybe she needed a hobby. Like glass painting or container gardening. Holographic photography. Macrame.
    Fuck it.
    It was just that thought in her head when McNab popped out of the subway glide and all but collided with her.
    "Hey." He took a jerky step back even as she did. Stuck his hands in his pockets.
    "Hey." Could her timing have been worse? she wondered. She couldn't have walked a little faster, a little slower? Left home five minutes earlier, two minutes later?
    They frowned at each other for a moment, then had to move or be mowed down by the commuters flooding off the glide and onto the sidewalk.
    "So." He pulled his hands out of his pockets to adjust the fit of the tiny, round sunshades with aqua blue lenses. "Dallas called for the home office deal."
    "I got the update."
    "Sounds like she got some action last night," he continued, struggling to keep it all mild and easy. "Too bad that creep didn't drop into Cyber Perk the other night when we were there. We might've made him."
    "Unlikely."
    "Try a little optimism, She-Body."
    "Try a little reality, jerk-face."
    "Wake up on the wrong side of slick-boy's bed?"
    She heard her own teeth grind. "There is no wrong side of Charles's bed," she said sweetly. "It's a big, soft, round playpen."
    "Oh yeah?" Half the circuits in his brains fried at the image of Peabody romping naked in some plush, sexy bed. With someone else.
    "That's just the sort of quick repartee I've come to expect from you. You must be sharpening your wits on all those bimbos you're bouncing on these days."
    "The last bimbo had a doctorate from MIT, the body of a goddess, and the face of an angel. We didn't spend much time on wit-sharpening."
    "Pig."
    "Bitch." He grabbed her arm as she swung toward Roarke's gate. "I'm getting fed up with the way you slap at me every time I get within striking distance, Peabody. You're the one who put the brakes on."
    "Not soon enough." She tugged, but his grip stayed firm. She always underestimated those skinny arms of his. It was mortifying to realize the strength in them had her stomach doing cartwheels. "And as usual you're wrong and you're stupid. You're the one who ended things because you couldn't have everything your way."
    "Right. Excuse me for objecting to the fact you'd roll out of my bed and roll into the whore's."
    She rammed a fist into his chest. "Don't call him that. You don't know anything about it, and if you had one tenth of Charles's class, his charm, his consideration, you'd crawl up to subhuman. But since you don't I should thank you for putting the skids on what was a ridiculous, embarrassing, and revolting mistake on my part by ever letting you lay a hand on me. So thanks!"
    "You're welcome."
    They were panting, wild-eyed and nose to nose. Then they were moaning and mouth to mouth. They jerked apart, still wild-eyed.
    "That didn't mean anything," she managed between gasps.
    "Right. It didn't mean anything. So let's do it again."
    He yanked her back, sank his teeth greedily into her bottom lip. It was, she thought, dizzying,