Rarities Unlimited 03 - Die in Plain Sight

new to report?” Susa asked.
    “All the leads are dead ends.” He sat down next to Lacey, tilted her chin, and neatly licked up a smear of pizza sauce. “Mmm, garlic and cream. My favorite. Artichoke and basil, too. Doesn’t get much better unless you put a pound of pepperoni on top. You going to eat all that?”
    She swallowed, told herself that her heart hadn’t really turned over at the warm flick of his tongue, and managed to speak. “You have a salami sandwich the size of a TV and a gi-normous salad of your own that you haven’t even touched.”
    “Your point?” He eyed the pizza on her plate.
    “I should have ordered a bigger pizza.”
    “I’ll let you nibble on my salami.”
    She looked at his dark eyes and lazy smile and forgot to breathe. “You will?”
    “Any time.”
    A piece of Susa’s pizza plopped down on top of Ian’s salami sandwich. “Quit tormenting her,” she said.
    “Does that mean you want some of my—” he began, turning toward Susa.
    “No,” she cut in ruthlessly. “I have a fine salami source of my own.”
    Ian snickered and began eating. Lacey watched in fascination as food disappeared. Even the messy salad didn’t slow him down a bit.
    “Why are you staring at me?” Ian asked finally.
    “I only have sisters. My dad is a couch potato. I had no idea how much an active man could eat.”
    “Wait until you have dinner with the Donovans,” Susa said. “Appalling.” She looked at Lacey. “Did your parents bring something fancy you can wear tonight? Don’t ask me why, but people always dress up for art as though it somehow makes everything more valuable.”
    “God, yes, Mom brought everything she ever wanted me to wear,” Lacey said, rolling her eyes. “I’m going to be painting in designer dresses unless I hit a few garage sales.”
    “It’s a shame that little black dress couldn’t be saved,” Ian said, smiling down at his salami. “Great neckline. Hemline wasn’t bad, either.”
    Lacey tried not to laugh or blush, and failed both ways. She lobbed her napkin at Ian, who caught it, tucked it into his shirt collar, and dived back into his lunch.
    “Thanks, darling,” he said. “I couldn’t find mine.”
    “It’s in your lap,” Lacey said.
    “You sure? Maybe you better check.”
    “This tricycle is about to be turned into a bicycle built for two,” Susa said, winking at Lacey. “If I’m not awake by four, pound on the door until you get a coherent sentence from me. Not just a word or two, mind you. An intelligible whole sentence. Otherwise I’ll just roll over and go back to sleep.”
    Susa picked up her pizza and beer, went into her bedroom, and closed the door. A moment later the radio began blaring out a reggae retrospective on a local station.
    “Should I feel bad?” Lacey asked.
    “Why?”
    “I didn’t mean to drive her away.”
    “You didn’t. One thing I’ve learned about Susa is that she does pretty much what she wants. Another thing is that she likes spending time alone. Before your place burned down, we went to separate ends of the suite after an early dinner. Her choice.”
    “So you were just giving her an excuse to get away gracefully?” Lacey asked, her voice almost wistful.
    “You haven’t checked for my napkin yet.”
    She looked at his eyes and felt her heart do the back-flip thing again.Slowly she leaned forward and checked under the table for his napkin. It was there. So was he. Right there.
    “Oh,” she said.
    “Is that ‘Oh, shit’ or ‘Oh, boy’?”
    “You finished with lunch?” she asked.
    “You have something in mind?”
    “Oh, yeah.”

Savoy Hotel
    Saturday evening
44
    W rapped in a huge bath towel, Lacey shook out a dress and stared. “What was Mom thinking?”
    Ian wandered out of the bathroom with a towel tucked around his hips, rubbing his freshly shaved jaw. “What’s wrong?”
    She held out the dress. “This!”
    “Nice color.”
    She snorted. “Why do men always love red?”
    “A Y-chromosome thing, I suppose. Anything else wrong?”
    “There’s not much of the damn thing and what there is stretches. No way to wear a bra and not have every stitch show.”
    Ian grinned. “Better and better. Let’s have a look.”
    Ignoring her hands batting at his, he took off Lacey’s towel and pulled the dress over her head. With a roll of her eyes, she wiggled and jiggled and pulled at stretchy fabric until everything was mostly where it should be.
    His jaw hit the floor. “Holy