Lara walked out of the room and back into the main club, just in time
to see Alice walking out. Her blue eyes narrowed in thought. She knew,
when she walked in on Susan, that she was in the middle of a seduction.
God knows, she’d been on the receiving end of that look, that caress,
plenty of times.

She was curious, though. Just what did Susan see in Alice? And why had
Alice responded the way she did? Twice she’d seen it. Once at the Lost
‘n Found, and again tonight at Petruccio’s. She tapped a finger against
her lips and pondered the possibilities. A faint smile tugged at her
mouth as she made her decision, and followed Alice out of the club.

~*~*~*~*~*

Susan slipped out through her private exit. She didn’t want an audience
staring at her battered face. It was going to take every trick in her
studio makeup kit to hide half the damage Francesca had done. She
stopped at the corner of the building and watched as Alice climbed into
her Mini and drove away.

She smiled, remembering how Alice’s pupils had dilated as she leaned
into the kiss, the way her skin had warmed to her touch. She was an
intriguing woman, this girl reporter. The kind of woman it might be fun
to initiate. She sighed at the familiar surge of lust and power.

That glow faded as she watched Lara climb into her own car and follow
the Mini out of the parking lot. Was there something more than met the
eye between them? The thought hardened in her mind and she quickly
walked to the back of the lot and her own car, heels clicking on the
pavement.

~*~*~*~*~*

Alice barely remembered driving home. She stormed into her apartment,
going to her laptop and pulling up the pictures of Jo Wheaton, and some
of Susan that she’d found on the Internet. She stared at the one shot
of her eyes, those mesmerizing eyes and her voice came into her head.

You do have a fantasy, don’t you Alice?” Alice shivered, still feeling Susan’s touch, the caress of her voice. Good god, there was no way she was going there.

Or was there?

~*~*~*~*~*

“I have to get them all together, under one roof? I have to load the
program, and rewrite what you fucked up?” Jo asked, laughing still. The
sound making her voice that much lighter, exactly how Jaded had always
written it.