Page 12 of Catch Me If You Can (The Mancini Way)

“Okay then I’ll start I’ll tell you something personal about myself then you tell me something about you, sounds good?”

She shrugged her shoulders and fiddled with her glass; I’m sure she knew it wouldn’t be that easy to garner information from me and I had no intentions of making her job anything less than difficult but I did plan on having lots of fun with her in the meantime.

“I’m extremely attracted to you.” There it goes again that little telltale sign that I was getting to her, it showed in the quick inhalation of breath and the pulse in her neck that went suddenly into overdrive.

“That’s rather blunt don’t you think?”

“Like I said I treasure honesty and straightforwardness in others so how can I give less of myself? That blush is very becoming by the way and very rare if not refreshing.” It’s going to be a joy to explore just how deep that innocence ran; I can’t wait to feel the heat of that blush under my tongue.

“Well thank you for the compliment but I’m sure you’ve said that to plenty of women before.”

“Not those exact words no, may I speak frankly?”

“I thought you already were.” She smiled a little uneasily at me.

“I like women, some more than others; I like the way they look, smell, taste but I don’t fuck every woman I like and I don’t necessarily like everywoman I fuck, you I’d love to fuck.”

“Are you trying to shock me or is this your usual style? And if it is let me just say it leaves much to be desired.”

There’s that fire; you want to spit in my eye don’t you beauty? No worries by the time we’re through with each other you’ll be begging me to mount you. I guarantee it.

“So you don’t like the direct approach; I take it you prefer the game playing, beating around the bush, doing the dance?”

“I prefer not to be treated like an object…”

“I would think being told you’re highly desirable would be taken as a complement.”

“But that’s not quite what you said now is it?”

“I thought it was I just said it in a more upfront way, my intentions are on the table so there’s no guessing involved you know exactly where I want this little encounter to go it’s up to you if you bite or not.” Hopefully the day will come when she’d forgive me for treating her so crassly but I have to admit to being just a little pissed that she was sitting across from me dreaming up ways to trap me. Cat and mouse games aside, what she was doing was deceitful job or not; at least that’s how I see it, these people were mad as fuck that they couldn’t catch me by using legal channels so they’ve resorted to immoral tactics like entrapment. I find their dealings sometimes no better than the criminals I fought so hard to bring down. That’s why I refuse to work with certain organizations, why I shunned them, because of their unethical practices. Like this young woman they’d sent into my lair, the lion’s den if you will with only her body and her wiles; they can spout all that bullshit about her mind but the bottom line is they’re using her body, the whole package to lure me in like I’m some green boy. As if I’m some incompetent fuck to be led by my dick. I wouldn’t be surprised if they expected her to fuck me if it came to that to achieve their goals, the question is was she willing to sacrifice herself for them?

She wants to play the game let her deal with the embarrassing questions; she already thinks I’m the lowest form of life there is, preying on innocent children so why should my less than stellar approach be such a surprise?

Now I’ve placed her in a dilemma; if she got up and stormed off that would end our acquaintance and she wouldn’t gain anything; game, set, match; but if she stayed she ran the risk of giving me the impression that she was interested. I do have to give her points for keeping a cool head though, there were a few moments there when I was sure she wanted to throw her drink in my face.

Denise came back with the appetizer platter and a new glass for Cierra, it hadn’t escaped my notice that she seemed a little out of sorts I’ll have to have a word with her about her attitude around the customers. Cierra didn’t seem too impressed by her either as I noticed a slight change in her body language.

“So what’s it going to be?” I questioned as soon as we were alone again.

She took a deep swallow before lifting her eyes to mine; my gut clenched, there was definitely something going on behind those eyes of hers but even more than that was the pull I’d felt from the first moment I laid eyes on her photograph. She had something in her that pulled at the heart of me and regardless of the reasons for her being here I’m not going to stop until I’d explored all the possibilities. Let’s hope we both made it out unscathed.

“I’m not sure how to answer your question I don’t think I’ve ever been put in such a position before.”

“What you’re not accustomed to dealing with straightforward people? I find that hard to believe in this day and age with the way the world is moving.”

“Straightforward is one thing Mr. Mancini I’m not sure that that’s the word I’d use to describe what you are.”

“Fair enough, you can of course choose to get up and walk away but then we’d never know what might’ve been would we?” She made me smile, all that banked fire just screaming to be released. Once the facade has been dropped and the pretense out of the way I’m going to revel in that fire in fact I’m looking forward to being singed by it.

Cierra

This isn’t going at all the way I’d expected it to, I’m not some impressionable schoolgirl to be taken in by a pretty face or to be swayed by a suave tongue; but I must admit that he has something. There’s a quality about him that pulls at you, draws you in, that to the point no bullshit what you see is what you get attitude. Maybe that’s how he’s been able to elude the authorities all this time maybe his charm and charismatic personality leads others to look the other way; turn a blind eye to his true nature because as to date we have yet to find anyone who’s willing to point a finger at this man; well except for a few of his bevy of ex-flings but their testimonies were so transparent even a first string law intern could destroy it in a court of law.

My inclination is to get up and walk away but what would I achieve? I’d have to engineer another chance meeting in the near future and that just smacked of desperation. The one thing Hank Mancini isn’t is stupid, I have no doubt he’d see through anything I came up with; so I was left with only one choice; capitulation. I gritted my teeth as I thought of the best way to give in without seeming to be, if I stayed there’s no doubt that he’d think I was interested in what he was offering; which has no place here Cierra you’re doing your job remember? It doesn’t matter what he thinks; but it did. I cleared my throat and faced him head on, I’m sure the heat in my face was rather obvious but there was nothing for it unless I decided to hide behind my hair until I settled down again. I chose an olive from the tray the disgruntled server had brought with our drinks and popped it into my mouth to stall for time, didn’t want to seem too eager after practically calling him a pig. I’ll have to watch that in the future if he insisted on being this way, so…disarming.

Mancini

I’m just a little disappointed that she’s giving in so easily she hasn’t said anything as yet but her body language and that look in her eyes are enough of a giveaway. I’m sure her superiors have instructed her to take any and all necessary steps to get close to me but how far am I willing to let this go? How far is she? The fact that I wanted her changed things; this is the first time in a long time that they’ve tried to get someone this close to me; sometimes it’ll be a plant in one of my places but most of the time they had me under a microscope; that’s when they had me under twenty four hour surveillance. This was a new tactic though and I hope she finds it just a little unsettling that they were all but prostituting her to serve their own purposes.

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