HOLT-STEELE Burning Auburn
She had already told him when the Shapiro case ended.
She didn't want that car. Whatever he promised Ivy Shapiro, he should undo the deal and as a second option look for someone to sell him to because she didn't want that new vehicle.
I feel totally proud of my 1979 Volkwagen Rabbit, Mr. Steele, we do not need another vehicle in the agency. Fred is paid very well to work for us as a full-time driver and our income is not so strong as to take another car .- said Laura as she sat at the restaurant table where he indicated that they should eat then to tell him that he had bought the car from Madame Shapiro and that she was waiting for a check.
Oh, the little Rabbit, strong car if any, is very adaptable, I've already seen that, Miss Holt, but sometimes we need more autonomy than the limousine can give us - he argued observing amused the way in which Laura she orderly ate her frugal salad by selecting small portions after seasoning it without any kind of excess. He loved the delicacy and femininity with which Laura ate. He loved her mouth, too. After that light kiss on the pier interrupted by Emery Arnok had not hinted at anything again ... but he had realized that this small interlude hadn't been irked by Miss Fox who loved to call Wolf just to annoy her. Laura had avoided discussing it with the secretary. Humm ... it was strange that two such friendly women hadn't shared that. Why had Laura chosen silence and secrecy?
Probably what you are saying is true ... do you need a vehicle to go out with your oxygenated damsels or your stunning brunettes without everyone in the agency knowing about it?
There are taxis, Laura .- he said something offended
She raised her eyes from her plate and looked straight at his blue depths where not a dash of mischief danced nor did she seem to recognize one of the stings that she jokingly intended to direct at him with her stinging tongue. Instead he found genuine discomfort and maybe anger. Steele rarely got angry. Since that episode in the morgue when he almost hit the manager for saying that his friend was addicted, she hadn't seen that look again. Then came that sudden secret society with Murphy to get her away from Creighton Phillips ... he had tended to irony and yet now ... he seemed more serious than other times and devoted to eating his steak with too much interest. She had patiently cut off the pieces of meat for him since with his fissured hand he couldn't handle a knife for several days. But not even that intimate and almost domestic act eased the tense moment they were living.
There was an uncomfortable silence. She knew that those uncomfortable silences always followed some exaggerated diatribe but this time it didn't happen.
Will you have a dessert or have you had enough cotton candy these days ...? He said without any inflection in the voice
I'll just drink coffee .- she said getting angry in turn although she didn't know why
For several weeks she had wanted to be sly and ironic with him for some reason and couldn't. She was sometimes surprised at how much they had begun to import his reactions and his torrential emotionality. Mr. Steele was a mystery in himself that as a good detective she wanted to decipher but there was something that didn't let him do it as he wanted to because he was really afraid to find some hidden reality that would hurt her. Probably a woman somewhere in the world, children, someone who could appear to claim something ... She had decided that he would keep his mysterious past in the place he wanted him to be and perhaps by not insisting she would get him to tell her some chapters of that secret life of a man without a name.
That lunch in particular, its tension and discomfort, Laura was remembering it some time later when she and Mildred were debugging the file and the folder of the Shapiro case fell into their hands. Laura smiled. It had been a long time. Steele was a completely different man then, but no less impulsive, somewhat arrogant protective of her. Jealous of her. He had eliminated Murphy from his path. Actually, Murphy realized that his future was no longer with Laura. Murphy. His friend Sherry from the Hollis case had caught his heart with her courage, audacity and all the risky things she knew how to do. A Laura without really being Laura.
Good for them, the real Laura said to herself that she had no idea of being as capable of getting into trouble or leaving them as Sherry. Suddenly she realized that in the days after working alone in the Steele agency he had behaved like a real gentleman with her. A week after the vacation they decided to take, they had lunch together in the same restaurant where the tense talk of those days had taken place. He had found a thousand excuses to call her during the break. He was worried about the future of the agency, he said.
She announced her idea to put a notice in the newspaper of greater circulation offering the employment of secretary. He completely agreed. He called at night just to wish her good night and beautiful dreams but he didn't receive the invitation to dinner or to meet that he surely expected to receive from her. Laura was laughing now. He was convinced that she could at some point invite him to her house, which she avoided dealing with too much aplomb and diplomacy. For her that week without Berenice and without Murphy had been long, complex, relatable ... she needed him close and he couldn't hide how much he missed her even if they fought or exchanged totally different opinions in many aspects.
When they returned to the agency and got involved in the trip to Acapulco to find out what happened with Pedro and with Héctor, María's son, her domestic, everything happened with the speed of lightning. Suddenly Mildred made a prodigious entry into their lives that very little put in check the lie of the non-existent head of the agency. They had been very close to uncovering the fraud and over the months the efficiency of Mildred, obviously impeccably demonstrated, came to them as pearls until their vein dedicated to the administration of finances put them as "happy" owners of the ostentatious Auburn.
Auburn. That white mass, the super-powered 1936 model car that had so many romantic and unbridled sex stories to its credit ...
Laura frowned. Steele caught the keys of Mildred's hands in the air. He made the car his immediate property. THERE WAS SO REASONABLE SAYING THAT I HAD GARAGE IN ROSSMORE SUFFICIENTLY SAFE, WIDE, COMFORTABLE FOR THE HUGE VEHICLE!
Undoubtedly she was also fascinated with that vehicle. In those thoughts was when he entered after knocking his door with his knuckles.
Auburn ... it was time to go and take the car.
Are we going home, Miss Holt, or are you planning to stay for extra hours? He asked with his beautiful smile dancing on his lips.
Laura looked at him. He was dressed in a tobacco-colored three-piece suit that looked great and smelled so good ... that musky scent was a torture to his senses in some moments of weakness in which his defenses fell into the abyss ...
Contrary to you, the paperwork needs order and I have enough to do here ... - she replied
You offend me, Laura. - Steele said. - I was doing the car check to make sure everything is in order after we disarmed it and the mechanic says that it has left it quite thrifty in terms of fuel and that it will not spend as much even though It is an engine over powered. Are you ready to go home? Auburn is waiting for you.
She gave him a suspicious look.
Don't look at me like that, Laura ...
How am I looking at you?
You look at me in the way that says something is up to me. We will be the couple that will break with the Auburn tradition if that is what you fear will not happen ... I will take you home and I will go to Rossmore ...
Well ... it is not necessary to be so drastic, Mr. Steele ...
He looked at her incredulously.
You already have your car. I guess you'll be happy for the investment Mildred made.
I am, I will not deny it. But Mildred did not make this purchase with ulterior motives ... or yes? - he asked knowing that she would deny it immediately
I prefer not to think about that.- she said
Auburn is a good car, classic, elegant, flashy ... I don't know how we could have ... something more than privacy in a mass of steel like that vehicle without attracting attention ...
She took her bag and nervously ordering the last papers from her desk said without looking into his eyes:
Come on, Mr. Steele, let's see how the mechanics of Auburn have been ...
The sunset offered its last rays of sun, Auburn circulated ostentatiously through the streets of Los Angeles with Steele at the wheel. Laura's hair messed with the breeze. Steele avoided looking at the traffic lights in red so she wouldn't have a special interest in staying inside the vehicle together. But without hesitation, with the aim of walking Auburn to "prove it" he got far enough away from Rossmore and from Laura's house. The night was beautiful. They stopped at a clearing in the park where Langdon Drew's necklace had been found. The moon shone brightly on them. Steele drummed his fingers on the steering wheel of the car.
It's ... a beautiful car, do not you think?
It's beautiful ... yes ...
For a moment Steele interpreted that she was not talking about Auburn.
Laura's reaction left him in one piece. She practically jumped on him, entangling her fingers in Steele's black hair and pulling him to her lips. He hesitated to answer because he knew that everything would end at the very moment she felt in danger. But he was a man accepting challenges and she was putting him to the test. He kissed her deeply. Their tongues met and they gave each other mutual pleasure for a long moment. Thousands of questions invaded Mr. Steele's overwhelmed brain. How the hell had Harvey, Langdon and Joe done to ... have sex on that thing ...
For a few moments he cursed his height and the thin build of his body that prevented him from being flexible at those times. Their thin long legs collided with everything they could find in the small cabin. He grunted with dissatisfaction with each blow of his knees and Laura laughed still happy prisoner of his mouth. Auburn really didn't cooperate for their fantasies of that moment, they both thought.
Lau-ra ... he complained very excited.
She ignored her name, almost as a warning, and loosened his tie and part of his shirt and waistcoat while he tried to place his hands in places that hadn't yet been allowed to hang around her ... but gave up without find the way.
Lau-ra ... we're not going to break the tradition tonight without breaking my back or yours first ... he muttered as best he could deciding between breathing or kissing her passionately.
This set in motion the proverbial bells that alarmed Miss Holt's emotions and soon she was recomposing the order of her clothes and smoothing her hair while Remington Steele -WE DOES NOT WIPE HIS COSTUMES WITH THOSE DIFFICULTIES- accommodated shirt, vest and tie instead.
-Let's go to Rossmore ... -He suggested with a choked voice
-Hmmmm ... tempting as that idea seems ... - she began to say and he intercepted the rest of the words by placing a finger on her lips
-Let me believe that it will happen ... Laura ... leave me that illusion ... when being at the gates of Rossmore ... the voluminous trunk of this evil car enfile directly towards your home ...
THE END