Irene Adler has never found someone on her level.
She knew she liked girls in kindergarten, mostly by dint of finding all boys annoying and far beneath her notice. She knew she loved women around the age of fourteen, mostly by dint of kissing one silly.
Irene kisses better than anybody.
She knew she was a genius before she was in kindergarten, where her teachers eyed her warily as she doodled a to scale depiction of her house in red crayon because her house was brick. She knew she was a genius when she smiled at her biology professor, picked up her notebook, and walked out of class for the last time.
Correcting him all the time was more trouble than it was worth.
She knew she liked Sherlock Holmes. She didn't give just anyone a ringtone with the sound of her orgasm (just the special people; There were, to date, eighteen people with similar if not exact sounds programmed into their phones. She wondered what John Watson's reaction would be if she ever bothered to call him). He was arrogant, he was distant, and above all he was smart. It was like the first day of kindergarten again, like finding Maisey Cod drawing slightly more correct depictions of houses than the others (Irene's were obviously more correct, but Maisey's efforts had been impressive).
He was also far more sentimental than she.
She knew Sherlock was much like Maisey: enthusiastic, clever, but lacking all the relevant information. She was almost disappointed over how long it took him to find her combination, more so in how quickly he guessed her password.
Both had both been desperate to impress her. Only one succeeded.
She wondered how much of the data they'd gotten before the virus swept through the phone, and how long before they realized she had extras hidden in other countries.
Irene Adler has, most unfortunately, never found someone on her level.
Author's Notes:
I have a thing about strong women and them not always being overshadowed by men. I also have a thing about sticking to source material (except when I don't). I was a little upset that The Woman was found and needed rescue by Sherlock at the end, when in A Scandal in Bohemia she outsmarted everyone including our intrepid detective and disappeared into the world never to be seen again because that's how she wanted it.
Also she wasn't a love interest.
Title pilfered shamelessly from Florence + the Machine.