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Kotallo made his way around the ball room slowly, carefully, making sure to play this part he'd played a thousand times before, the appearance of any of the other affluent and influential people in the room. He made inane small talk at various points throughout his circuit here and there, took little nibblets off the platters that the butlers shoved in his face, sipped at a flute or two of champagne.
A flash of red caught his attention on the dancefloor and he looked up to see a slip of a woman finish spinning back into the arms of a man and drape herself over him as they continued their sinuous dance to the music. She was gorgeous, her hair a barely tamed flame about her head, her arms and legs strong and sure in their movements, her pale skin, dotted with freckles, set off perfectly by the deep indigo of her dress.
Varl hissed at him in his earpiece as he began crossing the dancefloor to the red head. “Kotallo, don’t.”
He smirked and ignored his friend as he came upon the dancing couple.
“Mind if I cut in?” He asked.
The woman looked up at him with brilliant green eyes before looking at her partner in a clear dismissive way. He huffed and moved away and Kotallo slid easily into his place, trailing is hand down her slender arm to curl his palm around just by her shoulder blade. She in turn slid her left arm up his to settle at his shoulder. She curled the fingers of her right hand around his left, her eyes blinking curiously at the feel of a glove where his other hand was bare. He led her in a simple salsa step. They didn’t take their eyes off each other as they moved back and forth together.
As they finished their first song, he spoke in a low voice and drew his arm out and up to send her into a turn. “You appear to be a natural at the salsa, Ms.-”
“Sobeck. Aloy Sobeck.” She introduced as she came back around to face him. “And you are very good at leading, Mr.-”
“You can call me Kotallo.” He said, bringing his left hand up with hers still hooked on it and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Sobeck.”
They remained quiet for awhile, letting the passion of the music sway them together and apart over and over again.
After a second song, their breath was growing short and the heat in their eyes and movements growing strong and they traipsed off the dancefloor, taking a flute each from the butler carrying champagne. The alcohol did little to cool the warmth between them brought about by the dancing.
“Do you want to get out of here?” She asked, her flute only half empty.
“By the Ten, yes.” He said, abandoning his glass on a tray that floated by.
They were almost to the front door when someone called out for them to stop.
“So much for a smooth getaway.” Kotallo grumbled, his hand not on Aloy’s back sliding into his jacket pocket.
“That’s your fault.” Varl said lightly in his ear. “You took away the host’s distraction.”
“We can argue over fault later. Is Zo in position for extraction?” Aloy asked.
“She will be in a minute.”
“Dammit.” She cursed and hoisted the slit of her skirt a little higher to grab one of the knives from her thigh holster.
She flung it over her shoulder hard and it landed in the leg of the crony who’d called out at them. Two more came stomping around the corner and Kotallo turned, pulling his gun from the inside of his jacket. He got off two shots, dropping one of the newcomers while Aloy kicked the door open and pulled him through.
He covered her back while she led them through the perfectly manicured front garden to where the drive came up and they saw the dust rising around the black armored SUV that was racing towards them.
They jumped in as it came parallel with them and sped away.
“You were supposed to leave as soon as you got the data packet, Kotallo.” Zo said from the front seat.
He didn’t respond for a moment as he scooped Aloy into his lap and proceeded to kiss her thoroughly. “Then you shouldn’t have wrapped this one up so prettily.” He said finally once he found it in himself to pull away.
“Like you’d be much better if it was you and Varl in there, Zo.” Aloy said defensively. “Seriously. Either don’t put us together or don’t put him in a tux.”
“That argument would work if this exact same thing hadn’t happened a week ago when you two were scoping out the news station.” Zo pointed out mildly. "He was pretending to be a janitor then for crying out loud."
“Mmm. That pencil skirt.” Kotallo rumbled in Aloy’s ear.
“You two are ridiculous.”
“Again. Kettle meet pot. Now you know how I felt for those first few months having to live with you and Varl.” Aloy said.
“You two still need to work on maintaining your professionalism in the field, agents. Or you will be assigned different partners.” The deep voice of their boss, Hekarro, cut in.
“Yes, sir.” They said at the same time.