A great start by all means! It's like seeing an episode that never aired.

Neal pulled away a bit. "You caught me. I just wanted to sneak a peek at the bedroom. For as long as I've worked here, I've never actually been in that bedroom.""Well then," said Pedroza, taking Neal by the hand. "What are we waiting for?"

Oh, noooo. Be carefull, Neal!

Too cute : ) You should definitely do companion piece that expands on the Venice deal.

Wow. That was very nealish. Loved the twist, the men conning each other, and the humor in the end.

Haha! That was good!
Tight moments one after another. And for a moments there I almost believed...
LOL you conned me xD

Anyways, good job.

You are a master! I bow before you! O_O It was such a good fic, thanks a lot for writing it :)

Have a nice life!

Oh witty, clever Neal. And hey, he was trying to call it off before anything went any further, but Pedroza just interrupted him. Thanks for the witty, funny, and highly entertaining read. ;)

Talk about original ! Brilliant in the twists !

Interesting

Something like this should happen in the show ! Great story x

What an amazing story! And what a most interesting and unexpected twist as well.

I would never have seen it coming that Pedroza was actually playing Neal because he recognized him right away from six years ago.

Peter is right, Neal should consider himself lucky the guy didn't really lust for him AND gave the younger man an opportunity to talk himself out of eating a bullet, too.

With what was at stake - and I'm mainly not even talking the arrest - , it's no surprise the FBI agents were listening with bated breath before and especially after Neal's cover was blown.

The younger man did a marvellous job of a tight situation, though getting the diamonds and a confession to boot.

And while Neal might not have been as uncomfortable with seducing (to a certain point) their mark, I was still very happy to see the matter addressed eventually that Peter would NEVER ask his CI to do anything like that, and have him tell him a piece of his mind about not calling back-up earlier. Although I have to give it to Neal that he tried to get the safe word out sooner - if entirely too late already, nontheless.

Lovely scene at the very end with Peter and Neal talking about what went down on the case and reminicing about Neal's alledged exploits in the past. Gotta love Venice! ;-)

Very entertaining and tensely written chapter, Ae. I can't wait to find out what happens next.

Also, I really liked your reasoning behind Diana playfully hinting that Peter wasn't as worried about her with the suspected smuggler than he is about Neal. But then, another good point is that while Diana is certainly able to hold her own, Neal is a conman but no fighter.

*rushes off to read the rest of the story*

Great job.

Neal really can talk his way out of anything...

Okay, this story had me laughing so hard I literally thought I was going to die. GREAT story! :D