Author's Note: Last Chapter! Thanks to all who read, reviewed and responded. Happy Valentines Day to all! Hope it's lovely.
The next night, Mike goes undercover to a very different club. Charlie has drug him along to be her fake boyfriend to meet the the one roommate he hasn't met yet.
As Mike sees the beautiful blonde woman on stage, he considers telling Charlie that he has actually already knows the sixth roommate pretty well. In fact he'd he would recognize the sway of those hips and the curve of that smile anywhere.
"That's Paige." Mike finally has the real name of the beautiful woman on stage is. He suddenly remembers the red headed wig he saw in the house dressing room. That sexy minx. Living in the room next to her is going to be torture.
When she comes down off the stage, she doesn't acknowledges him. Barely gives him a second glance. Mike begins to think he imagined the whole thing, but there's no way he could dream up a woman this beautiful. Mike is beginning to worry that she doesn't even remember him, but the look she gives him when she tells him she's not going to screw Bobby is unmistakable. She may play it cool, much cooler than Mike, but she knows exactly who he is.
When Paige leaves the bathroom, and Charlie ducks into a stall to pee Mike sees his opportunity and dashes after the beautiful blonde before she can make it back to Bobby's side. Pulling her into a dark corner, he crosses his arms and looks down at her and says in what he hopes is a cool voice "You gave me a fake number."
"You didn't write it down. Maybe you forgot." She says with a coy smile. They both know Mike didn't get the number wrong, but Mike's not sure whether or not he's upset about this. This girl is more and more puzzling by the minute. She looks him up and down and teases, "Weren't you taller last night?"
"Did you actually do E while on the job?" Mike asks, ignoring her question. If height was what attracted her, he didn't want to admit he'd been wearing three inch lifts in his boots, instead, he cuts straight to the chase. He wants to ask her a million questions, but they don't have much time.
"Of course not. Breath mint." She rolls her eyes.
"Were you really going to shoot me up with heroin?" Mike asks, as he replays the whole night in his mind with the knowledge that she was an agent the entire time. If she was an agent, where had she learned to dance like that?
"No, I was going to give you a sedative, but you nearly fainted at the sight of the needle, you pansy, so I had to change plans." Paige teases him with a laugh.
"So where did you actually go that night after we..." Mike blushes, finding himself leaning in again subconsciously, until his jacket brushes against her. "You said the dressing room, but I passed it on my way out and you went the other way."
"I got into the main office, I managed to find out how they smuggle the drugs out. I've been working on that case for a while now, so thanks for helping me crack it." Paige's whisper is husky, and she brings a hand up to his chest. Mike's not sure if it's to stop him from leaning closer or to feel his heart pounding.
"Why'd you need me?" Mike says, tearing his eyes away from her lips and up towards the bathroom door. Charlie would be out any minute.
"I needed an excuse to get back there beyond the bouncer. You seemed like a good distraction." She says simply.
"How'd you know I was stationed at Graceland? Did they show you my picture or something?" Mike asks, curious. Had everyone been in on this and no one told him? Was she placed at that strip club as back up?
"I didn't." Her answer surprises him, and his eyes narrow curiously.
"Then why did you pick me?" His voice drops to a whisper.
"You were cute." Paige grins in an unabashed way at the memory of Mike sitting there nervously looking horribly out of place in the strip joint. Just like he looks here. Innocent. Lost. Incredibly sexy. She can't help but to laugh at the confused look on his face, before she begins walking away from the dark corner the two shared back into the crowded bar. If she stayed there too much longer, they might have a repeat of the club night. She would have to be on guard around Mike now that he was living down the hall.
Mike however, follows her and takes her arm to keep her from leaving. The touch of his fingers against her bare skin tingles. They both look down to where he's touching her, a perfectly innocent patch of skin on her upper arm, and when their eyes meet again they both know the other felt the electricity too. Mike's mouth feels dry. He immediately drops her arm awkwardly and begins to apologize.
"Listen. I'm sorry. If I would have known who you were I would have never…" Mike realizes with horror his apology is coming out wrong, and quickly tries to clarify that he never would have slept with a stripper either. "I mean, not that I would have otherwise... I mean obviously I would, because I did, but that wasn't me! I still can't believe it happened. I never do anything like that. I've never even been to a strip club. It was my first undercover and I-"
"Believe me I get it. Sometimes the undercover can go to your head and with all that adrenaline things can happen." She explains in a way that says she really does understand, but doesn't want to talk about it.
"Well, good thing we brought you those birth control pills right?" Mike jokes nervously, but is suddenly hit with a pang of jealousy as he remembers she is currently undercover as they speak. As someone else's girlfriend. "Sorry."
"Yeah. Thanks for that. I better get back to work. See you around, Levi."
"It's Mike." Now that he can tell her his real name he desperately wants to hear her say it. She just smiles and begins to walk away and Mike calls after her. "So now that you know who I am, do you still want to do dinner?"
"Did you just say 'do dinner?'" Paige's laugh and turns back to him. That laugh makes Mike's knees week even as she teases him.
"Yeah… Dinner. With me." Mike says, trying to sound confident.
"Given that we share a kitchen I think we'll have lots of dinner together coming up." Paige answers breezily.
"I just don't want you to think that I'm the kind of guy who does one night stands with nameless-"
"Don't worry. You'll get used to it." Paige assures him, and Mike doesn't think she understands that he doesn't want to get used to it.
"So you're saying last night meant nothing?" He asks, feeling like he already knew the answer and didn't like it.
He knows he needs his main focus to be on the job, and the last thing he needs is to start something up with a coworker, but it seems a little too late for all that now since Mike already knows what she tastes like and how she sounds when she reaches her peak. God she'll be living just one wall over. He doesn't know if he can come back from this.
"Not nothing, but I wouldn't read too much into it. It was a fluke. Soon it'll be just one of those funny 'how they met' stories… Admittedly maybe one that we shouldn't share with the rest of the house." Paige grins conspiratorily.
"Funny, I was told the first rule is there are no secrets in Graceland." Mike says, smiling at her even though he feels his soul being crushed as he resigns himself to the friend zone.
"No, first rule is no guns downstairs." Paige corrects him in a playful tone. "Besides, from what I saw the other night, you seem to enjoy breaking the rules."
"Wow. You really don't know me at all do you?"
"Maybe you don't know yourself." She retorts. Her wise words shock him and Mike has to do a double take at her. Maybe she's right. He doesn't know who he is anymore. He wants to keep talking to her, but all he can do is watch helplessly as the blonde winks at him and then walks away back to join the thug with his spiked drink.
"Come on lover boy. Let's go get you cooled off at the house before Bobby Moi has you killed for looking at her." Charlie says taking Mike's arm and dragging him towards the door. "Though I have to say, that would make a good story of how you met Paige."
"I already have a pretty good story." Mike says giving one last look over his shoulder at the blonde who was somehow both closer and simultaneously more out of reach than he could have imagined.
"Not as good as we have." Charlie laughs, remembering how Mike pulled a gun on her.
"No…" Mike says with a smile.
Let the lying and secrets commence.