Turn of the Pipes (A Redpoint One Romance) (12 page)

"Good catch," Ignacio said.

"Please tell me we can put him in his
enclosure without having to clean him first," Rachel said, backing
up as Irvine squirmed.

"Absolutely." Irvine slipped out of her hands
again. Ignacio managed to grab a back leg before Irvine could
launch himself towards the pipe. His other hand scooped him up by
the middle.

Irvine was not deterred. He continued to
wriggle, push and pull, slipping first out of his hands, and then
out of Rachel's. Somehow they got to their feet and began moving
towards the wide space between enclosures. On one particularly good
escape attempt Irvine managed to make it to the wall of an
enclosure before Ignacio could grab him.

"Watch out for the tail!" Rachel reached out
to grab him when he slipped through Ignacio's hands
again.

"I'm the one who warned you of that,
remember?" And then it was Ignacio's turn to grab the slippery
newt.

Rachel laughed as Irvine slipped out and
landed on Ignacio's shirt. She grabbed him, more oil dripping on
her dress. "You know, this could be a party game."

"Not with my newts, please."

Irvine squirted out to land on Rachel's dress.
Ignacio felt a little bad at how he had to make a grab for him,
sure he'd really offended her this time. But, she only laughed. Of
course, she got him back when Irvine slipped away again and landed
smack in his face, with a set of legs attached to his forehead, and
a set near his jaw-line.

Ignacio wasn't sure how they were able to get
to the enclosure, but all of a sudden they were there. Then came
the next logistical problem. "We're here. Can you hold him long
enough for me to get the door open?"

Rachel set her legs and reached out above his
hands as Irvine started coming free. "I'm ready. Do it
fast."

The moment Irvine came sliding out and Rachel
had ahold of him, Ignacio started working to get the door open. Not
easy with his hands slippery with oil.

"He's coming free," Rachel's voice rose as she
made the announcement.

"I almost have it." He jerked on the door,
finally getting the latch to come free.

He swung the door open and turned towards her
just as Irvine came slipping out of her hands. He lunged forward,
catching him in midair. A turn and he tossed Irvine back into his
pond.

Even as Irvine splashed to a landing, Ignacio
closed the door and secured the latch. Irvine hissed at them as he
swam around his pond to make his way back towards the
door.

Rachel leaned up against the enclosure,
laughing down at him. "And stay in there."

"You really don't like him, do
you?"

"I like his keeper better," she said with an
evil grin. "Even when he's destroying my dress."

Destroying was a good word to use. Dark spots
on the front of the dress marked all the points oil had come in
contact. He cringed. "I would offer to pay for it, but I'm not made
of that kind of money."

She smiled at him. "Did I ask for a
replacement? I don't think so."

Still not mad. Most women would be furious at
how tonight's date ended. Not Rachel. She stood there with her
dress ruined and a sparkle in her eyes. She smelled of light
perfume and the specialized newt oils. He hadn't realized it could
create such an erotic combination.

Standing so close, still laughing about a newt
escapade, not the least bothered by the comical dance it took to
get Irvine back in his enclosure. Why was he so willing to run from
this?

"Perhaps I can offer other payment?" He found
himself saying.

Her eyes sharpened. "What did you have in
mind?"

And he closed the short distance for the kiss
he suddenly realized he'd been waiting all night for.

CHAPTER NINE

RACHEL WENT INTO her next shift feeling light as a feather.
The date the previous night started out great, almost crashed and
burned in the middle, and at the last minute, thanks to the
annoying antics of Irvine, somehow ended up fantastic. Wow, what an
ending.

She checked all the pouches of her tool belt
and then over the supply cart, all with her head in a cloud,
trusting her instincts to make sure everything was set up right.
Her bot followed her around, trying to look up in her face, as if
attempting to figure out what might be wrong with her.

Rachel gave a contented sigh. What a beautiful
morning.

Her bot grabbed hold of the handle of the cart
and followed her out onto the main maintenance platform. Everyone
appeared to be busy, so she quickly ran through the service orders
for her department, putting them into order for what she wanted to
get done for the day.

"Rachel, there are two emergencies I would
like you to take care of today," Arthur said, handing her a
flex-paper.

Rachel glanced down at it and fixed the
locations in her mind. "You got it, boss."

There must have been something wrong with her
tone or expression, because Arthur stopped to stare at
her.

"Are you feeling okay today?" He
asked.

"I feel great." Then she realized the reason
for the stare. He'd handed her emergencies, one of them sure to be
a messy repair, and she sounded completely happy.

Well, too bad. She felt happy. The first
disgusting clog would likely ruin it, but until then she would
enjoy it. Bask in the feelings.

Arthur's eyes narrowed. "Right. Let me know if
you come down with a fever."

Tish divined the reason right away. She came
to stand next to her, looking down at the same flex-paper Rachel
was staring at. "Good date?"

"Ended lovely."

"What about the rest of it?" Tish asked,
elbowing her arm. "Come on, details. Where did he take you? What
did you do? Did he treat you well?"

"Middle part was a bit rough. Did I ever
mention Pookie? We met up with him on the picnic."

Tish swallowed hard. "An old flame showed
up?"

What a silly thing to say about Pookie. "Nah,
he just thinks I'm one of his moms."

Tish frowned even more. "One of his
moms?"

"The first part of the date in the reserve was
wonderful, too." Rachel smiled softly at the memories, setting down
the flex-paper on top of one of the consoles. "I didn't even mind
the oil. Not really."

"What?"

Rachel snapped out of it at the outraged and
shocked question. "What? It was the standard first date. Some of it
went great, some of it didn't."

"Oil?" Tish glared at her. "I'm not sure if I
want to know more, but I think as your friend I must insist on
detail. What did he do to you?"

"Nothing," Rachel said quickly. "Why are you
insisting? Daisy said the dress didn't cost that much anyway, so it
doesn't matter if it's ruined."

"He ruined your dress?" Tish's outraged raised
voice stopped everyone in their tracks on the platform.

"What did your date do to you?" Came the
response from several of her male coworkers from different
directions all at the same time.

Damien and Arthur converged on her from
opposite sides, murder in their eyes. Rachel's bot squeaked with
concern. Other bots stopped their activities to stare at
them.

"What is this about a ruined dress?" Damien
demanded as he came to a stop on one side of her.

"Who did you go out with last night?" Arthur
asked in the next breath from the other side.

From Tish's outraged expression, Rachel got
the feeling she wouldn't find any support from that direction. She
wasn't quite sure what they were all so mad about,
anyway.

"It was no big deal. It was an accident,"
Rachel said.

"Manhandling one of our ladies is not an
accident." Arthur put his hands on his hips, the upper muscles in
his arms flexing. "Who is he? Where does he live?"

Rachel had never seen them so mad before. Even
the people she rarely worked with waited for an answer. She'd dated
before without this response, and most of those had been absolute
disasters. Why now with her date with Ignacio?

"Dress, ruined. How?" Tish
demanded.

"Okay, I think there's been a
misunderstanding," Rachel started, her mind spinning on how to fix
the misunderstanding before Ignacio found himself confronted with
several angry maintenance engineers on his front door, all wanting
blood.

"Then explain it before we hunt him down,"
Damien said.

"Nice date, pleasant dinner, encounter with
flying squirrel. Checked in on his newts and one tried to escape.
Had to use oil to get the escaped newt out of a drain pipe. Oil
dripped on silk. Silk dress ruined." Rachel paused to see the
effect. The expressions of outrage slowly turned to confusion. "Did
I mention Ignacio breeds rare newts and salamanders? One of them
likes pipes."

"Newts? As in reptiles?" Damien asked with a
disbelieving laugh.

"Some of them are cute," Rachel said,
automatically starting to defend them. "I got to see the birth of
baby silky newts the other day. They're lovely."

"Oiled newts?" Arthur continued, his eyebrows
shooting up. "This is all about oiled newts?"

"Oven cooked or pan fried?" Someone from the
back of the room asked.

"Grilled is best," someone else
said.

"Knock it off. These are special newts,"
Rachel called towards the back, recognizing Simon Mang as one of
the teasers. "Some of them are really rare."

"He didn't touch you, right?" Damien asked,
his scowl still in place.

Rachel could feel herself blushing, which
caused Damien's eyes to darken. "Just a kiss. A very nice kiss,
even if it was a little short."

"You sound disappointed," Tish said with a
grin.

"She probably wanted to kiss the newt,"
Vasiliy Lukin said as he passed by on his way out of the platform,
giving her a cheeky grin.

"Not funny," Rachel said after him.

"Okay, everyone, time to get to work." Arthur
glanced around the platform, his stance finally relaxing. He gave
Rachel an amusing look. "Glad you had a good date, but if he ever
touches you inappropriately, we're after him."

"The alpha protector," Tish whispered to her
as Arthur went back to helping one of the crew wrestle a large part
onto the back of a freight-bot.

"There are worse things," Rachel said with a
shrug.

"Like wrestling oily newts." Tish threw up her
hands at Rachel's glare, laughing. "I'm sorry, I couldn't
resist.

Rachel picked up and waved the flex-paper.
"Sorry I can't stay to be tormented. Time to get to
work."

"Okay, fine. I'm done with the oil and newt
jokes." Tish grabbed the flex-paper out of her hand to read it. "I
have a repair in the same area. Could be related."

"Think, or know?"

"Who knows, with how this station
communicates. I won't know more until we get there." Tish slid the
flex-paper back on top of one of the consoles. "This is great. You
can tell me more about this date on our ride there."

Rachel tried to convince Tish to work on other
repairs first, but the woman refused. She next tried to move the
conversation to Tish's own dates with Arthur, but Tish always
managed to turn it around. To add to it, Rachel had the
uncomfortable feeling all four bots were listening in,
eavesdropping for juicy tidbits.

As they arrived at the site of the repair,
Tish said, "Just tell me. I'm not going to leave you alone until
you do."

"And then you can relay it to
Arthur?"

"And if it's a good enough story he won't try
to track down your boyfriend and beat the truth out of him," Tish
said with a cheeky grin. She gestured to Aqua. "Start taking the
converter switch out. We'll need to replace it."

Rachel stopped her cart in front of where her
instincts told her the plumbing problem was. "We just arrived, and
you already know what's wrong?"