Title: Ripe for Exploitation
Author: elrhiarhodan
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: R
Characters/Pairings: Alex Hunter, Neal Caffrey (Nick Halden), Alex/Neal
Spoilers: Forging Bonds
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: ~250
Summary: Alex loves beautiful things. Tag to Forging Bonds

A/N: Something I found in my “unposted fic” folder, written back in 2012. The prompt was “Beauty”.

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She knew Nick Halden was a con artist when she first met him, a near silent presence in Vincent Adler's office. It was the shoes that gave him away - the suit was good, not bespoke but well-tailored, the shirt was handmade and the tie was first quality (ugly, but who cared when it was Dior black label). The haircut probably set him back a couple of hundred, and his nails were buffed and his cuticles trimmed.

But his shoes were just awful; scuffed and resoled and way too comfortable. Not the shoes of an up-and-coming young businessman. Not by a long shot. He was good, but not as good as she was, which meant he could be exploited.

Although Adler scared the crap out of her, she wasn't going to be put off. He was a man who had the resources, the power to get what he wanted - what she wanted, and she'd use whatever leverage she had, whatever tools at hand to get it.

Nick Halden, or whatever his name was, was just the tool she needed. He took her bait, swallowed it whole and never realized that there was a hook in there, sunk deep.

She probably could have reeled him in without fucking him. Sex tended to make things messy. But she was a sucker for beauty, and that was something that Nick Halden had in spades.

FIN