When she woke up it was well after five in the afternoon and the skies had opened up into a steady rain. Her question made his smile falter and she was glad to see that because what he had just proposed to her made her hands tingle with the want to slap him in the face. In fact, she might just go ahead and do it because her temper was rising from simmer to boil.

"Did you need me to repeat my words?" he questioned.

How could someone with such a sexy voice and handsome face be so stupid when it comes to women?

"Yes, repeat it, please, because I think I may have misunderstood you," Raven said. She pushed her omelet aside and rested her hand on the marble countertop. Breakfast for dinner was her favorite, but, unfortunately, she had just lost her appetite.

He raised an eyebrow at her and then flashed her what she assumed was his lady-killer smile before speaking. "You, Raven, are one of the most attractive females I have seen in a while. In fact, my dreams were filled with images of your ebony skin. I want to take you to my bed. I am a formidable lover as I assume you must be as well. We should enjoy each other."

"And then when this is all over we shake hands and go our separate ways?" Raven asked between gritted teeth while trying to control her breathing.

"Yes, but with fond memories of each other. We'd be friends, of course," Raul replied.

"Let me ask you a question. Does this work with dragon women?"

He looked at her with surprise. "What do you mean?"

She waved her hand at him. "This whole spiel about enjoying each other and being friends that you just spewed out."

"The women on Paladin are more old fashioned in their beliefs, but there are some who vie for my attention," he boasted. "But you are a contemporary woman of this world, so we can act on our attraction without commitment."

Forget slap, Raven wanted to punch his lights out. She stood, the stool scraping angrily on the slate tiling. She counted in her head as her anger seethed. She breathed out slowly before looking at him. Even so, when she spoke, her anger took hold. She walked up to him and poked him in the chest, noticing how firm his body felt but not caring at this point.

"How dare you, you insufferable pompous pig!" she raged. "You want to fuck me without commitment, no flowers and not even a romantic dinner as pretense. I'm just supposed to hop into your bed and get with the banging. So the women in your realm get to be old fashioned and courted while, what, we humans deserve to be fucked sideways without lubricant? I have signed expensive contracts for student loans that gave me more warm and fuzzy feelings than what you just offered."

"But, Raven--"

She sliced her hand through the air furiously and cut him off. "Oh, no, you don't. I don't want to hear another word." She waved her hands in front of her body. "You see this, all this chocolate goodness you say you've been dreaming of? That's all it's going to be, buddy, a dream, because I want a house, a picket fence, two or three kids and a freaking cat when I lay down with a man. You? Trust me, you took all that away with a few sentences. I don't want any part of your suggestion."

Raven pressed her body against his and grabbed his face. She stood on her tiptoes and locked lips with him, putting all her anger into the kiss. The attraction she felt towards him also poured into the kiss. Raul groaned and turned, pressing her against the fridge. She heard something topple from the counter. Their movements were rough and forceful. She opened her mouth and he buried his tongue inside and the passion of their kiss fueled her anger even more. Something that felt this good shouldn't come from a man who had the romantic common sense of an amoeba. Raven pushed him away roughly, panting from the exertion of trying to move his body and the sensations his kiss elicited. He tried to reach out for her, but she slapped his hand away viciously before backing away towards the door.

"I may be only twenty-three in human years, Raul, but I don't think people kiss and feel like that too often," Raven said. "But, unfortunately for you, that's the last you'll ever feel of it because there is no way you're getting anywhere with the wham, bam, thank you, ma'am attitude."

She stepped out of the kitchen and made her way upstairs, intent on going to her room and staying there for the rest of the night. On her way, though, she heard a phone ringing and followed the sound. Raven walked into what she assumed was the master bedroom. She could yell down the stairs to him to come answer his phone, but didn't want to deal with him again, so, instead, Raven flipped it open.

"Hello."

"You must be Raven. I am looking for Raul," the voice said.

"Oh, you mean the douche downstairs," she snapped. "Who is this anyway?"

"I am one of his dragon brothers of the court. My name is Hawke." The voice sounded amused. "And why is Raul, how you say, a douche?"

"Who called my sweet Raul names?" she heard a feminine voice in the background angrily ask.

"Who's that?" Raven asked. Maybe one of his bed buddies. Maybe the woman at the other end of the line likes his way of hitting on women, but Raven was not amused.

"That's my wife Daisye. She has a fondness for our Raul," Hawke explained and then said to his wife, "I'm trying to garner why he has been called an insulting name, darling."

"Well, he is," Raven replied. "You would not believe what he said to me. I don't know what dragons are taught about romance, but he has no couth."

"May I put you on speaker phone, Raven?" Hawke asked politely.

"Sure, why not?" she answered. She didn't know if she liked this Daisye, but, whatever, she didn't know any of them at all, so who cared?

"You're on. Now, tell us how Raul has managed to anger you so?" Hawke said.

Raven went on to explain Raul's proposal and what happened from there, but leaving out their kiss, of course. By the end of the story, Hawke was roaring with laughter and Daisye kept saying, in her Southern twang, "Oh, dear." She was just going to ask Hawke how long he planned to laugh when Raul walked into the room. He opened his mouth, she assumed, to ask what she was doing in his room, but didn't give him the chance. Raven handed him the phone with his friend's laughter still echoing across the line. "It's for you." Walking out, she made her way down the hall to her room and slammed the door, walking straight for the spacious adjoining bathroom. She undressed and stepped under the pulsating jets of the shower spray and sighed in delight. While the house's owner was a buffoon, the hot spray knew exactly how to treat her and massaged her body from four different directions.