Yuri slammed her book shut and turned a glaring eye on Reishin.

"What?" he raised his eyebrows attempting an innocent look, which was categorically impossible for his face.

"What is that look for?" she asked, reining in her impatience. The man was a test.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," he smirked and snapped open his fan and waved it lazily in front of his face. He glanced at her sidelong.

She leaned across the table so the servants would not overhear her. "We've done it every day since I came to Kiyou," she whispered urgently. "And already once today. That's enough!"

"We-ell," he sighed dejectedly. "It has been one hundred and nin—"

"One hundred and ninety two days since we've seen each other. So you've said. Repeatedly," she pointed out. "And it's been fourteen days straight that we HAVE seen each other, and every day, we've…" She halted her tirade and her cheeks turned pink.

He peered at her over his fan, and all she could see were the crinkles at the corners of his eyes and the lift of one eyebrow.

In spite of herself, she couldn't stop the quirk at the corner of her lips.

"I'm TIRED!" she insisted, but the quiver in her voice revealed her weakening resolve.

He'd already won, and he knew it, and she knew it. He'd didn't fight battles he didn't know he would win. How did he know she would relent? He was incorrigible!

He closed his fan and leaned eagerly across the arm of his chair toward her. The twist of his lips gave her a terrible sense of foreboding.

"I want to try something…different…" he intimated and his eyebrows lowered in an evil slant.

She drew back in horror. "Never mind…"

"Don't be tiresome. You've already agreed!" he looked down his nose at her.

"When did I? Didn't you say you would be going back to Kou Province?" she smiled sweetly. "Shouldn't you be going soon?"

"Hmmm...so eager to be rid of me?" he turned his face away, affronted, and snapped his fan open again. "After one hundred ninety two days without your husband, you'd think you would be more…attentive…"

"Attentive!" she exclaimed loudly and then winced at her own lack of decorum, and leaned toward him. "How much more 'attentive' can a woman be? Two weeks without a break is rather…"

"Yeeees?" he tapped his fan impishly against his chin and grinned at her.

"A man who gloats is revolting," she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Hn-hn-hn," he snickered and proved her point. He sighed pleasantly and smoothed the front of his robes over his swelling chest.

"Hmph," she adjusted her position in her chair and flickered her eyes at him as if he were a bug she didn't want to acknowledge. "Perhaps you ought to consider the impact of two weeks without a break on yourself…especially after this morning's…attempt…"

"Attempt?" he repeated, turning his body completely toward her in his chair.

"Mm. Not that it wasn't a valiant effort. I give you that, dear," she smiled at him kindly and reopened her book. She slid a sidelong glance at him, keeping her face directed at her book.

"What do you mean by 'attempt'?" he sat up so straight and leaned toward her, he practically crawled over the table between them. "And what is this 'dear' business? You never call me that."

"Oh, don't I?" she smiled absently. "Perhaps you've forgotten. It has been one hundred and nine--"

"One hundred and ninety two days…" he muttered. "This morning…"

"Hmm..." she flipped a page of her book, barely acknowledging him.

"You…you…were satisfied…" he told her.

"Yes, whatever you say, dear," she mumbled and licked her index finger and flipped a page. She had to keep her face down or he would see her mouth trembling and then her fun would be over.

"I'm saying what happened!" he insisted, leaning further across the table. "You were…in ecstasy…as always!" He leaned back and lifted his chin imperiously.

"Yeees, dear, as aaalways," she agreed, but added a quiet snort before licking her finger again and flipping a page.

"Stop doing that!" he demanded.

She looked up at him. "Is something wrong?"

"You're toying with me!" he narrowed his eyes at her.

"I don't know what you mean by 'toying.' I'm trying to read a book," she lifted her pretty eyes to him and batted her lashes. "It's a very good one. It's a ghost story. Oh, it gives me chills all over my body." She added a quick shiver of her thin shoulders with a sultry smile, and looking directly into his eyes, she swept her finger across the tip of her pink tongue, smiled and flipped another page before lowering her eyes again.

She actually heard him swallow.

"Yuuuuri…"

She ignored him and feigned an excited gasp at something in the book.

In the midst of her fun, she didn't notice the glare he shot at the book. He slumped in his chair and watched her, drumming his finger on the arm of his chair. She licked her finger again and caressed the page with it before turning it over to the next, letting out a tiny shriek and then a sound equivalent to a moan.

"Oooh my!" Yuri gushed and fanned herself, smiling breathlessly at Reishin, who scowled at her darkly. "Reading this book is the most fun I've had in so long!" she exclaimed, before slipping her hand over her mouth. "I mean…besides with you…dear." She giggled and shrugged and returned to her book.

She NEVER giggles, he observed, one hundred and ninety two days not withstanding.

He growled audibly. His beady eyes skulked around the room and finally came to rest on the table between them. The corner of his mouth lifted.

He rose from his chair and stretched noisily, drawing a quick glance from her.

"Well, my DEAR, I'm glad you've found something to…satisfy…you," he shot at her, and her eyes quickly flickered up to him. Uh-oh. "But with all that…page turning…your pretty little tongue must be dried out. Please allow me to pour you some cool water."

Before she could move fast enough, he whisked up a glass from the table and the pitcher of water, poising both above her and proceeded to pour the water…all over her lap and down the front of her robes, dousing the book until the ink ran from the pages.

Yuri gasped long and loud and leapt from her chair.

"Oh, look, you've dropped your book," he observed casually.

"REISHIN!! YOU BASTARD!!!"

"The servants, the servants…" he pressed a finger to his lips and then wagged it at Yuri. "Oh, look, you've spilled your drink, DEAR. Let me help you."

In a matter of seconds, Reishin had groped Yuri on every part of her body, wet or not, despite her efforts to slap at his hands and pry them off her breasts and rear end.

"Molestor!" she hissed at him. "Take your hands off me! You VILLAIN!"

"I'm only trying to help you out of those wet things," he leered at her and squirmed his hands, which Yuri swore had multiplied fingers, inside the front of her robes. "Ooooh, obviously these wet clothes are making you quite cold," he remarked with a lascivious grin as he fondled her.

"Oh, is that so?!" she lifted her chin in challenge and quickly dove her hand inside Reishin's robes and clamped her hand on what he proudly referred to as the Head of the Clan, remarkably the only part of him that was NEVER lazy. "Then what's your excuse?"

He moaned and growled and snickered lustily at her, struggling to free at least one of his hands for more southerly pursuits, when the sound of a loud thud snapped both their heads toward the door of the room.

"Ah…" Kouyuu gagged on his own breath. He was certain his vision was blackening by the second.

"Oh—ho-ho-ho…Obachan…" Shuurei strained a smile at her disheveled aunt, whom she'd only met a few weeks ago.

"REISHIN!" Shouka glared in disgust at his younger brother.

"BAKA-Aniue!" Kurou sounded like a volcano about to explode.

With their hands trapped inside each other's robes, there was little Reishin and Yuri could do, but turn red and smile at their family members crowding the doorway of the salon.

"Eh…uh…" Yuri grimaced and struggled to remove her hand from Reishin's quickly bowing Clan Head, making him squirm awkwardly. "We…uh…weren't expecting anyone…Stop that, Rei," she added in a stifled whisper at her fidgeting husband.

"Oh, please…forgive us…Kurou-ojisan thought it was time I met my…my…" Shuurei announced feebly glancing at Reishin, who couldn't stifle a most inappropriate blush at her, causing her to flee from the room.

"Uh…" Kouyuu shuddered and started to swoon.

"Come, Kouyuu," Kurou glared at Reishin with disgust as he led the traumatized young man from the room. "We'll find some eyewash. And smelling salts. Try not to think about it."

As Kurou's angry tone faded into the distance, the only sound left in the room was Shouka's deep chuckling.

"So…now you've met your niece," he snickered. "See, Rei-kun, you worried for nothing," he laughed and wiped the tears from the corners of his squinted eyes. "Please, carry on now," he added and laughed himself out of the room.

Mortified silence filled the room.

"Now that you've scarred our son for life, will you please remove your hand," Yuri turned her reddened face from Reishin.

"Me? I was only trying to help dry you," he retorted. "Where is your hand?"

"Someplace it will never be again, I assure you!" she bit back.

"As if you can keep your hands off me…"

"Just watch me..."

"We'll see who cracks first…"