Lotsa dialogue this time. Hope you like!

#21: Devil's Advocate

"Not tonight."

Not tonight.

Not tonight?

Not tonight? Not tonight?

Nottonight. Nottonight. Nottonight. Nottonight!!

He's misheard her. Yes, that must be it.

No, no he has perfect, acute hearing--his doctor told him so.

A faintly hysterical Zane then proceeds to tell his deluded wife in great length and detail (and what the heck, let's add in a few anecdotes!) just why her refusal to sleep with him tonight could be the worst decision of her life.

Oh to the snap, he thinks triumphantly when he finally pauses for breath.

"Run that by me again?"

"My God, do I have to explain everything? Didn't you hear me the first time?"

"Yes but, for some unearthly reason, I still don't understand how one night of abstinence is going to end with our estrangement, untimely deaths and the...accidental deployment of multiple nuclear missiles and the subsequent apocalypse?"

Shrugs. "Clearly, you didn't pay any attention in your classes."

"I never took abnormal psychology," she snaps back. "And this squabbling is just putting me in a bad mood."

"As in a raging, aroused mood that you're soon going to channel into some horizontal mambo?"

"..."

"What?" Innocent eyes.

"You've been reading Harlequin Romances." It's not a question.

"Have not!"

A skeptically arched brow.

He blows a lock of gold out of his face. "Not...often."

"Good night."

"Amiiiiiii."

"I. Am. Tired."

"You. Are. MissingOut."

"My loss. Tell me in the morning what exactly I missed out on."

"Oh har-de-har-har. You're being such a..."

"Such a...?"

"Such a...devil's advocate right now!"

"Come again?"

"You know, we really need to get that hearing problem of yours checked out."

"Zane, did you just read that term for the first time in a book?"

A Harlequin Romance, to be precise. Very educative reading of substance, thank you very much.

"No!...Yes! But it's still completely relevant to this conversation! I went on to look it up and a devil's advocate is"--deep breath-- 'someone who takes a position he or she does not agree with for the sake of argument.' You want to make love, but you're pretending you don't, just so we can argue."

"...gah." Eye twitch.

"Was that you agreeing?"

"You know what...fine. Fine. Anything to stop your babbling."

"Oh la, Ami, you know just what to say to turn me on." Eyelash flutter.