I'm working on ED…so don't rush me X.X Anyways, I hope you like this chapter. It'll have a teeny bit of Joren's bodyguard skills in here, since so many people wanted it. Oh, and oceanspike - you write better than me. So NYAH!!

Disclaimer: Bah. You know the fucking drill.

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Keladry slid a cup of steaming black coffee toward Dom, who smiled gratefully at her.

"It's hot," she warned him.

"Yes, Mother," he teased dryly. He took a big gulp and yelped, wincing as it scorched his mouth.

"You should know by now to listen to her," Neal told his cousin, shaking his head. The older man glared at him.

"Meathead, you're just jealous because I'm not a virgin," he snapped haughtily.

"What does that have to do with - hey, I'm not a virgin!"

While the cousins started bickering back and forth, Joren leaned toward Kel and murmured, "Who is he?"

"That's Domitan Masbolle," she explained. He declined her offer of coffee. "He lives in the floor above us. He's a famous architect."

"Ah," the blond said, his thoughts already drifting away to the redhead in the elevator. "Do you know that redhead we saw in the elevator?"

"What red - oh, that's Cleon Kennan. He's a lawyer, and my old boyfriend."

"He was your only boyfriend," Neal muttered.

Dom hit him outside the head. "What about me?"

"You were just some crackpot she took up from the streets!"

Thus continued the argument. Kel watched them with a half smile on her lips, while Joren resisted the urge to twitch uncontrollably. Just then, Dom blinked and looked at the blond with wide eyes as thought just seeing him for the first time. "Hey…who the hell are you?"

"Goddess, protect me from the fools of the world," Neal begged the ceiling. Dom gave him an odd look, edged away from him, and looked back to Kel and Joren.

Sorely tempted to reveal to Dom the truth, for he could surely be trusted, Kel nonetheless replied with a strained, loving smile in Joren's direction. "This is my new boyfriend, Joren Stone-M - "

"Joren Stone," Joren said shortly, taking the dark-haired man's outstretched hand, shooting a warning glance in her direction. Damn girl, didn't she know not to reveal his whole identity? He couldn't tell if she understood or not, because that peculiar impassive mask had slipped over her features once more.

"Pleased to meet you," Dom said politely, inclining his head. "I'm Domitan Masbolle. Call me Dom."

Joren stretched his lips into something resembling a smile, but it felt thin and fake. That was probably because he never really smiled much.

"A pleasure."

Neal blinked. "My, aren't we happy posies today."

Dom stared at him. "Happy what?"

His cousin blushed. "I read it in a book." When he was continued to be stared at his threw his arms open defensively. "What?"

"Never mind. Just…never mind."

A cat leaped up on Joren's lap. He stared into its yellow orbs for a second, then shoved it off his lap, only to be replaced by another. He blinked in alarm, and shoved the little calico off his lap. A long-haired, flat-faced cat jumped up. This one, when he tried to push it off, dug its claws into his leg and glared at him defiantly.

"That's Gigi," Kel said apologetically, restraining a smile. "She's spoiled rotten."

"She's fat," Joren said, taking in the furry rolls. "My gods, she looks like a goddamn butterball."

"Thank you," Neal grumbled. "Somebody agrees with me."

"It's mostly her hair," Kel said in defense of her cat.

"Uh…Yeah, sure, you believe that, Kel."

Kel glared fiercely at him, before gathering her lump kitty from Joren in her arms and marching off into the kitchen. Neal shook his head. "She's usually not so…verbally contradicting."

"She had sugar, didn't she," Dom asked dryly.

"Unfortunately."

Dom looked at Joren. "Most of the time she doesn't even speak. She's a very quiet person."

From the kitchen they heard disgruntled mumbled, "Quiet? I'll show them quiet, the little - "

"When she's not sugar high. Then you can't shut her up."

"So most of the time she does whatever you tell her to do?" Joren asked.

Neal snorted. "Gods, no," he chuckled. "She just doesn't say she's not going to do it."

Kel reentered the living room, this time empty-handed, but being followed by a sleek, mean-looking dog. Joren raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

A crash - the sound of break glass - exploded the comfortable silence. Reacting immediately, Joren lunged for Kel and shoved her below him, his body completely covering hers as glass sprayed around the room. One shard sliced his cheek; another cut Kel's exposed arm. Something thumped heavily on the coffee table, splintering the weak wood. With a quiet, hissed order for them to stay down, Joren slowly crawled toward the table.

It was a brick, with a note attached to it. Slipping it out of the strings that tied it to the brick, he carefully unfolded it, noting the block letters that were probably cut out of a magazine, and read out loud.

"I know what you want. My woman may not know who you really are, but I do. Watch your back, because I'll shoot you in it quicker than you can blink. And if you refuse to acknowledge this note, I'll shoot her too. If I can't have her, then nobody can."

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::shudder:: Creepy…tee hee, R/R!!