Dutch lit up a cigarette, drawing deep on the end. His face to the horizon as he exhaled a smokey breath.

The boat rocked a little. Someone else had just come on board from the pier.

"You have that look on your face again," Benny intoned from behind him.

"Hmm. What look?"

"The one that makes me want to spend good money to know what you're thinking." The blond man said, walking up to him then handing him a Heineken can.

"It ain't nothing serious," Dutch said, his baritone rumbling. At least, he hoped it wasn't.

He's always been a keen observer and only a man of action when it was required. Been that way ever since he was a kid, some fifty years back. Little escaped his notice. Whatever this thing was between Rock and Revy, he couldn't help but wonder if it was going to cause problems for his business. Revy has issues and that was putting it mildly. Rock? Well, he wasn't just your average puzzle that's for damn sure. Dutch still couldn't figure it out. Six months prior when Balalaika requested Rock for that interpreter's gig in Japan, he would have bet his boat, that that would be the last he saw of Rokuro Okajima. Why would he come back to this shit hole? Twice now, Rock has had the opportunity to say goodbye to the Gangster's Paradise of Roanapurr. Once with his old boss a couple of days after he was kidnapped and then this last time. Dutch couldn't say he understood what the allure of this place was for the young Japanese.


Rock…

"Rokuro...Okajima...?" Was that his distracted husky voice? His focus was suffering and it wasn't just because of his migraine.

What a timely reminder. Rock thought, frustrated in the most acute way possible. This was the exact type of scenario he wanted to avoid.

It'd took him a damn long while to get this same exact image of her out of his head! It was difficult, to say the least, to remind himself that he needed to stay focus on the tasks at hand and more importantly, that he didn't need his body riddled with bullet holes whenever they were alone together working on a job and that day conveniently pops up in his head. The same day she gave him a silver bullet.

There was nothing to be gained if he developed any misguided feelings for her, only an awkward turn to an already tenuous relationship between his former kidnapper and she couldn't give him what he would really want. What he's craved. He knew that for certain. But even that deterrent wasn't enough to remove the surprise of being treated to the full tantalizing image of her pert, sexy ass and plump womanly flesh straining against the material of her tiny low-rider panties when she'd walked out of the shower with him in the room, sitting on her bed. Caught off guard, Rock had stared enthralled at every luscious curve and dip his greedy eyes couldn't get enough of as he drank her in. Thankfully, her back was turned to him so she didn't see his reaction. He remembered his nails digging into the mattress and biting down on his bottom lip so hard to choke back a groan as a swift heat roiled through him. It was as if all the blood in his body had suddenly magnetized to his groin, making him shot hard as stone. Unfortunately, that reaction has never dimmed whenever he thought about it.

Night after sultry night when sleep refused him, he couldn't resist the pull of that memory as his fist went flying up and down his veiny cock in a lather. He told himself that he was just trying to get it out of his system; justifying his reasons as he masturbated, cumming into his palm again and again to the mental image of her taut ass bending over, full breasts swaying ever so teasingly under the pathetic cover provided by the towel as she took out a drink. Fucking torturing him like that!

Clearing his throat, Rock tried to speak again, "Rokuro Okajima died the day I met you, Revy, you know that. I don't understand what you're trying to say. Is this just to get back at me for bringing up your past. For mentioning Rebecca?"

He wouldn't put it past her. For Revy, power is everything.

Rock had not thought about his given name in so long, it was almost foreign to him. Hell, he didn't even know Revy had been paying that much attention to him to know what it was. They certainly have never had that conversation. He prided himself on knowing people, it's what he's good at but he had to admit he wasn't ready for any of this.

Eyes up. He had to remind himself again in as many moments.

He was angry with her and damn it, he was within his right to be so. In all fairness, if it were him that had broken into her room he probably wouldn't have lived to apologize for it! Yet, as the seconds ticked on with her standing before him like this, his emotions were being…redirected. He inhaled a hissing breath slowly, softly through his teeth.

Maybe with her guns locked away, it was easier for his treacherous eyes to stray, stealing glances of sun-kissed skin, flat toned stomach and as his gaze trailed lower…

I need a smoke. Oh God, I need a cigarette! The first of many, he suspected, he would light up in his new apartment before this evening was through. Rock had a line that he didn't cross when it came to relationships within the workplace. Too often he had seen couples get involved in a moment of need only to find out later that they had made a mistake. Depending on who had the bigger position, the other might find themselves at the bitter end of a vengeful ex-lover's abuse. Though it would never happen in a million years, for him and Revy to be at odds like that? With her temper and his new found rule of not putting up with her bullshit? He would have to leave Roanapurr.

Remember the line Rock. Look at her face. Just her face, damn it!

Failing miserably, he looked away; fingers tunneling through his hair, teeth biting the inside of his bottom lip. Taking a breath again, he tried to compose himself. With most of his lower body shielded from her view by the counter between them, he could probably get himself under control before she notices. But how to do that when the air conditioning in the apartment was only helping to encourage the pressure in his balls to a burgeoning ache?

He swallowed as she stomps towards him, closing the distance between them. The movement caused those sensual breasts to jolt with every step she took towards him. His erection throbbed. The chances that she wouldn't see his hard-on were slim at best.

"The fuck you don't know what I'm talking about," Her brows furrowed into a mask of anger, hands balled into fists. "You have no idea the number of things you've-"

"That I've what?" Rock asked tilting his head at her mulish expression and flushed face. When silence met his curiosity, they both just stared at each other.

Revy was just trying to find some means to sway this into something that he had done. Making him out to be the villain in some way so that she could play the tragic heroine. Typical.

After what seemed like a minute, her eyes left his then they assessed his position. He was standing with his body leaned into the counter, trying to conceal his wood under the wood but not exactly achieving the 'tree in the forest' camouflage in this case.

"Is that where my guns are?" She laughed humorlessly.

His habits were clawing at him, demanding; "Feed us! Feed us!" His erection pulsated in a race with his throbbing headache.

"No, they are not here."

Why hadn't he bought a pack of cigarettes or some liquor this morning? Instead of just food and other things normal people needed.

"Bullshit," Revy said reaching under the counter and pushing him away.

"Hey, stop it!" Rock cried knocking her hand away that brushed against him.

She tsked disdainfully. " A flash of tits and surprise, surprise you're hard," Revy rolled her eyes.

With increasing frustration bubbling up within him, Rock said: "You're an attractive, incredibly sexy woman that's basically naked in my apartment alone with me. How else do you expect me to react?"

She enunciated every word sneeringly. "Like any other pig."

"Uh-huh... Well, it's my pleasure to disappoint you, Revy." About to turn away from her to his bedroom he told her, "I'll get you my shirt to put on..."

"Suck a cock you fucking queer!" She cut in, sounding pissed. Why? He wasn't sure but he's had enough of this. Whatever the hell it was!

"What the hell is your problem?" Confusion riding him hard he continued. "And that doesn't even make any sense." Feeling the heat of anger creeping back into his veins. What was she expecting him to do? Knock her over the head with her guns then take advantage of her? Did she really see him as that type of man? Didn't she know him better than that?

She shrugs. "Who knows, maybe my ass turns you on."

"Maybe it does," He said through gritted teeth, watching the surprise register on her face at his admission. He turned to her fully, his cock straining towards her like an arrow. "But as I've stated before it's a physical reaction, it's not something I can help. But just because I'm not one of those men who force his desires on a woman," Her eyes grew wide at that then they narrowed in suspicion. Rock kept his expression neutral even as confirmation hit him like a bullet. "That doesn't mean that I'm gay. I'm decent, Revy but I'm also human. I'm not dead."

She opens up her mouth to say something but he cut her off. "And I'd like to keep it that way.


Revy...

If chivalry is dead then what the fuck did she call this?

"Decent?" She drawled sweetly, taking steps toward him until very little space remained between them. She smiled up at him. "That's what pussies say." She taunted. "Is Rock, the man who terrorized Roanapurr in that death game- playing with peoples lives like pieces on a chessboard, a pussy?"

"What are you doing." He asked, his voice raspy.

She wanted to know the same thing. Why was she goading him like this knowing full well that Rock wasn't someone to back down from a challenge? His dark eyes held hers like an anchor. In this storm of emotions she was in the middle of, that's precisely what she needed. And fuck! It was sexy as hell.

The last time they were this close, she'd squeezed him hard in her hand, so it was no surprise when Rock took a step back from her but she boxed him in slamming one of her hands down on the counter. What man wouldn't take advantage when he had the upper hand on a woman? There were no men like that in Roanapurr or anywhere else for that matter unless they were used to being on their hands and knees.

You're hard as stone yet you're offering me a shirt? She thought, her body tingling with some new emotion that she couldn't name.

Rock also had her guns and no doubt he's also seen her slow reflexes. He had power over her! She's never been more vulnerable. What was his game? Why not make a pass at her? For some reason, she was annoyed at that. Was he thinking that she wasn't good enough for him, even though he called her sexy and attractive? Incredibly attractive!

With a mischievous look, she reached for him. His hand shot out to stop hers but it was too late.