Vegeta was beyond shocked. One moment he had been teasing his woman, the next she had her hand on him ...then her she had wrapped her lips around a certain part of his male anatomy and taken him deep inside her mouth.

Completely and utterly at a loss, the Saiyan roared and the very walls of the house shook.

Bulma's mouth moved on him and he had a moment of planet shattering pleasure before he roughly pulled away from her, nearly falling off the bed as he stared, appalled, at his mate.

Wide dark eyes met startled blue eyes.

Bulma's mouth, her lips swollen from his earlier kisses, still formed an 'o'. She then smiled at him and winked. Moving toward him on all fours she was an enticing picture.

Vegeta shuddered and pushed himself farther from her.

Bulma slowed, then stopped. She tilted her head to one side slightly. "Vegeta?"

"Woman, are you crazy?" The Saiyan spat out the words, his mouth sounding hoarse and dryer than cotton.

His turquoise-haired mate sat up, sitting on her knees, her butt resting on the backs of her heels. She was bare chested and looked simply gorgeous to him. The Saiyan swallowed hard. She hadn't meant it. Of course she hadn't.

"What's wrong?" Bulma felt a sinking in her stomach. She had never seen Vegeta act like this, never.

"You didn't mean it." He informed her, sounding almost dazed.

Blinking, she shook her head slightly. "Mean what? I was just trying to ...look, you challenged me." Bulma didn't do defensive well. Offense was more her type of strategy. "It was definitely your fault. Whatever it is. That's right, you wanted me to beg!"

The Saiyan Prince growled, still staring at her and completely unmindful of his nudity. "So you thought to challenge me?" He sounded incredulous. "Woman, I ...I am surprised."

Bulma paused. After the mix up with the word 'mate' meaning wife and all, she was trying to be more cautious. "You didn't seem to mind me touching you there earlier." Just what was the hang-up? Did Saiyan's have a taboo about oral sex? "Doesn't your race ...I mean, didn't they ever ..." She couldn't say it, just waved her hand toward his groin.

Vegeta grabbed his pants and slid into them quickly.

"I guess not." Bulma blushed. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't know you wouldn't enjoy ..."

"Enjoy?" Vegeta groaned. "Woman. Saiyan women were our only recourse. They were the only ones who could survive being mated to us. Enjoyment was fleeting at best, though. As the females were always seeking ways to regain dominance."

Bulma dropped her jaw even as she reached for her blouse, then grimaced as she saw that he'd shredded yet another garment. Instead she headed over to her closet to grab a robe. "Is THAT what you thought I was doing?"

Vegeta regretfully watched his mate tie her robe around her form, hiding her body from him. He scowled. "Weren't you? You claimed you were going to make me beg. Me? The Prince of all Saiyans? Beg? I think not, woman."

Startled, Bulma blinked and then did some scowling of her own. When he put it that way, it did make her seem in the wrong. Not that she'd ever admit to it, of course. "It's sex, Vegeta! On Earth it's simply a way of having sex!"

Vegeta sat on the edge of the bed and dragged on his boots. "Sex is for making children. Correct me if I'm mistaken about Earth anatomy, but what you were doing had zero chance of ending in pregnancy!"

She couldn't help it. Anger turned into a giggle. Vegeta gritted his teeth and she giggled louder.

"WOMAN!"

Bulma smothered a laugh and then tried to turn it into a cough. "It's fun!"

"It's unnecessary!"

She pointed a finger at him. "Prude."

Vegeta stared at her.

"It means you don't like sex." Bulma sassed him.

The Saiyan moved so swiftly she could barely see him. One minute he was across the room and the next he was in her face. "Take that back!" He demanded imperiously.

Bulma had no clue why she suddenly stuck her tongue out at him. It was childish and stupid and it felt so right.

He clenched his teeth and raised a fist.

Unfazed and strangely unafraid, she glared at him. "Don't you dare!"

The fist opened and he slammed his hand flat against her wall, leaving an indention in the drywall. He never touched her. "A Saiyan female could have inflicted all sorts of damage from that position."

Bulma froze, then pulled back to stare at him. He nodded, she was starting to understand his reasoning. As a mate should.

Suddenly the woman crossed her arms and glared at him. "First. I'm not Saiyan. Second. You don't trust me."

Vegeta nodded, oblivious to the rising color in her cheeks. It wasn't embarrassment this time. It was anger.

"Get out." She said simply and with all the dignity she could muster.

Vegeta stopped and gave her an odd look, there was a tone in her voice he'd not heard from her before. And he didn't like the sound of it. It was very cold. "Woman?"

"I said get out." Bulma looked very serious. "I will not be with a man that doesn't trust me."

Vegeta squared his shoulders. "And I will not lie with a woman who dares to challenge me."

"So, you expect me to be subservient?" She asked, feeling sick to her stomach. "Never an equal?"

The Prince stared at her. "An equal? You are not Saiyan!"

"And I never can be." She said quietly and opened the bedroom door for him.

Vegeta stared at the open doorway. He didn't want to leave. Pride wouldn't let him stay. He didn't need her. Not really. He gave her a long, level look and then walked away. The Saiyan did not look back at her.

Bulma felt like crying. Which was stupid. Because hadn't she been looking for a way out of this whole 'mate' nonsense? Not without a healthy dose of pride herself, she couldn't let him leave without saying something.

"What is the Saiyan ritual for divorce?" She asked, bile rising up from her stomach.

Vegeta didn't turn, didn't stop, and kept moving. "You chose me as a mate all on your own, figure it out yourself. Bulma."

He turned the corner and was gone.

Tears formed in her blue eyes. He'd called her by her name, and not as a 'woman' or a 'mate'. It's what she'd wanted from the start. Only now she knew that by doing so, he was actually distancing himself from her.

Victory, right?

So why did she feel like bawling?

.III

The next few days were a blur of misery. Days turned into two weeks.

Bulma slept in her bed. Alone.

Vegeta trained out in the countryside. Alone.

He came and showered and ate at times when he knew her to be gone.

Bulma stared at his clothes hanging in her closet. Every now and then an outfit or two would disappear, it was almost the only clue that he'd been there.

She thought about taking his clothing out and either throwing it on the lawn or back into his guest room. Only ...every time she touched something of his her mind froze and she couldn't do it.

Oh, it wasn't that she WANTED to be married to the arrogant jerk. But ...the thought of cutting him out of her life completely left her feeling almost panicked.

And truth be told?

She missed him.

Oh, she still had her friends and her family. But late at night, all alone in her bed, she missed him. How was that even possible? It's not like they were close friends or anything. Heck, she didn't even know his favorite food! He ate so fast and so much it was hard to tell.

During the day she'd rage at herself in the privacy of her own mind. But alone in her room, she knew that he'd pushed himself into her life and part of her wished he was still there.

Bulma looked at the clock on her desk and smiled grimly. She got up and put the final touches on her look for the day. She wanted to appear casual, as if it were any other day. Yet beautiful and irresistible.

She wanted him to want her back. Though she wasn't sure she would even take him back. And certainly not as a 'mate'. No, he'd hurt her with his lack of trust. And lack of respect. Not an equal? Bulma snorted. Like she would accept that!

And today was the day.

She and her father had worked long and hard to rebuild the gravity chamber, but it was finally ready. And something Bulma knew for sure, Vegeta wanted to train and train hard. He would not ever be able to resist coming back here to train.

And before he went inside for days on end? She wanted him to see her and know just what a prize he was missing.

.III

The Saiyan Prince wiped sweat from his forehead with a grimace. Anger and frustration rode him hard as he scowled. Why wasn't he a Super Saiyan yet?

Kakarot had achieved the near impossible. Kakarot. A low-level brat had surpassed him, the proud scion of the royal Saiyan blood.

It would not do.

Vegeta balled up his fist and drew his ki around him in layers, letting the energy flow and build up pressure as his veins dilated and his muscles bulked up, ready to move at a split-seconds notice.

He felt good. He felt powerful. More powerful than he'd ever been in his entire life. He glared at his hands and saw the energy potential there. But they were the hands of an ordinary warrior.

Not a Super Saiyan.

Prince Vegeta threw his head back, his neck arching as he roared his protest to the heaven's above. Birds scattered in every direction, startled.

As the echo of his roar slowly ended, he looked around the wilderness. What could be fought, he'd fought. What could be torn down, he'd destroyed. This place was not going to gain him an ounce of more power.

He needed that gravity chamber.

Vegeta growled low in his throat. And there was only one place to go to train in one.

.III

Dr. Briefs was reading a new treatise one of his colleagues had sent him about particle reconstruction for the newest polymers. He chuckled as he read. "But that would change the whole equation and leave you with steel as hard as butter!"

"Peanut butter? Oh my darling, I made you a chicken salad today, not peanut butter!" His wife sound dejected that she hadn't made him the lunch he wanted.

The good doctor lowered his papers, almost surprised to find himself in the kitchen even though that had been where he'd been heading when he'd started reading.

"Chicken is fine." He smiled at his pretty wife. Then stopped and stared at the table. There was no place to put a plate of anything. The entire piece of furniture was covered in flowers. Some real, some ceramic, and if he wasn't mistaken, one poor little flower was knitted.

His blonde wife hurried from the kitchen with a lovely plate of fresh fruit and some chicken salad on some greens. She stopped at the table and stared, then looked at him and he looked at her. "Oh dear." She sounded distressed. "I seem to have run out of room!"

Dr. Briefs took the plate from her with a smile. "It's alright dear, I can eat at my desk. But what is all this?" He'd been so busy rebuilding the gravity chamber that he must have missed whatever she was working on.

"Oh ...a special project." His bubbly wife smiled winningly.

He smiled back. He always smiled back, he couldn't help himself. "Of course darling! But perhaps we can move it from the table and into another room? Perhaps your craft room?"

Bulma's mother shook her head and shrugged. "I can't put it there! I don't have a craft room anymore!"

Dr. Briefs stopped and thought hard. "You don't? Did I take it over again? I'm sorry, I'll get my notes out of there." He turned to head up the stairs, still carrying his lunch in one hand and the scientific treatise in the other.

His pretty wife followed along behind him, talking about deliveries and nice young people who carried things upstairs for her.

Bulma's father was nodding and smiling as he nudged open the door to his wife's former crafts room. It was here he stopped and stared. He turned to stared at his wife with awe. "Do you have something you want to share, darling?"

The pretty blonde smiled and shook her head as she patted her pockets. "Not right now, but I can bring you some dessert later." She blew him a kiss and headed back down the stairs. "I'll make you a pudding! We can certainly share a pudding!"

Dr. Briefs turned around and stared into the room with wide eyes.

It was a nursery.

.III

Bulma practiced at least three dozen 'casual' poses. And the more she practiced, the later it got. And the later got, the more irate she became.

As time passed and the sun started to set, her plan changed. No longer wanting to get his attention, Bulma was determined to make him want her and then turn him away!

How dare he make her wait on pins and needles all day! As if she were some stupid fangirl at a teen concert or something! She was a grown woman. A beautiful and desirous grown woman! An UNMARRIED and sexy grown woman!

Vegeta could jump off a pier for all she cared. Bulma even snapped her fingers as she thought about that. Then in her mental image, the stupid Saiyan didn't fall off the stupid pier. No. He floated in the air and mocked her.

DAMN HIM! Even in her daydreams he was insufferable!

"What are you angry about now?"

The gruff voice coming from behind her made her spin around, startled. She stared at him and he stared right back.

"What makes you think I'm angry?" She snapped at him.

Vegeta stared at her, fighting to keep his expression neutral. Damn her! Why did she have to look so utterly gorgeous!

"Why are you standing in the entrance of the gravity chamber?" He answered a question with a question. "Are you waiting on me?"

"You jerk!" Bulma snarled. This wasn't going like she'd hoped at all! And here she was snarling at him like a fishwife, she must look horrible!

Vegeta's palms itched with the need to grab his mate and claim her as his. So he formed fists with his hands. She was not going to make him bend his pride, not even an inch! And why was she snarling at him like that? She had to know the anger brought color to her cheeks and made her buxom cleavage rise and fall with her increased breathing. His blood burned for her and the need to touch.

He scowled. She was making him crave her on purpose!

This was stupid. He should let her get her silly divorce and choose another Earth woman to have his son. Even as the thought crossed his mind, he rejected it. Admit defeat? Never! She would beg him before this was all over, and that's all there was to it!

But first, he had to make her come to him.

Bulma shook her head, barely holding her temper in check. "I helped re-design and rebuild the gravity chamber of course! I was just going over some last minute wiring to make sure you don't explode it again!"

Vegeta's gaze ran over her curvy form and smiled darkly. "Do you always work in high heels?"

Bulma's sudden blush made her cheeks burn. "You ...you ...JERK!" She repeated.

He smirked.

"Oh hello, I see you're back in time for the initiation sequences." Dr. Briefs was coming up the walkway from the house. He was all smiles.

"Oh darling, my beautiful girl!" Trilled Bulma's mother. "And Mr. Vegeta, so glad you're back. No one enjoys my cooking as much as you do!"

"And you're in time for some wonderful news! Your mother is expecting!" The good doctor shook Bulma's hand, then Vegeta's and then Bulma's again.

Bulma sucked in a shocked breath.

"Expecting what? A message?" Vegeta looked confused.

"A baby!" Dr. Briefs smiled widely. "I'm shocked of course."

"Oh I do have a message, I completely forgot!" Bulma's mother smiled becomingly and reached into her pocket. "It's from that delightful green man."

"Piccalo?" Vegeta snarled and took the piece of paper that the blonde was waving around in the air. "He is hardly delightful."

"I think he is." Bulma purred, just to be contrary.

Vegeta scowled down at the message. "This is from Elder Moori." He said, referring to the leader of the refugee Nameks residing on the Brief's land. The Saiyan opened it with a flick of his fingers. "Why would the Namek elder write me a message?"

Bulma froze. That message wasn't for Vegeta, it was for her! She made a grab for the paper, but Vegeta moved out of her way. His scowl deepening as he read.

"Dear? Did you say a baby is visiting?" Bulma's mother asked, sounding confused. "Did the nice green man have a baby?"

"No, you are." Dr. Briefs blinked. "Aren't you? I mean, I saw the nursery you designed."

Bulma's mother laughed and waved one hand in the air. "Oh no, that's for Bulma's baby of course!"

"Don't read that ...hey, what?" Bulma's attention was torn between her Saiyan and her mother. "I don't have a baby!"

Vegeta snorted. "Yet." He smirked.

"EVER!" She groused and lifted her chin in defiance. "And I don't accept that we're married!"

The Saiyan looked up and waved the paper in the air. "So. You asked the Nameks about Saiyan divorce proceedings. Smart girl."

Dr. Briefs scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm going to be a grandfather? Even better!"

"A son." Vegeta nodded at the older man.

Dr. Briefs smiled and nodded. "I can buy him a tiny set of tools to help out in the workshop!"

Bulma's mother cooed and clapped her hands with joy.

"I am not having a baby!" Bulma felt the beginnings of a massive headache. "And I'm not married to him!"

Vegeta held up the message and used a touch of his built-up ki to destroy the note in a puff of flame. "Sorry, no divorce. Mate."

"I WANT A DIVORCE AND I WILL GET ONE!" Screeched Bulma.

Her mother smiled happily. "I need to throw a party for you two! Instead of an engagement party we can have they already eloped party!"

Dr. Briefs shook his head. "It doesn't sound like they're actually married, dear."

But the pretty blonde couldn't be deterred. "Of course they are! If they weren't married, she couldn't be seeking a divorce. You can't get divorced if you aren't acknowledging the wedding!" She smiled widely. "I hope you had a cake at least. And a good hot tea!"

Bulma froze and shot a glance at Vegeta. Then she groaned. The Saiyan was grinning in victory. Why oh why did her mother have to turn logical now of all times!

.III

She opened her mouth to protest, but didn't make it. A squeak of alarm escaped her as Vegeta grabbed her and took off into the deepening shadows of the evening sky.

Up and up they went. Bulma stopped fighting and wrapped herself around the Saiyan's muscular form.

"Don't look down." Vegeta ordered.

Bulma immediately looked down and felt faint. She tightened her hold on him.

The Saiyan sighed. "You don't obey worth a damn."

The turquoise-haired woman nodded, even frightened she couldn't let him get away with a comment like that. "You don't give orders well." She countered.

Vegeta sighed, refusing to take the bait. "Woman."

Bulma felt something inside her ease. He'd called her 'woman' again. Finally he stopped and she looked around carefully. Nothing.

The Saiyan saw her turn her head and finally look him in the eyes. "I will not grant you a divorce."

"Why?" She asked.

Vegeta shrugged. "I want you."

"You want a child. A son." Bulma countered, little heat in her voice.

"Yes." The Saiyan acknowledged. "I've always told you that. But I let you keep your pills."

Bulma blinked and then blinked again. He had, hadn't he? And he'd not even been terribly upset about the idea of her taking birth control. Did that mean he wanted her more than a child?

"I'm stronger than any of your Earth males." He informed her, almost defiantly.

Bulma caught her breath. Was he trying to impress her? "I'm stronger than a lot of them too."

Vegeta frowned, then nodded. "Mentally, yes."

"Watch out, Prince Saiyan ...that was almost a compliment." She smiled a moment then sighed. "I won't be your servant."

"I don't want to date."

She snorted slightly. It almost sounded like they were negotiating. Only the stakes were her very future! "A few dates. It's Earth custom."

He scowled. "One."

"One a week." She tucked her head down and leaned against his shoulder. "I agree."

Vegeta growled. "I meant only one date. Ever."

"Dream on Saiyan Prince." She traced the line of his collarbone with her fingers.

Vegeta caught her fingers in his hand and lifted her palm to his nose. He sniffed deeply. Bulma caught her breath and held it for a long moment.

"You are my mate."

Bulma nodded. "Fine. By Saiyan customs we are mated."

Vegeta nodded in victory, but then he'd expected nothing less.

"But we will not have any more sex until we are married by Earth customs." She informed him firmly. And Bulma knew she was going to make him jump through rings first. If a certain Saiyan was thinking about getting out of dating her? Pfft. He was dead wrong.

Vegeta thought it through and then nodded. "I accept your proposal."

Alarm bells went off in Bulma's head. "I didn't mean ..."

"You said we will not have sex UNTIL we are married." Vegeta nodded. "Now. Where do we go to get married?"

Bulma felt as if her whole world had suddenly switched it's axis. "What? No ...you have to date me first!"

Vegeta shook his head. "I'm having sex with you tonight. That means by your rules, we get married tonight. If you won't tell me how, I'm sure your mother will." He smiled snidely.

Bulma struggled against him. "Jerk! Let me go!"

Smiling, the Saiyan suddenly dropped altitude by ten feet without warning.

The turquoise-haired woman screamed and wrapped herself tightly around him.

Vegeta grinned. "Now. Let's go get married."

.III

Well? I'm hoping that if you've read this far you still like the story! You knew the road to marital bliss would be bumpy with two such proud people. :D