Realm Beyond, when there was suddenly a great crashing cry.  The earth shook, and the sky darkened as the sun was blotted out.  The crowd, the princess, the king, everyone looked up into the darkened sky, and they all saw a terrible sight.  It was a dragon!  A monstrous beast it was, taking up the entire sky as it descended towards them, smoke and fire billowing from its mouth.
	"It landed in the square to the cries and panicked flight of the citizens of the town, taking up the entirety of it with its great size, and cast a baleful gaze at the king.  The king stared at the beast in horror, and to his surprise and dismay, he saw that the dragon had lost its horns!  The king realized that the young cobbler had managed to get the horns without killing the beast, and he feared that the dragon was there to take revenge!'  Falling to his knees before the great beast, the king raised its hands and pleaded with the beast.  'O Great and Terrible Dragon!' he called in a pleading voice, 'please spare us your wrath!  We have already captured the one the stole your horns, and were going to punish him!  Please, take him and spare us!'
	"The dragon, of course, fully understood what was going on.  It rose up and gave a great cry, shivering its wings, displaying its mighty power to all who beheld it.  It then looked back down at the king, its great red eyes burning, smoke issuing from its mouth and nostrils as it spoke in reply.  'Kind Aran came to me in humility and honesty, begging my horns so that he could be wed to his true love,' the dragon proclaimed in a voice that shook the town.  'I suspected your treachery, human, so I came to make sure that it was a bargain made in full faith!  If you want to avoid my wrath, you will honor your promise and allow your daughter to marry!'
	"This confused and shocked the king, who trembled and cowered before the great creature.  But though his intent was foul and dark, the gentle light of the love that the young man shared with his daughter shone through the darkness of his plan, casting its warmth upon his soul, and he relented.  'As you command, O Great Dragon,' he replied to the beast with sincerity.  'I will honor my vow, and my daughter will marry him.'"
	"Aww," Jasana hummed.  "That's very nice."
	"I've always thought so," Tarrin agreed, then he continued.  "And so it was that Aran the cobbler was married to Princess Dianne in the very square in which he was nearly hanged.  And among those present at that happy occasion were the king and the dragon itself, who had come down from its mountain peak to see the fruits of true love realized.  The kingdom of Deepwell prospered under the kind rule of Aran and Dianne, and the little town of Deepdale was often visited by a kindly and friendly dragon, who became a great friend to all of Deepwell.  And that's the end, kitten," he told her, closing the book.  "Did you like it?"
	"Umm," she hummed, putting her paws on the book.  "I really liked the dragon.  It seemed very nice."
	"Yes it did.  It just goes to show you, kitten, you can't always judge people by how they look.  Aran didn't see the dragon as a great and terrible monster, it saw it as someone he could talk to.  And he was right.  It turned out that the dragon was a very kind and gentle creature, but he'd never had known that if he would have tried to fight it for its horns."
	"I really liked that.  I thought he was going to try to fight it."
	"He knew he couldn't win, but Aran was smart enough to know that there's always more than one way to try to do something, kitten."
	"Umm."
	"Dinner's ready, you two," Jesmind told them, pulling the kettle off the fire with a damp rag to protect her paw from the heat.
	"Alright," Tarrin replied, scooting Jasana off his lap.  "Go put that book away and come to dinner, cub," he told her.
	"Yes, papa," she said obediently, padding off into Jenna's old room.
	"I see you enjoyed reading to her," Jesmind said as he stood up.
	"I've never done that for my own child before," he said, kind of dreamily. "It's alot better than I thought it would be."
	"It always is," she smiled.  "Get the bread out of the oven, Tarrin.  It's done."
	Tarrin went over to the fireplace, to the door over the opening for the fire that held the brick oven.  He opened it with a wooden dowel hanging on the hearth, then used a flatboard hanging by the fire to withdraw the piping loaf of bread.  He set it down on the breadplate on the table, then hung the flatboard back on its peg on the hearth.  "I didn't have an oven like that at my old cottage," Jesmind said. "It's very handy."
	"You'll think it's primitive when I get one of those Tellurian stoves," he told her absently.  "It's alot easier than cooking over a fire."
	"Oh?" she said with a sudden smile.  "Where will we put it?"
	"We'll have to knock out some of the counter, but there's room for it," he answered.  "Mother had been wanting one.  Father was about to get her one before everything happened."
	"So you're getting one for her?" Jesmind said with an edge in her voice that Tarrin didn't miss.
	"I'm getting one for you," he told her calmly.  "That mother will be able to use it is simply an added bonus."
	"Oh, well, that's very nice," she almost purred, coming over to him and rising on her toes, then giving him a kiss on the cheek.  "Be careful, or we'll start acting like a couple of old married humans."
	"I think we already are," he admitted with a wry chuckle.
	"I see you've calmed down alot since this morning," she smiled.
	"I guess I have.  I'm very glad I decided to stop over for a while."
	"Well, I'm glad to have you, Tarrin," she said.  "I'm always glad to have you."
	"That's good to know," he told her.  "I'm going to miss this place when I leave.  This has always been home to me, no matter where I was or what I was doing."
	"I know.  That's why we're here."
	"Why is that?"
	"Because I knew this was where you'd come when you were done," she said calmly, but he could hear, sense, the admission, the emotion, tied up in that simple statement.  She had her back to him, getting dishes out of the cupboard, and he stared at her for a long moment.  What was more, for the first time since coming back, he really studied Jesmind's scent.  A scent could not lie, no matter how hard one tried, and it told him a great deal.  She was more than a little nervous, rather unsettled despite how calm she looked, and underneath it all was a continual, almost habitual attempt to lure him with her scent, a response she was trying with all her might to control, to hide from him.  He could tell that too.
	Jesmind was trying very hard to be as inauspicious as she could, about several things.  About the fact that she was still intensely attracted to him, about how nervous she was about something.  Nervous about him?  No.  Her scent and her body language showed him that she was comfortable with him.  It had to be something mental, internal, anxiety over something.  But what?
	He thought he knew.  She was trying to cover her desire for him, something that would have slapped him in the face with her scent had she not been clamping down on it.  That was definitely out of character for Jesmind.  She didn't play around about things like that, yet now she was trying to hide that, trying to suppress it.  Why?  It was simple; she was doing everything she could not to distract him or interfere with him.  She was being as mild as she could, trying to keep her distance about things that really had her attention.
	Simply put, she was acting against her instincts and her basic personality both, and that meant that it had to be unbelievably important.
	She turned around, and then suddenly backed up against the countertop when she realized that he was right on top of her.  "What's the matter?" she asked quickly, looking up at him.
	"Scents don't lie, Jesmind," he told her in a quiet tone.
	Jesmind actually blushed.  Tarrin had waited a long time to see that.  It was a kind of long-awaited, poetic revenge for all the times she had embarassed him.
	"The only thing I don't understand is why you're holding back.  That's not like you, even with Jasana here."
	"I--Well--oh, hellfire," she muttered.  "I didn't want to lead you on in any way, Tarrin.  I wanted you to make all your decisions, about the house, about me, about everything, without feeling like I was pressuring you in any way.  And inviting you to bed, you may have taken that as a form of pressure."  She looked up at him with smoldering eyes.  "Yes, I want you.  I've had to all but cross my legs every time you've looked at me all day.  I've never felt so, so...frustrated.  But I'm not going to bring that back into our relationship until you feel you're ready for it."
	Tarrin was mightily impressed.  He hadn't noticed a thing, and that was saying something, because Tarrin was much, much more sensitive to things like that than most other Were-cats.  It had to do with the fact that he was much more attuned to slight changes in his environment than most, a side effect of living in continual fear for over a year.
	He looked at her, then actually laughed.  "I'm impressed you hid it this long."
	"So am I," she admitted with a wry grin.  "So, Tarrin...do you want to?"
	"Not on the kitchen counter," he said with a low purr, surrendering to his long held desire for his former mate.
	Not former.  His mate.
	"I have a nice big bed in my room," she said with a slow smile, her eyes lighting up in comprehension.  "I made it with you in mind.  You'll actually be able to stretch out in it."
	"That'll have to wait.  We still have dinner to deal with."
	"I've waited for over a year," she said with a laugh.  "I think another hour or so isn't going to make much difference."  She pushed him away slightly, letting her paws linger on his upper arms.  "So, does this mean we're officially mates again?"
	"Well, you may have to woo me, but I think I can be won over if you try hard enough," he said with a light smile.
	"I'm a champion when it comes to wooing, my mate," she purred.  "I'll prove it to you."
	"We'll see."
	"I guess we will at that," she agreed, rising up onto her toes and kissing him, kissing him with a passion that told him just how much she had wanted him.  If there was any one thing he had always remembered out her that made his tail curl, it was how she kissed.  He found himself surrendering to her in every way because of that kiss, and it took Jasana pulling on his tail to remind him of where they were and what they were doing.
	Both of them were a little breathless when the pushed away from each other, but Jasana simply looked at them with a happy little expression.  "Dinner's getting cold," she told them with a wicked little smirk, enjoying breaking them up.
	Or maybe enjoying the fact that they were kissing in the first place.
	"Dinner.  Oh, yes, of course," Jesmind said in a slightly scattered manner, fanning herself by flapping the front of her shirt.  "Tarrin, get the bread--no, wait, you did that.  I guess we can eat now, I guess.  Did I get the stew off the fire?"
	Tarrin looked at her, then he laughed heartily.  He took her paw and led her to the table, with Jasana humming to herself as she carried the plates behind them.
 
Chapter 24

	Some things were worth waiting a thousand years for them.
	Tarrin drifted into awareness much the same as he had drifted to sleep that night--morning, actually--being a process of complete and utter security and peace.  That was something that hadn't happened in quite a while, and it felt almost sinfully luxurious to sleep and wake up knowing he was in a safe and secure environment.  He was stretched out on Jesmind's oversized bed on his side, one paw hanging over the edge of the bed with the other tucked up under him, and Jesmind curled up against his back peacefully.
	There were other things that felt sinful.  Jesmind had--well, it was easy to say that she had really missed him.  She had had alot of pent up energy, and she unleashed it all against him last night.  But despite her exuberance, she was still the exquisitely tender, sensual lover that he remembered.  The year and more that they had been apart seemed to dwindle into nothing in his mind and memory as the two of them renewed their intimacy.  There had been almost no conversation, no talking, no communication outside of a touch or a scent, and in a way, he preferred it that way.  A touch or scent could say a great deal more than any words could.
	Not that it meant much more than physical pleasure.  Both of them understood that.  Jesmind's reluctance to enter into an intimate relationship with him had more to do with how she feared he would take such a thing, but she had learned that he was a true Were-cat in that regard.  He could take her for mate without it affecting his core relationship with her, because to a Were-cat, a physical relationship was just that, physical.  He could be mates with a female he couldn't stand, because the mental relationship had very little to do with it.  Despite sharing a very intense night of love, his attitudes and feelings for Jesmind had not changed very much, though he'd be the first to admit that his attitude towards her had improved dramatically since the night before.  He still was a little angry with her--not much as before, and less every hour--a little annoyed at whatever little game she seemed to be playing, and still trying to feel out where he stood with her, and where he wanted to stand.
	That was one of his biggest dilemmas.  He laid there and considered it, considered where he wanted to be.  Jesmind had made it clear that she was not going to leave, even to the point of sharing the house with his parents.  He had always considered the farm to be his home, and with Jesmind here too, it made it seem even more of a home, because it would hold both sides of his family within it.  Being around Jesmind all the time would lead to two absolutes, he was sure of it.  The first was that they would be mates.  The second was with such a long-standing relationship and continual exposure to one another, they would fight like angry hornets, just about every day.  Both of them were almost ridiculously stubborn, and when they came out on opposite sides of the fence, nine times out of ten it was the fence that was going to suffer for their inability to agree on the issue.
	Tarrin thought it over, straining to remember what Triana taught him about Were-cat children.  Jasana would be fully grown at around age ten, so that meant that he'd have about eight or so years sharing space with  Jesmind.  After Jasana was grown and out of the house, Jesmind would probably drift away, and he would be alone again.  He found himself surprised that he didn't like that idea, though.
	It was the human in him.  He may be Were, but he was born human, and his human concepts and morality were much stronger in him than they were in most other Were-cats.  Tarrin still clung to the concept of marriage and family, despite the fact that that wasn't going to happen, because it was what he had been raised to expect out of life.  Those lessons didn't fade with the fur and the ears.  He'd never have a wife, but he could have mates, and enjoy it while it lasted.  Jesmind was his mate now.  He should enjoy it until time and changing interests and attitudes caused them to drift apart.
	Strange.  Two days ago, he hadn't even known Jesmind was here.  He hadn't known about Jasana, and now here he was, considering how to plan his life around the two of them.  It felt almost like he was cheating himself out of a whole lot of righteous anger and indignation towards his fiery-haired mate, but he had to admit that she had quite effectively defused him.  That night of shared love showed him that Jesmind knew him, knew him very, very well, and she had known all the right buttons to press and all the right words to say to steer him in the direction that pleased her the most.
	Tarrin would have taken offense to that, but he knew that her guidance and urging was towards an amicable relationship with her.  She wasn't trying to control him, she just wanted him to like her.  That was all.  Not love her, not do her bidding, but just like her.  He could respect that, respect how much she had been willing to bend, to sacrifice, to bring that about.  For Jesmind to accommodate someone else was a story worthy of a town crier.  It simply wasn't in her nature to bend for another, yet she had done it for him.  That willingness to compromise, to accede to him at least in some ways both surprised him and inclined him towards her.
	She had worked very hard for that day and a half to just hear him say he didn't hate her.  He looked inside himself, and he found that he truly did not.  In fact, despite his lingering anger and suspicion concerning her, he held a very favorable opinion of her now.  He did like her, and probably maybe more than that.  At one time, he had loved Jesmind.  That had faded over time, but now, with her so close to him, he saw that there was a good chance that that love may be rekindled in him.
	But if that happened, it would be long after he left them, got back on his journey to stop the ki'zadun and protect Suld. But this time, he'd know where she was, and he knew that she would be waiting for him.
	That little problem suitably resolved in his mind, he moved on to the next one.  Jasana.  He honestly didn't know what he was going to do with her.  Her power was awakened, and that was a very bad thing.  She was sui'kun, or at least she would be, and the possbility that she would touch High Sorcery and threaten to destroy herself was very real and very worrisome.  He knew it was just a matter of time now before she learned how to use her power, and then she would put herself in a tremendous amount of danger.  Being a child, she wouldn't be able to resist using her magic, and that was going to cause a catastrophe in one way or another.  Either for herself or for the unfortunate people around her, when impulse got the better of caution and she used her Sorcery.
	He had to leave.  He didn't have a choice.  But Tarrin was the only thing that would keep Jasana's power under control.  If she started using magic, he had to be very close to her to prevent her from hurting herself, or anyone else.  But he couldn't do that, and the Goddess knew that he was not going to take that child with him.  He was going into battle!
	It was a no-win situation.  He couldn't leave Jasana alone, yet he couldn't take her with him.  He didn't know what to do.  It just tumbled over and over and over in his mind until it started giving him a headache.  He rolled over on his back and put his paw over his eyes, groaning slightly at the problem as Jesmind repositioned herself in her sleep, draping a paw over his chest and snuggling against his shoulder.  He just couldn't see any kind of acceptable solution that satisfied both sides of the problem.  And since he couldn't, he put it aside for a while to think about it again later.
	He was really going to miss this place.  Coming home, even for a few days, it had done him a world of good.  He hadn't felt so calm, so relaxed, so happy, in a very long time.  It had been months since he'd slept peacefully, and even longer since he'd had the opportunity to sleep in a bed that fit him.  Most beds were too small, forcing him to sleep in cat form if only to fit.  That was all well and good, but sometimes he didn't want to sleep in cat form, because the dreams and thoughts he had in that form were alot different from the ones he had in his natural form.  There at home, he not only had the chance to unwind and relax after his long, long period of running for his life, he also had a chance to meet his daughter and reestablish an old relationship with Jesmind.
	He was absolutely certain that coming home was the reason why the Goddess wanted him to stay on the ground.  At first, he thought it was because of Jasana, but now he knew that that was only a part of it.  She just wanted him to relax and feel happy for a little while.  There was time enough to defend Suld later, right at that moment, he wanted nothing to do with anything even remotely resembling importance or titanic, earth-shaking magnitude.  He wanted one full day where the most important thing he had to do was decide what he wanted to chase down for dinner.  Just one day.  He knew that that wasn't going to happen, not with him leaving tomorrow, but hopefully he could minimize the important things and concentrate on the small ones.
	Jesmind stirred beside him, then her claws extended and pressed against his chest lightly.  Her breathing shifted, telling him that she had woke up.  She yawned languidly and then snuggled against him just a little more, sighing contentedly.  "Good morning," she purred.
	"Yes, it is," he replied in a dreamy kind of introspection.  "Sleep well?"
	"I slept like a rock," she chuckled.  "You wore me out.  That's quite an accomplishment."
	"You wore yourself out," he corrected her mildly.
	"Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but it sure makes a girl lustful," she said with a laugh.
	"That could be a new saying."
	"Only for humans that don't turn all red at the slightest mention of things that have no meaning anyway," she chuckled.  "Garyth's wife, Mara, she's perputally red all the time when I'm around."
	"She's a respectable, morally straight-laced woman, Jesmind," he told her.  "She takes offense at seeing a girl's petticoats.  I can only imagine what some of the things you say would affect her."
	"I've made her faint a few times," she said with a wicked chuckle.  "Now it's a game to see how mortified I can get her."
	"You're an evil woman, Jesmind."
	"I know.  Isn't it fun?"
	Tarrin laughed helplessly, pulling her up against him a little more.  "I'm going to miss you when I leave," he admitted.
	"Oh, what a nice thing to say," she purred happily, slithering up on top of him, putting her arms on his chest and staring down into his eyes for a long moment.  "What do you want to do today?"
	"Absolutely nothing of importance," he said immediately.  "At least not willingly.  I know work is going to come find me, but I'm not going to go look for it."
	"Well, if you want a holiday, you came to the right place," she smiled.  "We could spend all day in here."
	"You're forgetting about Jasana," he smiled.
	She frowned.  "I knew there had to be some kind of drawback to having children," she fretted.  "They interfere with trying to make more."
	Tarrin chuckled, putting his paws on her waist, sliding them up and down her sides gently.
	"I know that this doesn't really change things between us, mate," she told him in a reasonable tone.  "I know you're probably still a little angry with me."
	"A little," he admitted honestly.
	"I can live with that.  I just want to know that you don't hate me."
	"I don't hate you, Jesmind," he told her with soft eyes.
	Her eyes went vulnerable for a moment, which triggered a response in him.  He wrapped his arms around her back and held her just tightly enough for her to realize it.  "Do you really have to go tomorrow?" she asked in a hesitant voice.  "I don't want you to leave again."
	"Duty calls, Jesmind.  If anyone would understand what duty means to me, I'd think that it would be you."
	"Only too well," she grunted with a frown, looking down at him.  "Since it's quiet, you can tell me some things."
	"Like what?"
	"Mother's told me about what you've done and where you've been, but she's usually not very descriptive about it.  I think she's trying to keep some things quiet, or secret.  What was that Demon woman like?  Really."
	"Shiika?  To be honest, she reminded me of you."
	Jesmind suddenly glared at him.
	He laughed.  "She is alot like you, Jesmind.  She has the same directness about her.  With Shiika, you know where you stand.  We were enemies, but that didn't stop her from being...conversational.  She was a strange woman."
	"Was she pretty?"
	"She's a Demon, Jesmind.  She can appear any way she wants to appear.  Don't you think she'd choose something attractive?"
	Jesmind laughed.  "Well, if she can look any way she wants, I guess she could."
	"Vanity seems to be a universal constant," Tarrin said abstractly.
	"What was the desert like?"
	"Very, very hot," he replied.  "The sun made me as dark as an Arakite, and it did this to my hair," he added, reaching up and touching the nearly white cap of hair on his head.
	"I don't know, I kind of like it that way," Jesmind smiled, reaching up and patting it. "But it looks too severe like this.  What happened to your bangs?"
	"They grew," he chuckled.  "I had to put them in the braid."
	"I don't like it."  She extended a claw and carefully sheared his hair, just below his ears, freeing his bangs.  The blond-white locks slid down from their constrainment and tickled the top of his forehead lightly.  "There.  That makes you look much nicer.  It softens your face."
	"Until they grow again," Tarrin chuckled, reaching up and flicking the loose hair with a finger.
	"You're a Were-cat, Tarrin.  Just like that Shiika woman can appear any way she wants, you can make your hair any length you want.  Mist keeps her hair almost as short as a human man's.  It's all a matter of want."
	"Well, if that's the case, I'll keep my hair this way," he said with a smile.  "Just because you like it this way."
	"I like long hair too," she said, tousling her hair for him.  "Something else we have in common."
	"At least mine doesn't look like a tornado went through it," he winked.
	"It'll wash out," she said with a grin.
	"How will I tell?"
	Jesmind laughed, then reached down and drew little circles on the side of his cheek with her finger.  "I like my hair wild."
	"I noticed."
	"Was mother pulling my leg when she said you helped Jula after she went mad?"
	He shook his head.  "She's a Were-cat, so I could use magic affecting the mind on her.  With Dolanna's help, I was able to regress her madness back to where she was rational, then teach her how to stop the process from happening again."
	"That was nice of you."
	"I wasn't too happy about taking her for a child, but I guess it all worked out."
	"I'm surprised you did, seeing as who she was and what she did to you."
	"I know.  I think I did it because I was tired of destroying things.  Just once, I wanted to help someone, not ruin their lives.  And, to be honest, I felt very sorry for her.  If you'd have seen her like I did, you'd have done almost anything for her out of pity.  She was the most hopeless, miserable thing I'd ever seen."
	"Did you sleep with her?"
	"Jesmind!" Tarrin said in surprise.
	"Well sorry," she grumbled.  "I'm curious, that's all."
	"You're jealous!" he laughed.
	"A little," she admitted with a slight blush.  "All this time, I've still considered you my mate, Tarrin.  Mates get jealous when their mates stray.  I was jealous over Mist too, but not that much.  At least with her, I knew you had a good reason for doing it."
	"You said she's close.  Have you seen her?"
	Jesmind nodded.  "She brought Eron to visit me," she said.  "And introduce him to his half-sister.  He looks just like a little you.  He even has your hair and fur."
	"He does?"
	Jesmind nodded.  "There's absolutely no doubt that Eron is your son.  Anyone who looks at him swears up and down that it must be you, somehow magically turned into a baby."
	Tarrin chuckled.  "I hope he makes Mist happy."
	"She's deleriously happy," Jesmind smiled at him.  "I've never seen her so open before.  She actually relaxed when she visited, and held Jasana.  I never thought I'd see such things out of Mist.  What you did for her, mate, it was a miracle."
	"I'm glad for that," he sighed.  "She was so lost.  I felt so sorry for her."
	Jesmind smiled.  "She's absolutely devoted to you, Tarrin.  Half the time she was here, she did nothing but ask questions about you.  I don't think she wants you for mate, but you definitely have a friend for life.  She'd walk through fire if you asked her to do it."
	"I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon," he said dryly.
	"I hope not."  She looked down at him.  "Why was everything still here?" she asked.  "When I first got here, I found some things missing, but almost everything else here.  Why did your parents leave so much behind?"
	"Because they didn't think they'd be gone so long," he replied.  "When they came to Suld, it was just to visit.  But then I--" he closed his eyes.  That was still a very painful memory.  "But then I nearly killed mother, and they stayed in Suld while everyone was trying to find me.  After that, Jegojah attacked them, and I told them to go somewhere where they couldn't be found, for their own safety.  So they went to Ungardt for a while."
	"I've always wondered about that," she said.  "I about had a heart attack when I found that magical object in the cellar.  I couldn't believe that they'd leave something that rare and valuable behind.  They're lucky it was still here."
	"This is Aldreth, Jesmind," he chided with a smile.  "Nobody would dream of stealing it.  Some things were missing because my parents wrote Garyth and asked him to store some things for them."
	"He said something like that, but I wasn't paying much attention when he said it," she admitted.
	"Well, there you go.  The mystery is solved."
	She smiled at him.  "You're leaving tomorrow, aren't you?" she asked.
	"How many times are you going to ask that question?"
	"Until I hear an answer I like, I suppose," she said with a little smile.  "I don't want you to go."
	"I really don't want to go either, but I have to," he sighed.
	"I heard what you want to do today, but what are you really going to do today?"
	Tarrin looked up at her, then laughed ruefully.  "Go into the village and make sure that everyone's going to be ready, I suppose," he answered.  "Outside of that, I really don't know."
	"Well, I know what we could do right now," she said in a husky voice, her eyes smoldering and her scent shifting in its texture noticably.  She leaned down and kissed him with that same intense passion that made her the best kisser he had ever had the pleasure to experience, a woman that could probably charm any male or win any argument with a male because she could subdue him with one of those kisses.  He made a mental note never to allow her into a position to kiss him while they were fighting, or he was going to lose the fight.
	Being blessed with an unnatural sense of when an interruption would be the most disruptive,