All In A Cupid Minute by Oroyukae

Chapter 1

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, here's another holiday treat for everyone. This one, however ia not connected to my other one shots I have been posting; it stands alone. i hope you like it as I really loved writing this one. I think I got the ratinh right; if not someone please let me know. Ciao!!

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“What are you doing?” the Kitsune, Shippou, asked upon noticing the devious gleam in Inuyasha's eyes. Anyone who knew Inuyasha was aware that such a look was always a clear indication that the guy was up to something sneaky.

Eyes trained upon the screen before them, the hanyou did not even spare the young male a glance when he responded. “None of your business.”

Curious, Shippou dared to venture closer – wanting to see just what Inuyasha was so interested in. Knowing the half-demon, it was more than likely porn that had the guy so enthralled; such was often the case whenever his friend browsed the internet. It never failed to end up with  Inuyasha's system getting a virus and required professional attention that the idiot could not provide in order to remove it. The fool would never learn.

However, the second that the Kitsune moved he immediately realized that what Inuyasha was looking at was definitely not porn. Eyes wide, Shippou gasped in surprise, unable to believe what he was seeing. How in the name of all things holy did Inuyasha manage to access Eri's files? “That's the pairs list for the party...are you trying to rig it so you'll wind up with the girl you want? That not fair; everyone, even you, agreed to accept their match.”

Chin raised and chest puffed out, Inuyasha did what he could to justify his actions, despite just how underhanded they were. Shippou wasn't the one who would have to spend his evening with that revolting woman, Abi. Oh no, Shippou had a much more tolerable date for the evening...the punk. “Yeah, well...I found out that a certain hideous damned troll lied on her questionaire so that she would wind up with me as her match so...”

“...You decided to cheat too,” he finished for the hanyou. Truly the half-demon had managed to sink to an all time low.

“No, I decided to even the damned odds,” Inuyasha said with a smug grin on his face. “I know I would have wound up with Kikyo if that unscrupulous bitch, Abi, had told the truth.”  At that moment, Inuyasha turned his head to look at the young male standing just to his left; it wasn't hard to interpret the expression on Shippou's face when he did. “Don't judge me, Kit.”

“Whatever happened to abiding by the rules?” he asked with a shake of his red haired head. Another set of names caught the boy's eye then, and Shippou could not help but call Inuyasha's attention to said names either, “Hey...look who your brother got matched with.”

“Oh hell no...there's no way I'll allow that,” he protested vehemently. In his opinion, there had to be some kind of mistake; the girl was far too good for someone like his elder brother. Something told the boy that his elder had somehow managed the same thing that Abi had; in that Sesshoumaru had stooped to lying  just to be paired up with Kagome.  

Sesshoumaru thought no one knew about his secret interest in Kagome, but nearly everyone knew that he had been fantasizing about getting into those panties for almost a year. The bad thing was that the two of them, Kagome and Sesshoumaru, had a fair amount of things in common. That the young male had been aware of long before this stupid damned party and he had been ever so glad that neither one of them had realized it to date. Unfortunately, those commonalities must  have been enough to account for their being paired up for the party. Not going to happen.

“We'll just have to fix that little mistake too...”

The fox drew back in outrage over being included in this ridiculously petty, not to mention childish, act of sabotage. “What do you mean 'we'? I'm not in this; it's all you, pal.”

Somehow the boy just knew that Inuyasha would find a way to drag him down with him. That second of seeming precognition proved accurate the instant that his friend opened his mouth, “You're standing here looking at the 'super secret' list....that makes you an assessory.”

“After the fact – you were already in the damned file when I got here.” There was no damned way that he was going to allow the hanyou to shift any amount of blame onto him. Just because he knew about it and he and Inuyasha were, technically, friends did not mean that he would accept any blame out of association.

The guy grinned from white puppy ear to white puppy ear then, his golden eyes glinting with smug satisfaction in the belief that he had the young Kit by the short hairs in this one. “Doesn't mean a thing, Kitsune. I'd keep my mouth shut if I were you; wouldn't want to incriminate yourself, you know.”

Shippou nailed the half-demon with a vicious glare, wishing that the mental images of Inuyasha's head exploding could somehow come true. “I hate you; do you know that?” The idiot just loved dragging those he called friends down with him; probably made the bastard feel less sleazy or something.

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How in the world had this happened? How had she and this guy been deemed as romantic matches? Hojo. Really? No matter how many times she said it her mind refused to comprehend not only the how but the why as well. They had nothing in common that she could see; which was why she had repeatedly turned the boy down time and time again since they were in the eighth grade.

When she arrived, Kagome had actually believed that this was to be a beneficial evening for her. She was supposed to have been paired with someone interesting and exciting; at least that was what she had told herself since agreeing to this travesty of an affair. Eri was always thinking of herself as the perfect matchmaker...yeah, right. That stupid, damned software program had to have some major glitches in it, for there was no other plausible explanation for this monumental mistake, and she was unfortunately going to have to pay the hefty price for said monumental mistake on top of it. Now, she was stuck spending the entire damned evening with the one guy she honestly could never see herself being attracted to on any damned level. Ever. 

Eyes resembling those of an affection starved puppy, Hojo inched a bit closer to his companion. One deep breath, most likely for courage...or just plain hope, and the guy spoke,“So, Kagome...how have you been?”

She had to close her eyes to stop from rolling them in response to his idiotic question. “The same as I was yesterday when we ran into each other outside that gas station, Hojo.”

His laugh was nervous and his hand shook more than a little as he dared to press on in getting acquainted with his 'date'. He already knew quite a bit about the girl standing there, for they had known each other since they were ten, but Kagome had always kept her distance from him for the most part and was unlikely to know too much about him because of that. For a long time he had held an interest in Kagome, something that he had done very little to hide; his attempts to acclimate should have been easily noticed, but the girl had never really been all that receptive. Tonight though, his chance would come; they had been paired and had to spend the rest of the party getting to know one another to see if a connection could be formed. He fully intended to give it his best shot.

“Funny how we ended up being matches, huh?” One sip of punch eased the slight tightening in his throat, but it did nothing for the increase in perspiration brought on by his steadily rising heart rate. Guess the alcohol couldn't take care of everything.

“Yeah...funny.” Gods how she wanted to just kill herself for ever having agreed to this debacle of a situation. Sure it was supposed to be fun, but so far it had been everything but that.

It had been her hope to be paired with someone a lot more exciting and a great deal less desperate and clingy. Oh, Hojo was a good guy and would make someone a perfect boyfriend...just not her. There were far more interesting guys there that she could have been paired up with and had a great evening, but it appeared as though every one of them had proven more compatible with someone else. How wonderful for them.

If not for her promise to help her friend out, Kagome would have simply gone to the family dinner as she had originally planned to instead of attending this travesty of a party. She always did like making others happy, even if it meant forsaking her own in the process. Okay, so her agreement only came when Eri not-so-casually mentioned a certain name was expected to attend...a name that her friend knew would make her cave in half a heartbeat. Sure it had been a huge shock to hear that he would be in attendance, for this was not exactly the kind of thing one would expect the guy to attend but that did not prevent Kagome from changing her mind.

If there had been even the most remote possibility that she and...him could wind up paired for the party's duration then she was not against giving it a shot. She and the guy in question knew each other, they had spent some time around each other due to her close affiliation with the guy's younger brother. That enabled Kagome to pick up some extremely valuable information on him and, therefore, take encouragement that they could just wind up paired together. They did like a few of the same things. Fate, it would seem, was nothing but a cold-hearted damned bitch though; the fact that she had to spend her evening listening to this guy plead his case as to why she should give him a chance was perfect testament to that.

Right about the time her 'match' began talking about some boring-assed movie that he had seen a few days prior, Kagome excused herself to the ladies room where she fully intended to use as a hide-out for a fair portion of the evening even though she knew what would happen if she was caught. Stupid Eri and her idiotic ideas. As she left him there with a smile on his face and ignorant hope shining brightly in his dark brown eyes, Kagome made a promise to herself to never, ever agree to something like this again.

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“I trim the ends regularly to keep it healthy, and condition twice a week,” Yura babbled, unaware that her match was about as uninterested in what she was saying as he could be. In her mind, Sesshoumaru found her captivating, and her inept mind refused to believe otherwise. Some people were just too damned stupid for their own good. “I never use those miracle fixes because they never work and leave your hair dull and lifeless. You don't use those, do you?”

“My hair requires little maintenance, Yura. I believe I told you that over twenty minutes ago.” Was hair the only thing this girl ever talked about? Were her conversational abilities that damned limited? Out of all the females in attendance he just had to be paired up with this one? Truly the Kami had some sort of personal vendetta against him.

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” the airhead replied stupidly, not realizing that her conversation partner was not even paying attention to her at that point. “Well, my beautician says that I have perfect hair; which comes as no surprise since I work so hard taking care of it.”

At that very moment, Sesshoumaru found himself wishing that someone would come along and just shoot him to put him out of his misery. If not that, then maybe Yura would miraculously have a hair emergency and make a trip to the ladies' room so he could somehow escape. The white chocolate pastry on his tiny little plate had his fingers itching to just pick it up and...

The instant that the reprehensible thing dared to ask if she could touch his hair, it was over.

“H-Hey...where are you going?”

“Away.”

He made his way through the swarm of bodies, his eyes trained on his destination. In his mind there was no shame in what he was about to do, for the alternative was by far worse. He had done his best to adhere to the regulations, but there was just some things that even he just could not do in order to save face. It was either this or he would have to leave; which would be far worse because he had given his word that he would remain at the party until it was over. He never went back on his word if he could help it...

The hostess was not difficult to locate – standing amidst a small group of guests with a big stupid grin on her face as she was. It appeared as though she was rather pleased with how the party was going thus far and was unaware that there was one guest at least who was not having a good time. Well, the meddlesome want-to-be-female love guru was about to have that notion shot to hell and he had no problem with being the one who did it either. Despite the noise the dissatisfied male could hear that atrocious woman who was supposed to be his perfect match calling out to him – asking him to wait for her. Not going to happen. Sesshoumaru pushed on...literally.

Smile in place, Eri watched as one of her guests was nearly knocked down as Sesshoumaru made his way to the center of the group. Intoxicated by success, the young woman leveled her gaze upon what she believed to be yet another happy guest. Matchmaking was ever so satisfying and rewarding and she was oh so good at it too. “Sesshoumaru...are you enjoying the party?”

“I want to be 'arrested',” he demanded quite insistently. The determined male knew full well that, should he be escorted to the area for rule breakers, boxed off with borrowed fencing from Eri's uncle's store, he would spend the remainder of his night until the party was over.

All had been explained in detail when the party began, including just what offense would land a person in 'jail'. According to the hostess, should one fail to accept their match and forge a true effort to connect, said one would find themselves locked up so that they would not spoil the night for the rest of the attendees. Their jilted dates would be offered a consolation gift and sent on their way for much the same reason. He supposed that the woman throwing this thing believed herself witty and clever, having gone to such extremes as to assign a 'guard' to watch over the rule breakers that were forced to endure being stared at and talked about by everyone else. Eri was an idiot.

It did not matter, for he was a man of his word and would accept his sentence just as he had said he would if he found himself dissatisfied with his match. Of course, his word had come before discovering just who he had been matched with. Had he have known...he would have turned around and left the party without accepting that damned card with his 'match's' name on it.

“What?” She couldn't believe her ears. Why on earth would anyone, especially this guy, want to suffer the embarrassment of being labeled a 'party criminal' and willingly allow himself to be remanded until the party was over? Didn't Sesshoumaru know that everyone would be able to see him locked up and poke fun at him for it?

Believing that she had heard him wrong, Eri cleared her throat and asked, “Did you say that you want to...?” She was cut off by the sound of another guest calling out to the outlaw standing there glaring at her.

“Sesshoumaru...?” Yura's voice grated his every last nerve and had his insides cringing the second that he heard her step up behind him.

“Incarcerate me.”

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“How did you wind up here,” Kagome asked him just to while the time away until the party was over. To say that she had been shocked to find Sesshoumaru sitting there in that make-shift cell was a definite understatement.

“I marched up to the 'warden' and turned myself in for my 'crime',” he told his cell mate honestly, feeling no shame for what he had done. He did have standards after all. “It was either break the rules or sentence myself to truly hard time by continuing getting to know my 'match'.”

“Who did you get paired up with?” Surely the guy's date could not have been that bad. At least, not enough to force Sesshoumaru into accepting being locked up to become the equivalent of a side-show attraction.

Sesshoumaru hesitated, suddenly feeling rather embarrassed to confess just who his supposed match had been. As far as he knew, no one particularly liked that empty-headed, unjustly conceited bimbo and the fact that he had been matched with said bimbo could bring his own character under serious question. Finally, he managed to quietly answer his cellmate – preparing himself for the reaction that he knew to be forthcoming, “Yura.”

“Oh Kamis...no,” she gasped, unable to conceal her genuine horror at hearing that horrible woman's name. Yura was an airhead and everyone was aware of Sesshoumaru's views on that kind of female. A mistake had to have occurred if he got paired up with her. “How horrible for you.”

The subsequent nod of his fair head confirmed that it had been just as horrible as Kagome believed. As proof, the guy confided in her that, at one point in the whole fifteen minutes that he spent in Yura's company, he had honestly considered telling Yura that he had lice just so the bitch would leave him alone. That made Kagome laugh, which made him laugh in turn.

“How did you end up in 'jail'?” his inquiry was rather casual as he was, strangely, less angry about being detained in 'party lock-up'.

“I was found hiding from my match in the supply closet since there was a line for the ladies' room.” She didn't bother to wait for him to say what was most likely on his mind; her mouth went into hyper-speed with but a mere nod of her obsidian head, “He is just so boring and desperate...I just could not bring myself to come right out and damage his ego. I know, I know; I'm a coward.”

“I was not going to say a word about it. To be honest I was asking myself why I had not thought of it. What you did has to be much less humiliating for your match than what I did.” He tried not to chuckle at the memory, but it was far too entertaining – recalling the mortified expression on Yura's face when he informed her of his intent to accept his sentence for refusing to give their being paired together a chance.

With a sigh and a shrug, Sesshoumaru finished relaying the details of his offense, “I have to admit that I probably should not have announced that I preferred to take my own life than to remain in the company of Yura for the remainder of the evening. I do believe that I made the girl cry...”

A semi-drunk couple walked by just then, laughing and poking fun at the two of them for being confined for the duration of the party. They were hanging all over one another and putting on quite the disgusting show – complete with Hiten's stubby hand shoved inside Kaguya's blouse.

“Looks like there are some who have trouble getting along with others...” Kaguya sneered at the inmates as she and her partner passed. Her laughter resembled that of a hyena, worsened by the boisterous guffaws from Hiten and Kagome contemplated sticking her fingers in her ears to block out the noise. The taunting did not last long though, for the two drunkards soon staggered away in search of a more private place to continue their evening.

“Idiots,” muttered Kagome with a roll of her eyes. People  like that pissed her off to no end. Just because it didn't matter to either of them just who they had ended up with did not mean that they had the right to down-grade those who had standards.

He too despised such people, and Sesshoumaru decided to confide a bit of information with which to lessen Kagome's soured mood. “They will get what they have coming to them. Hiten has made a few trips to the free clinic in the recent month and Kaguya has been attempting to find someone to father a child with her... whether they want to or not.”

Okay, that was a definite shock. Kaguya always made it a point to belittle women like that. Of course the information Sesshoumaru had given her only brought rise to the question of how he knew that about Kaguya. Surely he hadn't...No, that was ridiculous. Sesshoumaru was far too discerning to have ever considered being with that skank.

Her mind settled then, once again comfortable with her surroundings and ready to wait out the evening right where she was. Kagome leaned back against the wall with a sigh, “I can't believe I ever agreed to come here.”

“I gave up tickets to a play to be here tonight,” he replied for no particular reason. It was nice to have someone he knew and liked to keep him company as he waited out his sentence.

Seeing how he had chosen to confess that he had ignorantly given up a pleasant evening for the chance of being rendered a criminal, Kagome decided to make a confession of her own. Of course, Sesshoumaru's evening would have been more thrilling than the one she herself would have had if not for this cursed thing, but anything else did sound much better at this time.“I turned down having dinner with my family just to come.”

“What was your mother serving?” Sesshoumaru asked his cell mate, genuinely interested in what Mrs Higurashi had planned for dinner. The woman was a great cook. “Whatever it was, I know that it was far more appealing than what our warden has supplied to nourish those in custody.”

His eyes drifted toward the small table set up just to his left in order to scan the limited selection once again. A tray of 'finger foods' sat waiting for him and Kagome and the guy felt his stomach churn in revolt. Still, he had not eaten since lunch and there was not much else for him to do at that point in time, so he selected a mediocre looking attempt at an appetizer then lifted it to his mouth. His actions prompted the girl to request a shrimp puff, which he handed to her. A laugh escaped him when his fellow inmate bit into the puff and wound up with some in her lap.

That uncontrollable response instigated direct retaliation by way of said portion being chucked at him. There was no dodging the thing and it landed on the front of his shirt where it stuck to the material. More laughter ensued then; suddenly, their situation did not seem all that bad. Actually, it was kind of fun. 

The two chatted on, nibbling from the complimentary platter their jailer had set up for inmates who violated the laws of the party. Well, there was only the one law really, but still. To look at them, a person was likely to believe that they were a matched couple – what with the way that they seemed so at ease with each others company. Kagome and Sesshoumaru talked, laughed, ate and drank as if there were no 'bars' keeping them where they were.

“So...why did you even agree to come tonight?” she inquired as innocently as she could, her mind burning with the need to know why someone like him would ever need to attend a party such as this.

It was a commonly known fact that if ever there was a guy who had no trouble finding a date, Sesshoumaru was definitely that guy. Hell, his looks alone were enough to ensure that he never spent an evening alone unless it was his desire to. She, herself, had personally witnessed the female populations' reaction to Sesshoumaru. No, this one could never, ever be hard up for companionship.

“I was curious about something,” was all the response that he would give her. His eyes swept her form not once, but three times, noticing the degree of effort Kagome had put into dressing for the occasion.“You look nice.”  Clearly her reasons for attending greatly differed from his own; her appearance indicated that she had come with expectations of forming a connection.

Okay, so that was a bit of an understatement really. The girl sitting next to him looked far from just nice, but he refused to tell her that. Kagome would not care for his true views on her appearance; it was something that he had become aware of long before this train wreck of a party. Her failure to respond to his compliment only supported that. In fact, she did not appear to have even heard him in the first place because she wasn't even looking at him at all; she had her head turned to her right and seemed interest in something else.

She heard him; she had heard everything that her cell mate had said to her. The thing was that she found it impossible to look him in the face at that moment, much to her embarrassment. When she had asked him about his reason for attending, a teeny-tiny part of her had hoped that his answer would somehow include her. If it had, if he had said that he only came in the chance that she would have been his match for the evening, then she would have confessed her own reason without hesitation. Unfortunately, Sesshoumaru had not said that and the not so mild degree of disappointment that she had felt would have been easily seen. Hence, she simply turned her head  so Sesshoumaru wouldn't see.

The blush from hearing him compliment her appearance had not yet dissipated when she returned her attention to the guy with whom she was locked up with, but Kagome did not know that. 

Sesshoumaru reached out to take the last mini pastry, lifting it toward his mouth when he noticed the frown on his cell mates face. “Is there something wrong?” he asked, uncertain as to what he had done to alter the expression on Kagome's face.

“Nothing,” she answered, “I just kind of wanted that.”

Tearing the tiny thing in half, Sesshoumaru offered a piece to her – surprised when the girl opened her mouth rather than taking her half from his grasp. Her rich red lips grazed his fingers when she accepted the bite and something sparked somewhere inside him; something he honestly could not explain and definitely had not not expected either. Without any real thought, Sesshoumaru placed his fingers to his own lips – cleaning the remnants of the pastry from them. At that moment, their eyes met and somehow the guy knew that Kagome had felt it too. For whatever reason, neither one could utter a word after that. Many silent minutes passed then as the two of them continued to wait it out.

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“Okay, everyone; listen up. The party is nearly over and I  want to thank every one for coming...” the hostess announced happily, her words able to be heard throughout the place. “Before we end it though, we have a new tradition that I like to call 'Cupid's Minute'. Those couples that are pleased with being matched must kiss their date for one full minute. For those of you who failed to make a connection, a simple quick kiss on the hand will suffice as a show of good sportsmanship. Now, everyone get ready...”

“Well...” Kagome began, her eyes trained upon the 'bars' to their cell, “looks like we're going to be released soon.” For some reason, she felt a bit sad in knowing that she and Sesshoumaru would be parting ways. He was so interesting, had a sense of humor similar to that of her own, and they liked a great number of the same things too. It was such a shame that they had not been matched together; there must have been some sort of major conflict that had prevented it, even though she could not see just what that conflict could be. Her cellie said nothing.

“In five...four...”

Still staring straight ahead of her, Kagome sought to let Sesshoumaru know how much she appreciated his company while serving her sentence. “Thank you for making this entire affair a little more pleasant for me, Sesshoumaru. I actually enjoyed being incarcerated with you.” She meant every word she had said too. For whatever reason, the girl believed that her night would not have been as pleasant without the big lug there.

“Three...”

“Kagome,” the guy practically whispered as he took her hand in his. Slowly he lifted that little appendage, unfazed by her reluctance to look at him.

She could not have stopped the instant increase in her heart rate if she had tried. His touch was almost electrifying, sending a series of sensations sizzling along every last nerve in her body. He was going to kiss her hand, just as their hostess had suggested, even though she was not his official date for the evening. At least she would walk away from this with some kind of pleasant memory; that was something at least.

Then, the guy placed a finger under her chin – turning her head ever so gently toward him. As his hand slid down to her wrist, relocating her hand to the juncture of his neck and shoulder, it finally dawned on her as to what Sesshoumaru was going to do. He was going to kiss her, really kiss her, and her poor heart was cast into extreme overdrive.

“Two...”

Her eyes closed and her lips trembled at the thought of Sesshoumaru kissing her; the gentle sound of his breath sent shivers coursing through her entire body. Damn how she prayed that she was not interpreting the moment wrong; she would die of embarrassment if she was.

“One...” As soon as the voice finished the countdown, not a sound could be heard except for the faint sound of a timer that ticked off the minute.

His kiss was so very soft at first, almost as if he was testing her willingness to allow it; but, then, it gradually started to firm once she failed to resist. Her manicured nails raked the nape of his neck rhythmically, eliciting a slight moan from the guy. Tentatively, her tongue pushed its way out of her mouth to just barely touch those wonderful lips that were pressed against hers and Sesshoumaru's response was more than she could have ever hoped for. His arm slid around her trim waist, his strong hand traveled from the base of her spine to the bared skin between her shoulder blades. That wonderful mouth parted hers, his tongue sliding effortlessly inside where it proceeded to render her mentally impaired.

He seemed to enjoy the small whimper that escaped her; their kiss intensified the second that she did it, and Sesshoumaru pulled her even closer to his finely sculpted form. Then...the timer dinged and 'Cupid's Minute' was over.

When he pulled away from her, panting to the point of near hyperventilation, the guy stared ever so deeply into her slightly unfocused eyes. “Let me take you home.”

She couldn't answer him verbally, her tongue was still tingling from the effects of kissing him, so Kagome simply nodded instead. Before she knew it, she was on her feet and being led out of their cell and toward the front door.

Kagome barely caught the harsh growls her date made when he outright demanded that the other party goers move the hell out of their way. However, she did manage to catch the way Sesshoumaru mowed his little brother down for blocking their path to the door. The guy began shouting insults at his older brother but Sesshoumaru obviously did not hear them...or he just did not care. Either way, they made it to the exit in what could be considered record time.

As the night air hit her face, clearing a bit of the fog from her slightly impaired brain, Kagome remembered one not so minor detail that could very well complicate Sesshoumaru's plan to see her to her door. As far as she knew, he had never been anywhere near her apartment building and was most likely going to take her to the shrine instead. Inuyasha was not likely to have told his brother where she lived because those two could not stand one another and they rarely talked at all. Maybe Sesshoumaru was going to ask her once they reached his vehicle?

Just in case though, Kagome forced her tongue to work enough to ask her escort, “Umm...do you even know where I live, Sesshoumaru?”

“No,” Sesshoumaru admitted as he guided the girl toward his car, determination etched upon his handsome face. His steps increased in pace, almost as if he was about to start dragging her if he had to just so they would reach his car quicker.

Okay, now she was confused. He had not even inquired as to what direction he would have to drive in to fulfill his wishes in seeing her to her door. “Then...shouldn't you ask me so you can take me home?”

There was a delay in answering her, since they had reached his vehicle and the guy chivalrously opened the door for his passenger – taking her hand to assist her in climbing inside. Once she was seated, Sesshoumaru bent down to her level and stared right into her big bright eyes   before he finally decided to respond to her question with one of his own, “No one said anything about going to your home, now did they?”

Clarity hit her like a ton of bricks then, enabling the slightly stunned young woman to finally realize just what was about to happen. She had agreed, albeit unknowingly, to let this guy take her to his home and possibly to his bed once they were there. She really was not all that sure about that last part for he had not said a word about it. Still, why would he want to take her to his home if he didn't want to...

There was something in his eyes that completely obliterated any doubt as to what Sesshoumaru's intentions were once they reached his home. It spoke of desire, it spoke of want, and it spoke of need. He needed her; if only for this night. The fierce passion in his eyes surprised her for she never thought that Sesshoumaru would ever see her like that. What was before her now proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had been wrong. It excited her. Here was one of the most attractive guys that she had ever seen and he wanted to spend the night with her. Forget exciting; this was just plain phenomenal. And to think that she had actually tried to get out of coming to the party...if she had, she would have missed out on one hell of an opportunity. 

“No, Sesshoumaru, they didn't,” she replied with a smile upon her face.

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