"Good, good, I'm glad ya get it. Now we can take care of any problem areas ya might have. And welcome to the company." He smiled, leaning his arms on the table. Raff cracked his knuckles and looked relieved that the hardest part was over. Red was damn smart so it had only been a matter of time. 

"It's great that we can know a lot of things Red, but we gotta be good at keeping those secrets. And I suggest you stare at that pretty face in the mirror and practice your poker. Yer eyes are very expressive and ya don't wanna accidentally give away yer hand ta anyone. He's great at reading faces and nothin gets by him, not even half-truths. This poker game is fer the rest o yer life Red, all in, money on the table. Fer both of us actually. I'll keep my hand ta myself and you do the same. Smooth sailing." 

Of all the ways the night could have gone…she wasn’t expecting to be told her weak points “for her own good.” She wondered what Lord Morrigan had in mind for her other than being his assistant.

She furrowed her brow and tilted her head to the side, “I’m that transparent?” She thought she hid it better, “What am I doing that gives me away?”

He put out a finger in the middle of her brow. "What yer literally doing right now whenever someone asks ya a question that makes ya think." Raff smiled, watching her cute little face try to work itself around where he'd put his finger before pulling it back. 

"Well ya have this really pretty thing called a face so straight off, people look at ya more." he winked as he answered. "Yer just cursed with beauty so that's gonna be something ya should know very much. Seriously. Spend ten minutes lookin at a mirror while thinking about yer day. You'll see expressions ya never knew existed." 

At this point, he waggled his eyebrows at her and purposely leered at Red with a knowing grin. 

He poked her forehead with is finger and she leaned back a little while trying to look at it with her eyes, “I see,” she said as he pulled back, furrowing her brows again as she wondered if she really did that when she was doing some deep thinking…then realized what she was doing and tried to school her expression. She’d have to get her mother’s mirror out and do that thing he suggested, although she didn’t expect to see much more than a furrowing brow.

“Cursed with beauty?” She smiled, “Not cursed with being short? I think people see the top of my head more than my face.”

Then he looked at her in that way he did and she couldn’t contain it—she didn’t even realize she was doing it until she did it. Her smile widened and she bit her bottom lip flirtatiously, a puff of air that might have been a laugh escaped.

She had started to lean forward, but when she realized that she’d proved his point by reacting, she leaned back, still smiling, but she put her hand over her mouth as if trying to hide it, “Well of course I’m reacting this way,” there was a laugh in her voice, “I’m looking at you!”

Damn she was really hot. Especially when she pulled that. But she needed to take this seriously. When really all he wanted to do was throw her down on the table and ravage her repeatedly.

"I mean it. Cursed with beauty. Women always get a second look-especially pretty ones like you. You don't need an ego fluff Red, I'm talkin 'bout yer safety here."

When she moved in, Raff stole a quick kiss and smirked at her. Which gave him even more ideas. 
Suddenly Raff lunged toward her, reaching across the table and shoved his weight onto it to sit right in front her, his legs now hanging over the table's edge.

"I'm sayin the world is a dangerous place for pretty smiley girls like you..." his voice went low and raspy as he leaned forward, very close to her face. This woman needed to stop being so heckin cute!

He was telling her it was for her safety but…it was difficult to school her expression to something more stoic than the way she was currently looking at him—especially with that kiss he snuck in. Her smile got a little bigger and a little warmer, even as she tried—and failed—to relax the muscles in her face enough to attempt to hide what she was feeling.

Then he maneuvered himself so he was sitting on the table in front of her. She’d gasped in delight as she did so, and any attempt to hide her emotions was abandoned as he leaned in and spoke to her in that voice.

Well two could play at this game. She knew what he liked.

“Is it?” her voice took on a kittenish quality. She slowly stood from her chair, leaning into him, tracing her nails up his arm, “How’s it a dangerous place for pretty things like me?” She said the words near his mouth, and she’d try to kiss him, giving his bottom lip a little nip.

Raff instantly stood up, not allowing her to keep her face close. He buttoned up his jacket, knowing that in these clothes, he was working for his boss first. There was no smile and his voice growled at her,

"Cute is for idiot little babies." he replied, drawing himself up to his full six feet and crossed his large arms over his chest to scowl down at Red. "If ya wanna be cute, this ain't the job fer ya. Might wanna hand in yer resignation now before yer in too deep."

Well that hurt—especially since he’d started it with kissing her and hopping on the table like that. If she hadn’t been through the mandatory training and been in the military for a short time, it might have hurt more than it did, but being called names was part of the training. HIs little insult reminded her of just that.

She stepped back and drew on her experience hiding her more delicate emotions to survive training so that none of the hurt showed on her face…or at least, she did after a little flash of hurt before she’d figured out what he was doing. She crossed her arms.

“I wasn’t trying to be cute,” she kept her voice calm even though she wanted to raise it, a solid rock in his storm, “I was trying to get you to rip my clothes off,” she rolled her lips together as if she were smoothing pigment over her lips, “and if you don’t want me to be cute, help me figure out how to grow another bandwidth or two. I’ve been trying to be less cute for years, but my size is against me.”

Raff just rubbed a hand over his tired face because she was acting hurt for no reason and she wasn't taking it seriously. She screws up at work, it's on his hands to fix it. 

"Yea obviously you were trying to control me and the situation with sex on demand Red. And while we're alone together, it's understandable--when I'm NOT wearing this suit. You let me take yer space. This ain't the time fer fuckin Red. Keep yer head in the game. This ain't about rejecting you personally. Yer an adult and should know when shit's appropriate." He shook his head at her but kept trying to get her the message she needed. Raff's voice stayed level and even, but he did stress what he needed to most.

"Next on the agenda is that with ya being small and cute, use yer hands and arms as bigger signals, especially dealing with us men. Men shake, women get their hands kissed-don't offer yer hand to a noble. Raise yer forearm or make an excuse that you left yer gloves in the carriage or something. Keep it classy and play up yer half noble part. No touchy, no smoochie, and maintain yer personal space with a stop motion or a raised forearm. Don't invite physical contact or let men take yer personal space within three paces. Use and hold strong eye contact with no blinking, flinching or blushing. Ya understand what I'm gettin at?"

He reached out to the table and drank down his water. This lecture stuff was annoying but she needed to know and most importantly, she'd asked.

She wanted to protest, to say that she’d misread his signals, that of course she’d let him in her space, but didn’t. She saw his point, even though she would have preferred a ‘Hey baby, not while I’m in my fancy suit,’ instead of calling her a child. If he saw what he looked like in that suit, he wouldn’t have gotten on her case so much. He was scrumptious.

“Got it,” she said, resigned to the fact that they were still in teaching and learning mode. It was good stuff, and Rhedara was already up for learning new skills or honing ones she already had, but the evening was less sexy than she’d hoped it’d be. Which was fine, but he’d got her all worked up before, “No flirting or seducing while you’re in the suit,” sadly she added in her mind, “No letting people in my personal space.”

His response to her pointing out that she was not intentionally cute, was advice. She wasn’t about to let anybody but him in her personal space—she started to wonder if he knew that—so his advice on just how to do that was very appreciated. So far, she hadn’t been expected to do more than sit and look nice, but who knew when she’d need to interact? And with the way Raff was talking…well, it seemed she needed to prepare herself for some dangerous and potentially skeevy people.

“Yeah I understand,” she said, “What do you mean by my half noble part though?” She thought back to her mother’s teachings, or the way her mother behaved around those who treated her as anything less than a lady, “Do you just mean the manners, or that look they give you when you dare to breathe their air?” Her mother used one of those looks very often, especially as Rhedara had gotten older and started looking more like a woman. Living near dockworkers and sailors who may or may not have seen a woman for a while could be such a trial. Rhedara knew how to keep unwanted, groping hands away from her.

And then she pouted, still not quite getting the real meaning of the concept he was trying to get across to her. Work boundaries needed starting right now. It wasn't personal and he'd literally told her that. If fuckin him was all she wanted to fixate on, he could always just leave now and try the talk at a different time and place. But he wanted her alright..... he wanted her to be safe.

"This suit is just another uniform, like the way you dress and do your hair for work. A way of saying, this is business time, no games-for either of us." Raff took a minute to think about the importance of what she'd need to know to work for Keelan. 

"He's a noble, so he knows the importance of the command stare. You've seen it in the army and in me just now when I stood up silently and called attention to what I'm wearing. Every look and movement and how you present yourself controls how others react to you. If you look up at men all wide eyed with your mouth a little parted, there's only one thing we're gonna think of. But if you hold a hard, stiff-necked regal stare, it tells people to back off and respect your space without a word."

He nodded at Red, glad that she was putting it together. 

"Any size can do this but nobles and half nobles like us have the advantage with the controlling gaze. Yer gonna meet a lotta shitty guys who're lookin at ya as a toy they intend to possess. That hard stare will stop 99% of them. If yer not sure, watch what Keelan does with his face-especially where he looks, his eyes. Get that down, memorize it and use it because it will stop men that would otherwise just grab ya as the snack ya are."

She nodded, “Yeah, like before I was discharged. More professional behavior. Boundaries,” she tried to force herself to focus more on his words than what her body was telling her to do. He was trying to tell her something, and she really did want to listen—she’d be offended if he kept trying to get physical when she was trying to tell him something. And this something was important.

He told her about the “commanding stare” and to watch their boss for it. She really didn’t need to…she knew the look he was talking about. She’d seen it on Lord Morrigan’s face the day she met him. However, she also grew up with a former noble, and her mother had not left that expression behind with her old life. Rhedara had spent a lot of time copying her mother’s speech and behavior, even during the years when she’d resented her. She didn’t think she had “the look” as perfected as her mother had—her mother just had an air about her, like watching a swan—but Rhedara was familiar with it.

“Yeah, I know that look. Mother looked at everybody that way.” Especially when Rhedara had started her monthly bleeding and started looking less like a girl and more like a woman now that Rhedara thought about it. She’d fended off lechers with not much more than a look. She’d thought her mother was so grand at the time…

She’d started to demo that look for him in response to calling her a snack—trying her best not to smile because goddess, he had that effect on her—when something he’d said settled in.

“You also had a parent that was a noble?”

"Yep." he nodded, watching as she didn't just listen and put it together but got involved with her own questions. Yet another reason he wanted to be with her every minute. 

"Did she? That's a good example then so ya might wanna try that on and practice it up. Ya know how Captain Woodwick gives that look. He isn't mean about it or anything. Lots of people still talk with him. But as a noble, he's got that whole 'I just don't have time for that so step aside' look. It's not to be mean or rude, it's just a noble thing." Raff shrugged. His mother's own comments had taught him that. 

When Red gave that swan necked lifted chin and cool stare, it made Raff smile at the success of it. He was going to encourage her on it but then she picked up on what he'd said earlier. 

He nodded to her and relaxed his shoulders, sitting down in the chair. It was his own big mouth to bring it up so of course a smart woman like Red wouldn't let something even that small pass unnoticed. 

"Yea, my dad. Some kinda horse trader in Lorendale she said. I got to see him from across the square when I was six. That was when she said I had his look. His stare. That's as much as I know. I don't really remember what he looked like." Raff shrugged. The past was the past. "Do ya look more like yer mum or yer dad?"