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Val woke suddenly, clawing her way out of the chair and facing the shadow standing across the room.

Raven doffed his coat and hat and turned his eyes to her. Something fluttered in the pit of her stomach. Just hunger, she told herself, not really sure if she was being completely honest or not. The guy irritated the hell out of her. There was no reason for her to be having this sort of reaction to him.

Then he shocked her by stripping out of his black shirt and tossing it across the back of another chair. His slim, muscular torso gleamed like polished ivory in the dim light from the gas lantern in the corner. His chest was hairless, and completely unscarred, she noted. He drifted from the room without a word. A moment later the shirt vanished from the chair. She stared at the spot it had vacated.

What the hell was that? she wondered. Why wouldn’t he change his shirt in privacy? Why peel it off right in front of her?

Unless, of course, he hadn’t even noticed she was there. Maybe he was that distracted.

He walked back through the doorway about ten minutes later, chest sheathed in a tight blue linen shirt. His hair looked wet. “That was a quick bath,” she observed.

He ran fingers through his hair and shrugged. “Guess so.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me. Where’s your tub? How do you get hot water to it? You don’t have a staff here, do you? Do you use magic? Isn’t that risky, considering the Deacons might spot you working mana?”

He just stared at her for a long moment. “I have a shower. With a water heater.”

Her jaw dropped. “Hidden, I suppose.”

“Buried about a hundred feet below the house. I plumbed this place myself—believe me, magic makes the job a lot easier. But I’m sure you’d rather use a water closet than a chamber pot. Am I wrong?”

“Water closet?”

“Old Earth term. Means a toilet.”

“We’re trained to handle—“

“—handle has a different definition than appreciate. Sure you’re trained to handle primitive conditions. Doesn’t mean you have to do it when an alternative is available.”

She frowned. “Okay, sure. So why would you include toilets in your plumbing plan if you don’t need to use one?”

“Sheer perversity. Seriously? Because this is a dimensional station—and if I get company from anyone not a TAU fanatic, they’d appreciate being able to use decent facilities.”

“And what makes you think I won’t?”

“You getting your panties in a bunch about my shooting that ’thrope, for one thing. I gotta say, TAU’s brainwashing techniques are pretty damn impressive. Nearly every TAU agent I’ve run across is a damn freak for technological purity. I’m not sure why. The worst thing that might happen is that some fifty years in the future, after I’ve been reassigned and the house has fallen into disrepair, someone might come along and accidentally unearth the water heater. The wizards will debate its purpose for a few weeks and forget all about it. It won’t contaminate shit.”

She opened her mouth to object and snapped it shut again. “You have a point.”