Lavinia of course had chosen push ups. There was no way she would have apologised and there was no way she wanted to be arrested.

He stood there watching as she did push ups while counting out loud. He was standing with his hands behind his back looking down at her. She knew he was looking for an excuse to make her start again. She finished her push ups and stood up looking at him defiantly "Are you satisfied now caveman?"

He said "Yes. Very satisfied..."

She said "Great. So now I can get back to work... See you later..." As she tried to side step him, he blocked her path "Are you in a hurry?"

She says "Well. Yes... Caveman. I have work to do. We can't kiss all day ..."

He said "I don't want more kisses..."

She said "Then what do you want?"

He gave her a smile "I just want to hang out..."

She said "You can hang around... But not hang out..." She then side stepped him and walked to where her equipment was on the floor. She said "You can watch me work... I am designing a small anti missile system. It's a nice model to work with around here during manoeuvres. What did you build for your project?"

Arcangelo walked after her "A machine gun with an infra red camera."

She laughed as she picked up her equipment and looked at him "Did you get to test it out?"

He said "Yes. I did. It worked."

She said "Boys are obsessed with guns and weapons of mass murder..."

He said "Look whos talking... You are obsessed with missiles."

She said "Not missiles... Anti missiles... a self defence system. Not an assault system."

He stood in front of her "Offence and defence are not so different."

She said "You are right. In defence when you get on my nerves, I can kick you in the baby maker. But you take it as an offence." She then gave him a sweet smile and walked away to the exit.

He said as he walked alongside her "In offence after I marry you I can make sure all our babies are boys... So you are outnumbered in the house... There will be no defence because a Male cell determines the sex of the baby..."

Lavinia said "What the hell? You can't control your cells..."

He said "My body may react in defence for offence. You have kicked me in the baby maker many times. So it may be an offence mechanism... Imagine many Arcangelo Juniors running around you."

Lavinia felt like slapping his face to wipe off that smirk but she was carrying her equipment. She said "Your baby maker won't be making any babies. I make sure of it."

She then walked through the door that he had been holding open.

He followed her and said "Baby maker doesn't make babies. It conceives them."

She kept walking towards a building where she had the rest of her equipment. She said "Why are you following me? You can't be possibly hanging around when you know where we are heading... Do you trust me not to make you pay up for what you said where I will be right at home with my tools?"

Arcangelo held the door open and said "Not really. I don't trust you. But you can bring it on. I live for the challenge."

She gave him a look "Are you sure about that? I am not sure if you will be living for the challenge if I bring out my big guns."

He followed her inside and closed the door. "What big guns?"

She walked to the large space where there were multiple tables full of equipment. "Welcome to my private workshop. I am working on multiple projects here. Some for fun and some for extra credits for high school." She put her equipment on a table.

She turned to him. "Those big guns are what I mean." She pointed into a direction and Arcangelo looked away.

Then she pulled a lever on the ground.

Just then Arcangelo felt a big object hitting him knocking him down and he found himself suddenly falling down through a big long tunnel. He seemed to be going under ground. Then he fell onto a soft surface. Very soft. He looked around. He was surrounded by pillows. He had no idea what had just happened. There was light in the room but enough to only see the pillows. He stood up and walked away. As he kept walking he reached a wall and then a door. The place was well ventilated. As he opened the door cold air hit him hard. It was freezing in there. He then found himself knocked over again and he fell on the floor. He looked up and saw it was a large boxing punch bag. Similar to what had knocked him down last time and then he found himself falling through the ground and ended up on a hard table but not with much force as the distance was not long.

He looked and saw Lavinia standing there drinking from a can of soda as she was looking at her watch "Took you too long to find your way?"

He asked "How did you get down?"

She said " I used the elevator." She looked at him "I just think a caveman should use his own methods of transportation. Digging down is your way. But catching the elevator is mine because I use technology. Let's go caveman. Before I get tempted to torture you here..."

He got off the table "Torture me... with what? The walls?"

She said "Nah. That would be execution. Not torture."

He asked "What do you mean?"

She said "You don't want to be crushed by my walls. Do you? My papa wants me to execute my admirers. So it's fair. Anyone who has a crush on me, I crush them. But you survive. Because I like to keep you alive."

He looked at her "Seriously?"

She said "Only kidding. I crush intruders who are invading and come with guns."

He said "No one will do that here..."

She said "I know. This is a prototype for my future house..."

He said "You mean our house?"

She gave him a hard look and turned around. She opened the door "Don't push it. I may send you down another floor. You won't want to be there. Trust me. So behave."

He followed her through the door as he was intrigued by the surroundings and looked around "What's under this floor? More execution rooms or torture chambers." He chuckled.

She said as she walked through a corridor "You could say that yes. And escape is impossible Caveman. So don't make me angry." She then opened the door and said "Ah. My project is soon to finish. Hang around long enough and see this work." She walked to what looked like an unfinished missiles defence system. It looked pretty close to one model that Arcangelo knew of.

Arcangelo said "Is it healthy to work underground?"

She hugged a piece of metal "I can't wait to use this. This is a rare piece." She turned to him "It's healthy for me but maybe not for you if I decide to exterminate you. So watch your step. I have chloroform and more to knock you out if I feel like it with a press of a button."

He leaned to the wall and looked at her work on her project. After moments of silence he said "You really don't need this much defence. I won't let anyone get that close with my offence when I move into our house with you."

Lavinia rolled her eyes "Pack it up caveman. Save your words... You know my papa tells me "You are a queen that needs no king my child..."

Arcangelo said "Your papa really says that?"

She nodded.

He said "Well, my papa said, you can try living alone but you won't make it through life with total satisfaction that you have achieved everything you ever wanted and you have worked hard for without the presence of the woman you love... He fought hard to overturn the divorce and save his marriage. He was feeling betrayed but he was blaming himself for not fighting hard to keep his wife loyal to himself. That's why I can't forgive my mother fully and need some time to get over the manner she hid her illness and filed for a divorce."

She turned to him "I am sorry. Genuinely. About your mother and your relationship with her. Time heals everything they say."

He said "I am counting on it."

Lavinia got back to work and as she was screwing some pieces together with a screw driver she said "But. Caveman. I am pretty sure you will be able to make it without a woman all your life and get everything you want. You are perfect in everything you do. We have our differences but you have achieved a lot of success... You are a high achiever."

He said " He didn't say I won't make it without a woman. He said I won't make it without the woman I love. I know I won't make it without you... I can't imagine my life without you... Everything I do will be meaningless if I don't have your love..."

She sighed and stopped. She turned to him.

He continued. "I may conquer and I may lead. I may make so many businesses kneel as I take over them in coming years. But .., if I can't make you love me, then I will be a failure."

She said "Caveman. I do love you."

He said "But you may fall out of love with me."

She turned to her project work "My mama says don't plan for failures or you will fail."

He said "I am not planning on it. It's in your hands. All in your hands. You hold the cards in this relationship."

She said "Then fight long and hard so I don't have a fall out with you... Keep me satisfied."

He said "How do I do that?"

She let go of her equipment and was wiping her hands with a cloth as it had become tainted with grease. "Caveman. All I ask is this. Treat me like how you do others. Challenge me more and you will be keeping this queen satisfied enough to stand by her king."

He smiled "You called me your king?"

She put away the cloth and stared at him as she put her hands on her hips "Yes. But I won't bow to my king..."

He started taking steps towards her "And I don't expect you to."

She said "But you want your queen to surrender to your dominance when you pin her down..."

He nodded as he stood in front of her "Yes. When I have my queen at my mercy I want her total surrender. No getting on top..."

She said "Dream on Caveman. I will never stop fighting you... I will get on top. I will conquer you..."

He said "Conquer me? You already have conquered my heart..."

She didn't expect him to have that come back. She looked at him with an unreadable expression.

He said "You have my heart at your mercy Lavinia. You can break it. You can crush it... I only can have you at my mercy when I kiss you. But you always have my heart's fate in your hands."

She stared at him and looked away. She took a deep breath as she felt she was feeling some heat inside. It was like she had a volcano inside her that could erupt any second. So she said "Stop the romance talk. I get the message. You want me to surrender because you like to have me at your mercy maybe as revenge for me having your heart at my mercy. Is that it? You don't like losing control. Do you? I am starting to soften up. Say something else. Go back to being a jerk....

He said "You shouldn't insult your man. I don't like the "j" word."

She said "How many push ups do you want for it? 10. Jerk."

He said "No. I don't want push ups..."

She asked "What do you want?"

He gestured past her with his eyes.

She turned to look at a pull up bar she had installed for hanging equipment and doing pull ups when she needed a stretch when she worked down there long hours.

She turned to him "You want pull ups?"

He said "Your time starts now. Give me twenty pull ups or apologise."

She narrowed her eyes "Pull ups it is. You enjoy this. Don't you."

He said "You can always apologise."

She said "Never." She then turned to walk towards the bar.

He said as he looked at his watch "It's thirty now."

She stood under the bar "Make it forty Jerk. I am a queen who bows to no king."

He said "No king? You mean ... Your king."