Page 48 of Charmed

She pursed her lips. "You're cranky."

"Getting my life threatened in the same night as having the woman I want to sleep with tell me she thinks I'm using her tends to make me irritable."

"I was joking."

He didn't believe her. "I'm not laughing."

Her expression softened, the edges of her gorgeous eyes turning down in what he could only describe as guilt. Not his intention in the least. She may have implemented a backwards way of doing it, but she'd told him what was on her mind.

All he wanted, all he'd ever wanted, was for her to crack the binding. Show him a little of what was on her page. He didn't need an index or a table of contents. A sentence would do.

Now that he had a glimpse, he was tempted to slam the book closed. Somehow, he'd sent out the wrong signals and their wires got crossed. In a million years, he'd never deliberately hurt her. He'd gone and insulted her, too. She put enough weight and remorse on her own shoulders. None of which he figured belonged there. In his idiocy and inexperience, he'd made her burden heavier.

He only knew of one way to prove how much he admired her, to mirror the reverence she brought out in him each day, but he didn't deserve to touch her, never mind if she'd let him.

Her chest expanded on a ragged inhale, and she tore her gaze away. "Come here, 007." She patted the cushion beside her.

"If you're sticking to the super secret agent moniker, should I use a British accent?" Slapping his thighs, he rose and dropped onto the seat next to her. "Anyhow, I'm not sure it's fitting. All I did was what you told me."

"Exactly," she said so quietly, he had to strain to hear. "You trusted me."

Was this another trap? "There's only two people on the planet I trust more than you, and I happened to share a womb with them."

Her gaze whipped to his, round and endless and filled with so much alarm, he figured he'd insulted her again.

Awareness and truth crackled in the space between them. For some reason, she didn't appear to be handling it all that well. She soughed air, her chest rising and falling in hyperventilating mode.

Slowly, she looked away, dumbstruck, and tilted her head as if she was working out a major dilemma. He had about fifty of his own, every single one starting with "Fi" and ending with "ona."

He didn't get a chance to voice any, though.

In a move born from pure shock and resurrected in terror, she shifted position and planted herself sideways in his lap. Knees to her chest, she rested her cheek on his pec and her palm over his heart.

He raised his hands in surrender, afraid to do anything but blink. Actually, he couldn't manage that, either. Because, because...

Damn. She'd initiated contact. She'd breached the wall and sought him. She was...snuggling with him.

Any attempt to swallow past the giant hot boulder in his throat resulted in failure. It was as if she were everywhere at once. Her warm body against his. The soft strands of her hair brushing his skin. Her atmospheric scent in his nose. The oxygenation of desire in his blood. Her words invading his head. And her actions clenching fingers around his heart.

"You don't make me feel cheap, Riley. That was my gut reaction talking. No one's ever bossed me around before, especially potential lovers. When we're not fighting for our lives, you take control over the attraction building. I'm not used to it. I guess I was looking for a loophole."

Mercy, more honesty. He might implode.

Carefully, he wrapped his arms around her and pinched his eyes shut. "If I promise not to do it again, will you quit referring to yourself as dispensable? I'll let you run the show." For him, if all the covens across the globe got together, they couldn't conjure an adequate substitution. There was no replacing her.

"Some of us like the aspects of your personality. You shouldn't stop or go against instinct for anyone."

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and let his lips linger, smiling like a moron. "Are you saying you like all my parts?"

She laughed, husky and deep. "I haven't seen all your parts."

"Would you like to?" He very, very much wanted to see all of hers.

"I'll take that as a hint you don't want to reschedule." She tilted her face and looked up at him. Humor sparkled in her eyes, an eternal expanse of blue framed by the longest lashes known to mankind, and he was a goner.

"There's a strict no-cancellation policy." He dipped his head and spoke a whisper from her mouth. "I take my schedule very seriously."

Her breath caught, and he seized it. He parted her lips with his and went in for a taste.

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