My (Not So) Charmed Life

The Morning After?

Hi guys! Important Author's Note at the end! :)

I woke up in a mess of blankets and pajamas. I blinked several times, still expecting to be lying uncomfortably against the cold hard wall in the dungeon. Someone had come to rescue me, which I remembered in brief flashes of someone’s arms and sparks. I leaned back again into my soft bed, trying to wade through the muddled memories, but coming up with zilch.

A loud snore came from beside me, and I looked around and saw nothing. I closed my mouth to hear whether or not it was me who was snoring, but I didn’t remember ever having snored while awake before.

Another loud sound came again, and this time I looked over the edge of my bed. It took a hell of a lot of restraint to not let out a startled scream when I found Ryan sleeping on my floor.

He looked so peaceful, aside from his lion-esque snoring. His eyes were closed tight, his thick eyelashes fanning his cheeks and his red lips were open just the slightest bit. He was clad in only his jeans, stretched out on my carpet, his back muscles moving each time he breathed in and out.

I lay there staring at him for a while, thankful that he was sleeping so that he wouldn’t catch me in super- stalker mode. I barely knew anything about him, but he had already burrowed his way pretty deeply into my heart. I knew that I had to admit that I was crushing on him. I couldn’t hide behind my feelings anymore, not when the chances of me being kidnapped for good grew higher with every passing day.

Inevitably though, all nice things come to an end, which was discovered as my alarm went off.

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

I was tempted to chuck it at the wall if it meant that I could spend another minute staring at Ryan’s sleeping form. He shifted in his place on the floor before his eyes fluttered open, landing on mine.

I immediately looked away, but I was sure that my pink cheeks gave away the fact that I was embarrassed that I’d gotten caught staring at him.

“Good morning, sunshine,” rasped Ryan, his voice still asleep. I fought a shiver at the sexiness of his rumpled I-just-woke-up-but-I-still-look-incredibly-hot appearance.

“Ryan…” I trailed off, “What happened last night?” I knew that I didn’t really want to hear the answer, but the thought of not knowing what had gone on after I’d conked out freaked me out more.

All of the early morning humor fled his face at the end of my question. He looked uncomfortable, and the knot in my stomach tightened.

“Er, I don’t know if I should tell you,” he said, not looking me in the eyes. “It’s a bit… well, embarrassing. And for the record, I quite like having my testicles attached to my body.”

I groaned. “God, what did I do to make you hate me?” I sighed and took a deep breath. “Lay it on me.”

“If you insist…” he began. “Well, I realized that something was wrong when you left to use the bathroom and didn’t return after fifteen minutes. I wasn’t going to go after you, I mean, maybe you had… uh, girl stuff, but I started getting worried.”

Oh my god, he thought I was on my period. I buried my face in my hands to wait until he finished.

“So then, I used a spell to detect if you were in the bathroom, but the familiar remnant of your magic was nowhere in the building. At first, I freaked out because I didn’t know how the hell I was supposed to find you. I mean, if you’d been kidnapped, you could be anywhere in the world. Not to mention, I didn’t think that they’d be dumb enough to take you to the same place that they did last time.”