A/N: I just wanted to say a very sincere thank you to everyone who reviewed my other story, you have all inspired me to write this. It's a companion piece to 'Ruse'...this time it's Beckett's POV...enjoy!
There were lots of excuses she could make to justify agreeing to his self-confessed stupid plan; she was concerned for the safety of her partners, she was tired, and she was in emotional upheaval from so much time spent dwelling on her mother's murder...
She wanted to take back her agreement, pretend that she'd come up with another, different plan that had worked like a charm getting them past the guard to save the day. But she hadn't come up with a better plan- she had agreed to his, and now she had to live with it.
One kiss. They were supposed to share only one kiss. Just enough to fool the watchman on guard duty into dropping his guard.
She could take back the second kiss. Justify it by saying that the guard wasn't buying their act so she'd made it look more authentic...
She could take back her fingers in his hair, write it off as directing his movement so that she could place herself in the optimum position to strike...
She could take back clenching his jacket in her fists. She wasn't clutching to keep him as close to her as possible- no, she was simply getting her balance so that she could effectively disable the man standing between them and their team.
But she couldn't take back the moan. That damn moan he'd somehow managed to tease from her throat. She'd thought she'd had an iron grip on her emotions going into the whole thing, but he'd knocked her even more off balance than she'd thought was possible. The look on his face, the soft press of his lips in juxtaposition to the firm grip of his hands on her wrist, her jaw, her neck, and splayed across her back...
She'd lost herself, just for one moment, in the embrace of the only man in the world who had the power to drive her crazy and make her melt, all with one simple look. And that moment of freedom had been indescribable. Her grip on reality slipped, her world tilted sideways, her control shattered into a million pieces, and she gasped into his mouth. She was totally lost in him for one extraordinary moment.
And she couldn't take it back. She could return them to normality, make sure nothing changed between them- but that moan had signified the most honest moment of their relationship, and he'd borne witness to it.
There was no explanation she could give, no excuse, no justification. She couldn't take it back...and she was afraid that she didn't really want to.
A/N: Please review! 3