Title: "Deadly Mistletoe"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: R
Summary: Cole and Piper have an encounter under the mistletoe.
Disclaimer: Piper and Phoebe Halliwell; Cole Turner; Leo Wyatt; all other characters; and Charmed are all © & TM Spelling Television Inc. and are used without permission. Everything else is © & TM Pirate Turner. The author makes absolutely no profit whatsoever off of this story.

She stood alone at the window, her arms wrapped around her waist, as she wondered where Leo was and what was taking him so long this time when a masculine voice suddenly sounded behind her. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

Piper whirled around from the window to find Cole standing just inside the doorway of the attic. His dark eyes met hers, and an impish grin played over his lips. "I never knew you played with fire, Piper," he teased her.

Her eyebrows rose in question. "What are you talking about?" Why was he looking at her that way -- with those dark eyes that seemed as if they could easily burn their way into her very soul and that sly grin?

"Surely you know what tradition demands for any one foolish enough to stand under mistletoe."

"I'm not standing under mistletoe!" What was he playing at!

"Look again," he calmly told her. She did as requested, and a lump rose in her throat when she saw that she was indeed standing directly underneath a sprig of mistletoe. "I'll look away while you step out from under it if you like. No one has to know we broke the rule." His eyes danced as he offered her the opportunity.

Piper's eyes narrowed, and her eyebrows lowered in a downward arch. "Are you suggesting that I am afraid to kiss you?"

He shook his head. "Not at all, but I am your sister's boyfriend. I know you wouldn't want to betray her."

Piper quirked an eyebrow. "I would hardly call one tiny kiss under the mistletoe a betrayal."

His eyes locked with hers, and she had the unsteady feeling that she was being studied as both stood still and silent for a long moment. "Very well," he finally broke the silence. Before she knew it, he had started to walk toward her, his long legs eating up the distance in powerful strides. She stepped back without even realizing what she was doing but found the window ledge pressing into the small of her back. Suddenly, he was there, towering before her with a sweet, almost bemused, smile. "It's not too late to change your mind, Piper," he told her gently. "It wouldn't be the first time I denied tradition."

"I'm sure it wouldn't be, Cole, but I'm not afraid of you." What was she doing? What was she saying! This was Cole Turner, Phoebe's boyfriend for Goddess' sake! She couldn't kiss him, mistletoe or no mistletoe!

The corners of his lips twitched as they twisted into a roguish grin. He knew she wasn't afraid of him; he didn't want her to be. He would never willingly harm her or her sisters, but this opportunity, to find such a beautiful goddess seemingly waiting for him, a lowly Demon, underneath the mistletoe, was a chance in a lifetime that he simply could not pass up. He bent as he began to lower his lips toward hers.

Piper froze. She knew she should turn her head, should probably even flee the attic, but she was mesmerized by the dark Prince whose lips even now hovered mere inches from her own. Her eyes were still locked with his, and she found herself swimming in pools of dark velvet. Then, suddenly, his lips touched down on hers, sending an unparalleled thrill coursing throughout the quivering insides of her body. Despite herself, she found her feet propping up on the tips of her toes to send her closer to him and her lips returning his kiss in full.

He had only meant to take a small taste of her wonders, but the moment he had touched Piper Halliwell's lips, Cole Turner had realized his dreadful mistake for one sip of her sweet nectar would never be enough. To add to his wonder, delight, and utter shock, Piper was actually kissing him back. Her mouth parted underneath his own, and he could not resist allowing his tongue to slip just between her lips. Her tongue met his, and the two began to dance, thrusting in and out of each others' mouths.

Cole felt Piper's breath catch in a moan of delight and saw her eyes flutter closed in relish. The sensation of her lips against his, her tongue in his mouth, and his own tongue thrusting inside her mouth had already set Cole's blood on fire, and now he could feel himself growing hard. He fought desperately for control, but the thought of ripping his lips away from hers was akin to forbidding his lungs oxygen.

Piper's mind whirled, thoughts racing alongside dazzling lights. What was she doing! She could not be kissing Cole, but she was! He was Phoebe's boyfriend, and she was married, and more importantly, in love with, Leo! The thought of feeling anything stronger for Cole than friendship was completely absurd yet his lips gifted her with sensations that she had never known had been missing but filled an aching emptiness inside of her that she had only just become aware of. "Cole," she managed to breath against his lips, "we can't . . . "

"I know," he whispered in return, her pleading words finally granting him the strength he had been fighting inside himself to achieve. "I know," he gasped again, finally forcing his lips from hers. Piper's eyes opened, and his heartbeat faltered at the look in her luscious brown eyes. "I'm so sorry!" He nearly whimpered the words as he quickly lowered his gaze from hers, unable to continue to bare the look of disappointment and loathing in her eyes.

Cole's words stopped Piper's silent berating of herself for being so pathetic, weak, and foolish to betray Leo and Phoebe so easily and brought her attention back to him. Though his head was lowered, she could still see the shame that darkened his face. She should be angry with him; she had every right to be furious with him. After all, had he not kissed her? However, she found, even more to her surprise, that she could not even approach anger toward this man who, in a single moment, had breathed more life into her than any other man she had ever known, even Leo, ever had before. She had to fight to keep her fingers from trembling as she reassuringly cupped the right side of his handsome face. "Cole, there's nothing for you to apologize for. This was as much my fault as it was yours." She heard the truth in her own words, and it disgusted her. He may have kissed her to begin with, but she had returned his kiss and even helped to deepen it. She had not pulled away from him. She had not tried to stop him a single time, not even when he had first told her that he would look away while she stepped out from beneath the mistletoe.

When he again looked into her eyes, Cole found shame mixed in with the hatred, disappointment, and disgustedness, and only then did he understand what he had failed to seconds before. A heavy weight fell over him as he realized that he had made her feel so about herself. "Piper," he started, and she found herself pressing a finger to his lips and sending a thrill shooting through both of them with that single touch.

"It's not your fault, Cole, so there's nothing for you to apologize for. You only kissed me when I refused to listen to reason and turn my back on that silly, old tradition." She paused, bit her bottom lip for a brief moment as she considered what she was about to say, and then spoke again. "I don't know what just happened between us, Cole, but whatever it is, it was just one kiss. That can't possibly bring any harm to those we love."

"But what if they find out?"

Piper was surprised; she would have thought that she would have been the one posing such a question. She swallowed her surprise and shook her head. "They won't. I'm not going to tell them, and you're not going to tell them, right?" He nodded, and she lifted her shoulders into a shrug. "Then they won't find out."

"But, Piper, what we did . . ."

"Was wrong," she finished for him. "I know, Cole, but it's done now. We can't go back and undo it."

Again, his question surprised her. "Would you?" he asked in the deep voice that made her heart flutter. "If we could go back and undo it, would you want to?"

To Piper's amazement, she found that she had to truly contemplate what Cole had asked her before she could truthfully answer him. "I wouldn't want to," she answered breathily at last, shaking her head as she did so. "I know it's wrong, Cole, and I know that you don't me and I don't love you . . . in -- in that way," she hurried on, "but that was the single most thrilling kiss that I have ever been given. In that one kiss, you brought more emotions alive in me than I ever even knew existed, let alone had experienced. So no, I wouldn't want to."

The corners of his mouth lifted into a grin that spread over his handsome face and brought tremors to Piper's own mouth. He opened his mouth to speak, but Phoebe's voice rang out just then. "Cole? Piper? Where are you guys?"

Piper sighed as she cast a glance toward the door of the attic. She knew from the sound of her sister's voice that Phoebe would be there within seconds and, so, her time with Cole, albeit time that they never should have had, was coming all too swiftly to a close. "Remember," Piper whispered urgently to him, her eyes searching his for signs of understanding and agreement, "never say another word about this for as long as you love Phoebe."

Believing that he would agree because he did not want to lose the woman he loved, Piper did not give Cole a chance to answer as she leaned up and closer to him. Her eyes still searched his as she summoned courage that she had never known she had before and pressed her lips to his in a gentle kiss whose heat instantly swept through both. She could hear Phoebe's footsteps approaching and had to force herself to stop the kiss. She knew even as she pulled away from him that those two kisses would have to last them a lifetime. She licked her lips where his taste still lingered, trying desperately to remember everything about his touch, his lips, and his delicious, heady taste even as she whispered in a voice so low that he could barely hear her, "Merry Christmas, Cole."

She turned and walked away, leaving him to grasp at the empty air just behind her. Phoebe appeared in the doorway, and he straightened instantly, praying to the Gods that she would not suspect anything. "There you guys are!"

Piper forced a smile onto her lips. "What's up, Phebs?"

"Leo's waiting for you downstairs."

Piper arched an eyebrow as she wondered why he had not just orbed to her but did not say anything further as she walked out, leaving Cole behind her to deal with Phoebe. As she made her way downstairs, Piper heard her younger sister squeal with hormonal delight. "Is that all for me, baby?" Her lips curled slightly, and she had to stop herself from turning around and charging back up the stairs.

Cole was not hers. He did not love her, and she had no right to lay any kind of claim on him. Besides, Leo was waiting for her, and as she neared her bedroom, she heard the soft strings of a romantic ballad playing. Great, she thought with a bitterness that both surprised and shocked her, but she continued forward to her fate in the arms of the man she had thought she loved with a smile on her face.

Upstairs, Cole found himself faced with Phoebe whose wide eyes seemed fixated on the steed that had reared in response to her sister instead of her as it should have. "Is that all for me, baby?"

He forced a smile. "Of course it is, sweetheart. Who else could it be for?" After all, Piper didn't want him. Her heart belonged to Leo, and all he had left was Phoebe. He found Phoebe running to him, and he opened his arms, smoothly catching her as she jumped and twirling her around. As her lips came down on his, his gaze was met with the sprig of mistletoe that still hung where Piper had stood moments ago. Funny, he thought. How something that tiny can be so deadly and change everything in just a single kiss.

Piper opened the door to her bedroom, and her jaw dropped open in shock. Her round eyes stared at Leo who grinned hopefully back at her from where he stood in the very middle of her bedroom, dressed in nothing more than a mistletoe wreath. The kiss she had shared with Cole flashed through her mind, and she found herself thinking even as she continued forward with a smile and eyes that shone with sadness instead of the sexual hunger that Leo took it for, Funny. How something that tiny can be so deadly and change everything in just a single kiss.

The End