Chapter 2

It took mere moments to arrive at the Halliwell Manor. Liz's whitelighter, Chris, orbed them into the living room. A familiar shout reached her ears and a second later Prue came flying out of the conservatory.

"Ow." She rolled over and spotted Liz. "Warlock, blinking, and way too fast." Prue laid out the situation quickly.

"Gotcha." The sisters couldn't freeze, blow up, kick box, or move the warlock if they couldn't catch him.

Liz ran into the room Prue flew out of. Leo, Cole, and her two other cousins were darting this way and that trying to keep away from the blinking warlock while trying their best to capture him in some way.

Phoebe, who spotted Liz, yelled out. "Crystal cage!" And pointed at the crystals on the floor.

The warlock blinked in behind Phoebe and punched her in the back of the head. A chorus of 'Phoebe's' sounded throughout the conservatory. In that moment Liz got a good look at the warlock a second before he blinked away again.

Concentrating she focused on his image, her powers were an off-shoot of Prue's. She could move things with her mind but she needed to have an image of it in her head and then once she had a picture she could concentrate on it and move it to where she wanted it. In this case, the crystal cage the sisters set up. It was basically the good version of a warlocks blinking power.

The warlock suddenly appeared inside the cage, he darted his head back and forth confused by how he got there, and while distracted, Piper shut it with a final crystal closing the cage. Piper, pleased with the job Liz did, taunted the warlock in the cage. "Hmm, didn't count on that power did ya?"

Prue helped Phoebe up and they along with Piper said the vanquishing spell. Fire sprouted from his feet and quickly covered his entire body until there was nothing left but a smoking pile of ash. "Now that's a vanquish." Prue smirked.

"Is everyone ok?" Liz took in everyone, visually checking them over for injuries.

"Oh yea, nothing a few ice packs won't cure." Phoebe brushed off. It was then she got a real good look at Liz's outfit. "Um, did we interrupt something?" Suddenly all eyes were on her.

Liz stared down at her clothes; she glanced up, a blush creeping onto her cheeks, and immediately sought out Cole's gaze just barely catching his quick intake of breath. It took a lot of willpower to tear her stare away from him and look at the other people. "Not really. Chris orbed me while I was changing out of my work clothes."

"You go to work in a corset?" Prue teased. "I mean who hasn't once or twice or a lot more than that, but usually it's for a reason."

If she had been a normal girl with zero ties to aliens or the supernatural Prue's teasing would have flustered her and she'd be babbling about everything but her corset. However she was not a normal girl, a fact she had both cursed and praised, many times in the same moment. This time though—definite blessing.

"Under my blouse, yes I wear a corset." Thank God she still had her skirt on or they'd see the matching ivory white garter belts that Cole paid particular attention to once he removed the skirt. She could still feel the whisker burns from Cole on her inner and upper thighs. "There's a cute guy who works at Cole's firm and he's been showing an interest."

"Ooo, a guy huh?" Phoebe smiled at her. "And from the look of your underwear you reciprocate his interest."

"Enough to put on a corset." She teased right back. That's right Liz, keep it light, keep it teasing, she repeated over and over in her head. Liz wasn't lying, exactly; there was a guy, Trent Lacane, who worked at the office, who had been trying to get her to go to lunch with him for some time. So far she hadn't said yes, it felt wrong to go with someone else while sleeping with Cole. Although since he's still engaged to Phoebe he doesn't seem to have that same problem.

Cole's gaze narrowed at Liz. What guy was she talking about? Cole started making a list of the guys that he'd seen around Liz over the last few months. Theo, Jack, Trent, Quincy…there were a lot. Of course there were a lot, Liz was his secretary and constantly gave paperwork and anything else from him to other people around the office.

"Which guy?" Cole questioned.

Phoebe gave him a curious expression but he saw she didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary. She thought he was just asking out of brotherly concern.

Liz licked her lips and crossed her arms unaware that she pushed her breasts up more than they had been before. "I'm not telling you that."

"Why not?" He took a couple steps closer to her.

Liz glared up at him, "Why do you think? The last guy I mentioned to you, you scared him so bad that he changed his number and moved out of the city."

Cole smirked, Liz wasn't exaggerating either. Phoebe had set Liz up with a colleague of hers at the paper. At that time he and Liz hadn't been sleeping together but it was only a matter of time, a very short time as it turned out.

They had already been dancing around each other. They would pick fights about stupid things just so they could get into each others personal space. At work he would lean closer to her than he should, Liz would find opportunities to hug him and when ever they touched, on purpose or accidently, they would both feel a spark. He'd been around the block long enough to know that eventually they would end up in bed. It just took scaring off her latest date to get them there.

"Well I won't do that this time." He used his height to his advantage, trying to intimidate her while, at the same time, getting a wonderful view of her supple cleavage.

Liz took one step close to him. "Some how Cole, I doubt that."

Prue seeing that this could result in an hour long argument separated the two of them and told them to shelve the boyfriend discussion till later. "Fine. You'll tell me his name eventually." Cole predicted.

Clearing her throat Liz turned to Piper. "So what was the deal with Mr. Blinks A Lot?"

"Same old, same old. Innocent needed saving, warlock got pissed we interfered and the warlock comes after us for payback and trashes us and the house." Piper grumbled. "Have you eaten dinner yet?" She rapidly changed the subject as she was known to do often.

"No, not yet, but I ordered a pizza and it should be arriving in twenty minutes." Again, another lie, she just didn't feel like spending dinner with the girls. A vanquish she didn't mind but sharing a meal, that would be too much for her to deal with right then.

"I'll take you back to your apartment." Chris offered.

Liz was about to nod in agreement when Cole shook his head negatively.

"No, I'll take her home."

Liz scoffed, "I'm not telling you anything Cole. It's none of your business." She moved over toward Chris and got ready for him to orb them.

"I just want to talk to you and you know how stubborn I am." Cole argued.

Sighing Liz quickly weighed the advantages and disadvantages to continue arguing with him. If she continued it could raise Phoebe's suspicions, yes although she and Cole bickered often there was a point of too much to be completely innocent and he'd eventually shimmer in anyway when the coast was clear. If she gave in to Cole now she could send him on his way probably quicker and then she could relax…maybe for the rest of the night and just be alone.

"Fine. Let's get this talk over with." She relented.

"Knew you would see it my way." He grinned. Before shimmering out with her he looked to Phoebe but didn't get closer to her. "I'll be back later."

"Ok, you take care of her." Phoebe smiled warmly but with reservations.

As if Liz didn't feel bad enough about the whole Cole affair. Now, as usual, Phoebe had to go be worried about her well being. She had complete faith in Liz and Cole that nothing inappropriate was happening. Cole came over to left her side, nodded his goodbye to the other sisters and shimmered them to her apartment.

TBC