A/N: I love this word. I was so glad when veras333 suggested it. How could you have a show about a hypnotist and not use it?

Enthralled

"So what are we doing, exactly?" Grace's face took on an almost preternatural beauty in the dim glow of the single candle that sat between them. Rigsby settled across from her on his living room floor, crossing his legs and sitting up straight.

He shrugged. "Jane suggested it. Said we'd learn something about each other."

Grace raised her brow skeptically. "By looking at each other and not talking?"

He nodded. "That's what he said. We have to sit here for five minutes. No talking, no looking away, no laughing or funny faces."

"And what, pray tell, are we going to learn in five minutes that we don't already know about each other?"

Rigsby looked to one side. Grace read his always-obvious body language and smirked playfully. "Well?"

He looked back shyly. "He said it would enthrall us."

Her eyes lifted with amusement and she chuckled. "Enthrall us? Like…amaze and entertain us?"

He shook his head. "Jane said the word didn't mean what most people think it means. He said it had to do with capturing each other through the sheer force of will. Like a kind of hypnotism. We look at each other. Really look at each other. And then we somehow realize that we're…" he dipped his head shyly again.

Her smile was slipping, her gaze becoming more serious. "That we're…?"

He looked up through his lashes. "That we're bound to each other."

Grace's complicated eye color went decidedly darker. She said nothing. She watched as his eyes dropped from hers in embarrassment and she used the moment to scoot closer to the lone candle and sit up straighter on the carpet. "When do we start?"

He shifted back to her and smiled softly, glad that she hadn't pressed him. He felt acutely embarrassed explaining such a seemingly harmless exercise in such intimate terms. He wished he had Jane's ease with language. A heterosexual man had outlined this idea in much fuller detail and Wayne hadn't felt particularly self-conscious. But as he sat across from the woman who knew every nick and scar on his body, every sound he made in the throes of passion, every position he preferred to sleep in, he felt his discomfort hit the roof as his tongue worked its clumsy way over his infinitely less suave explanation.

Luckily, she knew his stutters as well as his scars and sleeping patterns and loved him all the more for them.

"Um, now, I guess. No talking and no looking away. Keep your eyes on mine, no matter what."

She nodded pensively, taking a deep breath and letting her chin drop until her gaze fell squarely onto his. She blinked twice as her eyes adjusted and his face occupied all of her attention. He blinked back and silence filled the room.

They stared.

She noticed that her immediate inclination was to smile sheepishly. She felt slightly silly just staring at him without moving her face and she wanted to wordlessly communicate how weird she found this. But she kept her smile down. No faces. She wasn't allowed to break their concentrated gaze in any way.

Rigsby pulled a controlled breath and let it out slowly. Jane wasn't there, but he was pretty sure the man would tell him not to inhale or exhale too pointedly, for they too would be considered a betrayal of the objective. He let his facial muscles go lax as he continued to gaze openly at the woman he'd furtively watched for so long. He noticed that his eyes immediately wanted to drop from her cool, inquisitive stare. He'd been dropping his eyes from hers forever, terrified of what she'd see in them. Even now, even as a couple who had shared damn near everything, he felt the need to shift his eyes in deference to hers. It was painful to look at this pretty woman for too long. The realization surprised him. If someone had asked, he would have said that he spent ages looking at her. Only now did he understand that his gaze had never really been constant. It always pulled in her direction, but it flickered. He took a more resolute breath and slowed his blinking.

He wanted to stare at her properly. He'd never allowed himself to do so.

Grace was becoming increasingly aware to two things. One, Rigsby's unbroken stare was quite intense as she was forced to return it with no hope of relief. Two, it was undeniably sexy. She didn't let her eyes move passed his, but she could still register the rest of his face. She absorbed every single detail. His skin was subtly darkening with five o'clock shadow. The dim light tripped over the dimple in his chin. His strong jaw played an odd compliment to the sensual curve of his mouth. His nose was surprisingly graceful and straight. The arch of his brows only served to accentuate the wide, high beam quality of his large eyes. His hair barely stood out from the darkness surrounding him. Only the slight shine of his gel glinted in the candlelight.

He was beautiful.

Her excited inhalation stayed silent and slow. She couldn't look away. It was suddenly intensely uncomfortable to stare at him as blue bore relentlessly into hazel. And yet she didn't look away. She couldn't look away.

Dear God, how long have we been doing this? she cried out silently. It feels like hours.

But she couldn't check a clock. They hadn't set a timer. She had to hold the invisible line and continue to look back without breaking it. But each second drew out like an hour and her increasing awareness of his attractiveness was becoming unbearable.

Looking at each other's features in such concentrated detail immediately brought a million realizations to the fore.

I can see him as a child.

I can see her as a little girl.

God, he's such a powerful man.

My warrior, my Amazon. She's tough enough to kick any ass and beautiful enough for any ass to beg for it.

His eyes. The blue is different than earlier today. Darker. Why hadn't I noticed?

She's so sweet. Why am I so afraid to look at something so sweet? She'd let me. I know she would.

They never noticed when the clock ticked passed five minutes. They didn't see the candle flicker from their increasingly excited breathing. They barely realized they'd leaned forward until their lips were pressed hotly together.

They were too enthralled.