He rolled over and propped himself up on one elbow, his dark blue t-shirt twisting slightly around his lithe body. I was too shocked that he was there at all to mind the enigmatic smile that tugged at the corners of his lips as he looked me over. It had been less than twenty-four hours since we last parted, but after a day like today, it felt like eons, and I couldn’t get enough of just looking at him.

Riley Bay here. Really here.

Riley Bay on my unmade bed… touching the part of the sheets that touched me when I slept… late afternoon sunlight from the bay window streaming over him. The effect was almost angelic.

My breath escaped me softly. “Oh…”

Riley slid off the bed, but stayed next to it and I noticed that his tousled hair was damp. I didn’t think it was raining outside. Had he just had a shower? I blushed at the place my thoughts started to go and I quickly looked down. The computer on the bed caught my eye and I noticed that he had my AOL account open.

I contained a gasp. “Were you reading my email?” I felt my cheeks begin to grow hot. What did he see in there?

He ran a hand over the top of the screen and just smiled at me.

“That… that… you can’t do that!” I stammered breathlessly.

“Why not?” he asked, cocking his head to one side, a piece of his raven hair falling across his alabaster forehead.

“Because it’s just… that’s not cool. You can’t just read someone’s private email without their permission.” I sucked in a deep breath. “I know you’re technically like a primordial cosmic being or whatever, but here on Earth we… we… well, we have certain rules!”

“This is a law?”

“Well, no…” My cheeks were on fire then, and my heart was beating mile a minute. Had I gotten any instant messages while he was on? Did he see my email to Vik from last week where I expounded at length on what a jerk I thought Riley was? Was he pissed? He didn’t look pissed. He almost looked… amused.

“But it’s a privacy thing, you know?” I bleated in a pathetic attempt to explain.

“But I want to know everything there is to know about you,” he said.

My heart skipped a beat. If my face was red before, it was positively glowing now.

He took a step toward me. I felt my knees go buttery. “Everything,” he repeated, his voice a husky whisper.

Above his chiseled cheekbones, his celestial eyes burned into mine and I realized I’d stopped breathing. I tried to say something, anything, but words were beyond me. I nodded slowly, dumbly. It hit me distantly that this was the first time I’d ever had a boy in my room.