From an outside perspective, it must have looked like Phoenix had forgotten how to do anything but stare dumbly and blush. Unfortunately, included in 'anything' was swallowing one's saliva rather than breathing it, so the stare was cut short after a few seemingly eternal seconds by a violent coughing fit he found himself muffling into his sleeve.

We already--? His brain glanced off of the last few words in that sentence, mirror-smooth with denial. It wasn't that the thought was unpalatable -- hell, he'd dreamed about-

Okay, remembering that was definitely not helping with the coughing.