Flirtation

Things were winding down at the Strauss Residence. Grace was getting ready for a date with her boyfriend Logan. Dashiell and his friend Todd were playing video games in the family room. And Olivia was working on some homework in her room.

Grace knocked softly on her mother's office door. "Can I borrow some blush?"

Erin swiveled around in her chair. "Since when do you ask?" she took her glasses off and laid them down on the folders on her desk. "What happened to the makeup I bought you last weekend?"

"I left it at dads."

"Okay." she said. "Just don't dig down in the blush, use light strokes."

"I know, I know." she replied. "You tell me all the time."

"And yet it still looks the same way it did when you were five and playing in my makeup."

Grace rolled her eyes. "Haha mom, very funny."

Erin picked her glasses back up and reopened the file folder. She could feel her daughter's eyes still on her. "Do you need something else, Grace?"

She leaned against the doorjamb. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure." she continued to scan the report in front of her.

"Mom?"

"Yes?

"What's going on with you and Bond?" she liked the nickname her brother had given Agent Hotchner so much that she decided to use it too.

Erin swiveled in her chair again. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Oh, come on, mom!" she sighed. "Are the two of you…you know…"

"What?" her eyebrow arched.

"Together?" she asked. "Seeing each other?"

She opened her mouth to answer but she wasn't quite sure how. She didn't know how to define what they were. Or were becoming. Or could be. "He's a friend."

"A friend?"

"A good friend." she clarified. "You're going to be late for your date if you don't get going."

"You're being evasive."

"Am I?"

Grace smiled. "I knew it!" she said. "There is something going on between the two of you."

"I never said that, Gracie."

"You didn't have to." she smirked. "Your face says it all."

/

Hotchner was on the way to the guest room when he saw Olivia sitting at her desk, drawing. The way she was biting down on her bottom lip in concentration reminded him of Erin.

He knocked softly on the open door. Olivia turned around at smiled when she saw him. "What are you working on?"

"Owls." she replied, pushing light burn curls back away from her face. "It's my school art project. I can't get the shading right though. Can you help me?"

"Sure." he made his way over to the desk. "Hey, you're pretty good."

Olivia smiled at the compliment. "You think so?" she asked. "Mom and daddy always say how well I do but sometimes I think they say it because they have to."

Hotchner smirked at the comment. Definitely her mother's daughter. "I really think you're doing a wonderful job." he encouraged her. "What do you need help with?"

"I can't get the right shade of purple." she showed him her color wheel. "It's much too…blah."

He studied the picture for a moment. "May I?" he asked, pointing to a clean brush. Olivia nodded and he picked it up. "My aunt taught me this trick when I was about your age." He squirted some purple paint on the left handed side of the paper and then black on the right handed side. He used small strokes from right to left to blend the colors together.

"That's awesome, Hotch!"

He handed her the brush. "Good luck, Liv."

"Thanks!"

Erin had been watching from the doorway and backed up into the hallway when he started walking toward her. "Thank you."

"I really didn't do anything."

"I could have never showed her how to do that." she told him. "Grant either."

"I had an aunt who was the craft queen, I used to spend the summers with her when I was a kid." he told her. "I used to help her in her shop."

"Like a craft store?"

"Ceramic shop." he clarified. "I would mix the paint colors for the older women."

Erin smiled. "I bet they loved you."

"I was devilishly handsome even then." he joked. "I used to go home with bright red cheeks from all the pinching."

She smirked. "I think you were probably a handful."

"Of course I was." he replied. "Why do you think I would spend six weeks with Aunt Mary in the summer? My parents needed a break."

Her laugh was soft and inviting. "And your brother?"

"The Golden Child." he replied. "Did you finish your work?"

"Most of it." she answered. "I was having trouble concentrating."

Hotchner smiled. "I've been told I have that effect on women."

"Flattering yourself?"

"Well someone has to." he said. "And besides I was hoping that we could spend a little more time together this evening."

"And what exactly did you have in mind?"

"A movie?" he questioned. "Why what did you have in mind?"

Erin shrugged. "A movie will work." she replied. "There's a television in my sitting room. I just have one request."

"Anything."

"No cop movies."

/

Somehow they ended up entangled on the sofa. Erin was careful not to put any strain on Hotchner's injury. They were almost at the end of the black and white movie. At the part where the couple fell in love when he decided it was now the perfect time to test the waters with his superior. To see how far this flirtation of theirs went.

Not that the kisses from earlier weren't a sign because they were. They were most definitely a sign that something between them was changing. He just wanted an answer as to what and in which way.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, drawing her even closer to him. And when she relaxed against him he knew that what changed between them was more than just physical. She was at ease with him.

Hotch's lips caressed the side of her neck with a roaming ease. Her skin was warm and smooth beneath his tongue. And when he hit the spot where the curve of her neck touched her shoulder he heard a soft whimper escape her lips. He smiled against her skin.

His tongue darted out tracing the area before his mouth closed over the sacred area again this time sucking ever so gently. This evoked a full out moan. And Erin knew she was in trouble. The more attention Hotchner lavished the more undone she became.

His smiled against her warm skin, his arm wrapping around her shoulder, pulling her closer against him. Within a matter of moments her thoughts were incoherent. It was suddenly a thousand degrees in the room. Her breathing hitched and her flesh flushed.

In a moment of clarity, or perhaps not, she pulled away from him. Putting a cushion of distance between them on the sofa.

"Are you okay?" Hotch asked.

Erin nodded. "Yes." she sighed. "It's just that…."

His eyes searched hers intently. "What?"

"Oh, hell."

He moved closer to her and reached out, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Too fast?" he asked. "What?"

"No." she breathed out. "It's right."

"Yeah?" he smiled. "It feels right?"

"I don't want to mess this up, Hotch." she confessed. "Whatever this is."

His smile was enough to make her melt. "Well then I'm going to suggest a proper date."

"Date?" her eyebrow arched.

"Yes, a date." he confirmed. "Dinner, perhaps a show, maybe some dancing. What do say? Friday evening at eight o'clock?"

Erin smiled. "It's a date."

-Finished.