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As we leave the crime scene and walk across the dark deserted parking lot to the LVMPD Denali, Grissom's fingers lightly touch the small strip of bare skin between the bottom of my shirt and the top of my slacks. I can feel the electricity grab me low in my belly.

Christ, if the man had touched me like this five years ago when I'd first moved to Vegas I would have jumped his bones right in his office and done things to him that would have made his toes curl.

Unfortunately our 'relationship' had deteriorated quite a bit over the last few years and there was no way I was going to make the first move.

I'd thought that everything was going to be so good when I moved to Las Vegas to be with Grissom. Then he'd been promoted and couldn't seem to bring himself to have a relationship with a subordinate. When I heard the rumors around the lab about him and the dominatrix I'd ill advisedly taken up with Hank the paramedic. When Grissom found out about it he became more and more distant. We spent the next two years pushing each others buttons and pissing each other off.

Last year when I overheard Grissom admitting, to a murder suspect of all things, why he couldn't take the risk of being with me I started a pretty bad downward spiral. It ended when I got pulled over for drunk driving. I got off with a warning, but Grissom had to be called in. That's when his attitude seemed to change.

He started to treat me with a little more civility at work. He even started to pair us up again on cases. When I caught him looking at me he didn't look away anymore. I even told him flat out that I'd moved to Vegas to be with him and he didn't shut himself off.

A few weeks later when I'd gotten into hot water after losing my temper, first with Catherine , then with Ecklie, He'd come over and forced me into telling him the awful truth about my shitty childhood. I thought for sure he'd back away after that, but that's when he started to touch me surreptitiously at work.

A hand on my arm as he walked past me in the lab. A thigh pressed softly against mine at the diner. The hand at the small of my back as we walked together started to search out any gap between articles of clothing. I started to consciously pick clothing that provided gaps.

Sometimes now when he's looking over my shoulder at evidence I can feel just the hint of his whole body pressing against mine. Feel his warm breath on the back of my neck. And when I catch him looking at me not only does he not look away, but I can see the raw desire in his eyes. I'm sure by now he can see the look of raw desire in mine.

If he doesn't do something about this soon I just might prove the urban myth of spontaneous human combustion is true after all.

But I still can't bring myself to make the first move. I can't take the risk of letting him break my heart again. Maybe when I overheard him confessing to Dr. Lurie that he couldn't take the risk involved to have me it wasn't about risking the job. There are worse things to lose after all. Harder things to risk.


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