Please don't shoot me for this

This wasn't the first time Hotch had found himself staring at Emily Prentiss for longer than was appropriate and as much as he hated to admit it to himself, he was sure it wouldn't be the last time either.

He wasn't blind, he'd always known that she was beautiful, but he'd never been this infatuated with her before. But he'd missed her more than he thought possible when she was in hiding. The other team members thought that they had it worse than JJ and Hotch, because they thought they'd lost their friend.

But at least they had closure. He spent every day worried about her safety, praying that they'd find Doyle so she could come home. To her family. To him.

His life became filled with 'what ifs.'

What if they never found Doyle?

What if Doyle found out she was still alive?

What if he killed her?

What if they never saw her again?

It made him realize the need he had for her and when she finally returned all he wanted to do was hold her, touch her, kiss her. But he restrained himself.

However as time went on and they got closer and closer, Hotch started to let himself believe that he may have a chance with the female profiler.

As he sat alone in his office gazing down at the beautiful agent, he tried to decide how he would make his move.

His thoughts were interrupted when his eyes locked onto the stare of said beautiful agent. She blushed slightly under his gaze, offering a small smile before returning to her work.

Hotch followed her lead and concentrated on his own paperwork.

Moments later, there was a soft knock on his office door.

"Come in."

As the door opened, he heard the sound of her angelic voice. "Hey Hotch, a couple of us are going to lunch now, I just wondered if you wanted to join us."

"Thank you, Prentiss." He inwardly cursed himself for always sounding so formal with her. "But I think I should stay and finish up this paperwork."

"Is there any point in me trying to convince you to come with us?" She chuckled softly, causing a fluttering reaction in Hotch's stomach.

"I doubt it." He flashed her one of his rare smiles. "Thank you for the offer, though. Maybe next time."

"I'll hold you to that." With that said Emily left his office, closing the door behind her, before she walked out of the bullpen with JJ and Reid.

The threesome returned less than half an hour later, all looking less than happy. Hotch noted their expressions immediately. Emily looked particularly pissed. Without much thought at all, Hotch shot up from behind his desk and hurried down into the bullpen to see what was wrong.

"Emily, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She spat, sounding harsher than she intended. "Sorry, I had a problem at lunch."

"What sort of problem?" Emily could hear the concern in his voice, throwing her off guard.

JJ spoke for her. "The kind of problem, that won't take no for an answer."

"What do you mean?" Hotch's frown grew.

Reid spoke first this time. "There was a man at the diner, who was behaving rather inappropriately towards Emily."

"Slight understatement, Spence." JJ threw in. "He practically tried to jump her in the middle of the diner." She added. "He had his hands all over her."

"I honestly thought I was going to shoot him at one point." Emily said.

"Me too." JJ replied, with a look of disgust.

"It's a good job Morgan wasn't with us." Spencer responded. "He would have shot him."

"If anything like that happens again, I think I actually will shoot the guy."

"Good for you, Em." JJ smiled at her friend.

Hotch, who had been silent for most of the conversation, finally spoke again. "So you're alright now?"

"I'm fine, Hotch." Emily replied with a shy smile. "Thank you."

He gave her a nod, before returning to his office.

The remainder of the day passed without too much drama. There was a small incident when Reid mentioned to Morgan what had happened during lunch and he nearly took off in search of the offender.

Hotch couldn't blame him, of course, he almost did the same thing when he'd heard the story. But he was better at keeping his emotions hidden and under control.

It was almost time for Hotch to pack up and leave for the night. Everybody else had already gone home, except for Emily. She'd usually gone home by now, but was still working away at her case files.

"Prentiss, what are you still doing here?" Hotch asked, as he reached her desk on the way out.

"Just finishing off some work." She smiled up at him. "I'll get going in a minute."

"Okay." The male profiler leaned against Reid's desk.

"What are you doing?" Emily asked, confused.

"Waiting for you to finish." He replied, with a small smirk. "I'll walk you out."

"You don't believe that I'm going to leave soon, do you?

"No."

Emily laughed at that. "Fine, you win." The brunette locked her belongings away, before pulling on her jacket and grabbing her purse. "Let's go."

Hotch didn't move, he just gazed longingly at the beautiful woman stood before him.

"Hotch?"

The male profiler sighed as he stood from Reid's desk. "Please don't shoot me for this."

Before Emily had any chance to think about what she had just heard, his lips crashed down onto hers as his hands gripped her hips, pulling her close. Within seconds his tongue was invading her mouth, passionately tracing patterns inside her.

He was about to pull away, when he finally felt her react to his advances. Her tongue started to move with his own. Her hands came up to caress his chest. Her body bucked forward, wanting to be closer to him.

When they eventually broke apart, Hotch took hold of her chin to keep her eyes on him. "Should I run?"

Emily snickered, quietly. "I'm not going to shoot you, Hotch."

Aaron grinned at that, then placed a soft kiss to her lips, before pulling away. "Would you like to get dinner?"

"I'd like that, a lot."

Hotch took hold of her hand and led her out of the bullpen, happy at last.