AN: The good news is I'm back already with an update and it's barely been a second!
The bad news is all my stories follow the exact same formula and they are all designed to leave you ragingly mad at the end lmao.
This chapter will be no exception.
Also just to be super confusing this is how you can find the other chapters to this story:
The Deal P1 - Chapter 24
The Deal P2 - Chapter 27
The Deal P3 - Chapter 28
(I will eventually rejig this to be in the correct order once everything has been posted, I just never know what I will be inspired to write next.)
THE DEAL - PART 3
'You can touch.'
That's what Olivia had just uttered to him as he gripped her inner thigh, still holding her in place against the wall as their breaths continued to intermingle.
He knows he lost his control with her back in the bar but now it seems she has lost hers with him in this alley.
She is shifting against him, trying to get their mouths back together but his fingers curl into her inner thigh. He is doing his best to keep her still as it's seems he's the only one of sound mind right now. His hand involuntarily slips upward from all her movements and he quickly realises he's now practically at the seam of her panties.
Fuck.
But he's not going to touch.
He can't touch.
What the hell was she thinking?
Not here.
He pulls back, somehow finding the strength to remove his hand and he is seconds from lifting off her completely when he hears Fin's voice pierce through his train of thought.
"We got Morris." Fin sounds out of breath through his earpiece. "He followed another couple down to the corner park - didn't take long for him to make his move. We've got him in the van. Meet you both round back."
So that's why they'd heard nothing through their radio - Fin and Munch had been hot on their pursuit.
Elliot lifts himself completely off her but his eyes are still trained on hers, trying to ascertain her current state of mind after the update they'd just received.
The good news was Morris was caught, the bad news was whatever the hell they had just been doing was utterly pointless.
She is the first to look away as it would seem some version of that reality was hitting her hard.
She starts to step around him and he thinks about stopping her, clutching her arm softly, drawing her back to him so they can face this head on but something stops him in his tracks and he doesn't do it.
He lets her go, the echo of her heels start to dissipate as he allows himself this brief moment of privacy to finally exhale.
He was still hard.
Hard for her.
His body was aching and he knows after they leave this alley the chances of her being receptive to a conversation is going to rapidly decline by the minute.
It's two hours later when they finally pull up outside her apartment block and he let's the engine die.
Fin and Munch had made the official arrest, they were still processing Morris back at the station.
Cragen had told Elliot to go home, his exact words were they were no longer needed, and he's trying not to read into that.
They had been silent for most of the drive, both of them rendered completely mute and now she wasn't even moving, despite the fact that the engine had been switched off for minutes.
"Listen," he finally breaks the silence just as she goes to seize the car door handle. "You know at some point we're gonna have to talk about this."
Her fingers still on the latch until they're slipping off completely.
Then she is looking over at him.
He can see her eyes have hardened since the alley and a part of her has shut down.
She looks annoyed.
But it seems it's mostly at herself.
His eyes fall down to her mouth and he notices the swell of her lips and the marks his mouth had left on hers.
She only has a hint of lipstick left.
When his eyes flit back up to hers she is no longer looking at him, instead she is staring down the empty street when she says it.
"Come up Elliot." Her voice is low. "And we'll talk."
She drops her keys and her purse on the entryway table with a thud and he follows her into her apartment.
Her mood has definitely shifted since the alley.
She is no longer receptive and playful - she is edgy and silent and his brain is trying to decipher the driving force.
Is she pissed they didn't personally make the collar?
Is she pissed they had to go to such lengths for no reason?
Or is she pissed that he didn't touch her?
She heads towards the kitchen cabinet, taking a wine glass down and screwing off the lid on a fresh bottle of red.
He shakes his jacket off as he watches her pour, noticing she hasn't even taken her coat off yet.
He rounds the kitchen island counter and drops the leather down onto one of the stools, subconsciously using the barrier between them so they can talk about this without the distraction of proximity.
She calls out over her shoulder, asking him if he wants a drink but he needs a clear head for this so he refuses.
She takes a generous sip from her glass before she turns around and their eyes lock mid sip.
He sees her register the purposeful distance he is keeping from her but she doesn't comment on it.
She leans back against the stove top and just watches him with a neutral look, her fingernails tapping the glass in her grasp before she finally places it down to her left.
"Listen ..Elliot."
His name comes out as an exasperated exhale and she is barely looking at him now.
He watches her fingers curl beneath the lip of the counter as she seemingly tries to steady herself for this conversation. Any minute now he expects her to dismiss this - to back-track, to somehow erase the past couple of hours as if they never happened.
She is chewing on her lower lip in debate, releasing it before she speaks.
"I wanna make a deal."
His eyebrows lift in confusion, nerves instantly pooling in his stomach, his mind flitting straight to their partnership.
Was this about what happened tonight? Was it about what they would agree to say to Cragen? Does she want to request a partner switch?
He gives her a look, urging her to continue but she doesn't speak until he actually answers her.
"Okay."
She steps forward until her hip is resting against the barrier that separates them and there may only be an island counter between them but it might as well be a football field.
"One night.. so we can get this out of our.."
He stares back at her, disbelief filling his chest at those words and he can tell from the look in her eyes what she is insinuating.
She can't be serious.
One night so we can get this out of our system.
He watches her visibly struggle to actually complete the sentence and he just continues to stare at her. He doesn't play into her discomfort, he doesn't press her on it, in fact it would appear the bravado she was trying to uphold was now rapidly losing it's fight.
He knows what she is doing - she's trying to force a boundary between them before this thing even begins. They both knew this was going to happen eventually, they'd been a ticking time bomb since the ink on his divorce papers had dried and now they were not even three months in.
Two months and 13 days was all it took.
He scrubs a hand across his stubble before he lets out a heavy exhale.
"One night and then what Liv.."
He decides now it's time to press her on this, because a large part of him is offended she thinks that would be all it would take.
She wants a guarantee that this isn't going to mess with their partnership but the truth of it all - is it already has.
She doesn't respond, she looks uncomfortable now with his reaction and perhaps her proposal to begin with.
"You really think one nights gonna solve a damn thing?"
There is no way in hell he could stop at one.
And neither could she.
She shakes her head and then pushes herself off the counter, grasping her wine glass from behind her.
"The answer is no Olivia," he says to her back.
He watches her still in place for a few beats and then suddenly she is moving - rounding the island. His stomach drops thinking for a second she is going to stalk right up to him and give him a piece of her mind - or something else, but she doesn't - instead she heads straight for her bedroom.
"Forget I said a thing Elliot," she dismisses the entire thing. "You can let yourself out."
Those are the final words he hears before her bedroom door comes to a close and he stares back at it in shock.
Like hell he will let himself out.
TBC