A/N: This chapter is more smutty than the last few. It's not explicit, but it leaves no doubt about what's going on. If that's not your thing, I suggest you skip this chapter and pick up at the next one; you won't have missed much plot

Before I can grab her and hug back, she dances away from me. "Oops, first the food, then the touching." I back up and lean against the wall, watching as she picks up the brown bag she dropped on the table when we came in and puts it in her mini-fridge, then stands up again and smiles. "As I was saying..."

Still not feeling too confident, I let her come to me rather than move toward her. Instead of hugging me again, she puts a hand on my cheek and rubs at my beard, which is currently a little overgrown. "Prickly."

I reach out and touch her cheek in kind. "Not prickly. You want me to shave?"

"No, I like it." She takes her hand away, leans toward me so that I'm supporting her weight, and brushes her lips over the prickly area on my cheek.

I slide my arms around her and link my hands against the small of her back. "Good, because I didn't want to shave it." She's still leaning on me, looking...soft. Happy. I bend my head and kiss her lightly. "Hi," I say as her eyes widen a bit.

She grins and puts her arms around my neck, kissing me back. "Hi."

We stand there like that, arms around each other, for a few seconds, then she lays her head on my shoulder and frees one of her hands to touch my lips. Her touch is light as she traces my upper lip, pauses, then moves on to my lower lip. "I love your lips."

I blink. "You love my...what?"

"Your lips. They're nice," she says. "Soft. And fun to play with," she teases.

"Thank you, I think," I say as a feeling settles over me that I can only label as contentment. It feels so good to stand here with her, just absorbing her warmth and savoring the contact. "I feel like this huge weight I've been carrying has fallen off my shoulders."

"What?" she says, pulling back to look at me.

I said it out loud, I realize. "I didn't mean that to come out."

"Well, it did," she says. "So explain."

I shake my head and pull her a little closer. "You have no idea how much energy it takes for me to stay away from you. To not look at you, not think about you, not worry about you. And, at least for right now, I don't have to do those things. I feel...unburdened."

"You think about me? And watch me?" she asks doubtfully. "Really?"

Is she kidding? I unclasp my hands and move them to her face, tipping it up so I can look into her eyes. "I'm constantly thinking about you and watching you. There's hardly a time when I'm not." I kiss her again, keeping my eyes open and locked with hers. "You doubted it?" I say when she closes her eyes and pulls away after a few seconds.

"Yeah. You're very good at pretending to ignore me." She moves her free hand back around my neck and locks her arms there. "I can't believe we're standing here actually touching."

"I know," I agree and then, after a second, add playfully, "Touching, huh?"

She turns her head a little and nips at my neck. "Yeah, touching," she mumbles into it, kissing the spot she just bit.

I feel her tongue touch my skin. It's just for a split second, but that's more than long enough to set my mind racing through every dirty thought I ever had about Sara Sidle. I draw in a breath, suddenly not knowing where or what I want to touch first on her. "Sara..."

"What?" She doesn't move her head, and I feel her tongue flick at my earlobe.

"Oh god."

She pulls back now and looks at me. "Is that a good 'oh god' or a bad 'oh god'?"

"Good," I manage with a shudder as her fingers tease the hair at the nape of my neck. "Very good."

"That's ok, then," she says, returning to my neck.

I feel more alive right now than I have in years. My neurons are firing, my skin is tingling, and my body is starting to shake. I let the wall support my weight as she tortures me, but I can only take so much of this, and after a few minutes I simply can't stand still anymore. I take hold of her shoulders and push her back just far enough that she can't kiss me.

"What?" she says. Her lips are wet, her cheeks are a delicate shade of pink, and she's breathing heavily. She's staring at my mouth, not my eyes.

At least I'm not the only one panting. "Give me a second," I breathe.

She stands back and just looks at me, waiting.

I feel a little embarrassed for needing this break. "I, uh...It's been a while since I've felt anything this...intense," I stutter.

She smiles gently. A little sadly. "You want to stop?"

"No! God, no. I just need to...catch my breath."

"I'll wait." She backs up and sits on the bed, still watching me with that half-smile as I lean against the wall, trying to regain control of myself.

After a minute, my heart starts to settle back into something resembling a normal rhythm. I smile at her and walk to the bed, unbuttoning my shirt as I go. "Thanks for waiting," I say as though I'm late for an appointment.

She grins back. "That's what I'm here for." Looking down at her hands, she seems to suddenly lose confidence. "So, uh...what do we do now?"

"Now," I say, undoing the last button, "it's my turn to make you shake."

My shirt hits the floor and I reach for hers. "Have I mentioned to you tonight that I've been wondering how you make this," I say, inching the shirt up her body, "stay in place?"

She shakes her head and bats my hands away, pulling the shirt the rest of the way up by herself. As it slides past her ribs, I hear a soft ripping sound and a second later, the shirt lands in my lap. "Tape, Grissom," she says, taking my hands and placing them there as if to demonstrate. "Lots of tape."

x

x

x

It isn't until well past midnight that Sara remembers her "midnight snack" that's waiting in the fridge. I'm dozing next to her in bed, one arm around her waist and legs curled up under hers, when she sits up suddenly and announces, "Cake!"

One of her elbows hits me as she moves and I open my eyes, mumbling into the pillow, "Wha?" We're laying here naked, with the lights off...and she's thinking about cake? I roll over and stare at her.

"My cake, from dinner!"

I sit up and turn on the bedside lamp. "You know, if I didn't know better I'd say you're more excited about the cake than about me."

She runs a finger down my chest and back up, then pats my cheek. "Never. But I have to tell you, chocolate cake tastes a lot more like chocolate than you do. And a woman's got to have her chocolate."

I give her a gentle shove toward the side of the bed. "Go, then. Replace me, eat your cake."

She grins as she scrambles out of the bed and walks to the fridge. I grin too, enjoying the view her retreating form provides.

She returns to bed after she's retrieved the cake and a fork and plops down next to me. Shoveling in an impressively large first bite, she groans in pleasure. I feel mildly devalued. Mental note: must think of a way to get that same groan out of her without using cake.

She catches my eye, swallows, and gives me a chocolate-edged smile. "Want some?"

Cake usually isn't my thing, but since she seems to like it so much... "Sure." I open my mouth and wait.

Rather than giving me a normal-sized sample, she forks up a piece as big as her first bite and stuffs it in my mouth. I close my now-chocolate-filled mouth and glare at her while I chew. "Hmm...that is pretty good," I mumble around the dense cake. But not groan-worthy, I decide. I finally manage to swallow and refuse a second taste. "I'd rather watch you enjoy," I tell her.

"You mean you haven't seen enough of that tonight?" she teases.

Oh, the mental images that conjures up! I don't know how I'm going to get through the day tomorrow if she decides to be mean and keep teasing me. My unseemly thoughts about her were bad enough before I knew what sleeping with her would be like! "I don't think I could ever see too much of that," I say, leaning over to kiss her shoulder. "You don't get enough...enjoyment...in your life."

"And whose fault is that?"

"Mmm...Ecklie's?"

"Grissom!" she laughs, swatting me with her fork, which leaves behind a streak of chocolate on my bicep. "Eww!"

I reach down to wipe the cake off my arm, but she stops my hand and, instead, leans down and licks it off. I shiver a little, wondering if the touch of her tongue will ever not make me want to tackle her. "Don't do that."

She licks her lips and looks up at me. "Why?"

"Because," I say, copying what she did to me earlier and running a finger down her chest, "if you keep it up, we won't get any sleep tonight." Her chest provides a lot more interesting territory to trace than mine does, and I decide to explore it to keep myself busy while she eats.

She laughs and wiggles her eyebrows. "I don't know about you, but I only need about three hours of sleep. That gives us..." She looks at the clock. "...almost four hours to occupy ourselves in other ways."

I roll my eyes. "Eat your cake, woman. I need my beauty rest!"

She snorts and swallows another bite as I add another finger to my exploration of her skin. "Now who's starting things?"

I just smile. "Starting things? Who, me?" I dip my hand a little lower on her body.

"Grissom..."

I'm pleased that it only takes me two more minutes to make her forget any and all cake in the room.