Chapter 5

After a relaxing day, Liv was back in her hotel room. She had just had dinner with this cute gay couple, she has met at the beach earlier.

They told her about this 'dance night' at the hotel tonight. She promised to come and went back to her room to get ready.

An hour later she was on her way to meet up with Claude and Paul.

The others still weren't back but she guessed they went to eat dinner outside the hotel and she didn't really mind because the urge to punch Kathy was still pretty strong.

Liv came back to their table after another round of dancing.

"Honey, I know that almost everyone is staring at you but there is this tall, good looking guy, who is watching you intensely for a while now."

She turned in the direction he pointed and started to smile. Elliot approached them.

"This is my partner, Elliot. I told you about him." she said happily.

"You didn't say that he was such a cutie. I mean, hello handsome!" Paul said.

"Eyes to me." Claude said laughing.

"Elliot, this are Claude and Paul, I met them at the beach today." she said smiling.

"Nice to meet you." El said politely.

"How was your day?" Liv asked. "And where are the others?"

"It was nice but I am glad it is over. The others called it a night. The kids are pretty exhausted."

"Are you tired too or are you up for a little party?" she said jokingly. He smiled.

"Party sounds good."

"Perfect!"

They spent the next two hours with Claude and Paul, dancing and having a great time. Around midnight the guys decided to call it a night but Liv and El stayed.

A slow song started to play.

"I love this song!" Liv said dreamily.

"Wanna dance?" Elliot asked. She took his hand and he led her to the dancefloor.

Liv could feel her heart pounding like crazy in her chest. She was sure El had to hear or feel it too. She didn't know what was happening with her. Why did she react like this when he touched her, when he held her close? He was her best friend, her partner, they really shouldn't be doing this. But it felt so right and so good. She wasn't sure when she has felt this safe the last time.

The alcohol in her system made her stop worrying and she nestled her head against his chest.

He couldn't believe that he held her this close. That she let him hold her so close. His heart was about to jump out of his chest. She had to hear it, her head was snuggled up against his chest, right over his heart.

When the song was over they slowly stepped away from each other, unsure of what to say or do now.

They walked back to the table and although Liv could already feel the alcohol in her system she nipped at her drink. Just to have something to do. This was weird.

After a while the music was turned off, so they decided to go to their room.

When they walked passed the pool, Liv had an idea.

"You wanna go swimming?" she asked excitedly. El looked at her amused.

"You wanna go in the pool? Like now?" he asked her laughing.

"That's exactly what I want."

And with that Liv stripped down to her underwear and jumped in the pool. Elliot wasn't sure if it was allowed to be in the pool at night but that didn't stop him from jumping in too.

"I don't think we are allowed to be in here." he said laughing.

"I don't care!" Liv said smiling.

"Detective Benson." he said playfully indignant. Liv just laughed.

"Let's do the lift again." she said excitedly. She walked towards him as fast as possible, jumped off the ground and then she was in the air. It did feel good but she started to get cold quickly.

"El, let me down. It's way too cold outside of the water."

He let her slide down his chest and held her close. Their faces only inches apart.

"El" Liv said breathlessly while staring into his eyes. He closed the small gap between them and kissed her.

It was an innocent kiss at first but when she deepened it, it turned into a heated make out session.

After a while they broke apart breathing heavily. Oh my god. She just kissed Elliot. She kissed her best friend, her partner. That wasn't good at all but why has it felt so right.

He could feel her body trembling.

"Liv, we should go inside. You're shaking." he said with concern. She just nodded, unable to say anything.

Back at the hotel room Liv took a hot shower to warm up but she was still cold when she lay down in bed next to him.

"Better now?" he said caringly while touching her arm gently. She was still feeling cold.

"Come here." he said opening his arms. She looked at him unsure of what to do.

"Liv, come on. Let me warm you up."

She moved closer and cuddled up against his bare chest. A shiver ran down her spine. God, this really felt good. He was so warm and comfortable.

"Thank you." she whispered. He just kissed the top of her head and smiled like an idiot. There were millions of butterflies flying around like crazy in his stomach.

Elliot woke up with Olivia still snuggled up against his chest. He knew she was awake and he was sure she knew he was too but both of them wanted to enjoy the moment for a little bit longer before reality will kick in again.

He caressed the back of her neck gently.

It was such a great way to wake up but suddenly there was a knock at the door. Liv jumped away from him.

"Oh no. Can you open the door? I need to get dressed in case it's Kathy again."

He looked at her confused.

"How did you get up so fast? I can still feel you lying on my chest."

"El, please. Put on a shirt and open the damn door." she said pleading while getting dressed in record time.

"I hate whoever is on the other side of this door." he said grumpily.

Liv couldn't help but smile.

"Good morning. Do you think Liv is up for a morning run?" Sarah asked happily as soon as he opened the door.

"You serious?" he said annoyed. She looked at him confused.

"Uh, yes." she said insecurely. "You think she doesn't want to? I just thought because she went on a run with you at the same time that it was okay to.." she stopped talking and looked down at her feet uneasily.

Elliot felt bad. His daughter didn't do anything wrong and he made her feel insecure and unwanted.

"I am sorry honey. I am sure she won't mind you coming by this early at all. I'll go ask her, okay?" he said smiling at her.

She looked up with a huge smile on her face.

"Thank you, dad."

But at this moment Liv stepped out of the bedroom, dressed in her running gear.

"Give me a few minutes to brush my teeth and to get ready." she said to Sarah before disappearing in the bathroom.

"Okay." Sarah said happily.

Elliot told Sarah to wait before he disappeared in the bathroom too.

"How could you be like this to her? You made her feel so bad." Liv said accusingly. Elliot looked at her guiltily.

"I know. I am sorry. I just didn't want to... Well, we were pretty comfortable before she showed up." She smiled at him.

"We really were."

She walked towards him, rose herself on tiptoes and gave him a short peck on the lips. He smiled from ear to ear when she left the bathroom.

An hour and a half later, Liv stepped out of the shower. The run with Sarah was really fun and everytime she thought about Elliot and their kiss last night she started to smile. He made her feel so good but she also knew that this could go terribly wrong. He was her freaking partner. Her best friend. How could she risk all that?

But then she realized that she would ruin everything, whatever everything was, if she didn't stop the thinking and worrying. She needed to start to enjoy it without thinking too much about what could go wrong but that was something she wasn't really good at. Overthinking and running from her problems were her specialties.

She tiptoed back to the bedroom silently. Elliot did go back to sleep after she and Sarah left for their run and Liv had decided to shower before waking him.

She stood next to the bed watching him sleep when suddenly she had an idea on how to wake him.

She crawled over the bed carefully and kneeled down next to him. Then she wringed out her wet hair over his bare chest.

He jolted up not knowing what was going on. Liv started to laugh although she felt a tiny little bit guilty for waking him like this. He turned towards her and slowly started to realize what she had just done.

He got on top of her and pinned her down to the bed. His sudden proximity and the body contact made her stop laughing. She looked him deep in the eyes, not sure about what was going to happen next.

"You know there are nicer ways to wake someone, right?"

"I guess so." she said smiling at him cheerfully. He couldn't help but smile too. She was so damn cute.

His eyes wandered over her body. She wore nothing but a towel wrapped around her body, with her underwear underneath. Damn, he really wanted to pull at the end of the towel.

"Eyes up here." she suddenly said.

He felt caught but the smile on her face told him that she liked him checking her out. But suddenly the look on her face changed.

"We should really get going. I don't want to be late for breakfast." she said trying to get up.

He knew she thought of Kathy. She didn't want to give Kathy another reason to lash out on her. But he didn't want to let go of her. He wanted to kiss her, to hold her, just be with her.

He felt the change in the way he looked at her over the last few days but after the kiss yesterday and the cuddling in bed he really couldn't deny it anymore, he wanted her. All of her. He didn't want to be just her partner or best friend anymore. He wanted more.

"El, please let go of me." she said pleadingly. He moved away and let go of her arms.

"Liv, I.." She interrupted him.

"Please, don't." she said grabbing her clothes and walking out of the room.

He let out a deep sigh. Of course she was acting like this and he couldn't even blame her. Kathy was giving her a hard time already, if she finds out that they have kissed, things would get wild.

He really needed to talk to Kathy. She had to back off. They were getting a divorce and he really wanted this to work with Olivia. He could feel the sparks between them. She had to feel the same, right?

Olivia reentered the room fully dressed. Elliot was still sitting on the bed at the same spot, he was on when she had left a few minutes ago.

She knew he was hurt by the way she acted but she couldn't get Kathy out of her mind and what it would mean if they let this happen. Their whole partnership, their friendship would change. Their lives would change drastically.

It felt so good being close to him, kissing him but it scared the shit out of her. The feelings that rose inside her were overwhelming and she couldn't really deal with them.

"Are you okay?" she asked insecurely.

He looked up at her, surprised to see her standing in front of him.

"Uh, yeah. Didn't realize you were back." he said while getting up. She looked at him uncomfortably.

"Should I wait here or ...?" she asked weirdly.

He didn't want her to feel like this with him. Never, not even at the beginning of their partnership, was she this insecure of what to say or do but talking to her now would only put pressure on her and that's the last thing he wanted.

"Uh, you can go if you want but I'll only need a few minutes."

He walked past her to the bathroom.

"I'll wait then." she said quietly.

Damn, why was she acting like this? She never felt insecure and uncomfortable around him before. She took a deep breath, trying to ease the tension a bit. Get your shit together Olivia!

Not even ten minutes later they were sitting at the breakfast table with the others.

They were both so deep in their thoughts that Sarah asked, "Did something happen?" They looked at her surprised.

"No, why would you think that?" Elliot said.

"Well, you are both really quiet. And Liv was totally different when we were at the beach this morning."

"Maybe going to bed late last night and getting up early for our run was a bit much. I guess I'm just tired." Liv said smiling.

"Did you have a good day yesterday? We haven't seen each other at all." Sarah said pouting. "And what did you do last night? Why didn't you get much sleep."

Liv started to laugh.

"So many questions, alright so my day was really nice. I spent most of it at the beach where I met, Claude and Paul, a really sweet couple. We had dinner together and afterwards we went to a dance night here at the hotel. We danced and had a lot of fun. Did I answer all of your questions?"

Sarah blushed slightly and nodded.

Liv smiled at her comfortingly.

The rest of the morning went by pretty eventless and to everyone's surprise Kathy didn't say one condescending thing to Olivia.

Maybe Kurt's suggestion that they could spend tomorrow with the kids only, made her forget that her hating Olivia was the most important thing in her life.

Liv didn't really care why Kathy let her be today, she just enjoyed it.

Liv tried to keep her distance to Elliot, firstly because she really didn't want to test Kathy's new attitude towards her and secondly she didn't know how to act next to him. Everything was way too irritating.