Can't seem to hold you like I want to
So I can feel you in my arms
Nobody's gonna come and save you
We pulled too many false alarms

-John Mayer (Slow Dancing in a Burning Room)

It was like getting out of the city just made all the tension worse, at least for her. This case had taken them upstate. What was supposed to be a quick up and back turned into having to stay overnight because they needed to track down a witness who was proving hard to find. Without talking to this person, the case would fall apart. The local cops were all out looking for him, but so far nothing. Dodds and Cutter had all but ordered them to stay put until the cops found him. So, that's how she found herself in this hotel room with him. And it felt like the walls were closing in.

Ever since that night in her office, where she had been accused of being disenchanted, she was finding it harder and harder to maintain a line of any kind of decorum with him. It was the first time he had called her on whatever this was between them. She found she was fine as long as they ignored it. But he had decided to stop ignoring it that night in her office. He basically called her on the carpet and she had no clue what to do at this point.

She could fight it on her turf. In her office. In his office. In the courthouse and even just on the streets of Manhattan. There was always something else to concentrate on, focus on, to distract her. A call or the noise from the city or some other pressing matter. But here, out of the chaos and din of the city, there was nothing but him, her and this tiny hotel room. When she looked out the window, all she saw was dark and quiet. Plus, the reflection of him sitting on the bed, jacket and vest off, sleeves rolled up made her brain stop working. She was really going to have to stop looking out the window. She willed her email to ding or her phone to ring, but nothing. Noah was fast asleep. All of the squad were in a holding pattern until this witness crawled out of whatever hole he was hiding in.

She rolled her head around, willing to the tension to disappear. She walked over and looked at their bags next to each other on the floor, like they were on a getaway together or something. They had both been burned enough to keep a 'go' bag in their offices. Thank God. Not that it was helping her frame of mind right now. She found herself wondering what was in that bag. She groaned loudly in her head and grabbed her bag. She had to do something. "I'm going to grab a shower" she said, refusing to look at him. But that damn reflection in the window. She watched him drop the pen and legal pad on the bed and nod.

"Sure. How about I try to figure out food?" She just nodded and almost ran into the bathroom, locking the door quickly. She leaned her forehead against the closed door, wondering how the hell she was going to survive the night.

A long, hot shower did very little to settle her mind and nerves. She wasted as much time as she could in the bathroom before she knew she had to go back out there. She looked at herself in the mirror, yoga pants and tank top, wishing simultaneously that she had either something that completely covered her up or the black negligee in the back of her drawer that she had never used. She finally took a deep breath and turned off the light to the bathroom, taking a step out into the main room.

"I found a place that sells burgers and fries down the street. Hope that's ok" he said, but she barely heard him. She was pretty sure she had stopped breathing as he stood there in sweatpants and a t-shirt, barefoot, mussed hair. The way the t-shirt stretched across his back had her thinking about what it would be like to scratch her nails across his back. She was going to need another shower. A cold one.

"Liv" he said and she looked up, face immediately flushing. That damn dark window and the reflection. He had seen her reaction to him. He turned slowly, a slight smirk on his face. "Need something?"

It was the way his voice that gravely growl thing that broke her. She threw the towel in her hand down on the floor, crossing the room to him. She knew she caught him off guard as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, kissing him roughly. But, being as smooth and quick on his feet as he always was, he caught on and was very soon reciprocating in time and then some.

She placed her hands on his chest and pushed him back onto one of the beds. He leaned back on his hands and smiled up at her as she moved to stand between his legs. "The food?" he asked.

"Later" she replied, straddling him as she sat down on his lap.

She bit her lip as she watched him retrieve the probably cold burgers and fries. He smiled at her as he pulled his boxers up and crawled back into bed with her, spreading the food out between them.

She smiled back at him as she popped a cold fry in her mouth. He stared at her, hard.

"So that was…"

"Inevitable and amazing" she replied, scooting toward him slightly. Now that she had touched him, kissed him, gotten to fulfill the fantasy of scratching her nails over his very muscular back, she wasn't sure she would be able to stay out of his personal space.

"And a one-time thing?" he asked, seemingly nervous as he did. She leaned in and kissed him gently and tenderly, trying to convey what she was thinking through that kiss.

"No. I'm not sure I could ever unring that bell."

He smiled widely and brightly, leaning back against the headboard, pulling her into his side, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. "Me neither".