AN: I know people have been waiting for an update. I'm sorry to keep you hanging after that kiss (not sorry really). Thanks for reading!

EOEOEOEOEO

Olivia kissed him softly, but there was nothing tentative about it. He was so damned surprised, it took him a second to register what was happening, but then she was sliding her hands up around his neck and he didn't waste another moment. He slid his right hand through her hair and pulled her closer, and it was mere seconds later when he tilted her head and deepened the kiss. The feel of her mouth against his was more amazing than he could have possibly imagined, and he could feel the years of want fueling their kisses.

Olivia felt her body flush as Elliot kissed her hungrily, and when he slid his tongue inside her mouth, she felt it in her core. Elliot was relentless against her mouth and she understood now how women were kissed senseless…were weak in the knees. A few more minutes of this and she was going to be begging him to take her to bed.

She wanted to run her hands down his body…feel the muscles in his chest and arms…touch him in all the ways she had longed to.

Olivia was pulled back to the reality of here and now when she felt Elliot's fingers gripping her shirt near her waist. His fingertips grazed her skin as he wrapped the material in his hand and she shuddered, her breath quickening. She knew now how explosive this could be…would be… if they truly allowed themselves to give in completely to the temptation that had been building over the years. No man had ever made her feel like this with just a few heated kisses. She wanted to fall…wanted to take…and be taken.

Olivia moaned into his mouth and she felt his fingers dig into her scalp and his body stiffen slightly. In the next moment, he was pulling away and she wanted to cry at the sudden loss of his mouth against hers.

"El." She rasped.

Elliot quickly dropped his hands from her head…let go of the grip on her shirt…and stared back at her. His eyes trailed down to her mouth. Her lips were red and swollen from his kisses. He took in her heavy breathing and her peaked nipples were poking through the thin material of her shirt…al evidence that told him she wanted him as much as he wanted her. But he also saw the bruise…the black eye. All stark reminders that this wasn't the time. He was taking advantage of her vulnerability right now, and he didn't want this to happen this way.

"Olivia." He whispered. "We can't."

Olivia could scarcely believe what she was hearing, and then the anger set in. She had been such an idiot, thinking he wanted the same things as her. Humiliation washed over her. She had invited him into her bed, and she thought that the subsequent hugs and hand-holding, had unleashed something for them. Had started something they had refused to acknowledge up to that point. But looking back on it now, she realized it was nothing more than comfort. One friend being there for another during a hard time.

And then she had kissed him. And he had kissed him back. But Christ, he was a man after all. He'd given in briefly to the physical need…and she'd read too much into it.

Olivia took a few steps back, her embarrassment complete. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have…" She turned around and headed around the other side of the couch. The past 24 hours were catching up with her and she could feel the dam was about to break. And she was not about to break down in front of Elliot goddamned Stabler. "You should just go." She said, and she could already hear the crack in her voice. She made it into her bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

Elliot stood in the middle of the living room, wondering what the hell had just happened. One minute he was kissing Olivia and feeling on top of the world, and the next she had barricaded herself in her room. He had heard the bathroom door slam shut after her bedroom door, and he had no doubt she had locked herself in there.

He was such a fucking idiot. He had never been good with words. He had only meant to tell her that he didn't want this to happen right not, but she, being Olivia, had taken it as rejection. She was most certainly beating herself up right now for kissing him and he wanted to scream at the world that had made her believe she deserved so little. That made her thing she was so unlovable and undeserving.

He should have thought more carefully about his words before he said anything, but again, their inability to communicate complicated everything. Now he was torn about what to do. If she was upset, she wouldn't want him to see her, so his mind told him that he should leave her alone for a little while and give her some time to calm down. But his heart couldn't bear for her to sit in the other room and feel rejected when he was so close by and could let her know just how wrong she was.

His heart won.

He didn't even knock on her bedroom door. He opened with and walked right in, and saw immediately that she wasn't in the room, just as he had guessed. In two strides, he was at the bathroom door. He knocked quickly, but didn't stop to wait for a response. "Liv, I'm coming in."

When he walked through the doorway, he saw Olivia sitting on top of the closed toilet lid with her head in her hands. The second he was inside, she lifted her head, and he could see her tear streaked cheek. Her black eye looked horrible from the strain of crying and he felt like a grade A prick at causing her more pain.

"Get the hell out." Olivia said angry that he had barged in with no regard for her privacy.

"No." Elliot said calmly.

"I swear to God…" Olivia said trying to summon a threatening tone even though her voice still bore the trace of emotion.

"I'm not leaving until you hear what I have to say." Elliot said. There was no turning back now. He had to let her know how he felt and end all this uncertainty between them.

Olivia stood up and tried to push past him. She didn't want to hear what he had to say. She wanted to crawl in bed, pull up the covers and go to sleep. For a week if possible. But before she could get past him, he had wrapped a hand around her arm, stopping her in place.

"Stop."

Olivia looked down at his hand and then back up at him. "Get your hands off me." She said, the emotion gone from her voice now as her eyes narrowed and moved up to meet his.

Elliot didn't want to hold her against her will, but he didn't know how to make her listen to him. "Olivia." He said as he dropped his hand. "Just listen to me."

Olivia walked into her bedroom and pulled back the comforter. "Just go El." She was still feeling mortally embarrassed and she didn't honestly know how she was going to be able to face him going forward. She had thrown herself at him…

Christ.

How had her life gone to hell in such a short time?

"Olivia!" Elliot's voice was more demanding than he had intended. "Will you just stop for a minute and listen to me?" He didn't know how they had gone from kissing so passionately five minutes ago, to him yelling in her bedroom now. He tried to soften his tone a little…but still louder than he wanted so he made sure he had her attention.

Olivia didn't turn around, but she stopped moving, the blanket still grasped loosely in her hand.

Elliot didn't want to give her a chance to speak so he kept talking. "I shouldn't have…"

"You didn't do anything." Olivia interrupted. "I kissed you. I'm sorry, I don't know what I was…"

"Christ Olivia. Just stop!" Elliot said in a frustrated tone.

Olivia turned around to face him now. "No, this is my fault. Can we just forget about it?" She knew it would be nearly impossible for her but she had to try to salvage their partnership.

"What?" Was she honestly sorry that she had kissed him? Now he was confused. "Is that what you want?" The minute the words were out of his mouth, he wished he could take them back. The look on her face changed, despite her best efforts to keep it neutral, and he had his confirmation.

Elliot took a step forward. "Liv." He looked back and forth at her and he could almost see her tense, in anticipation of what he was going to say. "I need you to listen to me." He said softly. He wanted to get closer, but he didn't want to spook her any more than he was probably already going to. "I'm glad you kissed me." He held out his hands, as if to keep her focused on his words. "We've both been ignoring this thing between us. I've been telling myself that I just needed some kind of indication that you felt the same way about me that I felt about you." He saw a break in her expression but before she could say anything…start denying…he risked taking another step closer. "But that's bullshit. I was just too afraid to tell you because even though I was pretty sure you felt the same thing, I didn't want to risk losing you. So I let us hang in this limbo."

Olivia's mouth opened slightly. She knew she should say something but she was mesmerized by Elliot's outpouring of emotion.

"You were the brave one." He sighed. "God Liv, when you kissed me…" He shook his head slightly and he could feel a small smile on his lips. "It was everything I ever wanted." He took a chance then and closed the gap between them. He took her hands in his and smiled as he looked down at their clasped hands. "It's all I want." He whispered. He lifted his gaze and met her eyes and he could see new tears brimming on her lower lashes. "I want you Olivia. All of you." He leaned in and kissed her lightly. "I love you." He kissed her again. "And I think you love me too."

Olivia stood and stared at him, trying to process what his words. Two minute ago, she had been beating herself up in the bathroom over her stupidity and now Elliot was standing in front of her, baring his heart and soul. Elliot loves me.

Elliot squeezed her hands. "Tell me you love me." He prodded gently, still wearing a small smile on his face.

"I love you." She whispered.

Elliot broke into a grin then. His heart swelled. Those three little words were like music to his ears. He saw a few tears break free from the lower lashes in her right eye and he lifted one hand to swipe away her tears. "You have to stop crying." He said softly. "It breaks my heart."

"Then you need to stop talking." Olivia said, breaking into a small smile herself.

Elliot pulled her into an embrace and buried his face in her hair. Olivia slid her arms around his waist and let herself melt into his body.

She still wasn't sure exactly how they'd gotten to this point, but right now, she didn't care. She could scarcely believe they had made it to this point and she wasn't going to question it. There was something that was still bothering her though, and she pulled out of his embrace slightly to look back up at him. "So, when we were kissing, you pulled away. You told me you couldn't…"

Elliot slid his hands up her arms until he was cupping her face gently in his hands, mindful of her bruised cheek. "You ran off before I could finish." He looked back and forth between her eyes. "If you kept kissing me…if I kept kissing you…" He shook his head and took in a deep breath. "I wanted to lift you up and carry you in this bedroom…"

His voice was a low growl and Olivia could feel it hit her squarely in her lower body. "I wanted that too." She whispered, her embarrassment gone. He wasn't holding anything back, so she wasn't going to either. "I still want that."

"I do too. Of course I do." His lips brushed lightly over hers. "But we need to take this slow Liv."

"It's not going to be slow." She whispered against his mouth. She knew that once the fire was ignited, there would be no holding back.

Eliot grunted. He could feel the impact of her words on his body. The things this woman did to him. He knew he was in trouble. He pulled his mouth back slightly. "You're hurt. You're in the middle of a mess with Amy. Tucker. It's not the time. You need to heal."

"I'm fine."

Elliot wanted to laugh as she spewed out her famous line. "Olivia. Listen to me. I want you. God, do I want you. But that's not my first priority." His traitorous body was telling another story, but he was serious. "Let's take this slowly."

Olivia ran her hands up and pushed his arms aside, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling his mouth to hers. She kissed him deeply and she felt him acquiesce as he pulled her body up against his. His hands met in the small of her back and she pressed her hips against him, soliciting a small moan from him.

Elliot could feel her breasts pressing into his chest and he moaned against when she pushed her hips into his. He had dreamt about this for so long and his mind was fast forwarding to lying on the bed beneath him. He felt himself getting hard and he knew she must be able to feel him pressed against her. He raked one of his hands through her hair and she let out a small sound. It took him a second to realize that he'd snagged the stitches in her head and he stopped abruptly, pulling his mouth from hers.

"Liv. Oh God."

"It's ok." Olivia tried to pull his mouth back to hers, but Elliot held her by the shoulders.

"This is exactly what I'm talking about."

Olivia closed her eyes and let out a breath. She knew Elliot was right but the way he kissed her made her want to do all kinds of naughty things. "OK, we'll take it slow." She said, knowing he wasn't going to relent. She ran her hands up his chest. "But when I'm better…" She gave him a sly smile. "Well, I just hope you can keep up."