Disclaimer: The characters used belong to NBC/Dick Wolf - lucky devils.

A/N - This probably should have earned an M rating but I kept it on the T side - I hope. Thank you for all of your responses/reviews. The tension has finally broken - ENJOY!

The Dread of Morning

Olivia's POV

I can't breathe, and somehow I seem ok with that. I can't pull my lips away from yours as we playfully trade control. Your hands are on me, touching me in ways that make me lose a part of myself in you. I gasp as you pull away and I look into your eyes as our heaving chests brush back and forth - the teasing touch serving to only further inflame our mutual desire. I feel the solid warmth of your palm against my chest and grunt in surprise at the unexpected strength that is displayed when your actions force my body to give into the pull of gravity as I fall back on my own couch. Your legs are on either side of mine as I find my mouth reclaimed by yours.

Memories crash into me as they race through my mind giving me a glimpse of shared looks, shared touches - late nights working on cases - has it all boiled down to this one moment?

I feel your insistent fingers sliding under my shirt, tugging up, pulling the garment away from my body and I raise my arms to allow my own disrobement. I feel shy, for the first time in a long time, as I watch your eyes roam over my body. I know I am nowhere near as beautiful as you are, and my skin bears the marks of the danger I have allowed myself to be placed into for the majority of my life. I watch your eyes carefully, reading your facial features - looking at you more closely than I have ever looked at a lover, simply because your opinion matters that much more than theirs ever did. I feel the walls I have placed between you and I break, crumbling, fading into the past as you whisper my name and capture my lips with yours, drowning me in your skillful persuasion.

Alex's POV

I have found a new addiction - the taste and feel of Olivia Benson. You are surprisingly passive and even more beautiful than my heated mind has imagined - and I have imagined. I have undressed you a thousand times with my eyes - in the squad room as I listened to you debrief me and your captain on our latest case - on the other side of an interrogation as you question suspect after suspect and on the stand - struggling to pay attention to the questions my opposing counsel is asking. Now, as I sit astride you, your upper body bared to my eyes I realize my fantasies were woefully inadequate and all I can say is your name before leaning in again to taste you again.

You remain passive only a few moments longer as I deepen the kiss, closing my lips over the firm muscle of your tongue - sucking slowly as my body begins to throb painfully. I gasp against your mouth when I feel your strong hands grip my ass, roughly pushing my body down on yours and I can't fight the moan that escapes my newly freed lips when you press your mouth against my neck - are your lips this talented everywhere?

Olivia's POV

Your scent surrounds me as I breath you in. I fight to not voice my own pleasure as your body undulates on top of mine. I close my eyes as I move my mouth from the base of your throat up to the silky spot below your ear - loving the way your body twitches against my own as I scrape my teeth over that spot, the breathy way you moan my name making my body ache for more. My fingers shake as I slowly unbutton the soft blouse that hides you from my eyes. I feel your hands covering my own and lean back to watch you take over - my eyes glued to the slow sure movement of your hands as each stroke of your fingers reveals more and more of you to me.

And you don't stop there.

I find my gaze locked to yours - I never knew how much heat you could convey with a simple look. You smile that shy rare smile that seems to be just for me as you reach behind your back and I feel the air leaving my body in a rush as you slip the straps of your bra down and I get my first look at a sight I can only hope few have seen.

Alex's POV

The possessive way your eyes roam over my body makes your look predatory and it is a complete turn on. The thought amuses me - a characteristic I can't stand in a man is one I expect and accept in you. This seems so slow, too slow but I don't want to rush it and I can feel that you don't either. Who knows when we will ever get this chance again.

I think I moaned before you even laid your hands on me. The heat of your skin against mine, the mixture of soft strength combined with the rough reminder of the physical demands of your job surround my aching flesh and it is in this moment that I know I am lost to you. My career means nothing, my familial expectations fade and all I care about revolves around you, around me, around this.

I think you sense my surrender because the hot wet heat of your mouth is replacing your hands, your lips surround and tug at one of my hardened nipples as your hands trail lower, teasing the bared skin of my midriff before playing with the snap of my jeans.

Olivia's POV

You've scarcely touched me but I find myself absorbed in you, pleasing you, touching you and I know my own pleasure can wait. I press my face harder into the yielding flesh, taking more of you in my mouth as your back arches - almost forcing my compliance. Your hands grip my shoulders, your voice breathless above me as you voice your satisfaction in everything I do. I use my teeth on you and you moan my name loudly. I am absorbed in you, by you and I can admit that I will never feel this way about anyone else. How can I ever give myself to another when I have had perfection?

I feel your hand covering my own, forcing it to turn, pressing it to the apex of your thighs, forcing me to cup and feel the heat between your legs. If you are this hot through denim… I groan at the thought of what awaits me beneath the coarse fabric and I feel the rush of arousal between my own legs.

I am driven by instinct, I am driven by need to feel you beneath me and I don't know where I found enough strength to lift both you and I off the couch but next I know, your legs are wrapped tightly around me and I am moving to my darkened bedroom.

I am hardly gentle as I press you down amongst my tangled sheets, my hands tugging, pulling, peeling the denim from you. Your scent assaults me and I shake as I divest you of the last barrier the covers the place that needs my touch the most.

Alex's POV

Even in the dark, I can see the lust and love in your eyes as they roam over me. Your voice huskily telling me how much you want me, how much you have waited for this moment, how beautiful I am, how perfect you find me. It occurs to me that you are still dressed for the most part and I don't want to reach absolution alone. Somehow I find the strength to sit up and reacquaint myself with the feel of your lips on mine - my hands restlessly tugging at your remaining garments. I find myself pinned back against the bed, my legs trapped by the strength of yours as you allow the bared tips of your breast to trail against my own - pride is the only thing that keeps me from begging you to fuck me.

I feel my eyes fly open when I feel the loss of your warm body against mine and I sit up to see you shedding your remaining garments. You catch my eye and I find my lips curving in an amused smirk when you speed things along, viciously kicking your discarded jeans and panties across the floor before rejoining me.

I lay back as you lean forward, your warm breath washing over me as you ask once more if this is what I want, assuring me we can still stop at any time. The sweetness of the gesture causes my heart to ache with emotion - the pounding of my heart threatening to force the three words that sum up the way I feel about you from my lips. I fight the urge for confession as I crush our lips together, positioning my thigh between yours, pressing up against you - amazed at the obvious evidence of arousal - amazed that I can do this to you with only the barest of touches. I swallow your moan in our kiss before you pull away and give me what I have wanted all along - the feeling of you in me, me in you and the crashing waves of tension finally released as you force me to reach peak after peak even after I could have sworn my body could take no more. I fall back on the bed, cradled in your strong embrace as I struggle back down to earth.

Olivia's POV

I never thought I would see anything more beautiful than the pale curves cradled in my arms but watching Alexandra Cabot lose herself, watching her come… words can scarcely describe and seem woefully inadequate to capture the look, the sound, the taste… and I am no poet so I won't even try - but I wish I was and I wish I could. That memory will forever be seared in my mind when I think of you. I find myself smiling before pressing a soft kiss to the top of your head.

Tonight will be the first time I have ever let my body rest against my lover's. The first time I have not shot out of bed after sex, the first time I have not rushed into a shower to wipe away the evidence of a night spent with yet another person I will never see again and the first time I have never wanted to see morning come. The night air feels cool against my sweat dampened skin and I feel you shiver against me. I reach down and grip the edge of my tangled sheets - pulling the thin cotton over our bodies. The heaviness of your limbs and deep breaths tell me you have succumbed to the exhaustion I drove you to. My own eyes are heavy but I can't miss a single moment of tonight. I pull you closer and try not to think of how badly I will miss this in the morning.