Bittersweet

Reid and Prentiss

Chapter Two

May 2012

He hadn't planned on spending the night with her when Reid had walked Emily up to her hotel room. His brain didn't really work that way- thinking he would make love to a woman he hadn't ever even kissed before.

But their first kiss had led to another and another and another. A single kiss had simply not been enough to quench the desire sparking between them. The feel of her soft lips against his did things to his body and mind: left him shaking and sweaty, weak and needy.

He hadn't known a kiss could hit him on such a deep level until he had leaned over to give her a tender kiss goodbye.

That goodbye kiss hadn't been planned by him either when they had left the wedding reception together. Though Reid had known, as they had made their way toward her room, that Emily would be leaving in the morning to work in Europe for an undetermined amount of time and this may be his last chance to kiss her for months.

Still he had only asked her out for a first date earlier that day, after years of being strictly good friends, and Reid wouldn't want to act presumptuous or appear overly eager. He was still getting used to the fact that they both could admit they'd like to spend an evening together that could be deemed romantic in nature.

That fact was surprising enough to set him back on his heels. Things like that didn't happen to men like Reid. He didn't get to date a woman so gorgeous, so brilliant, who knew him inside and out: a dream woman.

The last time that had happened Gideon had prodded JJ into giving Reid a pity date to a football game. Sure, there had been other women in his life and some had even made it into his bed since that date years before but none of them came close to being the kind of friend to him that Emily already was, and the kind of woman who could understand his job, his history, his personality and feelings like Emily could.

No woman Reid had every dated fit him as well as Emily already did.

And the thought that he had asked her out on a whim and she smiled a sweet smile and replied "Really? Just us? You don't know how much I'd honestly love that," and he knew, like she knew, that they weren't talking about a just friends outing this time around, made him excited about his future in a way he couldn't remember ever being before.

He wasn't usually all that optimistic about his future. Now anything seemed possible.

She changed everything for him. Just as last night had changed everything between them. Now her nude body was pressed against his side as she slept in the early dawn hours, while Reid lay there just listening to her breathe, knowing that it wouldn't be long until they were kissing goodbye for real.

XXXXXXXXX

She woke up to the feel of Reid rhythmically caressing her scalp, his fingers buried into the nape of her hair. Lightly moaning at the pleasurable sensation, she stretched to work out some kinks. As she did so she rubbed her naked body against his. Her leg was tucked over his leg and her arm wrapped around his body.

Emily hadn't slept curled up to a man in decades. She was the type who kept to her side of the bed after sex. But with Reid it had all been different.

Every moment was precious because they probably wouldn't get anymore together for a good, long while.

Soon she would be on a plane heading to Europe to work a case with Clyde. Two days ago that had seemed like the thing she needed to do to pay back a debt to him but now it was something that was quietly tearing her heart apart, because she had just discovered this lovely shift in her relationship with Reid. It felt so natural and perfectly right that she hated to leave and wonder if it would be here waiting for her when she returned.

Blinking her still sleepy eyes, she focused on his face for the first time that morning. Seeing slight traces of sadness etched there, her heart squeezed painfully in her chest. Stroking his stubbly cheek, she whispered "I will come back. I swear it," before pressing a kiss to his jaw.

He took her into his arms, rolling slightly toward her so that their bodies were more meshed together. She delighted in the feeling of his lithe, tight, lightly muscled frame against her softer yet still toned body.

Dropping his forehead onto her shoulder, he deeply breathed in her scent before whispering her name "Emily."

She stroked his back and kissed along his shoulder until he moved his lips to connect with hers. Pushing her onto her back, he rose over her and their eyes held for a long moment. When their lips met again they started to make love, knowing it would be the last time for a long time.

XXXXXXXXX

"Please don't offer to take me to the airport, okay?" Emily asked Reid, as she brushed her hair.

"Okay," he answered, in a tone that told her that he hated the fact she was still taking this assignment after everything they had shared in the last twenty four hours.

"It's just another case. Something I gotta do. Let's not make it a big deal or problem between us, all right?"

"It doesn't matter what I say, Emily-"

"That's not true."

"You're going. All I can do is deal with it."

She set down the brush and turned away from the mirror to face him. "You're right. I'm going no matter what. But I'd rather go knowing I have your full support."

"You do. I just hate that no one I trust is going to be there to have your back."

"I trust Clyde."

"I suppose I have to let that be enough for me then. I'll have to trust your instincts."

"Like you do whenever we're in the field together."

"But this time I won't be there. I would feel better about this if I was."

She smiled slightly. "Well if you were going with me then we wouldn't have just had awesome goodbye sex so really think about that line of logic all the way through before you commit to it."

He smirked back but the smile didn't reach his eyes. She knew how hard goodbyes were for him. She only hoped that he knew how hard this was on her also.

The morning was flying by way too fast. If she didn't leave in the next twenty minutes she might not make it through airport security in time to catch her flight.

They had both had showers already and eaten a breakfast from room service, lazily chatting about news in the paper that Reid had bought downstairs when he went looking for coffee, not able to wait the twenty minutes that room service would take to bring some.

It was a lovely morning, the type that Emily rarely ever had enjoyed with a man. She usually would leave a guy's bed and not stick around for breakfast or tell him he had to go from her bed because she had a busy day ahead of herself. She didn't want the guy sticking around and thinking they were a serious couple when she had no time in her life for something like that.

Her career had been her life for so long. When she finally started to realize it might be a problem that she hadn't stumbled along the guy who she wanted to stick around, that jumping from dangerous job to even more dangerous jobs every few years didn't lend itself well to long term love affairs, she was already forty.

Forty might be the new thirty but still a part of her had figured it was too late to fall in love again- especially considering her work schedule and horrible luck with men. If she couldn't figure it out in twenty five years of dating, when would she ever?

Yet this was happening now, with one of her best friends, and nothing about it felt awkward, forced or wrong in any way. It all seemed as close to heaven as she had ever been.

Walking over to where Reid was sitting in a chair, Emily said "When I get home we'll go to the opera and then afterwards we'll have dessert."

The way she said dessert made it clear she wanted more steamy, sensual, mind blowing sex with this boy genius. Sitting down in his lap, she wrapped one arm around his neck and blew on his ear.

"Sound good?" she asked.

His face got slightly red and he seemed speechless as she watched his mind work, imagining her homecoming, and then he turned and looked into her eyes and said "Anything with you sounds good to me."

And that is why she loved him.