A/N: New chapter time. Butterflied chat incoming. Eeeeep. Oh, and a little smut time :P Please let me know what you think of the story so far :)

A huge thank you to my current Pat reon supporters – Nat, Mrs Crabby, Dbackfan, AliceC, ChristineS, DawnS, Jillian, IngridT, Tracer85, NiniZ and NancyB.

Always my gracious thanks to calim for the beta and suggestions.

Note: Rating change to M just to be careful for smutty content. Please read responsibly.

On we go…

Chapter 18

Sara tried her best not to let her request sound as pleading as she wanted it to. But she knew better than anyone you would not get Gil Grissom to talk to you unless he wanted to. She just prayed inside he would let this out. Because if he didn't, it would feel like 2004 all over again.

She held her breath as his lips twitched and then his mouth opened. He was trying, that much she knew, but alas nothing came out. Maybe her taking the lead would help.

Reaching for his hands as they rested atop her thighs, she gently squeezed.

"You know," she began, "there's something that I never told you."

His brow pinched, throwing at her that cute, confused look she'd oddly come to adore.

"And," she continued, her head tipping from side to side, "we never talked about the case afterwards. About Debbie Marlin or Vincent Lurie. Hell, we barely even spoke to each other during it." She leaned a little closer again, looking right into his eyes. "I know why."

Grissom swallowed, his chest heaving. "Why?" he whispered.

Managing a little smile, Sara squeezed his hands again. Good. He was willing to talk about it. Very good.

"Because there were feelings in there you weren't prepared to do anything about. You were afraid of where it might lead or what it could do to your reputation. And thinking about it now makes you feel regretful, disappointed and maybe even a little ashamed of telling me. Those thoughts, in all honesty, used to scare the hell out of you."

He blinked through a bemused expression, but she continued.

"You remember when you and Jim interviewed Vincent Lurie? The very last time when he walked out the door without being charged."

He frowned again but slowly nodded.

"Well, I was there. I heard everything that was said."

His eyes widened, a look of shock very much hitting his face, lips moving nervously.

"You… heard what I said?"

Oh, yes. He was shocked all right.

Sara nodded. "Yes. Everything."

Grissom well and truly didn't know what to say at that point.

"My next shift, I was going to hand in my resignation," Sara admitted. "After all, as I've told you before, you we're the reason I moved to Vegas. And, after hearing what you said, it was as if you were actually confirming we'd never have a chance. That you weren't prepared to take that risk. Because you were talking about me, right?"

Swallowing hard, Grissom remained quiet.

"I knew as soon as I saw Debbie on that slab why you'd been acting so strangely throughout that case," Sara continued. "Towards me. Why you had that weird look when we all arrived at the scene the first time. It made you admit things that you'd tried so hard to keep buried deep inside. And, now all of that has resurfaced, it's making you relive it all over again and the choice you made."

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

Sara's eye twitched. "Why?"

Pulling his hands free, he wrapped his arms around her, fingers entwining. Then he let out a shuddering sigh.

"For putting you through that. For… being a coward. For not being able to..." he trailed off.

His trailing off was okay. Sara understood.

Pouting and then smirking, Sara dipped her head, sliding her lips over his. The slow and loving kiss that followed made her feel warm inside. When she pulled back, she playfully tapped him on the nose.

"You most certainly are not a coward, Gil Grissom," she said, "and I would have loved to have spent the past 20 plus years with you. But, everything happens for a reason. I believe that now. Back then, not so much. But we can't live in the past. And that means you, too."

Pausing a moment, she gently rubbed his cheek.

"We've both made terrible decisions when it comes to our relationship, but we agreed it's about where we are now not where we were. And you letting this lunatic influence your feelings about us now or any of your past decisions is not something we should allow him to do. We've come way too far for that, and this bastard does not deserve that kind of heartache from us."

Swallowing again, he nodded, hands gently gliding up her back. "Okay."

Sara studied him closely, her eyes working over each and every delicate feature of his face that she adored so much. From the frown marks on his forehead, his glistening blue eyes, down to the dimple in his chin.

"Promise me?"

His tongue poked out, another little quirk that she adored, and he gave her the smallest of smiles.

"I'll do my best."

"Okay," she agreed, dropping a quick kiss to his lips. "Good enough."

Swinging herself from his lap, she held out her hand.

"Come back to bed." Her eyebrows rose suggestively at him. "You can show me why waiting as long as you did was worth it," she smirked, wriggling her fingers at him.

Slowly his eyes wandered up and down her body and, with a bit of a pout, he reached up and took her hand.

Pulling him from the chair, Sara gave him an adoring smile and led him into the bedroom. Pushing the door closed, she cupped his cheeks, reuniting their lips and then shivering under his touch as his hands worked under the bottom of her shirt, sliding delicate fingertips across her ribs.

Moaning into him as he sucked on her tongue, his hands continuing the exploration over her skin, she reciprocated by scrunching his T-shirt between her fingers and lifting. The kiss broke and she took a step back as his arms lifted. Pulling off the garment and throwing it onto a chair, she immediately threw an arm over his shoulder, hand cupping the back of his neck to pull him back into a searing and almost desperate kiss.

Fuck.

An overwhelming need for him suddenly overcame her and given the ferocity of how his mouth was suddenly consuming hers, she knew he needed her, too. As they continued to passionately taste each other, she felt his hands disappear, the kiss breaking again as he stepped back.

Looking down, she watched his fingers frantically fumble with the buttons on her pj jacket. Swiftly, they were all popped, and he pushed the jacket from her shoulders, his eyes roaming over her chest before coming back to settle on hers.

As his hand lifted, tenderly cupping her cheek and dropping his forehead to hers, the words he spoke next made her knees wobble.

"You grow more and more beautiful with each day that passes."

A tiny whimper rose up her throat and barely had time to pass through her lips before he was kissing her again. Her arms wrapped around him, possessively, holding him tightly against her and that crazy tingle that shot through her body the instant their chests came into contact would have burst an ammeter.

Sara wasn't sure there was any other sensation that could beat being skin on skin with this man. Well, apart from maybe what came after that. The only little problem that hit her brain at that point was they both still had clothes on. However, before she could process that thought any further he was pushing her backwards and urging her to the bed. Feeling her legs clip it, she toppled onto the covers, shimmying upwards and he speedily followed, kneeling between her legs and smothering her with his body.

And then came a kiss so long, so deep, so luscious, Sara was sure if out body experiences existed, she was about to have one.

Bucking her hips, she moaned into him, hoping he'd get the hint to speed things along when her hands slid down his back, fingers slipping into the top of his bottoms to scrape fingernails teasingly over his butt. It seemed to work as his lips slipped to her cheek, kissing their way to her throat where they latched on, sucking at the flesh with a determination that made Sara suspect she possibly might need a scarf for work.

"Fuck, Gil," she sighed, bucking up into him again, her hands now rising to slide through his hair as he shifted lower.

Drawing his lips down the center of her chest, he then focused on her right breast, taking the nipple into his mouth.

Sucking, licking, nibbling and then to the left where he repeated the attention upon that nipple.

Clawing at his scalp, Sara knew she wouldn't be able to take much more and cupped his cheeks. Pulling his head up a bit so he looked at her.

"You... are... driving... me... insane," she panted.

Trying to catch his own breath, Grissom licked his lips then smiled as a droplet of sweat trickled down his cheek.

"Isn't that what you wanted?"

She pouted at him. "Well, yeah but… can you just fuck me already? I'm about to explode here."

Eyebrow rising at her, he gave a sly smile, pushing himself up to drop a sweet kiss to her lips.

"If you insist," he whispered against her.

With that said he was gone, moving down the bed and the next thing Sara knew, he had a grip on her bottoms and they were being drawn, along with her panties, down her legs. Pushing herself up, she watched as he stood at the end of the bed just staring at her. The look of total adoration mixed with lust upon his face brought a tear to her eye. No man had ever looked at her the way he did. Whether she had clothes on or not.

It really made her feel like the luckiest woman on the planet.

Raising a hand, she crooked a finger at him. Not needing a second invitation, Grissom quickly removed his remaining clothing and crawled back onto the bed.

Sara opened her arms, welcoming his body back on top of hers and their lips reunited. Feeling him part her legs further with his own, she hummed delightfully as he gently slipped inside her. The exquisite feeling as he rocked his hips, sinking deeper inside her created a tingle that spiraled throughout her entire body.

His mouth found her throat again, lips sucking and tongue lapping, and her hands smoothed over his muscular back, ankles gliding up his legs to grip onto his hips as they moved devilishly slowly back and forth.

"Harder," Sara grunted, trying her best to urge him on with her ankles, pressing firmer into him.

She felt him smiling against her and to her growing frustration, seemed to ignore the request and just continued with his slow yet deliberate grinding. With her fingers sliding through his hair, she tugged and pulled his head up. As he hovered over her, the cheeky smile on his face causing her eyes to playfully narrow, she slapped a hand down onto his right buttock and he jumped. Throwing a raised eyebrow at her, he gave her a 'did you just do that?' look.

Drawing her tongue over her slightly swollen lips, Sara lifted her head so their noses touched.

"I'll take over in a minute," she threatened.

His smile grew. "Will you now?"

"Ugh huh."

His lips teasingly moved over hers without contact then he raised his eyes to meet hers.

"I don't think so."

And then out of nowhere, his hips thrust hard, and Sara's eyes rolled back on a deep moan just before his mouth engulfed hers. The kiss was long and deep and so now were his movements below. Hard, strong, serious and Sara whimpered into his mouth as he ground against her, the bed beginning to creak under his more deliberate effort. It only spurred on Sara's desire for him, for them. To reach that peak she knew they both so intensely craved.

As his lips slid to her cheek, his hot, panting breath peppering across her skin, her eyes closed, arms wrapping strongly around him and holding on tightly. At that point, she never wanted to let go. And, as the burning and tingling inside her grew and grew so did her moans and that time was fast approaching.

Feeling as he raised up, Sara opened her eyes as he propped himself up on his hands. Looking down at her, he kissed her sloppily, their bodies now heaving together as his thrusting never ceased and she pushed her hips up into him, matching his movements.

Their eyes locked, never wavering, heavy breaths mixing, and Sara's hands grabbed onto his arms as rocked into her. Harder, harder, harder.

"Fuck …," she cried, her entire body now feeling like it had been set alight.

"Exactly," he growled, kissing her again.

If she hadn't been so close to bursting, she may very well have laughed but laughing was the last thing on her mind at that point. Especially when his hips twisted in such a way it ignited that spark inside her that had just reached zero on the countdown timer.

Arms wrapping back around him as their lips slipped apart and his head found the crook of her neck, she spasmed just as he groaned heavily, his hips bucking so fucking hard as he came. And she followed, tumbling with him on a guttural cry, floating as if on a magic carpet zooming around a cartoon kingdom.

And they lay there, sated, both lost for breath until the energy to move returned.

Licking her lips with a happy hum, Sara ran her hands softly over his sweaty back, smiling as his tongue worked over her throat again. Eventually his head lifted, and they shared a sweet kiss.

"So," she began, running fingers through his fringe. "Was it worth the wait?"

Giving her a smile, he kissed her again and now she laughed.