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The sound of a throat clearing made Olivia look up from her phone with a start as she approached her apartment. For the first time she noticed the man leaning almost too casually against her front door, deep bags under his eyes but a soft smile teasing the corner of his lips as she looked him over, unsure if she really believed he was back.
“Took you long enough, losing your touch?”
“Hey, it’s been 29 days which means I’m ahead of deadline by a whole day,” he pointed out, as if she wasn’t acutely aware of exactly how many days it had been since he’d stood in her office.
She hummed in acquiescence even as she rolled her eyes, reaching out a hand to grasp at a firm bicep as she pushed him gently to the side of the door and dug in her bag for her keys.
“I take it you’re inviting yourself in?” she asked, already knowing the answer. He’d hardly showed up at her door seemingly straight out of undercover to wave hello and goodbye at the entryway.
He grinned in response, his hand suddenly burning against the small of her back through her coat as she unlocked the door and stepped through.
“You’re lucky my son’s at a sleepover so he’s not here to ask why strange men are lurking outside our apartment,” Olivia teased as she pulled off her coat and tossed it over a stool, pointedly ignoring the way she felt his eyes skim over her body without it.
Elliot rolled his eyes. “Noah loves me.”
There was no retort for that, because it was true, much to Olivia’s chagrin. As sweet a kid as Noah generally was, he tended to be suspicious and protective when it came to priority access to Team Benson. And yet he had taken to Elliot like a duck to water, despite their Olivia’s best efforts to keep all members of Team Benson from getting too attached.
“Speaking of sons…,” she pointedly changed the subject before Elliot asked when they could all do dinner again.
“Maureen took Eli upstate to her in-laws this weekend, they be back tomorrow and I’ll pick him up then.”
Olivia nodded along as she wordlessly poured two glasses of wine and handed one to Elliot, leaning against the counter to study him as he talked. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for exactly after a kiss and 29 days apart, but she hoped she’d recognize it if and when she saw it. Elliot, on the other hand, seemed to be laser focused as he took a long sip of his wine gratefully before setting it down.
“So, we gonna talk about it?” he asked matter-of-factly, smirking when Olivia’s immediate response was to choke on the wine she was swallowing.
“You…” she started once she’d successfully cleared her throat enough times. “You want to talk about it?” She was sure she sounded as incredulous as she felt. Olivia didn’t know what she had expected when she saw Elliot waiting at her door like it was 1999, but some part of her brain had decided over the last 29 days that, like so many things, their kiss would probably just be something she took to therapy and/or the grave.
“Or we could uh… not talk?” he teased, smirk still firmly planted on his face. Olivia wanted to punch it. That was definitely all she wanted to do to it. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath instead.
“Look Elliot,” she forced out. “You were going undercover. You were nervous about the assignment. And worried I’d be upset with you for going. We all do crazy things when we’re overwhelmed, I won’t hold it against you”
The smirk gave way to a raised eyebrow. “You think it was crazy to kiss you?”
“Don’t you?”
“I think it’s the sanest thing I’ve done in years frankly.”
“A low bar, I guess.”
She was so caught up in the rhythm of their back and forth that she didn’t notice that he had boxed her in against her own kitchen counter until he was lifting the wineglass out of her hand and setting it aside. Olivia would normally bristle at a man commanding space near her like this, but with Elliot it somehow felt warm and easy in a way she’d rather not examine too closely.
“C’mere,” he murmured, his arms solid on either side of her.
“Not exactly much room to move,” she pointed out.
“C’mere anyway.”
Unlike their first kiss, Olivia could see this one coming a mile away. And yet she still felt just as bowled over as Elliot’s lips pressed against hers. His hands relaxed their grip on the counter to slide down and cradle her back, tugging her closer to him as her own hands developed a mind of their own and sought him out. As he pulled back to rest their foreheads together she noticed that she was clutching at his waist with one hand as the other pressed against the stability of his chest, feeling his heart beat steady under her palm.
“I didn’t kiss you in some fucked up attempt at last rites,” he whispered, his voice low and rough and his eyes almost defiant as they bored into hers. “You know exactly why I kissed you, Benson. And you kissed me back for the same reason.”
“Well someone’s cocky,” she choked out.
“I know us,” Elliot shrugged, wrapping his arms tight around her to hold her to his chest. “And I know what I want, Olivia.”
Somehow it was the sound of her full name in that voice that finally made her snap, and the hand on his chest slid up to his neck to pull him back down to her.
“Maybe you can tell me about it sometime, El,” she whispered, smiling against his lips.