I know, I took forever to update this. Sorry everyone. Life's been kind of sucky for me at the moment so it's been hard to get the motivation to write. Anyway, here's the next instalment.

I also want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very, very happy new year. I hope 2015 brings you joy, good health and prosperity.

Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Emily stared at Hotch. Had he just – ? No, he couldn't have. She must have imagined it. Awesome. She was so desperate she was having hallucinations. Then she saw the flash of panic in his eyes.

Oh, fuck.

She hadn't realized she had spoken aloud until his lips twitched. A gleam of reluctant amusement diluted the panic. "My thoughts exactly."

She smiled faintly. "We've always been on the same wavelength."

He sobered. "Are we on the same wavelength about…" His hand indicated the space between them.

Emily couldn't look away from his intense gaze. She had seen him that look more times than she could remember. But this time. God. This time, it felt as if she was the only thing in the world in his eyes.

When she didn't answer, doubt clouded his face. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

"No!" The force of her reply surprised even her, but she didn't allow herself to think about it. "Don't you dare take it back."

His eyebrows rose. "All right," he said slowly. He looked intently at her. "So would it be presumptuous of me to hope a little at this point?"

She stared at him, then felt a bubble of laughter escape. "I wasn't obvious enough?" She narrowed her eyes. "Surely your profiling skills haven't deteriorated since I left."

Hotch didn't return her smile. "I don't trust myself when it comes to you," he said, his voice low.

Her heart skipped a beat. "Why?" She wasn't sure if he heard her over the music and the buzz of conversations around them.

"I don't want to lose our friendship." He looked grim. "It's too important to me. You're too important to me."

Emily's heart was beating furiously now and her mouth was dry. She felt as if she was standing at the edge of a precipice. "Hotch, you're important to me too." She hesitated, but only for a second. After all this time, she had to take the risk. What made her palms damp was her fear that her cautious, risk-adverse ex-Unit Chief won't. "But I think it's worth taking the chance when it comes to us being together, isn't it?"

Aside from the brief tightening of his jaw, he gave no other indication that he had heard her. The silence between them stretched and she felt her stomach drop. Her fear had been justified. Just as she was about to stand up and put them both out of their joint misery, Hotch did something unexpected.

He reached out and touched her cheek, his dark eyes somber. The rasp of his fingertips over her skin made her shiver. "Together." His fingers drifted back up, over the sensitive skin under her ear and she swallowed hard, the nerve endings sparking wherever he touched her. "I never thought that the word could be made up of you and I."

Her gaze searched his. "Don't you want it to?" She felt his hand cradle her cheek and jaw and she couldn't help herself. She reached up and covered his hand with hers, leaning into his palm. Hotch's hand was strong, his skin harder than hers. She felt the calluses rub against the soft skin of her cheek. The same calluses she had felt many times on her own hand.

"More than I want to breathe," he said roughly. Startled, Emily's eyes jerked up to meet his.

She stared at him helplessly. "Hotch, I…" She didn't know what to say.

His hand fell away and he pulled back from her. She had to bite her lip to stop a protest from escaping. "Too much too fast." He sounded as if he was berating himself.

"No." Emily drew in a breath, and took his hand, feeling the warmth, the tensile strength that lay beneath the skin. "Never. It's been eight years. Nothing is too much after all this time."

Hotch looked at her in silence, but turned his hand so that he could close his fingers around hers. "So… what now?" His thumb rubbed the back of her fingers.

She bit her lip, and saw his gaze drop down to her mouth. Heat crept up her spine. "Well, we could get a bite to eat or…" Or we could go back to my hotel room and we could go at it like rabbits. She rolled her eyes inwardly at her errant thought.

"Or?" He arched an eyebrow, eyes warm with amusement. Damn profilers.

"Or…not." Her voice trailed away when she felt his fingers stroke the sensitive skin of her inner wrist.

"Damn." Hotch looked like he was suppressing a smile. "I was hoping you'd invite me back to your room and we could ..."

Emily held her breath. She didn't miss the way his eyes had darkened as he looked at her lips again. "We could…" she prompted breathlessly.

"Order room service and then…" he paused. His eyes twinkled. "Maybe go at it like rabbits."

Emily gaped at him. And then she burst out laughing.

Hotch grinned as he watched her. Apparently he was in the midst of some serious infatuation because he couldn't seem to take his eyes off her. He wasn't really joking about the rabbits part. Every cell in his body wanted him to throw her over his shoulder and take her to his bed. It was not something he had ever felt before and it was damned uncomfortable. Both mentally and physically. He shifted in his seat as her throaty laugh washed over him. Her gaze was filled with laughter and something else. He swallowed when he realized what it was.

Tenderness.

An oddest feeling filled his stomach, making him feel as if the world had suddenly tilted on its axis.

He stared at her as she lifted their linked hands and pressed her mouth to his knuckles, making him inhale sharply.

"Looks like great minds think alike," she said. She smiled at him, while he could do nothing except look at her like an idiot. A mute one, at that.

Emily stood up and tugged his hand. "Come on. We need to go if we want to make the most of the time I have left." The small smile on her mouth and the sultry promise in her eyes made him suppress a groan. Hope and dread twisted inside him about what she was alluding to. He thought he knew her well. But right now he didn't have a clue what she was really thinking.

He only just remembered to throw down some bills before he followed her out the door.

"Where are we going?" he finally asked, after they crossed the street.

Emily glanced over her him and raised her eyebrows, her strides not slowing. She was clearly a woman on a mission. "My hotel. Where else?"