DISCLAIMER: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and its characters are the property of NBC and Dick Wolf.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
SPOILERS: 3.13 Prodigy
The Sum of Contradictions: 12. Coup de Grâce
By beurre blanc
"Benson."
"Hey, Liv. Sorry to wake you."
"S'OK, El. I wasn't asleep."
"At five AM?"
"What? No it's… never mind. What have we got?"
She opened the door to her apartment, and entered, dropping the keys on the hall stand.
"Double stabbing and mutilation. Riverside Park. Female vic's headless. Need me to pick you up?"
"No, I'm good. Gimme the details and I'll meet you there."
Olivia jotted down her destination.
"See you in twenty." As she hung up and the first tears spilled, Olivia was almost overtaken by the urge to dash the cell against the door. Instead her anger manifested as a fist slammed into the wall, and a howl of pain and rage.
Olivia glanced at her watch. Midnight. She closed her eyes and smiled as she recalled events of the evening - kissing Alex, making love to her, cradling her as they'd both descended from ecstasy. Alex had reached upwards to run a fingertip along Olivia's brow, gently tracing around the newly-mended cheekbone, then following the slick track of a tear down her cheek. The soft, reassuring kiss which followed had quickly evolved into something altogether more needy, and within moments Alex's state had changed from blissful to carnal. Olivia recalled the intensity of the transition with an odd mix of wonder and uncertainty – Alex's actions had certainly betrayed no inexperience, despite her assertions to the contrary, and Olivia was still a little awed that she was the focus of Alex's desire.
She placed a gentle fingertip on Alex's forehead and traced each of her eyebrows in turn, memorizing the curve of closed lashes, her forehead's faint creases, the arches of her brows.
Just follow your instincts. Alex had followed them unerringly – in the bedroom, as in the courtroom, Alex had proven herself to be energetic, methodical, inventive, and thorough. Oh – my - God! Alex's recovery from her first climax had been surprisingly swift, and Olivia wouldn't have believed it possible to go from post-orgasmic bliss to impatient arousal so quickly if she too hadn't proven to be equally as susceptible.
Within minutes Alex had swung herself over Olivia's hips and paused, gazing down at the brunette. She had caught Olivia's hand in her own, and drawn the fingers to her lips, closing her eyes as she had bestowed a series of small, almost reverent kisses on the tips of each in succession. When she'd reached the smallest finger she'd begun a return journey that was decidedly less chaste, so that by the time she had reached Olivia's index finger she could not only taste herself, but was delivering caresses with her tongue and lips which had the detective's hips straining reflexively upwards.
"Patience, Detective," she'd said, voice a husky contralto, and she had lowered her face to bestow hot, open-mouthed kisses on Olivia's neck. As she'd dragged her tongue up to the hollow above Olivia's collarbone she had felt the detective shiver, and let out an involuntary moan. Alex had filed away that little tidbit for use again in the future, and had continued to kiss her way up to Olivia's jaw. She had hovered over the detective, breath washing across mouth and face, lips just out of reach. She'd lowered her chest until her breasts were similarly just beyond reach, and waited just a second more than was necessary before leaning in to kiss Olivia deeply.
The brunette had barely had time to register the renewed rush of wetness before Alex had made her way deliberately down her chest, towards distended brown nipples, and was lavishing them with an even greater degree of erotic promise. Again, Olivia's mind was only just catching up with the responses of her body, when Alex had descended further, settling herself between the detective's thighs, and embarking on a most thorough examination… Alex had played her like an instrument – carefully-paced teasing caresses, kisses which 'just missed', open-mouthed sucks and flicks which didn't, fingertips creeping up her inner thighs then hands pushing them outwards, laying her open, vulnerable, and so completely aroused that Alex's first deep thrusts had Olivia pulsing uncontrollably around the lawyer's skilled tongue. Instincts indeed… Olivia smiled, eyes closing, and shook her head in gratitude, and wonder.
The lawyer's eyelids fluttered gently open in time for her eyes to meet briefly with Olivia's just as the detective leaned in to offer a kiss which tasted of both. Alex closed her eyes again in remembered pleasure.
Olivia let out a contented sigh. "You," she whispered, "are incredible."
Even by the low light of the bedside lamp she could make out the ADA's faint blush.
"Would 'thank you' be the correct response to that assertion?"
Olivia chuckled, and assumed the air of a schoolmarm. "Miss Cabot, do you mean to tell me you have failed to memorize the appropriate acknowledgement of a compliment for one's sexual prowess and stamina?"
"Well, Miss Benson, that all depends."
"Depends on what?" Olivia took the bait. Deliberately.
"The sentence."
Olivia thought for a moment. As she lowered her head towards the ADA's belly she asked, "Would thirty lashes be sufficient?"
"Oh, Detective, I'm sure you could do better than that." Alex's breath caught suddenly as Olivia's tongue-tip drew a warm circle around her navel, then plunged into the centre.
Olivia looked up. "Forty, and no chance of parole." Her brows quirked cheekily.
Alex shook her head, grinning. "Still not good enough."
Olivia drew her tongue downwards, towards Alex's neatly trimmed curls. "A minimum of sixty lashes, without recourse, and compulsory counseling."
"Counseling?"
Olivia's thumbs had parted Alex's lips, and her mouth was now dangerously close to Alex's clit, hovering.
"Yes, counseling."
"From whom?"
"Not from, Counselor, for…" Olivia's breath puffed against Alex's inner lips, and she shivered.
Battling to maintain a grasp on the conversation, she asked for clarification. "Counseling for whom, Olivia?"
"Oh, for me. I think I'd need to be counseled at least - uh… three times a week? Perhaps more?" Olivia now drew her tongue from Alex's perineum upwards, right across her opening, stopping just short of her clit.
Alex's chuckle became a moan of pleasure as Olivia's tongue swirled once around her clit, and then flicked it suddenly.
"Do you concur, Counselor?"
Alex overcame the delightful distraction of the sensations spreading through her belly just long enough to answer in her most lawyerly tone, "Detective, I had no idea you had such a way with words. You are what my father would have referred to as a 'cunning linguist'."
"Then I take it we have a deal…" was the last thing Alex registered before surrendering herself once more to the delight of being ravished by Olivia.
Alex lifted up onto one elbow, legs still entwined with the detective's, and stared at Olivia's face, relaxed and beautiful in repose.
What the fuck am I doing? The thought somehow propagated through her entire body, translated itself into sudden tension in her limbs – enough to wake the sleeping woman beside her.
"Is it morning already?" came the sleepy groan.
When Alex didn't answer her Olivia frowned, rolling onto her back and making an effort to open her eyes.
"Alex? Is everything OK?"
Alex was sitting now, knees drawn up, arms hugging them as she stared ahead. Her lips pursed, an outward sign she was gathering herself to deliver a patented Cabot coup de grâce. Olivia had witnessed this moment a dozen times before, knowing it did not augur well for Alex's opponent, and her mind flooded with misgivings.
"Olivia, I think this was a mistake."
No! Olivia simply blinked - outwardly silent, inwardly reeling. No, don't say it Alex, don't do this to me.
"I'm sorry," Alex turned towards Olivia, "I shouldn't… It wasn't fair, and it mustn't happen again."
For Olivia the impact was shattering. Notwithstanding the fact that she had only just woken, in the preceding few hours Olivia had had the most intense, and intensely satisfying experience of her life, not because she was a stranger to open and uninhibited sex – far from it - but because of the unexpected, and overwhelming, emotional connection. That was completely outside her experience, and it had left her profoundly vulnerable and exposed. Oh God, Alex, don't deny you felt it too. Just… don't!
Alex turned away, ostensibly to hide her own tears, but as she turned back to face Olivia she flinched openly at the devastation which now marked the detective's countenance. Even as Alex attempted to deliver the explanation she had been rehearsing mentally she saw Olivia's expression change from pained disbelief to steely disregard. And then to anger.
"Liv, wait. Listen to me." Alex still sat naked on the bed. "Give me a chance to explain."
The detective ignored her. In minutes Olivia had gathered her clothes and put them on, years of after-hours callouts to crime scenes guiding her movements.
"Olivia! Stop it! Just listen." Alex was becoming angry now, and defensive. "Olivia – will you just wait? Talk to me! …Please?" Olivia turned her back, fastening her belt.
"Fine then… Go. Whatever. I'll see you in court." What a cliché.
This time Olivia did slam the door, and was satisfied to hear the reverberation in the small lobby, hoping childishly that a few of the neighbors might wake. How could she? How could I let her? Jesus fucking Christ, how could I be so fucking stupid?! After all… that… how the fuck did Alex just manage to turn the whole night into another cheap one night stand?
Olivia pulled on her coat automatically against cold she couldn't feel, and headed home.
The End