Back To December || Aaron Hotchner

Chapter 16 - Aaron

~ December 26th ~

Yesterday was a long day, and it ended in the best way possible. I expected the holding back to last longer. But when Taylor flashed me her beautiful green eyes and asked me to kiss her all my resistance disappeared.

Nothing else mattered because I had her. She was everything I needed. The way her lips and body felt under mine, her little moans and sounds, even the scratches she left down my back I consider a trophy. Everything was perfect.

I wish I could take my time to explore and kiss every inch of her, but we were both too impatient. And it was absolutely worth it.

Now she is sleeping besides me as peaceful as ever. I have never seen her so relaxed before. As I wait for her to wake up, I keep myself busy with my phone using only my free hand.

I turn it off as soon as I notice her eyelids flatter. She turns to her back and rubs her eyes for a moment.

"Good morning" I say

"Morning..." she replies

"Not a morning person?" I chuckle

"You don't tell..." she says ironically as she finally opens her eyes

"There she is" I smile and lean in to kiss her.

She smiles as I pull away "What time is it?" she wonders

"11:30" I answer

"I had a 9am alarm"

"Yes, it went off, but it didn't seem to bother you much so I turned it off and let you sleep in"

"We were supposed to be at my mom's at 10am"

"And I called her to let her know that we will be there tomorrow instead because you are tired" I inform her

"Seems like you took care of everything, huh? Not that you ever stopped"

"What does that mean?"

"Come on, Aaron. After our fight, Garcia started bringing more and more cookies and muffins, you would buy everyone dinner on long cases but would not sit down until I started eating as well, you kept restocking the chocolate cabinet on the jet with KitKats -the white chocolate ones in particular- after you saw me snacking on one during another flight"

"You noticed?"

"Of course I did. I learned from the best" she smiles and kisses me

"I want to say that flattery won't get you far with me, but I am not sure the rules apply to you right now" I kiss her again.

"Which brings us to a very important topic. You and me..." she mentions

"Well, I woke up before you so I had some time to think about it"

"I'm listening"

"We are on leave, on vacation. Let's do whatever we want now, and when the time for work comes, we..."

"Break it off?"

"Just for a couple of months until it is safer, especially for you".

She is waiting for a big promotion and the last thing I want to do is interfere with it. Normally, I wouldn't be worried because I don't mix professional with personal. But that was before she walked in my life.

"When we were in bad terms, it didn't affect our job performance. It might have made it better actually" she reminds me

"Anger is a strong motivation. This is the opposite. And I really don't want to be the reason that costs you that position you so hard fought for. So instead of having you choose, I am stepping back from this until it is the right time" I explain

"Ok" she answers eventually

"Ok?" I repeat to make sure

"Ok" she repeats.

I kiss her and she wraps her arms around me. I deepen the kiss and she responds to it. Then I let her take charge and I follow her pace. Her fingers brush through my hair as she keeps me as close to her as possible.

Without breaking the kiss, she gets on top of me and sits on my lap. Desperate for more, my hands sneak under her thin shirt. I feel her back, her sides, and then her stomach. My mouth leaves hers and I start kissing her skin. Her cheek, her jawline, her neck, her neckline...

I pull away for a moment and I take a better look at the tattoo she has between her breasts. There are three small north stars perfectly aligned one under the other, each of different size. The middle one is the smallest, the one right above it is slightly bigger and the last one is bigger than the two pervious ones.

"Each star represents a time I got sober. The bigger the star, the worse the situation" she explains

"Three times?"

"Yeah. Once at 16 after the incident with Sean, and twice at 20".

What happened at 20 that was worse than when she was nearly arrested at 16? And she relapsed twice...

"Don't overthink or go digging for it. It has passed, it's over" she says

"I wasn't going to dig for the answer" I lie

"Of course you would" she reads right through me.

I peck her lips. "And what is this one for?" I brush my fingers over the simple and small butterfly tattoo on the left side of her hip, right under the elastic of her panties

"This butterfly was a very drunk idea. I am going to give you the whole story here so embrace yourself. During my second relapse I was in denial and had convinced myself that I was in recovery so I could have a few drinks. During parties I never had just a few. And at one of those parties they had a friend who was a professional tattoo artist. Unfortunately for him, JJ and I saw him and we had the brilliant idea to challenge ourselves and bet on who can give the best tattoo to the other person. So drunk JJ gave me this small butterfly that looks as drunk as she was that night -that's why almost no line is straight. But it is cute, I love it" she smiles as at the memory playing in her head. "Oh, and I gave her two cherries on the same spot"

"Really? Are you sure we are thinking of the same JJ?" I chuckle

"Oh yes. She wasn't always as you know her. And this is just one of stories. When I was sober, I was carrying her home almost every night"

"Wow" I shake my head

"Yeah... We've definitely been through things"

"Good and bad I assume"

"Good and really bad..." she confirms.

"Enough about me..." she speaks again after a small pause. "Do you want to go for a walk and grab some food now?" she suggests

"Are you asking me out, Taylor?" I tease

"I suppose I am"

"Let's go then".