He handed her the chicken, avocado and onion sandwich that he had to special order from a deli three blocks away and she barely acknowledged his effort with a flicker of her eyes. She was busy: he could see that. Obviously some things had progressed since he’d been gone. She scribbled something down while holding the phone in the crook of her neck, and she looked so damn adorable that for one split second he was unreasonably jealous of the phone. He pulled a chair around from the other side of the desk so that he was sitting beside her, and waited. He thought he grinned at her when she looked up and raised one of those famous brows at him. Seconds later he knew he had, as his grin widened. Apparently it was infectious because her lips curved upwards and she mouthed, 'what?' before her attention was again focused on whoever was on the other end of the phone.

"Uh huh. Yeah. Thanks." And she hung up.

"Something funny happen on the way to get lunch, Grissom?"

No. Nothing happened. But now he had to either think up some outlandish story to explain the idiotic grin he’d been grinning for the last five minutes, or let it go and have her think it was just another quirky Grissom-ism.

He almost decided to go with a story when she let the matter drop and filled him in on the phone call.

Or at least he thought she did. He couldn’t quite seem to concentrate on what she was saying. Her lips were moving, he could hear noise, but every now and then her tongue ducked out, and that, in combination with her glossy lips, was proving to be very, very distracting.

“Shut up, Cath,” he thought, his attention caught on her mouth, and was surprised to find that he actually said the words out loud.

She stopped talking and just looked at him, and he tried to cover his lapse of concentration - and professionalism, by reaching past her for the information she’d jotted down. It would have been a fine plan, too, if his arm hadn’t accidentally brushed against her chest. She gasped, his head spun, and work was temporarily forgotten.

She recovered first. “Grissom?”

“Hmmm?”

Her lips grazed his ear. “Don’t ever tell me to shut up again.”

It was only when he felt the heat of her breath that he realised how close they were sitting. And that his hand had somehow dropped below the desk and was now resting on her knee.

She either hadn’t noticed or didn’t object, so he decided to see how far she would let him go before she slapped his hand away. Or worse. He could never discount the ‘or worse’ but her gasp had made him bolder than he’d normally be. He inched higher, his fingers tracing lazy circles on her thigh, moving higher and pressing more insistently with each rotation.

“Did you know that the Australian Red Back Spider will curl up and feign death if it is disturbed?”

She blinked once, blinked again, finally found her tongue, and answered. “No, I didn’t know that.”

He hid his smile. “It’s true. It’s not usually aggressive towards humans, but if the female is disturbed while guarding her eggs, she will attack.”

He felt her squirm under his touch but she made no move to stop his exploration. He let his hand stop on her upper thigh, and when he was certain that he wasn’t going to face the ‘or worse’ scenario today, he leaned in closer, found the crevice between her legs and applied a gentle pressure to her centre. Her sharp intake of breath was all the encouragement he needed.

“Fascinating as that may be, I don’t understand what this has to do with . . . anything.”

He removed his hand long enough to unbutton the top of her pants, unzip the zipper, and snake down until he was back where he’d been moments before.

“It’s just interesting, don’t you think? They get their name from a small orange or red stripe on their back.”

He slowly stroked her through the thin, silky material of her panties, ignoring the tension that held her body upright and totally still. She was so hot, and he could feel the wetness spreading underneath his busy fingers.

“Of course, the female is deadlier than the male.”

“Oh?”

“Oh yes. The male is only about one-third the size of the female and is considered harmless to humans because his fangs are so small.”

Unable to restrain herself any longer, her legs parted, and he took this as an invitation to slip his fingers underneath the elastic and touch her. Little whimpers escaped her throat as he explored every inch of her, taking his time to memorize which angles and pressure points elicited the best response.

“But the really amazing thing is that after mating, the female will eat the male.”

“Grissom, enough about spiders. I want . . .”

This time he didn’t even bother to hide it. He beamed, a big shit-eating, in your-face, fuck you, I’m-the-man kind of smile. He knew what she wanted. She wanted more. He could tell by the way her nails dug into the armrests and the beads of perspiration that had gathered on her forehead. But he wasn’t prepared to give it to her. Not yet. For once, he was in complete control of this woman, and he wanted that to last.

“What do you want, Catherine?”

“Bastard.”

Grissom stopped his ministrations, his own breath becoming a little ragged because he could smell her now. She smelled sweet and tangy and it went straight to his dick.

“Tsk tsk. Language, my dear. If you can’t play nice, then we won’t play at all.”

“Gil . . .”

Catherine’s hips were pushing upwards with need and he let his thumb bump her clit.

“Yes?”

“Please?”

“Please what?”

“Please . . . continue.”

Those baby blues were pleading with him, and he never could deny her anything when she looked at him like that. He sighed as his fingers slid inside her, knowing the game would soon be over. Her muscles sucked his fingers in even deeper, and he could feel her walls shuddering and churning around him.

Catherine bit her tongue to stop from screaming as he hit the magic spot. “Mmm hmmm . . . oh yeah, right there,” she gasped.

Grissom’s grin faded a little as he concentrated on the task at hand. He continued to massage her clit while thrusting in and out, swirling her secretions around her tight little bud. Her breath was coming in short rasps and he could feel that she was close.

He allowed himself a small taste of her skin as he lowered his voice and murmured into her ear, “See what happens when we’re nice to each other?”

He applied a little more pressure, thrust a little deeper, and then he felt her muscles constrict. She clamped his fingers tightly and he rode out her orgasm buried deep inside that moist, secret place. When the last shudder left her body his fingers were still inside her. He withdrew them slowly and sat back, well satisfied with himself.

Catherine was flushed when she finally spoke. “I thought we decided we weren’t going to do that here.”

“You did start it.”

Her hand found the tent in his pants and massaged the monster underneath. “You know I’m going to finish it later, right? The Red-Back Spider isn’t the only female who likes to devour her male after mating.”

His big shit-eating grin firmly back in place, he replied, “That, my dear, was the whole point.”

End.