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Whole Again

Sliding his arm across her slim waist as their legs entwined beneath the sheets, Hotch allowed a slow contented smile to flit across his lips, a rarity he allowed for only the most relaxed times. And, he would definitely qualify his current state of mind as relaxed. Some might even call it lethargic. And that was not a word he was normally accustomed to employing in his vocabulary.

God, when was the last time he'd felt this...free?

Hell, he knew a rousing bout of good sex had restorative powers as much as the next guy. What man didn't? But this...what he'd shared with the woman beside him...it had been so much more than that. It might sound poetic, but it had been the single most transcendent occurrence in his life.

Never had he been with a more responsive lover. Haley had always, even in the throes of passion, held back a part of herself from him. Not so for the woman sleeping heavily at his side. No, she'd given herself over, body and soul, to the overwhelmingly decadent sensations they'd created together. There'd been no divisions...no separating herself from him. Her focus had been on him and him alone, completely and totally. And for a few stolen hours out of time, they'd become the center of each other's universe, existing solely to please the other.

She'd freed the carefully concealed primal animal inside him. And her agile ability to accomplish that feat should have terrified him.

Strangely, it hadn't.

Instead, her loving attention as she'd embraced that hidden side of his nature had awakened him to a plethora of new possibilities. And, shockingly, for the first time in years, he found himself looking forward to the future.

With her.

There had been a time...a long time...where he'd been convinced that he was doomed to a life of solitude, his mercurial moods a known detraction to the opposite sex. But, she'd accepted who he was, welcoming the good and the bad with equal enthusiasm. Her open arms had beckoned him and he was helpless to resist in the face of such acceptance.

In her secure arms, he'd found a sense of completion that he wasn't sure he'd ever felt before. For the first time in his life, he'd known utter abandon. She'd generously given her body to him and entrusted him to keep it safe. The compartmentalized woman had allowed him into not just her body, but her heavily-guarded psyche as well.

And by placing that kind of faith in him, Emily Prentiss had skillfully achieved what no other had ever done.

Her sweet spirit had made Aaron Hotchner whole again.

finis