Despite your best efforts at profiling, you still couldn’t figure Emily out.

She was an enigma— an iron clad mystery wrapped in silk. Sharp eyed, smooth tongued, and always five steps ahead of the conversation. Her private life was a locked vault, and no amount of casual banter or team dinners had earned you a glimpse inside. She moved through rooms like she owned them. Her confidence wasn’t loud, but magnetic— pulling people in without asking for permission.

And over the past month, you’d found yourself caught in that pull.

You’d been watching her— subtly, carefully. At least, you hoped it was subtle. You told yourself it was just curiosity. But curiosity doesn’t make your stomach twist when her eyes linger just a second too long. It doesn’t make your skin tingle when her mouth quirks into that half-smile, like she knows exactly what she’s doing to you. But then the meeting would end, and she’d rise from her seat like none of it had happened. No sign of anything beneath the surface. No proof. Just questions that kept you up at night.

You’d bent over backwards trying to get closer— volunteering for late nights, offering help long after the others had gone home. You’d sat side by side with her in dim lighting and the quiet hush of the bullpen at midnight, papers spread out like battlefield maps. You remember how her fingers brushed yours reaching for the same file. How her laugh sounded different when it was just the two of you. Lower. Warmer. But she never crossed the line. And you were too smart— too damn afraid— to risk crossing it yourself without being sure.

So now, sitting on the jet after another case wrapped, you see your chance. Derek gets up to join Spencer in the back, and you move with intention, sliding into the seat across from her. You don’t let yourself hesitate.

Emily looks up, pen poised, paperwork already begun. Her eyes flick to yours, and there’s a flicker of something— recognition, maybe, or amusement. You can’t tell. She’s too good at hiding things.

“Paperwork’s light tonight,” She says, setting the file down onto the small table between you. There’s a glint in her eye that makes it hard to breathe.