All through the night

Summary: Harvey and Donna make a deal about their relationship after the other time, creating a once a year tradition.

Rating: T/M.

AN: This fic is dedicated and credited to darveydreamin who had this amazing idea and prompted it on twitter and was so generous to let me write it and is so lovely to me all the time. I hope I make justice to it.
Credits to Blue for betaing and apologies for the fact that I keep writing after you already betaed and may possibly make you look bad on the internet. And credits to Follow-ur-Shadow because I'm totally copying this little fic summary-format here from her haha

Reviews are very much appreciated and I hope you enjoy this, from the bottom of my heart.

Chapter 1

Harvey doesn't get nervous about sex.

The last time that happened he was a freshman at his first college party, about to have sex with a blonde, perky sophomore and he was worried there might be something he hadn't quite managed to pick up during his high school years. Ever since and pretty much for his entire life he's been confident not only in his abilities in the bedroom, but also his abilities to get a girl to the bedroom in the first place.

He doesn't get nervous at all, as a general rule. He especially doesn't when he knows he's got a sure thing.

He knows he's getting this girl tonight and he also knows the sex is going to be great. He remembers, with astonishing clarity for a guy who can't even remember his own phone number, the way their bodies mold to one another so smoothly. Perfect fit. He remembers how soft and warm and tight she feels and the way she does that thing with her tongue on his ear and her fingers—

Bottom line is, he knows it's gonna be great.

Still, he's been turning up the air conditioner all afternoon to prevent himself from breaking out in nervous sweats and trying to chug down the somersaults in his stomach with copious amounts of coffee every time she gets up from her chair and he thinks she's entering his office.

Okay, so he's a bit on edge. No big deal, he figures. He could just as easily call it horny and that much he absolutely won't deny because Donna is hot and he's been waiting for this day for a damn long time.

He's been waiting for this for exactly eight months, if he's counting — and he is.

.

.

It's one of their late nights in the new law firm. He closed a case, Jessica will be proud when she hears all about it in the morning and now he has Donna in his office, finally drinking the bottle of scotch he bought himself when he first moved in to said office.

She's sitting across the table from him, relaxed back on the chair, sipping on a drink and chatting away. Her hair is swept over one shoulder and she lifts a hand to slightly move her bangs to the side with the back of her fingers. Her dress is particularly low cut today, the dark fabric dipping down in a way that Harvey cannot, for the life of him, concentrate on anything other than the swell of her breasts and the idea that has been persistently nagging his brain for almost four whole months now.

On one hand, it would be breaking his promise to her because he needs to mention it again. On the other, he already did break it because he sure as hell hasn't put it out of his mind.

He finishes his drink in one go, sits up straight in his chair, and when he notices the pause in her speech — either because she finished what she was saying and it's his time to respond or because she notices something in him, he couldn't say — he calmly lays out his words to her.

He is a lawyer. This is a negotiation. He can close this deal.

"I'd like to renegotiate the terms of our agreement," he says.

She frowns, amused by his sudden seriousness, placing her drink on the desk. "What agreement?"

"The one where we agreed not to mention that we slept together."

It's the first time he manages to make Donna speechless. No. Scratch that, it's the second, the first being the time he told her he didn't want to lose her. Interesting coincidence how both times she lost her wits involved the same subject, he thinks.

"Harvey…" she warns, glancing sideways to escape his rather determined gaze.

"Just hear me out. If you don't agree to what I'm about to propose we can just go back to the original deal."

"It wasn't a deal, it was a condition. For me to come work for you."

"Which I agreed to. Hence, it's a deal."

She huffs and rolls her eyes and he senses it doesn't matter what he calls it, he's still pissing her off. Or making her nervous. She's definitely feeling something. Though he can't quite place it, he knows he needs to work his angle fast.

"Just… listen to what I have to say. Come on, what would be the harm in that?"

She could argue it could cause a lot of harm and regret and shame but she lets him make his case.

"Things between us have been… a little awkward." She rolls her eyes again and he presses, "I know I'm not crazy here. This is not our normal."

"Well, because your normal is flirting with everything that moves, including me, and you can't do that anymore because…" she stops for a bit, frowning at him. "Is this what you're worried about? You're feeling awkward about flirting with women in front of me now that we have…" she raises her brows in implication, letting her question die down before she adds, "You can flirt with whoever you want, Harvey, I'm not gonna get jealous."

He will never admit to that, but the way she says it… so detached. It bothers him. No that he wants her to be jealous, but…

"That's not what I'm worried about," he answers, tone as casual as hers. "And I flirt, by the way, I flirt."

"So what's the problem?"

"The problem is I still remember what you taste like and how your body and your mouth feel and sometimes I'm trying to have a professional conversation with you and the memory is goddamn distracting and I think it's creating a lot of unnecessary tension in our work relationship."

Her breath catches in her throat so suddenly she almost chokes. She shifts in her chair trying to get her bearings back, because damn it if he isn't right. She can remember exactly the things his body and mouth could do to her and 'tense' is only one way to call how the memory makes her feel.

She clears her throat as subtly as she can manage under his unwavering stare.

"Okay… and how do you propose we… solve this problem?"

"I think we should have sex again."

"What?!" Incredibly, she really didn't see this one coming.

"Just to take the edge off and then—"

"In your dreams, Specter."

"Exactly, Donna, it's in my fucking dreams. Sometimes it keeps me up at night."

Dammit. He can't believe he let that admission slide.

She can't either. She's gotten in his head and under his skin and she's relieved to know she's not the only one having trouble moving on, except not really because his proposal says a lot about how he feels about her. Or rather doesn't feel. He doesn't want her. He wants one more night. He wants to get her out of his system.

But really, what would be the harm in that? They've already slept together once, so it's not forbidden territory anymore. More than that, they've licked whipped cream off of the other's bodies, and shared strawberries between kisses and showered together and—

Oh god. She crosses her legs.

Besides, she doesn't want a relationship with him. He is her boss and it's obviously a terrible idea for a secretary to get involved in a relationship with her boss. He's also completely emotionally unavailable and it's an even worse idea to get involved in a relationship with a guy who's just not ready for it.

So… maybe…

She's been quiet for a while, absently biting her lips while Harvey just waits, trying to gage something from her expression. His fists are clenched over the table, fingernails digging into his palms and his throat bobs when she finally says something.

"But how would sleeping together again solve our problem?"

"Our problem?" he raises one eyebrow, completely incapable of avoiding teasing her. "Are you saying you've been having the same problem as me?"

"Shut up. How would that solve it? We'd sleep together and, assuming we didn't just have beginner's luck or were both on a sugar high from all the whipped cream," he chokes on a snort but that doesn't stop her, "it's going to be as good as the first time was and then the next day we'll be back here dealing with the fresh awkwardness all over again."

"Better," he says.

"What?"

"It's gonna be better. Second times are always better than first times and so on and so forth…"

"You and I both know we've already had our second time. And third." She raises a teasing eyebrow in his direction.

"So you can confirm that my theory is right." He smirks smugly. "And imagine what the fourth is going to feel like."

That's a daunting thought that leaves them suspended in silence. They stare into each other's eyes. Unmoving, barely breathing, faint shivers running down their skin.

Donna swallows. "I have a counter offer."

"Shoot."

"We have sex—"

"Deal."

She snorts.

"We have sex… once a year. To take the edge off, like you said. We can call it our new ritual, to celebrate the day I agreed to come to Pearson Hardman with you."

"Once a year?" Harvey asks seeming slightly horrified by her proposal.

"Your offer was once, Harvey. I'm offering you more."

Something in the word 'more' stirs low on his stomach while he stumbles on his words. "I didn't really mean…"

"What? Were you already planning on breaking your deal before I even agreed to it?"

"No." He poses firmly, more because he knows it's the right answer than because he actually means it. Not that he was planning on breaking the deal and insisting they make sex a recurring feature in their relationship, exactly, just that he hadn't thought much past getting her to agree to it in the first place. "But I see what you're trying to pass on the fine letter of this agreement."

She bites her lips, eyes locked on his as he studies her intention. She then raises her eyebrows and he huffs in irritation.

"You're gonna make me crazy."

"Why?" she asks as innocently as she can possibly muster.

"Are you seriously suggesting we wait another eight goddamn months to do this?"

"Somebody's been counting…"

He ignores her tease, frustration and unattended desire making him less than patient. "Why? Why wait? We could be out of here right now and in my bed in thirty minutes."

She shimmies in her chair and looks over her shoulder out the glass walls of the office, concerned someone might have heard him, feeling her skin prickle in response to his words, heat running down her spine.

"Harvey!" she scolds in a hushed tone. And then she breathes out, trying to steady herself for what she's about to say. "Because… if we can't wait a few months then this deal is doomed to fail."

'If we can't stop thinking about each other' - is what she thinks, but doesn't say, because it sounds a bit too intense in her head.

"How do you figure that?" he asks.

"We've had sex four months ago. How long did it take you to feel like you needed it again? How long have you been thinking about this new proposal of yours?"

Harvey shifts uncomfortably in his chair and he doesn't have to be vocal for her to know.

"Say we go right now and take the edge off. How long do you think it's gonna take for 'the edge' to be back with a vengeance?" She tries to make light of it but it falls short. "And then we'll just keep… needing it and I'm pretty sure that's going to be way more difficult to deal with."

"You're talking like we're recovering addicts."

"Tell me I'm wrong."

She's not. He wants her right now. Needs her right now. But she's not wrong because he's sure as hell he's going to still need her tomorrow. Both in his bed and right here in his office because he's a better lawyer with her and he doesn't want to lose her and ultimately that's what makes him agree with this torturous new idea of hers. Because knowing himself as well as he does, he sure would lose her if he put a third offer on the table — one that would allow him to have sex with her tonight and every night after this one.

What she doesn't tell him is her second reasoning. The fact that this way, with the lack of attachment and expectations and all the time in between to try and recover, this way, she's less likely to fall for him.

"Who says I'll still want this after all that time?" he asks.

She merely raises an eyebrow, challenging his desire for her because that much is obvious.

He smirks and rephrases what he meant. "Who says we'll still want it?"

"Well, if we don't then… better yet. Problem solved. Isn't this what we're doing here? Trying to solve this problem?"

He wants her and she's telling him he can't have her right now and damn her and all her rules. Except this time she's closing a window but not locking him out entirely. At least he has a key this time and a possibility is better than nothing. Later is better than never again.

"Okay," he says into the silence.

"Okay?"

"Okay. We have a new agreement."

He offers her his hand over the table to seal their agreement. She reaches for him and places her hand in his and, just like that, it's binding.

"You better not go back on this one, mister," she says, trying to brush away the tension from the moment.

"You better not either," his tone is deep and his eyes focused, locking her hands more strongly in his, locking her to the promise. "Eight months, Donna."

.

.

She's felt his eyes burning on the back of her neck through the glass the entire day and it really didn't help with the the hot waves breaking under her skin since she woke up today.

He hasn't said a word on the matter and she avoided going into his office as much as possible. She's not avoiding him, she's just… nervous.

How the hell is she supposed to know if they're on the same page or not? Eight months have passed without either of them mentioning a single word on the topic, just like they agreed they wouldn't, but now there's the matter of… closing the deal and there's this one last clause up for debate which is determining if they both still want it and she sure as hell isn't about to up and ask him.

He'd been with Scottie not a month ago on a business trip, she knows that much. And things between herself and Harvey have been absolutely normal, whatever that means for them. They still drink and their smiles still linger and they still flirt in a completely casual manner. Sometimes he calls her late at night or wakes her up at six in the morning but that's also their normal.

So how the hell is she supposed to know?

About mid afternoon she gets a grip and realizes she looks hot and he's hot for her, they're both single and there's absolutely no reason why they wouldn't do this, especially when opportunity has been such a long time coming.

Confirmation comes in the way his voice is lower than usual on the intercom, hoarse and… sexy. In the way his eyes rake over her entire body when she walks to his desk for the first time in the day. He smirks and he's just a bit too smug, even for him, and she figures he still wants this.

Which is exactly why Donna is so shocked when she comes back from the copy room to find out he's gone home for the night.

The lights are out in his office and she checks her phone to see if he texted her about meeting or his plans for the night, but there's nothing.

Son of a bitch. Couldn't even have the courtesy of letting her down like a gentleman. But then again, if he were a gentleman, they wouldn't even have this agreement at all.

In the privacy of her own mind she can admit she's pissed. And frustrated. Sexually frustrated, an annoying inner voice reminds her. But she tries to be rational about it. They agreed that maybe, after all that time, they might not still want this and it's a little annoying that Harvey's gotten over his 'problem' before she did but she said it herself this was the whole point. If he did it so can she.

Except he's downstairs. Waiting for her on the street, holding on to a cab door. Still with that son of a bitch of a smirk on his lips and looking incredibly smug.

She halts to a stop in front of him, chin lowering and eyebrows raising.

"What took you so long?" he asks.

"I'm sorry, did we have plans?" she moves a pointed finger between the two of them, putting on her best act.

"You know we do."

She considers teasing him some more. But the way he looks at her makes her heart skip a beat. It's been too long since she's seen his eyes that dark and he's moving to wordlessly invite her in to the cab, a hand hovering on the small of her back and he's not touching her but she feels it. She goddamn feels it, the heat emanating from his palm. He moves from the door and stops right in front of her, his face so close her eyes go out of focus, involuntarily dropping to his lips.

"Just get inside the car."

He doesn't usually give her orders, which is rather uncommon considering he's her boss, but he doesn't. She usually just knows what to do. But right now, in this situation they've gotten themselves into, she has no idea what to do and the feeling thrills her.

She smiles. It's tight lipped and teasing, the way the corners of her mouth pull just a bit while she drags her eyes back to his. Then she turns and gets inside the cab and hopes she's not making a huge mistake.

Harvey had already told the driver where to so their destination is a mystery to her and she makes it a point of honor not to ask. Are they going to his apartment? Hers, for the sake of tradition? A hotel room?

When they get off in front of a building it's a familiar one, but entirely not what she expected.

"I thought we…" she stumbles a little.

"Keep it in your pants, Paulsen. Do you really just want me for my body?"

She spurts out a laugh and she's still laughing when he guides her inside the bar, with the widest, cheshire cat grin on his face as she keeps giggling.

It's the bar where they first met, which she refrains from calling 'their bar' and she could think they're being sentimental about it, but she could also think it's just a nice bar, close by from work, where they have been to on more than one occasion because the bartender knows them and their glasses are never empty.

And the truth is, they have fun. They always have fun together. This is their normal, smiling and drinking and flirting and, even if tonight they know the flirting is leading somewhere, even if just for tonight, this really is them.

They still don't touch. Maybe because there might be people they know in the place or because it's a habit not to. But he sits close to her and drinks up every word out of her mouth and he doesn't remember the last time he had smiled this much. An annoying thought tells him maybe it was exactly a year ago in her apartment but he doesn't focus on the idea, just on how rosy her lips are and the way her mouth moves when she says the words 'szechuan peppercorn' and he places a hand on her knee under the table.

"Do you wanna go?"

She shivers under his touch and his words and that is a whole new kind of a turn on to him, getting Donna to shiver.

She nods a bit, a whispered "yeah" escaping her lips and he's squeezing her knee and biting his lip and gesturing for the bill.

They end up going to her place because it's closer and also seems kind of natural going to ground zero, the place where they had their first time.

He missed her more than he thought and that's something he realizes the second she's in his arms again. He sucks on her lips and her neck and the soft skin on the underside of her breasts like he's starving, because he is. He's intoxicated by a stronger version of her scent, one that lingers faintly around his office but that he now breathes in directly from the crook of her neck, face buried in her hair.

He's more accustomed to her voice than his own, listening to it all day, sometimes even inside his head like a voice of reason, but the raspiness in her tone when she moans his name is something he's not accustomed to and it excites him more than he ever thought was possible.

They've been working side by side for so long and he likes to think he knows her pretty well but he discovers a new freckle on her skin at each swipe of his tongue and a new soft spot that makes her squirm under him at each touch of his fingers and he's eager to learn so much more.

The feeling of her legs around his body and the way he fits between them will probably make the year ahead pretty difficult to go through, but she rakes her short nails up the extent of his back and into his hair and traps his lower lip between her teeth and he just wants to stay right here, in this moment, forever.

.

.

They quickly brushed up on a few details before he left.

They agreed it was probably best if he didn't stay the night. The other time, their first time, he stayed through the night and although morning sex was great — a point he didn't fail to make when they were discussing the subject — they both agreed it made saying goodbye that much more awkward.

They also thought sleeping together could potentially cause complications and they should avoid anything that could mess up their agreement because, after everything that happened that night, they both agreed they had a really great deal going, one that neither was willing to compromise.

At the office the next morning, she brings him his messages and reminds him of his appointments for the day. They move on as if nothing had happened and don't mention it again.

At least not for another year.