I do not own Criminal Minds nor any of the characters
Why is this happening to me? I think to myself as I feel his hand move slowly up my thigh. Once again, I place my hand on his and remove it from my leg, glaring at him, but he doesn't seem to understand that I want him as far from me as possible. I look around the bar, hoping that someone will notice my struggle and help me, but the only person who I want to help me is dancing the night away with three other girls at present moment. Derek! Notice me! Help me! But he never does. I look back at the drunk guy on the stool next to me, who is inching his hand back towards my leg, and I feel bile rise in my throat.
When I'm about to give up all hope of someone saving me, I feel a strong arm wrap around my shoulders and look up to see my incredible boss glaring at the man. "Everything okay, baby?" Hotch asks me before leaning down and kissing my temple.
"Just dealing with the usual drunk lechers."
"Well then I came just in time."
"Hey, man," the stranger interrupted. "The lady is doing just fine. We're bonding," he says as he places his hand on my thigh. I look up at Hotch as he's about to lunge at the man, a look of pure hatred and disgust on his face. I stand up abruptly and grab Hotch's hand.
"Let's go dance, sweetie," I say, pulling Hotch to the dance floor.
"Please, Penelope, let me go punch him in the face," he says, trying to pull away. I wrap his hands around my waist and pull him closer to me by wrapping my arms around his neck.
"Absolutely not. He's not worth a minute of your time. Just stay here, calm down, and dance with me."
"Fine," he replies, still glaring at the man over at the bar with his jaw locked. After dancing for a few moments, he seems to relax into dancing, pulling me closer and resting his head on top of mine, breathing in my shampoo. "Are you okay, Penelope?"
I pull back and look at him closely before resting my head against his chest. "I'm fine, boss man."
"Does that sort of thing happen a lot?"
"More than I'd like. But usually there's no one there to rescue me, so thank you."
"I'm sorry that I'm not always there."
"Don't apologize. You were there tonight. That's all that matters." He pulls me even closer to him as the music changes to a slow song that I'm not familiar with, but Hotch is. He starts to sing along, and before I know it, I feel myself truly relax for the first time in a long time. I'd never really thought about Hotch before. My thoughts are almost always on Derek. How much I want to be with Derek, how I hope that our conversations will one day become reality, how nicely Derek's butt fills out those jeans. But right now, in this moment, all I can think about is Hotch. How nice he smells, how well he sings, how relaxed and comforted I feel in his arms, how having him pretend to be with me made me feel better than I have in a very long time. I pull away from him and look up at him, examining him closely, as he looks confusedly back at me.
"Everything okay, Penelope?"
"Yeah, sorry, I just wanted to look at you."
He chuckles lightly, pulling me back to him, and I can feel him smiling against my head. I smile back in response and snuggle into his chest, breathing in his smell that is all man. Before I realize it, the music is changing again to something upbeat, and I pull back and look at Hotch, expecting him to want to stop dancing. To my surprise, however, he turns me around, grabs my hips and starts moving our hips together to the beat of the new music. I'm so surprised by how well he dances that I stutter my hips for a second and feel his erection pressed against me. I feel my face start to flush, but don't want to embarrass him, so I wrap my hand around the back of his neck, pulling him closer and staring at him as we move together.
We move together so effortlessly. I usually don't dance when we go out, but this is unlike any other dancing I've done before that I don't even care that I'd usually be sitting and relaxing. The world around us is quickly melting away until it is just the two of us in our own little world, dancing and looking at each other like we'd never seen the other before. Maybe we hadn't. At least, not like this. I've never seen Hotch like this. He looks so predatory, so relaxed, and so happy all at the same time. Kind of like a kid on Christmas morning who just got everything he asked for and more. I've never seen that look on a man's face when he's looking at me. But it feels really good.
Maybe I shouldn't have been paying attention to Derek all along. Maybe I should have been paying more attention to this man. This man who clearly likes me and was there for me at a time when Derek wasn't. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes. The way he looks at me when I enter a room, the way he always makes sure that I'm okay when they're away on a case, the way he comes to check on me as soon as they get back from cases. I'd always just thought that that was normal boss stuff, but Rossi never does any of that. Sometimes even Derek doesn't remember to do that and he's supposed to be my best friend. Maybe I should have been paying attention to Hotch all along. It seems like he's been paying attention to me.
Looking at him once again, I do the only thing that makes sense at the time. I pull his head closer to mine until our lips meet in a beautiful kiss right there in the middle of the dance floor. With all those people watching.