You know, I have come to believe that my friends were put on this earth to drive me crazy! "Write me a JJ/Rossi" was the request. "And make it sexy and funny and hot, too!" Okay, one of those I can do, but all three? At the same time? Oh the humanity! After ten starts and stops…and just as many rewrites, I think I found my groove with these two. I was hoping to take a tried and true method and twist it by making JJ the aggressor and teaching Lothario Dave a thing or two about love.

A quick note to inform my readers that I am quickly closing in on my 100th story! I have put up a poll on my profile page to vote on the pairing and prompt you would like to see for that milestone. PLEASE don't vote on the review page of my stories as it would mean that I will have to take chapters down to erase all comments, and that wouldn't be fair to people who have left reviews. Any votes made in the review section will NOT be counted toward the final tally. Thanks!

Song prompt: "Just Like Jesse James" by Cher

Once again, and just for the record, I don't own Criminal Minds.

Just Like Jesse James

She really didn't want to like him. He had done nothing to deserve being her friend. She had kept that number to a select few for a reason.

That being said, if she hadn't been prepared to be his friend, how in the hell had she fallen in love with him?

Just another mystery of life she supposed.

Well, she was going to teach him a thing or two. He was so cocky and sure of himself that he thought the world was falling at his feet, but she was anything but one of the doe-eyed, star struck female hangers on that seemed to come out of the woodwork whenever he stepped into a room. It was almost embarrassing to watch the way the atmosphere changed when he came on the scene. He looked at the women as they were the main items on the buffet table of life.

And to top it off, she had seen that same look in his eyes directed at her on more than one occasion - the look that he was going to conquer her and make her his…for a night.

Well, she was smarter than that. She knew about him and his Lothario past. She wasn't the media liaison just because she looked pretty in front of the cameras; she knew how to do her homework, and what she found on David Rossi could have filled a book or two, and put the Kama Sutra to shame. There was no way she was going to become another notch in his belt…though she could swear she saw him sharpening his chisel to do just that.

He had embarrassed her on a case and called her out in front of the team. And all she could do was stand there and take it. She hadn't cried - she would never give him that pleasure. But the moment he turned around and walked away, she flipped him off. The action had shocked her so much that she had gone to Pen and confessed. But what the tech analyst had to tell her was even more shocking.

"You are in love with him," Penelope Garcia stated simply, a wide smile on her face.

"Are you kidding?" JJ sputtered.

Pen nodded. "Nope. And from what I can see, you got it bad, my little buttercup."

"That's impossible! He's infuriating!"

"Good looking."

"Arrogant."

"Intelligent."

"A cocky ass bastard…"

"Who looks great in a pair of Levi's," Pen finished with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Are you trying to make me crazy?" JJ asked plaintively, but her heart was beating fast.

"Not as crazy as he's been making you." Pen chewed on her pencil. "So, when are you going to jump him?"

"Not in this lifetime!"

"Wow! That's quite a statement coming from a woman who hasn't had some in a long while."

JJ's eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

"Honey, I may not be a 'profiler' but I'm a woman, and I'm not blind. I know that you broke up with your last boyfriend last year and you've been sex free about just as long."

"Pen!" JJ exclaimed as her cheeks flamed hot.

"Just stating the obvious. Your dry spell is about to go down in the record books if you don't do something soon."

"Gee, thanks! I might be hard up…sort of, but I'd rather be that, than a pants dropping Lothario trying to nail everything with a skirt."

Pen looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, but she lowered her voice to be on the safe side.

"If you want a little 411 on the man you are head over heels in love with, I can give it to you."

JJ debated with herself…for all of ten seconds. Pulling up a chair, she leaned in close to her best friend. "Oh alright; spill it."

"He's gone longer without sex than you have."

JJ's eyes widened with surprise. "What? How do you know? Wait! Do I want to know how you know?"

Pen rolled her eyes. "A magician never reveals their secret, but I can tell you that he hasn't been out on a date since three months after he arrived at the BAU."

"That doesn't mean he isn't getting any. That could mean he's…" JJ searched for an excuse.

"Horny," Pen finished.

"Pen!"

"Just like you are. I fear to think about the two of you getting together; you might burn down a house." Pen laughed at the thought.

"That is not going to happen."

"Not with that attitude!"

"I don't have an attitude! I'm being logical. He has a reputation of 'damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead!' when it comes to women. He loves them and then leaves them in the dust. How can I compete with that?"

"Turn it around on him. Be the one who takes charge and don't give him a chance to get the upper hand."

JJ was stupefied. "How?"

"Make the first move. Something tells me that all his life he's had women always falling at his feet. Be the woman who doesn't do that."

"And how do you propose I do that, Miss Know It All?"

"Ask him out."

"What if he says 'no'?" The thought caused fear to race through her body. Yet the thought of David Rossi saying 'yes' created an equal amount of fear.

"Don't give him a chance to say no. Meet him on his territory and tell him where he is going, what he's going to do when he gets there, and how it's going to end."

"And you think he's going to say yes?" JJ wondered. Doubt was in her voice.

"I can almost guarantee that if you do it that way, he won't be able to say no."

JJ bit her lip. "I guess if you say so…" She stood up. "I still don't know what makes you so sure of yourself." Patting Pen's shoulder, she turned and left the room.

Grinning broadly, her eyes dancing with amusement, Pen twirled around in her chair. Chewing on the end of her pencil, she looked at the door her love struck friend has just exited.

"Because he loves you too."
****

While her and Pen's conversation still rang in her ears, JJ took a deep breath and entered the bull pen. I can do this, she told herself. Until he turned around and looked at her. Well…look would be an understatement; he was literally undressing her with his eyes. And he was taking in her reaction. Two can play this game, she vowed silently.

Squaring her shoulders, she braced herself and walked over to the man who had stolen her heart.

"Hello, JJ," he greeted, her name rolling off his tongue so smooth and seductively, it almost sounded erotic.

Keeping her face void of emotion, JJ scanned Dave from head to toe and back again. A small smile adorned her lips.

"My place. Tonight. Eight o'clock. Don't be late…if you know what's good for you," she stated in a low tone. Then she turned around and walked away.

Dave stood and stared at her. Because for the first time in his adult life, he was speechless.