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A/n here's the next part of the date. Please enjoy.
Sous-Chef or Card Shark
"What are you doing?" Reid asked from the doorway to her kitchen.
She had the door to the refrigerator opened and was rummaging around inside. He was enjoying the view of her cute butt sticking out of the door. Her black jeans fit very nicely over her curves and now he could enjoy them fully without worrying about anyone noticing.
"Jackpot!" She stood up and backed out of the fridge.
He decided he liked her butt better when she bent over so that the fabric of the jeans pulled nice and tight.
"What are you staring at?"
The wonderful haze of ogling her ass faded in the wake of her irritated voice. Her eyes had that look she got when a witness or a suspect lied to her.
"I - um… I was just wondering what you were looking for."
"I don't believe you Dr. Reid."
Well, he could tell her the truth and perhaps risk a slap, or he could lie through his teeth and hope she bought it.
"I was looking at… um, I just came in here to see what you were doing and -"
"You thought you'd ogle my ass." She finished for him.
"Are you mad?"
Keep your eyes on the nearest exit!
There was only one exit from her apartment and she would probably tackle him before he could get to her front door.
She strolled casually to him. She was smiling at him like a shark circling a school of fish. "I'm not mad at you. After all, we have a new understanding right?"
He backed away from her, through the door of her kitchen and into the back of her couch. "Right… So you don't mind."
"Of course I don't mind if you stare at me like I'm some sort of object." She put one hand on his chest and lightly pushed.
"I'm not… I didn't… um, wow."
Emily grabbed his tie and pulled him forward so that his face was inches from her lips. "I don't mind at all as long as you know that I'll be ogling you every chance I get." She let go of his tie and he stumbled back against the couch.
He knew that he should be afraid, but he couldn't quite make his hands tremble. Instead, he felt very aroused by her declaration.
Down boy… You promised each other you would take it slowly.
"Have we reached a satisfactory agreement?" She asked as if they had just concluded a new business deal. She even stuck her hand out for him to shake.
He took her hand and she squeezed it very tightly. She smiled again and held up what she'd been looking for in the fridge. "If you're through staring at my ass Dr. Reid, I found dinner."
"What is it?"
"Since I ruined the roast, I thought we could have a junk food night instead. You like junk food don't you Reid."
"Yeah…"
She left him standing there. He kept his eyes carefully away from her backside as he followed her back in the kitchen.
"This is pre-made pizza crust. I have cheese, pepperoni, onions and mushrooms. There should be some green peppers and olives too."
"I don't like mushrooms." Reid said as she opened the canister of pre-made crust.
"Turn on the oven to 375 please."
He went to the stainless steel oven. He looked at the dials, relieved that they were simple enough for a child to use. He turned it on while she cleaned up the mess from the ruined dinner. She gave him a knife and told him to cut up the peppers.
"I don't cook." He squeaked.
"You're about to learn." She said. "Wash it off first," She instructed as she put water into the Dutch oven to soak.
"Okay!"
He took the pepper to the sink and washed if off in cold water. Emily found a cutting board and gave him a knife. "Just cut off the top and pull out the ribs and seeds."
He carefully cut into the pepper and pushed the top to one side of the cutting board. The ribs and the seeds were obvious to him so he began removing them. The seeds didn't want to cooperate, sticking to his damp fingers like little magnets. Maybe they had some kind of chemical properties that made them adhere to human skin. He made a mental note to check it out on the internet.
"Staring at the pepper won't get it cut." Emily said from behind him.
He jumped and she laughed. "That wasn't funny… I could have cut off my finger!"
"You're not holding the knife." She pointed to the sharp, shiny object on his cutting board that was nowhere near his hands.
"Oh right, well the principal remains the same," he lectured her.
"Whatever!" She pulled a paper towel off the roll attached to the underside of the oak cabinet. "Here, let's get that out of the way. She cleaned up the guts of the pepper while Reid rinsed his hands under the modern stainless steel faucet.
"Okay, just cut the pepper in half lengthwise and then dice them."
He regarded her with extreme wariness. "You can do it, just go slowly. Tell me something I don't know about pizza."
He picked up the knife and began slicing the pepper like Emily showed him. "There's a huge controversy around who invented the pizza. It actually evolved rather than sprang into being. As early as 1000AD the Romans used the word, pizza. It means pie. Ancient Romans would typically have meals of flat bread with other foods on top of them. That type of pizza is what we know today as focaccia. The invention of pizza began in Naples in a shop known as Port Alba. It was a food for peasants and consisted of flat bread, tomato sauce and cheese."
He realized that by the time he finished with his little lecture, he finished dicing the peppers. He had actually done something helpful in the kitchen without cutting his hand off. He grinned up at Emily who'd just finished putting canned pizza sauce on the crust.
"Very good Dr. Reid, I may have to keep you around as my sous-chef."
"That's really funny." He retorted.
"I'm serious… You did really well. How about something a little easier, like putting the pepperoni on top of the sauce?" She indicated a package of pre-cut pepperoni slices.
"Okay… I can do that!" He said excitedly picking up the package and reaching inside.
Emily smirked and shook her head. She went to work on some red onion slices. She cut some mushrooms for one side of the pie, as she liked mushrooms. She put everything in separate bowls and headed for the pantry and a can of sliced black olives.
"I'm done," Reid said as she came back to the counter with her can of olives.
"Now put on the onions and the peppers."
He layered them evenly over the surface of the pizza. He liked the different colors on the round pizza pan. He remembered on boring Saturday afternoon turning on the Food Network. The chef doing the cooking on that particular show said that color is important in presenting food.
"Looks good," he said as she put mushrooms on a portion of the pizza and black olives over the rest of the pie.
"Yes it does… Now we're going to put it in the oven for about thirty minutes." She said, carefully picking up the pizza pan.
"Um… aren't we missing something?" He pointed at the bags of pre-shredded mozzarella, Romano, and cheddar cheeses.
"That goes on about five minutes before we take it out. That way it melts but doesn't get hard. I like stretchy cheese. It's more fun."
"I'm learning so many new things about you." Reid said as he watched her put the pizza in the oven.
"Stick with me and you may learn more than you ever expected." She winked at him.
He gulped and decided to clean up rather than look in her dark, bottom-less eyes. This night meant harmless fun and escape from, blood, pain and terror. For the first time since he had started with the BAU, he felt like all the weight of the job just lifted away from his shoulders.
"So Reid, what else do you want to do tonight?"
"How about a movie?" He said, "Or we can play poker," he suggested innocently.
"If you insist on losing to me again then so be it." She replied as he rinsed off his chopping knife.
"That one time was a fluke Emily."
"I don't think so! I can beat you anytime I want." She insisted while loading the dishwasher.
"Bring it on!" Reid challenged.
He wiped down the counter tops while Emily went through some of the kitchen drawers. "Damn, I can't remember where I put my deck of cards." She said.
"I have one in my messenger bag."
"Of course you do, but I think I'll use my own if you don't mind." Emily said, pushing the drawer shut.
"I found them," She held out a brand new pack of cards.
"If you insist." He held up his hands in surrender. "What're the stakes this time?" He asked.
She pulled out a bag of Dove's chocolate truffles. "Is that okay for you? "
"Looks good," He licked his lips and she grinned.
Emily sat next to Reid with her feet up on the couch. His arm circled her shoulders while his hand played with her hair. The touch of his fingers had a calming influence on her she'd never felt with anyone else in her life.
The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers played on her television. The room was dark and chocolate candy wrappers, popcorn and the remnants of pizza littered the coffee table. Two wine glasses stood on the table each bearing a small amount of white wine.
She stretched and Reid sighed. She hadn't eaten this much junk food in a long time, but it had tasted so good. She'd worry about her diet in the morning. She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder.
"You smell good." He whispered.
"It's my shampoo… It has mint in it."
"I like it." He held her closer to his body.
She'd been right about his new hard body. She could feel the musculature under his skin and it made little goose bumps jump out on her arms. "You've been working out Spencer Reid."
She couldn't see him blushing in the dark and the low light coming from the television, but it was a good bet that he was scarlet.
"I like it." She said, moving up to plant a kiss on his warm mouth.
"You do?" He squeaked.
"Yep… I was thinking this afternoon when Morgan started teasing me that I wanted to jump across the desk and rip off your shirt so I could lick you up like maple syrup."
He shifted uncomfortably. "Emily!"
"I'm sorry… I know I promised to be good."
"It's okay…" He assured her.
Emily hugged him tighter, then went back to watching the movie. Sometime during the battle of Helms Deep, she fell asleep.