AUBRY'S POV:
I quickly put my beautiful flowers in a vase of water, grabbed my silver clutch, and left with Derek. He opened the car door for me to get in and then closed it behind me, like a perfect gentleman. I could only smile and try to calm the butterflies inside me as he climbed into the driver's seat and took my hand in his.
"So, where are we going?" I wanted to know, reveling in the sensation of his thumb making slow circles on the back of my hand.
"You'll see, baby girl," he assured me, smiling mischievously and squeezing my hand tightly. We stopped at a red light and he leaned in close to give me swift kiss that I felt all the way down to the tips of my toes.
"So, Aubry, where'd you get your degree?" Derek asked, accelerating again.
"Columbia," I replied. "I have a degree in Criminal Justice with a specialty in criminal profiling. And, I got a minor in public relations."
Derek's eyebrows shot up. "Wow. Guess you went to school for a long time."
I shrugged. "I started with dual enrollment in my Junior year of high school, so I got my core classes out the way early."
He looked at me, then back at the road, then back at me. "You sound just like Reid right now, Aubry."
Laughing merrily, I smoothed the wrinkles in my dress. "I was sort of a nerd in my class. The loner."
"Why? Weren't you this striking in high school?" Derek asked, turning the car onto a different street.
"No, I wasn't. I was nerdy and wore big glasses. My parents were a bit pushy when it came to getting the best education possible. I had to excel! There was no Plan B."
"Only child, right?" Derek guessed correctly.
"Yeah," I replied softly. "An only child."
We arrived at the restaurant after a brief drive and were seated promptly at a small table for two. The hostess gave us two menus and assured us that our waiter wouldn't be long.
"This place is really, really nice, Derek," I told him, smiling at him in the dim candlelight. "It reminds me of this place I went once called Maggie's. It was nice too, but the evening was a little stressful."
Morgan reached across the table and took my hand in his. "I wanted this night to be just right, baby. And I knew how stressful that night was. I was there." He winked and leaned across the small table to kiss me.
I was leaning towards him as well when something caught my eye. A very familiar looking brunette was locked in a heated kiss with a easily recognizable Hotch.
"It—it's Emily!" I exclaimed, pulling back from Derek suddenly. "And Hotch."
"Where?" Derek exclaimed, snapping his head around to look in the direction that I was.
Sure enough, Aaron Hotchner and Emily Prentiss were in a back corner, sharing a very intense kiss. My mouth fell open as I watched them and I could feel Derek's surprise as well.
"Well I'll be damned," he muttered. "Wonder how long they've been dating?"
I shook my head, still watching the couple, who were obviously lost in their own little happy world. "I dunno, but they are definitely making the most of this evening," I replied.
"I'd say so," Derek agreed, shaking his smoothly-shaved head. "So, what do you say we make the most of ours." He leaned across the table again and pressed his moist lips against mine gently. My eyelids fluttered shut and I sighed into him blissfully, loving the taste of the cinnamon gum he chewed.
"Ah-hem," someone cleared his throat close to us. I pulled back immediately and nearly choked on air when I saw Hotch and Emily standing beside our table.
"Enjoying your night out?" Emily asked, a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, we are," Derek replied smartly. "How about you two? Anything you'd like to tell us?"
"Em—Prentiss—and I were just discussing the case over dinner and a glass of wine," Hotch insisted firmly.
"Um…maybe it's just me, but it didn't look like you were doing too much discussing over there," I pointed out. Here, Hotch wasn't my boss. He was another diner in a restaurant.
"How long have you two been goin' out, man?" Derek wanted to know, looking up at Hotch with incredulity.
"Two months," Emily replied, slipping her hand into Aaron's. "We thought you guys would have figured it out by now."
"Looks like we're not the only ones breaking rules, baby," Morgan told me, smiling the same smile that made my body tingle down to the tips of my toes.
"We'll let you two get back to dinner," Aaron said, pulling Emily away. "See you on Monday morning."
"Bye," we called to them.
After the surprise, Derek and I fell easily into conversation. He told me about his family and his childhood, even the details of the horrors he'd endured as a young boy. I held his hand as much as I could, loving the warmth of his grip on my hand.
I told him about my life as an only child, forced into nerd-ishness by my parents desire for me to succeed.
"Why did you decide to join the FBI?" he wanted to know.
"Well, the CIA has a bad reputation and I knew that if I came to the FBI, I could eventually work my way into the BAU. I read all of Rossi's works and watched his career when I was working my degree. And, then there's the reason I was an only child—that was the real motivator."
Derek shook his head. "Aubry, what are you talking about? Did you have siblings?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I had twin baby brothers. When I was twelve, they were six and somebody snatched them from the front yard one day." I swallowed the tears back and looked down at my plate. "We hoped for the best, but in the end they were found in a dumpster in the city. They had been sexually abused and beaten to death. My parents never got over it…and neither did I."
Morgan was silent for a moment, but I could feel his sympathy oozing out of every pore on his skin. "Wow. No wonder you decided to join law enforcement."
"I promised myself that I would protect anyone that I could, so that one day I might could prevent such needless deaths as theirs' were."
"Then you've come to the right place," Morgan assured me.
We got back to my apartment around nine-thirty and I invited him inside without any apprehension, yearning for another kiss like the one we'd shared on the airplane. I wanted to feel his strong, muscular arms wrapped tightly around me. I wanted to feel our mouths fused together in an endless struggle for control that neither of us would.
"You feel like watching some TV?" I suggested. "Maybe a movie?"
He smiled at me. "Whatever you want, baby. I'm just here to spend time with you."
While I quickly changed into some plaid pajama pants and an FBI t-shirt, Derek took off his tie and jacket, and unbuttoned his top button. When I came downstairs, he was waiting for me. A happy smile spread across his handsome face and he met me a few steps from the landing, slipping his arms around me.
"God, you're beautiful," he breathed, slipping his hands underneath my arms and lifting me up easily. He carried me down the last few steps and then set me safely back on my feet.
"You're not so bad lookin' yourself, Agent Morgan," I whispered back, reaching up and wrapping my arms around his neck.
"Tell me something I don't know," he laughed, leaning down and claiming my lips with his.
I raised up on tip-toes, trying to meet him halfway. When his tongue ran along my bottom lip, I shivered and clutched at handfuls of his black shirt as I willingly gave him access to the depths of my mouth.
Moving slowly, Derek backed me across the room and toppled me onto the couch, holding his weight up so he didn't crush me. Our legs tangled together as his hands explored everywhere and his mouth plundered mine. I felt his hands begin to ease my shirt up and that's when I stopped him short, pushing my palms up against his chest.
"Wait, Derek," I exclaimed breathlessly. "You have to know something!"
He pulled back and looked down at me, still hovering above me. "What's wrong, sweetheart?"
"I'm not that kind of girl, Derek. I don't have… My family is very religious and I have…rules about this kind of thing. Until I have a husband…I just can't," I stammered, blushing madly as I spoke.
"You're saying you want to remain pure until you get married?" Derek tried to understand all my jumbled, half-spoken sentences.
I nodded. "Yes. Do you think I'm a stupid little girl?"
He smiled and shook his head. "No, baby, I don't. I think you're a wise woman and I admire you for adhering to your rules, even though I admit that I would have liked to pick up where we left off last night."
"Derek, you have no idea how much I want to do the same, but for now, lets just make out for a little while longer."
"I don't have a problem with that either," he told me, settling closer against me once more.
