Hot Summer Nights

Chapter Eleven

August 2010

Derek and Penelope left the restaurant, after the team dinner, hand in hand, smiling and joking with their friends as they said goodnight. Once everyone was headed to their respective cars Derek stopped walking and pulled Penelope close for a kiss.

As their lips separated they stared lovingly at each other.

After a moment he brought up how he had confessed in front of everyone that he was in love with her and would do anything to talk her into being his girlfriend.

"I swear I didn't intend to say a word to any of them about us tonight but it just popped out. I should have said something to you before we even got here. But I wanna say it now so that we're real clear." He cupped her face. The cool summer air swayed over them as they stood in that parking lot. "Baby girl, this weekend has been amazing. I don't want this to end." Bringing his lips near hers again he whispered "I never want us to end, to tell you the truth."

Stroking his cheek softly she gave him a short, gentle kiss. "Sweetness, I'm all in if you're all in."

A huge smile curved over his face. "Mama, you best believe your man is all in!"

She laughed. "Then what are we still doing here? Take me home, Hot Stuff!"

He pulled her close and devoured her mouth, cementing their promise to be together with a hungry kiss that told her they would always have hot sex and it would never be boring in their bedroom. Just then there was a honk. Then another and another. Beep. Beep. Beep. Till it was too much to be ignored.

Derek reluctantly pulled away. Looking behind him he saw Reid's car, with him behind the wheel, but Emily was in the passenger seat with the window down and her badge out. She asked them sternly "Do you two know that sex in public is against the law? I suggest you get a room before I run you in for indecent exposure!" Then she let out a laugh, winking at them, and rolled up the window.

Derek cracked up. He pulled Penelope close to him and stroked her hair, as her face was pressed to his chest. "Well you heard her, baby girl. We better get a room."

"Somebody promised me a swimming pool."

He raised an eyebrow, since she hadn't been keen on the idea earlier, and leaned back so he could look at her, but never let go of her as he did. "I wouldn't wanna go breaking my word with you. Lets get out of here, Garcia. And do me a favor, would you?"

"Hmmm?"

"Try to not look so damn sexy as I'm driving us home because you know I will pull this SUV over and spank that ass if you force me to."

She giggled while he helped her into the vehicle. "I'll try to be good."

"You better," he said, in a fake stern tone as he gave her a funny, warning look.

Both of them couldn't stop smiling as they left the parking lot. They talked about the reactions the team had to learning about them dating and also about how they couldn't get caught having sex at work.

Derek joked "You meant to say we can't have sex at work, right, mama? Not that we just can't get caught."

"No, I meant exactly what I said. We can't get caught when we have sex at work."

He growled and ordered "What did I tell you about distracting me when I'm driving?"

"Isn't the first time and won't be the last, smoochie."

He chuckled. "Woman, you're crazy. I don't know how I went so long without making you my crazy woman."

Penelope grew quiet and stared out the window. A couple of long, tense minutes passed. Derek cleared his throat "Baby girl, I know that I've hurt you-"

"Seriously I don't wanna re-hash the past. I wanna look at our bright, beautiful future. That's what matters. Everything happened the way it was supposed to. It all happened for a reason- every single awesome or uber sucky part of it. I truly believe that. I have to in order for my life to make sense."

"I won't make excuses for taking so long before I told you that I love you that first time. You know me and you know that I never did have much faith in love. Yeah, I knew I had all these intense feelings for you but hell if I was gonna name them until that day when I just had to let you know. I figured that would take this huge weight off my chest and for a few hours it did. I thought it would stay that way. That I'd be different from then on but....I woke up the next day just as messed up inside. I backed away from us again and when I did that I let you down and I let myself down. I'm sorry, Penelope."

"Handsome, you can't take it all on yourself. I should have tried to help you more. I was always caught up in my own insecurities. Especially when I was shot. That was the worse time and all I wanted was to start over as someone else. I can't say that if I could go back I'd do it different cause we did what we did based on how we felt back then. Its okay. It got us here and here is pretty damn awesome, don't you agree?"

"Yeah, totally, baby girl."

He gave her a tender smile and she smiled back. Even after he had to look at the road again she still stared at her man for a long minute, just soaking in the image of him and knowing that he finally had told her all the things she had prayed to hear for years.