Home for The Holidays

Morgan and Garcia

Chapter Five

December 2007

Penelope and Derek took a cab to the bar. Sitting in the back of the cab they were both quiet. Her body was still overheated from them flirting while they were in their hotel suite. Her heart pounded hard in her chest.

Derek's body was angled toward hers in the back of the cab for the short drive to the bar. Though it was dark, when they would go under streetlights, she would get a glimpse of his face in the light every so often. She could have sworn he was watching her with a predatory gleam in his eye.

She smoothed down the skirt of her dress and asked "Could you give me a refresher on your friends one more time? Which one played on the football team with you and which one lived down the block from you?"

"Don't worry about it, girl."

"But I do worry and you know that. I want to be able to talk to them so they like me and I don't stick out like a sore thumb. I'll be the only one there tonight who doesn't know all your old stories from the good old days."

Derek's hand closed over her knee. "Who couldn't like you in this dress?"

She smiled slightly as her heart jumped to her throat. "This dress works better on you than I expect it to work on them. You're weak to my special brand of Kryptonite."

Waggling his head at her, he leaned forward "Damn right I am, baby girl." Derek ran his finger from her jaw down her throat, then fingered the pendant of the necklace she had on. "Mmmmm, you look like a five course meal tonight and Derek Morgan is a starving man."

Penelope giggled. "Stop it, Hot Stuff! You're such a tease."

Derek settled back into the seat. Penelope turned her head and glanced out the window. "I'm loving Chicago so far. It has a real exciting vibe to it. A certain energy that DC don't."

"Oh yeah?" Derek chuckled. "You sure its Chicago that you're loving?"

She smiled but kept looking out the window.

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They playfully argued over who would pay for the cab and she won because she shoved a bill in the cabbie's hand. Derek gave Penelope a stern look. "I don't like that, woman."

"Tough," she teased, eyes dancing with amusement, and then went to get out of the cab. Derek reached past her and grabbed the door.

He growled at her "Don't you dare. Such a hard head!" He got out, walked around and opened the door for her. He held his hand out. She placed her hand in his before standing up.

They hurried into the bar, with snow falling on them, slipping into the warmth of the building. Derek looked around for a moment and then spotted his friends at a table. "This way, baby girl."

Putting his hand on her back he led her over there. His face lit up. "Hey!"

There were two men, Derek's age, sitting there and one woman. The guys jumped to their feet. They all shook hands, hugs and greeted each other. Penelope was introduced to Leroy, who had played football with Derek, and Tyrone, who lived down the street from the house Derek grew up in. He also went to school with Leroy and Derek, though he hadn't played on any teams with them because Tyrone was not the athletic type. Derek had told Penelope that Tyrone was had asthma as a kid and couldn't play sports. He got picked on but Derek had always looked out for him.

The woman at the table was Tyrone's wife of eight years, Sheila. She gave Penelope a warm smile. Derek helped Penelope out of her coat and into a seat, next to Shiela. Derek sat down in the empty chair on the other side of Penelope and put his hand on her back.

Derek asked his friends. "So are we drinking?"

Tyrone answered, lifting up his beer, "You know it. You need to catch up."

"Sounds good to me. Lets do this thing," Derek said as he flagged down a waitress. He asked Penelope if she wanted a drink she always had back in Virginia.

She cooed at him "You know me so well, mon cher."

"Better and better everyday," he flirted back before ordering the drinks.

Leroy looked at Penelope. "So tell us how Derek managed to snag such a-"

Derek warned his friend "Hey now. Don't say another word, you dog. She don't need to hear from you how fine she is. I tell her all the time. So hush it."

Leroy smirked and ignored him. "Hot sexy mama like yourself?"

"Why thank you," Penelope said. "I guess he's just very lucky that I always go for intelligent men."

Derek laughed as him and Penelope shared a flirty look. He murmured "Oh really? You like me for my brain? You are so lying to that man right now! Tell him the truth about what you like most about me."

She laughed. "I plead the fifth!"

They all laughed. They spent hours talking about the past. Derek put his arm around Penelope's shoulder and pulled her close to him early in the night and kept her there till she went off to the bathroom with Sheila. Penelope could feel Derek's eyes on her as she moved through the crowd and away from the table.

After going to the bathroom she was washing her hand when Sheila came out of a stall. Sheila started to wash her hands, while saying "You know I never thought I'd see the day when Derek got serious about a woman. He was such a player back in the day. Every chick wanted a piece of him."

"His sexiness is sure appreciated by the women where we live too. Sometimes I think there isn't a woman alive who is single that would turn him down given the chance to get with him."

"I wouldn't doubt that!" Sheila laughed. "But you don't have a thing to worry about. Girl, that man is crazy over you. I'm sure you know that already though. You've hit the jackpot with your boyfriend. Take good care of him. Everyone of his friends back here miss him but we're all glad Derek went on to bigger and better things. If I didn't see it with my own eyes tonight though I wouldn't believe that he went and settled down. It looks good on him though."

"Everything looks good on my man."

"You know that's right!" Sheila laughed again and they left the bathroom.

When they got back to the table Tyrone told his wife. "Lets shake a leg, sweetheart," before pulling her out to the small dance floor.

Leroy moved toward Penelope. "Let Derek watch our coats. You and me have a date on the dance floor."

Derek gently pushed his friend's chest. "Ha! You must be drunk if you think that's happening."

"I don't dance anyway," Penelope said. "Sorry but there are plenty of fine young things in here to take a spin with you. Ask anyone of them and I'm sure you'd hear a yes."

Derek told Leroy "Listen to the woman. She's brilliant." Then he looked at Penelope "And you, mama, do dance tonight."

"But..." she protested, as he pulled her away. When they got to the dance floor, which was packed, she tried to talk over the music "Handsome, really I don't wanna..."

His hands went to her hips, jerked her against him and started to move her to the beat. It was seductive, the way they moved together, and soon she really did wanna dance with him for as long as she had the energy. Every beat of the music pulsated through her body as they grinded against each other-hot, sweaty, his breath on her neck, his hands holding her firm, moving her like he wanted. Feeling his hard and taunt body against hers. She came alive under his touch.

His lips brushed against her throat in soft kisses. The music surrounded them- loud and bass pumping. She didn't like to dance in crowds in public. She always felt exposed. But right at that moment Penelope felt nothing other than Derek.

The fact that they made it back to the hotel that night and into their separate beds without so much as kissing is something she can hardly believe. Because they had never gotten closer to it than that moment of their bodies grinding together on the dance floor.