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Chapter 8
AN: Thanks for the reviews, everyone. I am truly blessed by the outpouring of support I get from you all. Thank you so much...Here comes a teeny tiny chunk of sorta angst...
After scooping themselves off the floor, Pen glanced at the clock and recoiled in alarm. "Oh, God, cupcake! It's eight ten!"
They both needed to be in the meeting room by nine.
The time flew whenever they'd been together. This was a constant in their relationship, far before the time they started this wild affair. They would head to a restaurant for dinner after work, and before they knew it, it was midnight and the wait staff would be giving them dirty looks, trying to get them out the door.
"It didn't seem like that much time passed," she said, running into her bathroom for a washcloth.
"No, not at all," Derek said, tugging on his jeans. "Be right back; I'm going to get my go bag."
"Hurry!" she called from the bathroom. Mercy, where did the time go?
She grinned as she brushed her teeth. Never mind; she knew exactly where it went!
Three minutes later, Derek was standing behind her, brushing his teeth, while she tried to work some sort of magic with her hair.
"Coos me," he mumbled, a mouth full of frothy white foam, like a rabid animal.
She stepped aside as he spit and rinsed his mouth.
"Thanks," he said, looking back at her. He looked at his jaw, stroked both sides with his hand, and remarked thoughtfully, "I really should shave.."
"No time," she said, shoving him out of the bathroom towards the bed.
She heard him chuckling as she finally gave up and put her hair into a high ponytail and curled her bangs.
Stepping out of the bathroom, she saw that Derek already had a new pair of black jeans on and was putting on some green stick of deodorant. His bag was open in the middle of her bed, and his shirt was spread out.
She quickly threw on her deodorant, then went to put on her bra.
"Here," he said, reaching the back and fastening it.
"Thank you," she murmured.
"All set." He turned her and gave her a wry grin. "Not often do I get to put a bra on someone. Feels kind of weird."
She rolled her eyes and pulled on her control top panty. She had to jump to get into them. She looked at Derek watching her, his head cocked to the side, obviously wondering what the deal was with those panties. She didn't have time to explain as she slid on the tight pencil skirt she had for the day, and her teal flowered blouse.
She went to put chunky teal earrings on and looked in the mirror. "Oh, damn! My makeup!"
"You don't need it," he said. He was now completely dressed, sitting and waiting on her bed. "You look gorgeous without it."
She smiled a little. He was sweet, but he was dead wrong.
"Gorgeous, yes," she said, waving a makeup brush in the air. She smiled as she put on some blusher. "Polished, no."
Five minutes later, Penelope was brushing on a final coat of mascara and a swipe of gloss to her lips. "What time is it, Hot Stuff?"
"Eight forty."
"Whoo hoo!" she exclaimed, coming out of the bathroom, all smiles. "We got time to stop for coffee!"
"That's a good thing," he answered, carrying his go bag full of yesterday's clothes. They headed out the front door together and into Derek's waiting SUV.
A moment later, they were on I-95, heading to work. Derek had the music on low, and she was tapping her foot to the beat.
"Kind of nice, riding together," Derek remarked, still looking out the window.
Penelope smiled wistfully. Actually, the entire morning was kind of nice from her perspective, even though it was rushed at the end. They worked together efficiently and didn't stress out at all.
"Yeah, kind of nice."
Derek pulled into the drive-through coffee shop just off the main Quantico exit. "I'll take a large black coffee and a large soy nonfat caramel macchiato, not so hot, extra shot of espresso, with whip and a caramel drizzle."
Penelope stared at him, her mouth almost falling open. Derek just ordered her favorite drink in the world, exactly how she would order it. After three years of dating, Kevin hadn't even remembered the soy part!
After paying and retrieving the coffee from the drive through cashier, he turned to hand her the cup.
She was still gaping at him.
He laughed shortly. "What?"
"You ordered my coffee. Exactly perfect."
He smirked and shrugged. "So?"
"No one orders my coffee correctly. Not even JJ or Emily, and they'd been to the coffee shop with me every day." She narrowed her eyes, like she was studying him. "Yet you got it perfectly on the first try."
Derek looked a little flustered for a moment. Then he turned back to the window. "Profiler. I pay attention."
It wasn't until after they were at the office that Penelope remembered Emily was a profiler, too. That made her wonder: just how closely had Derek Morgan been paying attention to her?
Thankfully, when they arrived at the BAU, everyone else was already in their respective duties. Penelope thought it would've raised some eyebrows if they walked in together; they lived on the opposite sides of town. Well, maybe not that many eyebrows. She was known to stay at his house here and there, and vise versa; just not usually on a work night.
They were probably going to have to keep to that schedule now. They'd wear each other out, and sooner or later get in trouble.
"Bye, baby," he said. He stood there for a moment, watching her. He looked like he was going to kiss her.
She wasn't ready for that. Not here, where Strauss or the BAU team could see them. She stepped back, and watched a slightly disappointed look cross his face.
"Bye, Hot Stuff. Have a good day," she answered, stepping even farther back, then scurrying to her office like a mouse in a field.
About two hours later, the announcement that they caught a case came up. Penelope fell into full swing and started doing the researching that Hotch asked her to do. She was mid-typing, preparing the tablet downloads, when the door opened to her office.
"Sweetness."
Turning, she saw Derek walk in the doorway of her office. She smiled, and her heart started to pound harder. He'd always affected her like that, even in the past, but now her heart was racing.
She smiled sweetly. "What brings a chocolate god to this mortal's doorway?"
"You? Mortal?" he asked incredulously. "Oh, no. More like a goddess come to earth."
She blushed, grinning even bigger. "What do you need?"
"I just wanted to see you." He shut the door behind him and started walking closer. The heat in his eyes was unmistakable, and reminded her of this morning, and last night...and alerted her to future pleasures, too!
Pound, pound, pound went her heart.
Throb, throb, throb went her groin.
He reached for her hands and helped her stand, bringing her into his arms. She put her hands on his chest, then raised them slowly up to his shoulders.
"There's a case. You have to leave soon," she whispered, her voice sounding funny and thick to her ears.
"Mmm hmm," he replied, his voice a mirror of hers. "I might be gone a long time, so I had to tell you a few things."
"What's that?" she asked, and the throbbing turning into zinging.
He gave her a slow, sexy smirk. "I am assigning you homework, angel girl."
"Okay...what do I need to do?"
"Read the book, and pick four different poses to try when I get back," he murmured, leaning forward to kiss her temple.
She shivered at the contact, and giggled softly at her response. "Maybe I should give the book to you, so you can dream about me while you're gone."
"Don't need no book, sugar," he purred. "I do that already."
Leaning forward, he gave her a solid, heated kiss that curled her toes and ensured she'd be dreaming of him, too. Although she knew she would have been anyway...
"Besides," he said with a leer, after he raised his mouth. "I'm sharing a room with Reid, and I don't want to shock the shit out of that poor kid."
She laughed again, and—
She heard the doorknob being turned, and she stepped away from Derek quickly, flushing guiltily.
He gave her a sardonic grin. "I locked it, you know."
She watched as he went and opened it to Emily, thinking that probably wasn't the best thing to do, either.
"Have you two been in here the whole time? We need to go," Emily remarked, glancing in at Penelope. "Why was your door locked?"
Pen couldn't respond. Her eyes just widened guiltily. "Ah..."
"Was it?" Derek said, arching a brow. Then he added casually as he walked out the door, "I didn't know."
It was one of the worst jobs lying Penelope ever heard. Emily must've known it, too. She shot Penelope a look before she walked out, and Garcia blanched.
She wasn't ready. She wasn't at all prepared to talk about what she was doing with Morgan. Casual sex wasn't something she normally did, and she couldn't really defend her actions, beyond just wanting him so badly. For the first time, she had some apprehension, feeling this affair was something kind of...sordid.
She sighed heavily and sunk into her office chair. How could she defend something to Emily that she couldn't defend to herself?