(Hey, it's good to know that I've still got some readers and reviewers out there. Thanks a bunch for brightening my day with your comments! Here's the next chapter.)
Come Back To Me
Chapter Two
When they reached the car, she handed over the keys with a teasing wink, but real trust sparkling in her eyes. Not just anyone got to drive Esther, but Morgan was one of the elite few that she trusted with her precious classic car.
He grinned cheekily, flashed his perfect white teeth and a deviously seductive look at her, took the keys and gave her a peck on the cheek. "You really do want some good lovin', don'tcha Goddess?"
She nodded, biting her lower lip with such an impish look of anticipation that for the second time in less than five minutes, he found himself wanting to take her right then and there, consequences be damned.
"Don't look at me like that, Pen," he warned, almost licking his lips as wild, enticing images went ricocheting through his mind, "unless you don't want to make it back to my place and would rather be rollin' in the backseat like a couple of horny teenagers."
She shrugged, trying to look nonchalant, but the blush spreading over her from the roots of her hair out, and the way her breathing sped up gave her away. "However you wanna do it, Studmuffin," she quipped.
With an almost feral growl in the back of his throat, he leaned down to clutch her to his body and kiss her thoroughly, tongue slipping past her lips until his desire was at least momentarily appeased. Then he pushed back away from her reluctantly, managing to say, "Nah, come on, get in the car. I wanna do this right. Let's get home and comfortable, 'cause I plan on taking my time."
She was already heading around to her side of the car and opening the door to get in. "You do know just what to say to make a girl's temperature rise, don't you Handsome?"
He was already in the driver's seat and turning the key in the ignition as he chuckled easily at her observation. "You know it, Baby Girl."
They drove a few minutes in comfortable quiet, both eager and concentrated on getting home before Derek broke the silence. "Seriously, Pen," he said, reaching to take her hand and twining their fingers together as both their hands rested on the gear shift. "You do need to know how glad I am to have you to go home to, or come home with. These last couple months would have been ten times worse without you there at night, when I was alone with my thoughts. I truly don't know what's made things so much harder lately. If I had anything I knew how to say, you'd be the first and only one I'd come to. You do know that, right?"
She smiled at him, nodding, at peace with his statement, and stroked his hand soothingly with her thumb as he spoke. As long as he wasn't keeping something in that he needed to get out. She knew now that he could keep a secret for the sake of his pride – no matter how painful the holding it in and not letting it heal had been. She'd been afraid that once they had all found out about his childhood and Carl Buford against his will they would lose him to his own unnecessary shame. When he had opened up to her again after a week or so of silent avoidance, she'd never been so grateful in her life, except for maybe when she'd finally found out that he felt the same way about her as she did him. "That's fine, my beautiful chocolate Adonis, as long as you know that I'm here to cheer you up when you are ready to talk." She smiled cheekily at him, letting him know there were no hard feelings and gave his hand one more comforting squeeze.
There was such peaceful comfort between them after that that nothing else was said between them as they drove until Garcia suddenly motioned urgently at a filling station coming up on their right. "Morgan, pull in here real quick and fill up the gas tank, it's almost empty."
He glanced at her, eyes showing joking impatience at the further delay to their planned activities once they reached their destination. "Do we really need to tonight?" he argued good-naturedly, but he did as asked when he saw how low the gas gauge was reading. It certainly wouldn't get them home and into bed any sooner if they ran out of gas and were stranded on the side of the road.
Pulling in, Morgan got out to pump the gas for her while she fished through her leopard print purse for the desired bills. Handing them through the window when he'd finished filling up, she thanked him and he jogged toward the brightly lit little station building.
As she watched him go, Penelope Garcia couldn't help thinking how blissfully it had turned out to be, having him in her life this way. To think that she'd gotten her chance with Derek still sometimes sent her head spinning. There'd been so many days she'd flirted with him playfully all through cases, thinking that that was all she'd ever have, and then crawled into bed alone at night and cried for how much more she wanted. She had never dreamed she'd get so lucky as to end up here. Once she'd wondered if any man would ever come along and look beneath the surface to see all she had to offer, and now, not just any man, but one so wonderful he seemed near perfect in her eyes, was there beside her and loving her in return. She snuggled deeper into the passenger seat with a smile on her face as she thought about it. Tonight, she'd make sure her gratitude and love got expressed fully in some creative ways…
While she sat in the car, thinking over all that, Morgan stepped into the convenience store and realized too late what he'd failed to notice from outside. It was a pity he'd been so focused on hurrying back to Penelope that he hadn't seen how oddly quiet and still the lot outside had been, or that no one had entered or exited the building in the whole time he'd been filling Esther up. His mind had gone off the job; his normally taut and razor-sharp senses relaxed for the night. It was too late once he found that he'd pushed through the glass doors and walked right into the middle of an armed robbery.
