You Save Me

13

Derek smiled as he opened the door to Meredith's apartment, a bottle of wine in his hands. He'd just come from his lawyer's office, and was officially a divorced man.

He and Meredith could really be together now, without any guilt or restrictions.

The past two weeks had been amazing. They hadn't been perfect, there had been several times when he'd remembered the feeling in his stomach as he'd walked into his bedroom to see Addison with Mark and wanted to curl up and die. But Meredith had been there for the panic attacks as well as all the good times they'd had together, and he was looking forward to taking this next step in their relationship.

He was trying to remember that she didn't want anything serious. He told himself almost constantly that this would come to an end in less that three months when she moved to Seattle, but for now, all he wanted was to enjoy the time he had with her. They'd been on several more dates in the past few weeks, and each one had been more amazing than the last. He'd slept beside her every night, trying to ignore how badly he wanted her as she slept in his arms.

But now they could really be together without any restrictions and he couldn't wait.

"Derek?" her voice shouted from her bedroom. Or their bedroom. At this point he wasn't even sure.

"It's me," he called back as he made his way towards the bedroom. She appeared a moment later, a nervous expression on her face.

"Are you divorced?" she asked, looking completely adorable as she bit her lower lip in anticipation.

"I am," he nodded, leaning in to kiss her. He'd expected the end of his marriage to be at least somewhat painful, but it hadn't been. Seeing his ex-wife already round with his former best friend's child had crushed any regrets he had about the ending of his marriage.

"Are you okay?" Meredith asked softly, squeezing his hand comfortingly.

"Yeah," he said, holding up a bottle of wine. "I thought we could celebrate."

"Perfect," she giggled as she grabbed the bottle and led him to the kitchen. "Lexie's not home tonight."

"She's not?" Derek raised an eyebrow.

"No," Meredith said. "Apparently...well, she said that she wanted us to have privacy. If we wanted it."

"Oh," Derek nodded, suddenly realizing that Meredith was just as anxious to consummate their relationship as he was.

"So we have the place to ourselves," Meredith said carefully as she handed him a glass of wine. "What do you propose that we do with it?"

Derek sipped his wine before he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her body flush with his. "I have some ideas," he said before he leaned down to take her earlobe into his mouth, sucking gently.

"Derek," she sighed, shifting to set their glasses on the counter before she pulled back to look at him. "Are you sure? You're not upset because of Addison or trying to run or anything? Because...usually sex isn't a big deal to me. I'm not sure why it is right now, but I can't...I can't just be the girl you screw to get over being screwed."

"You're not," Derek promised, squeezing her hand tightly. "I promise you, Meredith, that my wanting to make love to you has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I got divorced today. We can wait if you want to."

She nodded slowly. "I don't want to wait," she whispered. "I just...I don't want you to regret this."

"I won't," he promised. "Meredith, I could never regret a single second I spent with you."

"Okay," she smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Shall we take this into the bedroom then?"

Derek felt his heart pound as her warm body pressed against his. "Definitely," he murmured against her lips. He smiled as she pulled back, offering him a coy smile as she took his hand and led him to the bedroom. He swallowed hard as he followed her, taking in the way her jeans hugged her curves perfectly and wanting nothing more than to feel those curves beneath his hands. She closed the door gently behind them, then turned to him with a slightly nervous smile. Their eyes held for a moment before she inhaled deeply and pulled her sweater over her chest. Her bra followed, and soon she was standing naked before him.