20.

                                    

                                          
On the ride back to Dartmouth, Derek took the opportunity to quiz Meredith about her birthday.
"So ... a week today and you'll be officially an adult." He said.
"Yeah. But will I still be officially a virgin?" she asked him, looking for some sign of what he was intending. Ever since his rejection of her advances at the fateful dinner on Wednesday night, she'd decided to leave it all up to him. She'd resigned herself to the fact that he was going to make her wait until her birthday and she was trying to come to terms with that. She wasn't about to try to instigate things again, only to end up being rejected again.
Derek smiled. "Is that all you want for your birthday?" he asked hoping that he might get some ideas.
"All I want for my birthday is you, nicely gift wrapped ... with a bow." She suggested smiling.
"I'm assuming that you want that tied around my neck?" he asked. Having something tied around his neck only made him start to think about collars and leashes and that was doing him no good when he knew that they still had a few days before things would be clear.
Meredith shook her head slowly, taunting him, a smile across her face. "I was thinking of another part of your body." She said, slowly running her hand up his thigh.
They weren't on the same page but it seemed that she had ideas of her own. Derek placed his hand on top of hers clamping it in place. "You tease. You know that you have to be at work soon and so that's going to lead nowhere."
"I do know where it leads." She teased trying to get her hand free again to let it continue on its trail towards his crotch.
"I'm sure that you do." Derek replied. "Just as you know just what sort of affect you can have on it." He said feeling the now familiar stiffening at her touch. 
Between his bondage thoughts and her attentions it seemed to have jumped to attention, which it did a lot of, whenever she was near. "But not right now." He said holding on even more firmly to her hand. "What time do you finish tonight? Maybe we could do something?" he asked. Even the thought of spending the next few hours without her was depressing.
"I don't finish until 6. But then I really need to go home and spend some time with Izzie. I promised her on Friday that we'd get together sometime over the weekend and talk about her plans for next weekend." Meredith informed him. "She wants to throw me a birthday party on Sunday night. And what she wants and what I'm prepared to be a part of, are totally different things."
Derek wasn't surprised.
"But someone seems to have taken up all of my free time and the weekend has basically disappeared without us even having crossed paths. She was still in bed when I left yesterday morning." She explained.
"So you didn't have a good time this weekend?" Derek asked, knowing that besides work, she'd spent basically all of her time with him.
She leant over and kissed him sweetly. "You know that I've had a great time. But I still think that's it's in my best interests to make sure that I catch up with her tonight. Otherwise she'll make all the plans herself and that's not something that I even want to contemplate. If I'm going to be the guest of honor then I'd like to have a little control over what's going to happen."
Derek smiled. It meant so much to him that she'd enjoyed herself with his family but it didn't surprise him that Meredith and Izzie would have quite different tastes when it came to parties. "So what sort of party is this going to be?"
"Well Izzie would like it to be at the sports bar with everyone she knows." Meredith laughed. "No doubt with lots of drunken debauchery."
Derek smiled. "Sounds like fun." He teased.