Hey guys! This is my response to a Writer's Block Challenge that was issued to me. I had to use Red and Lizzie on the water, strawberries, and whipped cream.
I own nothing!
"Watch your back, Lizzie."
Liz let out a very un-ladylike scream as two hands grabbed playfully at her waist.
"On second thought, you look busy. I'll watch it for you," Red said mischievously as a frantic Liz pushed him to the side of the small yacht she was using for cover.
"What the hell are you doing here, Red?" Liz hissed. "I called for Ressler an hour ago."
Red shrugged, his grin infuriatingly smug. "Donald was detained, so you've got me instead."
Liz's jaw clenched as she peeked around the yacht to the even smaller yacht she had been watching for an hour. "You don't exactly count as backup." The cocking of a pistol drew her attention directly to Red's jacket pocket.
"I'm all the backup you need. Now what are you hiding out here for?"
Liz sighed. Why did Red always ask questions that he already knew the answer to? "I'm waiting for Daniel to leave so that I can search for the documents he used to get into the country." She choked back a very childish 'duh'. Lately being around Red brought out the worst in her...
"I'm not even going to ask how long you've been standing there," Red chuckled as he grabbed Liz's forearm and pulled her to the middle of the dock, in plain sight of the targeted yacht. "If I start laughing now I won't be able to stop."
Narrowing her eyes, Liz tugged until she finally escaped his grasp, her frustration winning out over any panic she may have felt at the possibility of being spotted.
"Oh stop squinting at me, Lizzie," Red grinned. "I bring good news. Daniel's not in there."
Liz looked suspiciously at the yacht and then back at Red. "You told me he was always there."
"He is always there," Red said as he slipped his arm through Liz's and steered her towards the yacht. "Unless an old friend calls him up and tells him that he is just DYING to spend a night out on the water...to get in touch with his nautical roots."
"You didn't..."
"I did. She's all mine for the night." Red gestured dramatically at the yacht, appropriately named The Safe Haven. "And that means she's all yours. Feel free to plunder and loot as you wish, just as long as you're gone before sun up."
Liz rolled her eyes. "How generous."
As they made their way onto the yacht, Liz was actually quite impressed with -and rather envious of- Red's assured steadiness. Her sea legs were shaky, and she felt every dip and sway of the boat as it bobbed in the choppy water.
Some people just weren't cut out for life at sea.
"Just let me make it inside," she thought to herself as she stepped onto the steep staircase leading below deck. "I'll be fine if I could just make it inside."
As she stepped into the elegant suite below deck, Liz couldn't believe how wrong she was. It was a stifling feeling, like being confined in a box that was taking a spin in the dryer.
Well...maybe she was exaggerating just a bit.
"Far be it from me to tell you what to do," Red's voice boomed from somewhere beside her, amplified by the enclosed space. "but if you close your eyes and take a couple of deep breaths you might feel better."
And far be it from her to ignore advice from a former naval officer. Liz screwed her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths, focusing on anything but the floor that was seemingly moving beneath her. When the dizzying sensation finally began to pass, she bravely opened her eyes and took a look around the suite.
Given how small the yacht seemed from the outside, the inside was quite impressive. A small kitchen, dining room, and living room blended into one big, beautiful room, complete with a couch and sofa, a large kitchen island, and a dining room table that could easily sit eight people. Through an open door, Liz caught a glimpse of a spacious master bedroom, and there was another door that she could only assume led to another bedroom. Altogether it was probably bigger than her entire apartment, but she tried not to dwell on that. Her apartment was tiny, but it was all she needed.
"Well are you going to stand there or are you going to start looking?" Red questioned from his perch on the sofa.
Liz shook herself back into work mode and made her way to the kitchen area, pulling open drawers and rummaging through cabinets. She stopped short when she heard an amused chuckle. "What?" she asked, slamming a cabinet door shut.
"Has every bit of your training left you? Do you honestly think he keeps his forged documents where he keeps his potholders? Really, Lizzie..."
Liz shrugged and kept digging. "That's where I would keep mine."
"Good to know."
Red joined her in the kitchen, but instead of opening doors and cabinets, he opened the refrigerator instead. "Very nice year," he murmured as he pulled out a bottle of wine. "Wonder if he was chilling it for a special occasion." Liz held back a grin as he reached past her into the drawer she was plundering through to grab a bottle opener. With a few smooth twists the cork popped out of place.
"So you're not going to help me?" Liz joked as Red pulled two glasses from a cabinet and filled them halfway. He placed the glasses on the dining room table and returned to raid the fridge once more. "I think I'm going to sit this one out. Besides, what kind of friend would I be if I plundered through Daniel's things?" Red bent down and rummaged the bottom shelf and came up with a small bowl of strawberries in one hand and a bowl of whipped cream in the other. "I don't know who he was planning on entertaining, but obviously that fell through. It would be a shame to let this go to waste."
Liz shook her head and went back to searching as Red situated himself at the table.
"It would also be a shame to waste this perfectly good glass of wine. Join me, Lizzie."
It would be a cold day in Hell before Liz would ever drink wine and nibble on strawberries with Raymond Reddington.
"Polite pass. I think I'll check out the bedroom instead."
"Good idea," Red said around a strawberry. "You take one side of the bed and I'll take the other."
There was a steady thud of footsteps as Red followed Liz into the bedroom. She wondered briefly if he was staring at her ass, then chastised herself for the thought.
Of course he was staring at her ass.
Red always stared at her ass.
"I thought you weren't going to help me dig through your friend's things," Liz teased as she got her first good look at the huge bedroom. It was simple enough, just...huge.
"And I thought you wanted me to be proactive. I'm trying to be a good partner here, Lizzie." Red flopped down dramatically on the bed and winced. "Daniel must have back problems. There is no other reason to sleep on a mattress this hard."
Liz busied herself with the dresser drawers, sighing every time she found only clothes. "Maybe he's some sort of masochist," she muttered, more to herself than to Red.
"You have no idea," Red grumbled as he left the bed and opened the door to the private bathroom. Liz ignored him, focusing instead on the closet.
Nothing but clothes.
Frustration quickly mounting, Liz slammed the closet door shut. The documents were probably hidden in a safe tied to the anchor. All of this was probably a gigantic waste of time. She should just go home and...
"Lizzie! Come quick!"
Liz hurried to the bathroom, hoping she had finally caught a break.
No such luck.
"Do you think I could pull off something like this?" Red ran his hands over the navy blue silk robe that was hanging on the back of the bathroom door.
Liz scrunched up her nose at the robe, and at the pink matching robe that was situated beside it. "I don't even think you should put on something like that. You're not Hugh Hefner."
Red shrugged. "You're right. It's really not my style. And it's way too short."
As amused as she was by Red's serious consideration of the silk robe, it was getting late and Liz had no time to let Red entertain her.
"Is there anywhere else I should be looking?" she asked, hoping that she had missed something. "There's got to be little nooks and crannies all over this boat and..." She stopped when she met Red's sympathetic, almost pitying gaze.
"I'm not going to find anything, am I?"
The corners of Red's mouth turned up in an apologetic smile. "There is no safe, no locked drawer, and no type of security on this boat. So unless they're in a wooden box underneath the floor...the documents aren't here."
Liz stifled a curse. "So where are they? Daniel doesn't have a home here, all he has is this boat."
Red walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom with Liz on his heels. "If I were to guess, I would say he has them on his person. If he needs to make a fast getaway he'll have his alias ready to use. That's what I would do. But I'm quite a bit smarter than Daniel, so who's to say where he's hiding them?" Red hopped up on the bed one more time and patted it in disappointment. "Guess it'll be the couch for me tonight. Dembe can have the bed. He usually prefers the floor, but this is just as hard."
Liz could feel tears of frustration pooling in her eyes and she hated herself for it. It wasn't the end of the world. This was not the first time she had been led on a wild goose chase, and it probably wouldn't be the last. She also had to work very hard at not directing her frustration at Red. He had tried to help her, and it wasn't his fault that Daniel had turned out to be smarter than either one of them had expected.
"Red..."
Liz was interrupted by the ringing of Red's phone, and Red held up a finger for her to hold that thought.
"Dembe, you've interrupted what I'm sure was going to be the sweetest chat between Lizzie and myself... You're following him? How long?" Red glanced at Liz, and the look was anything but reassuring. "Five to ten minutes? Fantastic! We'll be ready for him." Red hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed. "Daniel's on his way."
"What?!" Liz exclaimed, feeling the dizziness return with a vengeance. "I thought he was gone for the night?"
Red sighed. "Well obviously he forgot something."
The yacht seemed to sway more and more, riding the waves of Liz's panic.
"I have to get out of here."
Red stopped Liz before she could even make the bedroom door. "It's too late for that. Just follow my lead and he'll never suspect a thing."
Liz allowed herself to be led to the bathroom, and was only slightly surprised when Red threw the pink robe into her arms and gathered the navy blue one for himself. "I'll give you your privacy, but you've only got a minute." With that, he was gone and Liz was left to frantically discard her clothes and don the robe. She could only imagine what Red had planned, but it was surely better than any plan she had.
Because she had nothing.
Removing her hair from its low ponytail, Liz brushed through it with her fingers and realized quickly that it didn't look right. Thankfully, some of the quick thinking that had previously escaped her returned and she realized what was wrong. She stuck her head bravely under the cold spray of the shower until it was slightly damp, then pulled her hair up into a messy bun, leaving loose, wet strands to trail down her neck and shoulders.
Liz opened the bathroom door just in time to see Red tossing his clothing all over the floor and on the now messy bed. He smiled when he saw the effort she had put into her look. "I'm impressed," he praised with a mischievous smile. "You look fresh and clean and thoroughly fucked. Well done. Now mix your clothes in here with mine." Liz furrowed her brow and Red raised a brow. "You want it to be believable, don't you? When I disrobe a woman I seldom take the time to pile her clothes on a chair in the bathroom. And speaking of believable... the panties have got to go."
The blood rushed to Liz's face as she indignantly closed her robe tighter around her waist. "I don't see why that matters. It's not like your underwear is on the floor for Daniel to see."
Red smirked. "Well my undies aren't on the floor because I don't wear them to begin with."
Liz's jaw dropped.
"I would give you proof, Lizzie, but we're running out of time and once you see me naked you'll just want to throw me down on the floor and I could never refus..."
"Fine," Liz hissed as she yanked her black cotton panties down her legs and threw them on the bed. She then grabbed her clothing from the bathroom and tossed them vigorously onto the bedroom floor. "Are you happy now?"
Red shrugged. "I wouldn't say happy. Pleased, maybe. Excited, definitely. But I wouldn't say happy. I'm also..."
Footsteps fell overhead, slowly headed in their direction.
"Out of time," Red finished as he grabbed Liz's hand and ran into the living area of the suite, taking the chair by the table and pulling her onto his lap. She barely had time to process what was happening before Red's lips were on hers. His tongue pushed into her mouth and she instinctively pulled back, disgusted when he held her closer and shoved his tongue down her throat.
"Ahem..."
Red's assault on Liz's mouth was interrupted by a tall man in a tux and a wispy blonde girl in what looked like half a dress. The man looked amused and the girl looked embarrassed, and a bit...green.
"Daniel!" Red greeted his friend loudly, acting not the slight bit embarrassed over the situation. "I wasn't expecting to see you here. Did you forget our little arrangement?" Liz tried not to squirm as his hand slid up her thigh and into her robe, dangerously close to where she hadn't been touched in months...
Daniel shook his head and chuckled. "No, I didn't forget. I just dropped by to pick something up."
"Ah, well, don't mind us! Lizzie and I will just get back to what we were doing and you can get back to what you were doing." Red turned his focus back to Liz, ignoring the other pair as he grabbed at the opening of her robe, letting the back of his fingers brush against the swell of her breast as he pulled her to him. Liz tried desperately not to cringe, not looking forward to his mouth on hers again. Much to her surprise, he didn't kiss her again. He merely contented himself with running the tip of his tongue down the side of her neck all the way to her shoulder, eliciting a shiver that ran all the way through her body. Their eyes met for just a moment, and in that moment she almost forgot that they weren't alone.
"I can see you two need your alone time," Daniel said as he pulled the blonde girl in the direction of the bedroom. "We'll be out of the way in no time." The pair disappeared into the bedroom and Red moved the hand that had been clutching Liz's thigh to run it up and down her back.
"I hated having to do that, Lizzie."
Liz smiled softly. "It's okay. There was no other way. I don't think he's even the least bit suspicious."
Red shook his head. "No...I mean I hated that that was our first kiss. I'll make it up to you, I promise."
Liz fought for a response, but luckily she was saved from having to provide one.
"Alright! I got what I came for," Daniel crooned as he waltzed his increasingly pale looking girl out into the living area. "And I left some for the two of you." He winked at Red and showed his hand...it was full of condoms.
"Classy, Daniel." Red rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the bowl of strawberries on the table. "But if you ever want to learn the proper way to romance a woman, you come talk to me." Taking a strawberry, he dipped it into the whipped cream and presented it to Liz, an inch away from her lips. She hesitated but his eyes challenged her, and she accepted that challenge, leaning forward and taking the end of the strawberry into her mouth. She closed her eyes and moaned convincingly, like it was the best thing she'd ever tasted. She opened her eyes again, just in time to see Red close his lips around the rest of the strawberry.
It was more of a turn on than she thought it would be.
A bit of whipped cream lingered on Red's lip, and Liz reached out her hand before she could stop herself, brushing it away with her fingers. She blushed hard when Red captured her fingers and brought them to his mouth, sucking away the remnants of whipped cream and caressing her fingertips with his tongue.
"Damn."
Liz was oddly disappointed when Daniel interrupted them again.
"Should I just leave all of these?" Daniel held up the condoms and grinned.
Red sighed, obviously as disappointed as Liz was. "You should just go, is what you should do."
Taking the hint, Daniel finally turned to go, taking the very relieved blonde with him. Apparently Liz wasn't the only one who didn't quite have her sea legs. When their footsteps faded into nothing, Liz made to rise from Red's lap, but he held her steadfastly in place. "Lizzie," he whispered as he threaded his fingers through her damp tresses. "I believe I made you a promise."
Liz swallowed hard. "You don't have to..."
"Oh, but I do..."
Red brought her lips to his one more time, but this time it was different. He took his time with her, pressing his lips against hers, chaste at first, but then deepening the kiss slowly, and with such passion that Liz found herself turning in his arms, seeking his heat and straddling him until she found it. She ground into him wantonly, forgetting herself until the ringing of his phone from the bedroom brought her back to reality. Red groaned and apologized under his breath.
"Go," Liz whispered. "It's Dembe. It might be important."
Swearing a blue streak, Red removed her gently from his lap and deposited her onto the chair before striding into the bedroom and answering his phone.
"Your timing is really impeccable, my friend. Top notch, really." Red watched Liz as he talked, almost as if he was waiting for her to disappear. "You have them? From where? I see. Nice work. Get them to Aram tonight. I'll call you when I need you."
Red tossed the phone back onto the bed and was back at Liz's side in seconds, leaning against the table casually. "So we owe Dembe a debt of thanks. He filched the forged documents from Daniel's briefcase while Daniel was down here hoping for a free show."
Liz smiled. "Tell him thanks for me."
Red smiled back. "Will do."
For an awkward moment Liz thought it was over. He had promised to kiss her and he had, and now he was done. She rose to find her clothes and show herself out, but Red's arms went around her waist and suddenly they were back in the chair, her straddling his waist.
"We were interrupted," he murmured as his hands searched her body over the robe. "I hope you didn't think I was finished making it up to you."
Liz smiled. "I would've been very disappointed."
Red tried to kiss her once more, but Liz placed her fingers over his lips. "I have an idea," she said playfully. "We can't let these beautiful strawberries go to waste... So what do you say we take those into the bedroom and finish them off properly?"
Red grinned. "You bring the strawberries, I'll bring the whipped cream!"