I do not own Blindspot or its characters.

I think it's time we tell them we're better off staying just friends. Don't you?

Kurt's question rang in her ears, and Jane struggled to keep a smile on her face as the perfect day she had envisioned suddenly turned torturous. "Sure," she responded, surprised at how steady her voice sounded. She grabbed for the bag and pulled the sunscreen out, hastily squeezing some into her palm and haphazardly applying it to give her a moment to compose herself.

Kurt sighed as he watched Jane's jerky movements. Clearly, she had completely misunderstood him. "Jane—"

"All done," she announced brightly as she tossed the tube back in the bag. "Ready to go?"

He took the bag from her and pulled it back out. "I think you missed a few spots," he murmured huskily, rubbing it into her exposed neck and shoulders. "Now you're ready to go. Jane—"

"It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" Jane asked as she started walking in the direction the captain had pointed them. "Not a cloud in the sky anywh—" Her words were cut off when Kurt pulled her into his arms and crushed his mouth to hers.

She was stiff in his arms at first, and he brushed her lips tentatively with his own until she softened and began returning the kiss with equal fervor. He groaned into her mouth when her tongue traced the seam of his lips and then slipped inside, and he quickly reciprocated. She tasted sweet with an underlying hint of spicy, much like her personality, and the taste was intoxicating. He pulled her flush against him as he devoured her mouth.

"Wow," Jane said when they broke apart for air. "That wasn't very friendly." His eyes instantly lit with laughter, and she blushed. "I mean it was more than friendly. I thought—"

"I said I wanted to tell everyone else we'd decided to be just friends," Kurt told her soberly, holding her gaze with his own so she would realize how deadly serious he was. "I didn't say that was all I wanted us to be."

He stopped as he realized that was exactly what he had said just a few days ago—what he had been saying since he met her. "At least . . . not anymore. I haven't been able to stop thinking about what you said the other night, and you're right. I have been a coward, and that's not fair to either one of us, but especially not you. You're not my past girlfriends, and you don't deserve to be rejected for their mistakes. For my past mistakes. I want to give us a try. If you're still willing, that is." He held his breath as he waited for Jane's response.

"I am," she told him. "But there are things about me you should probably know before you make up your mind for sure. I—"

"I know everything about you I need to," Kurt interrupted tenderly. "And I've already made up my mind." He lowered his head for another kiss, but she placed a hand on his chest, stopping him.

"My adoptive mother was an international arms dealer," Jane informed him. "And she taught me to . . . Let's just say there were a lot of years where I wasn't a very good person. You wouldn't have liked me very much."

Kurt shrugged. "And my biological father was a murderer and very likely a child molester. But unlike you and your mother, I share his genes. If that doesn't worry you, your past doesn't worry me. I know what kind of person you are now. I'd like to think we both can rise above our upbringings." And in his case, his very genetics.

"You have," Jane assured him fervently. "You're a good man, Kurt Weller." The man who had captured her heart without even trying with all the little kindnesses he had shown her and everyone else he came in contact with. Particularly the kids on their cruises. Her heart had melted the first time she saw him take a budding ship's captain to the bridge to help "navigate" the ship.

"So have you," he returned, leaning in to kiss her again, and this time Jane didn't resist. There was more to her story, but it could wait. All that mattered right now was her and him, and the tale they were weaving together.

Jane rested her head on Kurt's shoulder when the kiss ended, relishing their newfound intimacy and reluctant to leave the shelter of his arms. "If we're going to sell the story of just being friends, we should probably get moving," she murmured eventually. "Rich and Boston are waiting on us, and I wouldn't put it past Tasha to be watching us from the ship with a telescope.

Kurt chuckled as he reached for Jane's hand, and they started down the beach. "She's quite a character. I'm not sure who it will be tougher to fool, her or Rich." He hesitated, realizing she hadn't exactly agreed to his plan yet. "If you'd rather not do this . . ."

Her money was on Zapata, simply because she was closer to them. Her proximity, combined with her keen observational skills, could prove . . . problematic. "Actually, I have a few ideas about that."

The two of them spent the remainder of the walk working out details and laughingly speculating about how their friends would react, quieting as they approached their destination so that Rich wouldn't overhear them, but as it turned out, that precaution was unnecessary. They came to a complete stop as they rounded a bend that obscured the ship from view, and both their mouths dropped open as they took in the scene before them.

Rich was nowhere to be seen, but it was clear that he had been—or someone doing his bidding. A small, open-sided tent had been set up on the pristine white sand not far from the water, the blanket beneath it held down by an array of pillows and a large picnic basket. As they walked closer, they could see a bowl of fruit and a bottle of champagne on ice as well. "I think we've been had," Kurt chuckled as he spotted a white square of paper on the small table at the head of the makeshift bed. Jane rested a hand on his shoulder and leaned in close as he unfolded it, and they both read it together.

Stubbles, Janie:

Sorry for the subterfuge in getting you here, but I think we can all agree it was necessary. You've had more than long enough to get your act together, but judging from what Boston has heard from the Orion's crew, that wasn't going to happen on its own. The boat will return right here for you this evening, so you won't have to waste any more energy walking. I suggest devoting it to more . . . pleasurable activities. I've provided you with a variety of gourmet snacks to keep up your strength in the meantime. Enjoy!

Rich

Kurt growled as he finished reading it. "That man never quits. He—what are you doing?" he asked, his voice rising an octave as Jane took off her wrap and let it fall carelessly to the sand beside the table, his eyes roaming hungrily over her exposed body. God, she was beautiful.

Jane shrugged. "Rich said we should devote our time to pleasurable activities." She lowered herself to the blanket and began arranging the pillows to her liking. She could feel Kurt's intense gaze on her back, and it sent a thrill coursing through her veins. "I thought I'd take a nap." She met his eyes as she laid down, and her blood heated even more at the desire she saw reflected there. "Unless you have something else in mind?"

Oh, he had something else in mind all right. Something far more pleasurable than a mere nap. But given the newness of their relationship . . ." That depends," he said in a far more gravelly voice than usual as he dropped to his knees beside her, "on how you feel about taking things slow between us."

Jane shivered at the heat in his eyes. "Isn't that what we've been doing?" She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him down to her, desperate for the feel of his lips on hers again, for the feel of all of him against all of her. She slid her hands under the fabric as their mouths met, tugging him closer as her hands roamed over the smooth skin of his back.

"Jane," Kurt whispered as she gripped his ass to pull him down flush to her, rocking her hips into his growing hardness, "are you sure you want to do this here? Now?" It was his every fantasy of her come to life, and then some, but he wouldn't be able to restrain himself much longer, and he didn't want her to have regrets.

She'd wanted this almost from the moment she met him. "I'm sure," Jane reassured him as she reached for the bag he had dropped and extracted a condom. She hesitated, suddenly shy. "Unless you'd rather wait . . ."

Kurt smiled as he took the foil packet from her and placed it on the blanket next to him. "I think you're right. I think we've waited long enough." He reached behind her and gently untied the strings of her bikini top, exposing her top half to his appreciative gaze. He could have looked at her like this all day, but she had other ideas.

Jane sat up and tugged at Kurt's shirt, wanting to level the playing field, and he obligingly removed it, his lips descending on hers again even as he tossed it aside. He brought a hand up to cup her breast, smiling when she moaned into his mouth, but that smile quickly died when she slipped her hands beneath the waistband of his shorts and wrapped them around his erection, stroking him gently. "God," he groaned as she brushed her thumb over the tip. This would be over much too quickly if she continued doing that.

He stilled her hands and laid her back on the blanket, locking eyes with her as he painstakingly slid her bikini bottoms off and then slowly ran his hands back up her legs. He had dreamed of this moment for so long that he wanted to draw out the anticipation as long as possible. He parted her folds with one finger, smiling at how ready she was for him, and circled her swollen bud with his thumb as he inserted a finger inside her, pumping gently.

Jane had been ready for him since that first kiss on the beach, for most of the last six months, in fact, and she stopped him as she felt herself getting close, reaching for the condom he had set aside earlier. "I want you inside me," she told him as she handed it to him. "Now."

"Yes, ma'am," Kurt grinned as he yanked off his shorts and ripped it open, only too happy to oblige. He quickly rolled it on and rolled back on top of her, lining himself up at her entrance before pausing to savor the sight of her beneath him, flushed and eager, her eyes alight with happiness and something else, something that looked an awful lot like love. He committed the moment to memory before pushing inside her, groaning as her slick heat enveloped him like a glove. He had never put much stock in destiny, but the feeling of homecoming was so strong that he couldn't help but wonder if they were fated to be together.

Jane's eyes filled with tears at the wonder in Kurt's, and she smiled up at him as he attempted to brush them away. "Happy tears," she assured him as he began to move, moaning at the incredible sensation. Despite her brave words the other night, she had all but given up on finding a man she could trust with her heart again until she met him. In fact, she had never trusted a man as deeply as she did him. It defied logic and reason, but it was just . . . right.

As right as what was currently happening between them. Jane ran her hands down Kurt's back as he steadily increased the pace, feeling the pleasure build inside her until she was writhing beneath him, meeting him thrust for thrust and gripping his ass to pull him deeper into her. "Kurt," she gasped out as he hit just the right spot inside her, white light exploding behind her eyes before everything went dark.

Kurt thrust into her one more time as she clenched around him and then followed her into oblivion, collapsing heavily onto her as pleasure overwhelmed him. He tried to lift himself off of her as sanity returned, but she wrapped her legs around him, holding him in place. "I'm too heavy," he protested. "I'll crush you."

"You're perfect," Jane insisted, not wanting to lose their intimate connection just yet. Not when she had waited so long for this moment. "I love you," she said without thinking.

Kurt froze as he looked down at her.