Disclaimer: I still own nothing! Things are definitely much steamier in this chapter, and chapter 4 will be even more so. I'd call this a somewhat light M.

Chapter 3

They stayed outside on the beach for almost seven hours, until the sun began to set. They had spent the vast majority of that time in the water, and both were completely exhausted from fighting the waves.

On the short trek back to the house, Lizzie took Red's hand and said, "This is my favorite part about a day at the beach."

Red glanced at her but said nothing, waiting for her to elaborate.

"We've spent so much time in the water that I can still feel the waves pushing and pulling at my body. It's perfectly relaxing. I feel like a rag doll. Don't you feel it too?"

Red nodded and turned to plant a quick kiss on her shoulder. "Yes, I do."

"We're pretty gross though. I think I even have sand between my butt cheeks."

Red chuckled, "Yeah, me too."

"Ready to show me that HUGE outdoor shower and sauna you've been bragging about?"

He nodded. "In fact, I was going to insist on it, if you didn't ask. And be fair, please, Lizzie. I only brought it up once."

It wasn't often that she had the chance to patronize him, so she couldn't resist taking the presented opportunity.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Raymond Reddington, the fearsome Concierge of Fairness!"

He gasped, feigning offense.

"Just look." He said, opening the door and holding it for Lizzie to walk through first.

She whistled and nodded appreciatively. "Okay, then."

Red showed her where to hang her bikini and how to turn on the shower and adjust the temperature. "Why don't you go ahead and get started? I'll throw these towels in the wash and grab some fresh ones and toiletries." He kissed her temple and stepped out.

When the door closed behind him, she turned on the shower and decided to leave the water cool to soothe her sun-exposed skin. Red had reapplied her sunblock twice, but she could still feel the sun's effects making themselves known.

Now that is unfair, Lizzie thought to herself.

She could have undressed then, but instead chose to wear the bikini while rinsing away the sand. Her eyes were closed and she faced away from the door. Over the sound of the shower, she couldn't hear Red's quiet return or his approach from behind her. She startled a bit when he gently placed his hands on her waist. He laid an open-mouthed kiss on her neck in apology, while untying her bikini top. She continued to face away from him while he slipped it off, wrung it out, and carefully hung it up to dry. He kissed her neck again, hooking his thumbs on her bikini bottoms and pulling them down to her knees. Then he kneeled behind her to slide them the rest of the way down, offering his shoulder for her to lean on as she stepped out of them.

When he paused to look up at her, gone was his intent to carefully hang the bottoms with the top. He tossed them aside and ran his splayed fingers up the backs of her thighs, thoroughly delighted by the view and how slippery her skin felt. His hands made their way back to her hips as he slowly stood up behind her.

"Lizzie, your tan lines! Sweetheart, you look like you're wearing a white bikini! Perfect little triangles over your breasts and rear end."

He was actually laughing at her. It was then that she finally opened her eyes to look at him. He was fully nude but still wearing his amber-lensed sunglasses. He looked silly.

"Raymond, why are you still wearing your sunglasses?" She lifted them from his face and set them on the bench in front of them. In truth, he had forgotten that he was still wearing them.

He looked down at her body and promptly forgot whatever witty response he had intended to spit out.

"Now it's even worse!" He was talking about her tan lines.

She frowned and looked down at her feet.

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm sorry. That came out wrong. Your tan lines are just more pronounced now. Honestly, I love them."

He was walking in a slow circle around her, openly gawking.

"Please forgive me. It's just. It's just. It's..." He was clearly flustered and aroused. He took a deep breath and tried again.

"I've only just become acquainted with your body, and now it's all different and brand-new again. You remember how I worshipped every inch of you the first time we made love. You were so patient and I wa-"

She cut him off. "No. I was anything but patient. YOU remember that. I was insanely turned on and you made me beg, with your prolonged and incessant teasing."

He came to a stop behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her tightly against him. She sighed and let her head roll back, resting on his shoulder.

"Forgive me, Lizzie, but now I'll have to start all over."

He stepped aside to grab her shampoo, squirted some into his palm, and returned to his place behind her. "Close your eyes, Lizzie."

She did as he asked and tipped her head back while he worked the shampoo into a lather in her hair, gently massaging her scalp with his fingertips. She tried to wiggle a bit and lean back against him. His breath caught. He was still hard, but he stubbornly stepped back, chiding, "Don't try to rush me. Just relax and feel."

He took his time rinsing out the shampoo, and then gave her the same treatment with her conditioner.

When he finished with her hair, Red grabbed her loofah and the body wash he'd bought for her the day before. It was her signature scent, Chanel No. 5. She always wore the perfume, but refused to spend fifty dollars on body wash. To Red, it was nothing. He just thought she should have it. She should have everything, and he was in a position to give it all to her, in many different ways...

He turned her around to face him, stepped closer, and brought the loofah up to the back of her neck.

"Red..." She sighed. "Don't I get a turn?"

"Of course you do, sweetheart." He brought one soapy hand to her shoulder, slowly tracing the white line of skin that was protected by her bikini top. "But I'm not done inspecting these pretty new lines of yours."

She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, so they were pressed together from their chests to their knees. She hooked her chin over his unscarred shoulder, looking down her nose at the skin there. Red continued his path with the loofah, running it across and down her back, massaging the tired muscles under his hands.

Lizzie slowly raised one hand, and began poking at his shoulder slowly, and counting quietly. "One... Two... Three... Four..."

"I'm sure you have a perfectly sound reason for counting in the shower. Care to share that reason with me?"

She pulled back to smile coyly at him. "You have new freckles on your shoulders, Red, and I need to inventory each and every one of them."

He tilted his head, lips pursed, thoroughly enthralled by the sheer joy on her face. Then, he couldn't help grinning. "That's my girl."

Red leaned down to grasp the back of her knee, hitching her leg up and around him. Instead of kissing, they pressed their foreheads together, mutual gazes locked and unblinking. Their eyes were storms. Their irises spiraling and pupils dilating. Lizzie reached down to grab him, eliciting a throaty groan from Red that she felt more than heard.

Lizzie released her grip and lightly grazed her fingertips up and down his length, simultaneously placing open-mouthed kisses on his shoulder, his neck, up to his ear. She flicked her tongue across his earlobe and whispered, "So, tantric sex in a sauna, hm?"