"Red. Red. Raymond."
Red woke with a jolt to find Lizzy's face mere inches away from his own and her hand gripping his shoulder.
"What's wrong?" he said; his speech was still sleep-slurred, but his mind was already working swiftly to assess potential dangers. "Did something happe—"
Lizzy laid a finger over his lips, cutting him off. Her mouth quirked at the concerned look on his face and she slid her finger away, closing the minute distance between them to give him a quick peck of a kiss.
A smile spread slowly across Red's lips, a smile which Lizzy returned without hesitation.
His breath caught in his chest. She looked almost… smitten. If Michael from the front desk had caught her looking at him with this sort of fondness so plain on her face, Red understood why he'd felt the need to say what he had the night before.
Red let out a wistful sigh. If only he could see Lizzy's face light up like this every morning. If only they had reached this point in their relationship under better, less temporary circumstances. If only…
(Wishful thinking had a certain cruelty to it, didn't it?)
"I'm sorry I startled you," she whispered, a little mischievous, a little amused. "You were talking in your sleep."
"Did I wake you?"
"No," she said, with a knowing, playful expression, like she knew something he didn't. It tickled at Red's curiosity.
"What was I saying?" he asked.
"My name." She took a moment to examine his face, the heat in her gaze making Red all the more aware of how closely they were pressed together. "You must have been having a… nice dream."
"Oh, was I?" He raised a hand to brush the sleep-tousled hair from her face. The brassy blonde waves suited Lizzy, even if he did miss her natural color. "You seem more chipper today. I'm glad. A full night sleep can do you a world of good in this life."
"Sleep. Right. It's definitely just the sleep." She traced a curious finger along the edge of his sideburn and up to his temple, following the progress of it with her eyes all the while. Eventually, she made her way down again, along his jaw, and ran her thumb slowly over his lips.
Red pressed a kiss to the pad of her thumb, watching as her pupils dilated; Lizzy leaned forward until he could feel the warmth of her breath and the barest hint of the movement of her lips against his as she spoke.
"How soon do we have to be out of here?" she whispered.
He blinked, unsure of the answer, unsure of anything but the hot pressure of Lizzy's thigh hitched between his own, of the blood rushing in his veins, pounding in his ears, throbbing in… other places. It was all he could do to restrain himself from rubbing himself against her.
"Let me check my watch," Red said, voice rough and strained with his growing arousal. He twisted away to scrabble around on the nightstand for his wristwatch, all the while acutely aware of Lizzy's hand between his hip and the mattress, half pressing into the waistband of his boxers and half under the hem of his undershirt.
"We're probably safe for another half hour, hour tops." He dropped his watch onto the nightstand and rolled back, groaning when she brushed the tip of him lightly through his boxers, his hips arching of their own volition to push himself closer to the warmth of her touch.
"Is this OK?" she asked; Red could only nod. She slipped her hand underneath the fabric and closed it around his cock. Teasing her way along the swollen ridge, she drew her thumb over the head, and used the liquid beading at the tip to ease her movements on his heated skin.
"Christ, Lizzy," he said. He tucked his face into the crook of her neck, pressing his lips against the skin there as her fingers continued to move over his length. He meandered his way under her jaw and up her neck, pausing to take her earlobe between his teeth; Lizzy moaned his name, her voice reverberating low in her throat and chest.
She worked her other hand between their trembling, panting bodies to cup his balls. He rested his forehead against hers, chest heaving, as every squeeze and gentle tug sent him thrusting more desperately into her hand.
"Lizzy," he gasped, "I'm going to—"
"Shh, that's the idea."
He huffed a breathless laugh as she leaned up to chase a bead of sweat down his brow and cheek with her lips. She reached his mouth just as he reached his peak, swallowed his guttural moan as he spilled, hot and fierce and heady, over her fist.
Lizzy continued to kiss him leisurely, lingering longer as her rhythm faltered and she slowed her stroking. Red collapsed onto his back, struggling to catch his breathe.
Good God. Lizzy… Lizzy was glorious. What an honor it was to be putty in her hands, to be privy to this personal side of such a gorgeous, tenacious woman.
She was electrifying, invigorating… He couldn't remember the last time he felt as alive as he did in her arms.
She plucked some tissues from the box on her nightstand and made short work of cleaning him and herself while he lay boneless, before she tucked him back into his boxers and rolled out of bed. She scooped up the rest of her clothes from where she left them the night before.
"Hey, hang on." Red pushed himself up on his forearms. "We're not out of time yet."
She came to stand over him on his side of the bed and laid her hand on his cheek, stroking her thumb over the slight rasp of stubble on his jaw. "No?" she asked, looking down at him with one eyebrow raised in barely contained amusement.
"Oh, no. Definitely not. Besides, I believe in reciprocity. What kind of man would I be if I didn't?" He leaned up and reached for her, cradled the back of her head in one hand, waiting until she dipped down low enough for him to move that final inch to kiss her, thorough and searching. She braced herself with a knee on the mattress, half-crawling back onto the bed to get closer to him.
Without warning, Red rolled them over so that Lizzy was flat on the comforter. He could feel her muffled squeal as much as he heard it, when she instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed their chests flush together.
Red's hand travelled down her body as they kissed, ghosting over dips and curves, to find its way between her legs. She didn't give him much time to explore once he reached his destination, just pulled his hand tight against her and rocked up into the heel of his palm with a low moan. Her underwear was drenched through, easy to push aside so that he could slip a finger into her wet heat; she gasped as he added a second finger and twisted them just so, putting pressure on the textured patch of tissue there with every flex and stroke.
Lizzy rolled her hips, rocking her pelvis to find the best angle against his questing fingers and his thumb, which slid slickly over and around her clit. She grasped the back of his neck, dragging him in for another drugging kiss.
"I'd really love to have you inside me," she said, when she broke the kiss. "But we shouldn't, should we?"
She was right, of course. They'd taken a risk the other night in the shipping container. A risk they couldn't afford to take whenever the mood struck them. They could buy something, of course, but buying something made this real. Recurring. Planned. Not just something they did in the heat of the moment.
Red wondered how long they could walk that line of denial before it caught up to them.
"Not this time," he growled, and gave her one last searching, searing kiss before he crawled off the bed and dropped to his knees on the plushly carpeted floor.
She giggled as he pulled her to the edge of the bed, a giggle that swiftly died in her throat when he pressed his mouth against her, nuzzling her through the sodden fabric still covering her. He rested his head against her inner thigh and breathed her in, closing his eyes so he could savor her intoxicating scent without distraction.
"Mmm," he said, "I could stay like this for hours."
Lizzy scratched her fingernails lightly over his scalp; he opened one eye to find her staring at him down the length of her body with a fond expression and a raised eyebrow. "Better not," she said.
Chuckling, Red searched around for the remote control and flicked on the television, surfing through the channels until he found a local station airing the morning news; he tossed the remote into the bed linen carelessly before turning his attention back to the matter at hand.
He slipped his fingers into the waistband of her underwear and slid them down, taking care to caress her soft skin as he pulled them off. With a gentle touch, he drew her legs apart, utterly incapable of looking away. His chest clenched; there was nothing on earth he wanted more at that moment than to taste her.
The scent of her arousal was so much stronger now—his imagination could hardly do her justice, he was sure of it. She shivered under the weight of his gaze, the ticklish brush of his breath on her sensitive, sensitized skin. Slowly, teasingly, he lowered his head and put his mouth on her.
It wasn't long at all before Red lost track of time, savoring every gasp and cry of Lizzy's pleasure, chasing every murmur and sigh of her satisfaction. She clenched rhythmically around his slick fingers as she dug her own fingers into his scalp. The prick of her nails made his cock twitch in interest, and he moaned, muffled against her skin as her orgasm crashed over her in waves.
Gradually, the sound of Lizzy's labored breathing gave way to the quiet drone of the television.
"The latest sighting of Elizabeth Keen and Raymond Reddington places the fugitives just outside of Ohio…"
"That's our cue," Red said, his voice still rough and deep; Lizzy gave a lazy nod and struggled to convince her sluggish, sated body to move so she could help him gather their things and leave.