A/N: Aaaaaand I'm back to this one. Last chapter for this story: The Tahoe chapter I originally promised (well… 17% promised).

This story did not cease being rated M.

It was a long drive from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe. After a long flight back from the USS Van Buren in a very uncomfortable plane. Obviously, Deeks had kept his mouth shut on the flight with Hetty and Callen present. But Kensi had worried that during the nearly eight hours in the car together he would broach the subject of their relationship status again. She was pleasantly surprised.

They talked a lot about their usual bantering subjects, and a little about their personal lives. He let her control the radio when they weren't talking, and even the silences were comfortable. But he did not bring up the topic of what had transpired between them on the ship. This gave Kensi some more time to think about it, and decide how she wanted to bring up her feelings.

They had taken Deeks' truck, and as soon as they had gotten a couple hours out of the city and into the mountains, the beautiful scenery helped get Kensi fully out of Special Agent mode, and into the moment.

It was late afternoon when they arrived. Kensi's mom had been unable to come on their last minute vacation and Deeks left Monty with the cop buddy who had been taking care of him while they'd been gone. So they got a suite in the lodge instead of a cabin. Once they had settled into their room a bit, Deeks started filtering through the brochures and adverts for local attractions and restaurants.

Motioning out the window at their view of the peaceful lake, frosted trees, and snow capped mountains, he proclaimed, "This place is a bit farther from the ski hills than I would like, but you can't beat that view!"

Kensi walked over to the window to stand next to him and nodded in agreement. "It is beautiful. And well, I kinda figured we wouldn't really leave this room all that much."

"Oh?" he asked, turning to smile at her. "And what will we be doing, cooped up inside all day?"

"Well, for starters, I did promise you that we'd talk about… us. I owe you that much," she told him, facing him but keeping herself at a distance. At least until they got through this conversation.

"You don't owe me anything," he assured her softly. "But I'm all ears."

Kensi smiled at his sweetness. It was a risk having this conversation at the beginning of this trip, but she couldn't put it off any longer.

She took a deep breath and let it out before starting, "Honestly, I don't know, Deeks. I like you. A lot. I more than like you. And I think you already know that. But a relationship? With our jobs and our partnership? The idea of that makes me nervous." His face fell when she paused, so she added, "But I do like being with you."

Deeks nodded slowly. In an even tone he responded, "I know what you mean, and I agree… The thought of ruining what we have scares me. But, living with the regret of never going for it, of never even trying, scares me more."

"So I've been thinking, and I have a proposal— Ooh, poor choice of words. Scratch that," she corrected herself. Restarting, she said, "I have a plan."

"I'm listening."

"We've already crossed a line that we can't take back, right?" she asked.

"Right."

"So there's no point in even trying to pretend this never happened," she stated flatly.

"I'm with you so far," Deeks agreed.

Kensi stuttered a bit as she searched for the correct words and told him, "But, until we're a bit more… solid, we should keep this… I don't want to say casual, because I think we're beyond that too— But I know we're not ready to tell the others yet. Plus, I'm not sure it's allowed. Actually, I am pretty sure it's against regulations."

"Agreed," he answered quickly. "Professional repercussions aside, I don't really want to deal with the pressure of everyone watching us so closely."

"Yeah, and offering advice or being nosey," she continued.

"Yeah," he affirmed.

"Yeah!" she repeated happily.

"So. That's it?" he asked. "That was easy."

"Much easier than I thought it would be," she shrugged, laughing along with him. "For now, at least."

Deeks messed up his own hair a bit as he stepped closer to her. Sarcastically, but with a genuinely happy smile, he told her, "We should really try this whole 'talking' thing more often."

"Whoa there, Shaggy! Don't get too crazy now," she joked. "Besides, I think now it's a good time for the other indoor activity I had planned."

"I am all for that," he agreed. Taking a large box of condoms out of his duffle bag, he added, "And this time, I brought a whole box."

"Well, you shouldn't have bothered," she informed him plainly.

"What? Why not?" he asked, clearly alarmed.

"Well, we don't really need them. Do we?" she asked him cautiously.

Deeks laughed in response and answered, "Wow. I was kidding about the whole 'popping out a litter of gifted mutant ninja assassins,' you know."

She rolled her eyes at him and punched his shoulder playfully. "I've got an IUD, you dork."

"You serious?" he asked, his face halfway between confusion and elation.

"Yeah. Why? Should I be worried? Is there something you want to tell me?" Kensi asked, already kicking off her shoes and unbuttoning her shirt.

"No," he assured her. "But isn't it better to be safe than sorry?"

"Usually. But, well…" she paused as she formed her thoughts. Stepping closer to him and placing her hands on his chest, she spoke in a low voice. "It's been a long time since I had sex without one. You know. Skin on skin. There's something… special about it."

Deeks gulped and met her steady gaze. His face relaxed into a warm smile, and he nodded slowly. Their lips met in a soft kiss, slow at first. Then as their mouths opened and their breathing deepened, their caresses intensified.

This man was intoxicating, and Kensi genuinely could not get enough of him. The understanding they had just reached only heightened the passion between them and the desperation with which they had started remove each other's clothes. Even at this early stage of their relationship, Kensi knew this level of excitement likely wouldn't last. But she had never felt this connected with someone, physically or emotionally, and so felt confident that even when they fell into a comfortable routine that there would always be heated electricity between them.

With their clothes discarded, they plopped onto the bed in a frenzy of exploring hands and tangled limbs. Kensi moaned into his lips as Deeks' fingers probed at the wetness between her legs. They made contact with her already swollen clit and threatened to take her to the edge before she was ready.

Her hand wrapped around his dick and found that he was equally overexcited. She made a move to roll him to his back so she could straddle him, but he stopped her, and pulled away.

He hovered over her and kept her arms pinned to the pillow she rested on. Already panting, he told her, "You are the sexiest thing I have ever seen, but hold up. I don't want to race for the finish line."

"I wasn't racing!" she insisted.

"Uh-huh," he agreed, humoring her. Kissing her lips again before dotting a trail of wet kisses down her neck, he told her sarcastically, "Sure you weren't. You're not competitive at all."

As punishment for his words, Kensi pushed him off of the breast he had been mouthing at, and hurried him further down her torso towards where she ached for his touch the most. Even with her fingers in his hair forcing him in one direction, Deeks was able to kiss and lick his way down her lithe body. And then he kept going. Passing over the heat at the center of her hips, he continued down her long legs, caressing the skin of each with both his hands and his lips.

Kensi groaned loudly in exasperation when she realized what he was doing; how he was teasing and tormenting her.

"Deeks, come on!" she pleaded with him.

But he just smiled back up at her and kept eye contact as he slowly, and deliberately planted his mouth on the inside of her knee. If Kensi hadn't been racing before, she was now. Yanking her leg from his grasp, she scrambled to turn the tables on him. Whether out of surprise or amusement, Deeks didn't resist when she pinned him to his back and attacked his mouth with hers. She used a free hand to grope around between them until she had his length in her grip again. Using her thumb, she rubbed at the sensitive tip of his now rock solid cock and he whimpered at the contact.

"I thought you wanted this to be special?" he asked. She pulled back to look at him better and he added, "Cuz I'm not gonna last if you keep doing that."

She released him, and with a playful grin answered, "Fine. Do it your way. But get on with it, because I need you right now."

He didn't try to argue with that. Gently, he rolled her to her back and kissed her slowly. All the frantic haste from moments before had dissipated, replaced with tenderness and passion. She cradled his hips between her legs, and let out a sharp breath when the underside of his shaft rubbed between her folds and against her clit. She moved her hips up and down to grind against him more. It was a fantastic feeling; almost as intense as his tongue or fingers. But soon the urge to feel him completely inside of her won out.

As if on cue, Deeks reached between them and slid the tip of his cock down to the tight entrance of her pussy. He pressed his forehead to hers and gazed at her intensely. Kensi struggled to keep her eyes open and staring back into his as he slowly pushed in. When the ridge of his head squeezed passed a certain point within her, a burst of pleasure caused her to suck in a sharp breath and throw her head back in ecstasy. Deeks chased after her and devoured her moan with a greedy kiss. Now sheathed all the way inside, he pulled out and started a torturously slow pace of long, deliberate thrusts.

At this leisurely speed, she could really appreciate how good he felt, how perfectly he fit inside of her. And she could actually feel the heat radiating off of the soft skin stretched tight around his stiff cock. It was a sensation she didn't want to end. So she just wrapped her legs around his hips and held on to him as his motions rocked both of their bodies back and forth.

After a few minutes, he snaked his arms beneath her and held her close as he rolled them over. Sprawled out on his body, she pressed her breasts flat against his chest and kissed him soundly in the momentary break they had taken. Kensi then leaned back and sat up on top of him, splaying her fingers out on his broad muscles.

She undulated her whole torso as she rocked back and forth, grinding her hips on his. Deeks groaned in response and gripped her thighs tightly. She could feel him getting impatient beneath her, starting to buck his hips up into her. So she changed from rolling just her pelvis to bouncing her entire upper body; lifting it up and letting it slam down onto him, taking him hard and deep each time.

She looked down at Deeks who stared at her mesmerized, a look of pure bliss on his face to match how she felt as well. He met her gaze occasionally, but mostly he stared transfixed at her breasts bouncing only inches from his face. Finally, the temptation proved more than he could resist and he sat up with her still in his lap so he could grasp one of them in his hand, while the other he sucked into his mouth.

Kensi had been so close to her peak when he sat up. She could feel the gentle throbbing start to increase in strength. His lips on her flushed skin were heavenly, but she let out a soft whimper as she tried to gyrate her hips and get just a little more friction where they were intimately attached.

She cupped her hands under his jaw and pulled him up for a kiss before speaking in a cracked, exhausted voice, "Come on, Deeks! More!"

Flipping them around again so she was on her back, he asked her, "You gonna come?"

"Yes!" she cried out in a harsh whisper.

No sooner had he started to move within her again, than the gentle throbs escalated into an explosion of trembling muscles and coursing pleasure that made her toes curl and her breath catch in her lungs. Every muscle of hers tensed as she clung to him, and he continued to move slowly as she let her climax run its course.

"So fucking beautiful!" he whispered against her lips.

Through her labored breaths, she continued to kiss him. Though spent, she started to rock her hips again, adding strength to the tingling aftershocks that still rippled out from her core. Deeks' face was contorted with the effort it took to restrain himself, and his muscles shook as he held himself above her.

"Deeks! Keep going, right there!" she encouraged him. "Don't hold back!"

He groaned as he picked up the pace again, "Oh my god, Kens!"

He moved with such speed now, that Kensi had a difficult time distinguishing his individual thrusts. It all blurred together in a nearly unbearable sensation of pleasure as he rubbed against her overstimulated clit. The sweet ache grew into a tight pressure within her again, and when she felt him quake and stiffen above her as his hot seed shot against her inner walls, a second wave of ecstasy was triggered in a flutter of inner convulsions.

Oriented the wrong way on their bed, the pair collapsed in a heap of sweaty limbs and heavy breathing. Deeks had buried his face between her breasts, and Kensi lay sated under his comforting weight.

It was several minutes before he finally shifted, and with great effort moved to the the head of the bed. She followed the warmth of his body, and crawled in under the covers next to him.

"Let's just stay in this warm bed forever," Deeks suggested, wrapping his arms around her rapidly cooling torso. "Just you and me."

"Fine by me," she agreed sleepily. "As long as we never have to squeeze into a tiny rack on that cold, dark ship ever again."

"And here I was going to suggest we go on a cruise for our next vacation," he replied, chuckling into her hair.

Kensi scoffed, and pulled back to look at him as she asked, "Do I seem like a luxury cruise sort of woman?"

"Who said anything about luxury?" he teased. "I was thinking we'd join a crab boat up in Alaska."

She laughed genuinely at his suggestion, and told him, "Well. You've had worse ideas. Like suggesting that we do it in a laundry room."

"That's still not off the table," he reminded her.

Kensi hummed her approval of the idea into the soft stubble of his cheek. Mouthing her way back to his lips as she pulled his body tighter to hers.

For the rest of their stay on the shores of Lake Tahoe, the pair rarely left their room. They ventured out for food, and to relax in the lodge's hot tub, but the ski hills on the mountains stayed forgotten in the background.

It had been a long time since Kensi had allowed herself to become so removed from the real world. But after a few days of peaceful ignorance, duty called— and so did Hetty to remind each of them individually that they were due to start work again the next day.

She wondered if Hetty had tracked their phones; if she knew they were in the mountains together. She considered the possibility of casually dropping that information when they got back, and trying to play it off as a partner bonding road trip.

The closer they got to LA on their drive home, the more worried she became. By the time they crested the coastal hills and descended into the city proper, she was gripped with a sense of dread.

Whether Deeks picked up on her anxiety or just wanted to hold her hand, she didn't know. But when he reached over and took her nervous hand in his, she immediately felt calmer. He had her back; she had his. They would face whatever might come, because now they were in this same boat together.

A/N: Having just posted a pair of season 9 stories, it was a bit of a jolt to switch back to the mindset of a season 4 "missed opportunity." And now, I think I'm going to jump back even further.

Thank you all to those who came back to this story when I did. It was never meant to be so long. But I think it's time to leave this one here.