When Kensi had allowed herself to daydream about waking up in Deeks' bed, in the time before their thing had exploded all over them with gloriously orgasmic results, she had imagined crisp white sheets, golden sunshine peering through the windows, glinting off his sun-bleached hair, and warm, tanned arms holding her tight. Deeks was a cuddler, she knew, from cases when they'd had to play young lovers. He'd take any and every opportunity to drape an arm over her shoulders, or slide a hand into a back pocket of her jeans or pull her body close against his. So, when they had started to spend the night with each other, Kensi had expected to wake with her partner draped all over her.

The reality, she discovered, was something different.

His sheets were purple, for a start. Who owned purple bed linen? Other than teenage girls? And there was no chance that gentle rays of golden light would dance over their entwined bodies as Deeks apparently needed blackout blinds to sleep. His room was plunged into darkness as soon as he switched the light off at night.

She had the cuddling thing right; she always woke up with him draped all over her. But he wasn't the only one – where his master went, Monty followed, and Kensi had now lost track of the times she had been woken up not by gentle human kisses, but by slobbery dog ones.

She wouldn't have changed anything, no matter how many times she had to wash her face. Finally giving in to the ridiculous amount of sexual tension had been an immense relief, to both of them. They still bickered their way through their work days, providing endless hours of amusement to anybody caught in the crossfire. But the old elements of jealousy and insecurity in their partnership had disappeared; Kensi didn't feel the urge to rip Deeks' head from his shoulders when he turned up the charm to wheedle information from a female witness any more, and Deeks no longer had the urge to throw himself bodily between Kensi and any halfway decent looking man that talked to her. For all their stupid arguments over the inane topic of the day, their partnership was real, founded on trust and respect for the other's abilities.

And now it was based on plenty of sex, too as they were making their way quite happily through Deeks' comprehensive fantasy list

It really was, Kensi, decided happily, the best of all worlds, even if it meant that she had to go shopping for replacement sheets for his apartment. Because seriously, purple?

"Wake up, Kensi."

She could feel a hand gently pulling her hair away from her face, and a thumb brushing over her lips. Without opening her eyes, she parted her lips to suck it gently, before kissing the pad.

"Salty," she murmured sleepily. "You've been surfing this morning?"

"A friend texted me to say that there were some great waves," he said apologetically. "I left you a note in case you woke up. I thought that if we were going to go out today I'd better get my fix in early."

Kensi opened her eyes properly and pulled herself up into a sitting position. Monty, who had been sitting on the floor, immediately took it as his cue to leap onto the bed and lunge to lick her face. Kensi dodged the attention neatly and Monty settled for a scratch behind the ears instead.

She didn't dodge Deeks' morning kiss. By now, Kensi had come to accept that morning breath didn't phase him at all, although it still freaked her out a little.

"You know I don't mind if you surf in the morning," she told him. "As long as you leave the note."

That had been their first relationship fight, rather than partnership fight, and it had been a doozy.

Kensi had woken one morning to find Deeks' side of the bed cold and no sign of him in her house. Even Monty, who stayed over whenever Deeks did, was gone. Even though Kensi knew that there were a hundred different reasons that could explain where he had gone, her mind kept flashing back to that horrendous Christmas morning when Jack had disappeared. When Deeks had returned an hour later, damp from surfing and bringing breakfast muffins and coffee, he had found her cleaning her guns with tears streaming down her face.

That argument had been long, messy and ultimately cathartic. Deeks now left a note in a very obvious place when he went surfing, and usually left Monty behind with her.

"It's in the first place you'd look," he said, in a teasing tone. "Stuck to the front of the Pop-Tarts box."

Outraged, and secretly horrified that he knew her so well, she hurled a pillow at him. He ducked, Monty barked happily and the first ten minutes of her day were lost to an impromptu pillow fight. She ended up, happily for all involved, straddling him. His t-shirt had got lost, through either accident or design, in the melee and she was taking the opportunity to torment him.

"Such tiny little things," she said, grinning as she gently rubbed her thumbs over his nipples. "One might call them wee, even."

He scowled up at her, but he couldn't help the hitch in his breath that told her that his body very much approved of what she was doing.

"I don't see what all the fuss is about," he gasped, as she gently pinched them between her thumbs and forefingers. "It's not like I – ah! – do anything with them."

"I like them," Kensi assured him, rolling her hips in a tight circle and prompting another gasp from her captive audience. "They're cute."

He couldn't help it; the familiar lazy grin of triumph broke out over his face.

"You think my nipples are cute?" he asked smugly.

"You bet," Kensi replied with a smirk of her own, her voice suspiciously innocent. "They're just the right size. After all, something has to balance out the huge size of your nostrils."

An attack on his pride of that nature could not go un-avenged. With a roar he bucked her off her position astride him. Kensi was too busy laughing to defend herself properly, and so fell victim to a fiendish tickle attack. Tickling lead to wriggling, which lead to groping, which lead to a very pleasant half hour for the both of them. After, as they lay together in the wreckage of their bed, Kensi frowned.

"Where are we going?"

Deeks stared blearily at her.

"What?" was all he could manage after her last amorous assault.

"You said that you thought we were going out today. Where are we going?"

"How can you possibly remember that after…" he waved eloquently at the tangled bed sheets and their lack of clothing.

"I have a superior mind," Kensi informed him archly. "Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise," Deeks said, playing with the ends of her hair.

Kensi's eyes narrowed.

"I'm not going to a bikini bar," she warned him. "Or to that jello wrestling place you keep telling me about. I don't care what number it is on your list."

"It's not a bikini bar, and it's not the jello wrestling place," he said, holding his hands up in defeat. "But you will need a bathing suit."

"If you wanted us to go to the beach, why didn't you just wake me up earlier?" Kensi groused, although she did scramble off the bed to rummage through the collection of clothes that she kept at Deeks' apartment.

"It's not just any beach," Deeks said, playing up the element of mystery for all it was worth. "Just throw on a bikini and pack a bag for the beach. I'm gonna go and grab us something we can eat for lunch."

"Alright," she said, already distracted by the fact that Monty had grabbed the end of one of her bikini tops and was ready to play tug with it. "Get me…"

"Something with chocolate, I know," he replied, kissing her on the forehead and leaving her to deal with Monty.

"You've forgotten your board," Kensi said, confused, as Deeks slid into the driver's seat.

"Not forgotten," he said mysteriously, fiddling with the radio to find a different station.

Kensi raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Part of the deal that they had painstakingly hammered out meant that when they were off duty, they took his car, he drove, and he got to choose the radio station. In return, when they were working, Kensi got to drive her car, with her choice of music. In the spirit of all compromises, neither of them were happy and both tried to hijack the other's rights as often as possible.

Kensi waited until Deeks had his back turned to check on Monty in the back seat, then snuck her hand out towards the radio faceplate. She had just managed to select her favourite station when Deeks grabbed her hand.

"Caught red handed," he sighed, drawing it to his lips to lay a kiss to her fingers. "You're getting slow. I'm not sure I can trust you in the field if you're getting this sloppy."

Kensi affectionately slugged him in the shoulder and they set off, the radio still on her choice of station. Despite her constant questions, he refused to tell her where they were going, so she eventually settled back in her seat and watched as they left Los Angeles behind completely. They eventually pulled off the highway and threaded their way through some small towns before finding the sea again.

Deeks turned the car confidently through the streets, clearly familiar with the area. They were entering a clearly affluent part of town; the houses started getting bigger and grander looking, and Kensi spotted three Porches and two Ferraris among the cars parked up on the driveways.

"Are we lost?" she asked, turning to him. "Because this doesn't seem to be the sort of place you usually hang out."

"We are not lost," he replied, grinning. "And believe me, I am totally at home with luxury."

Kensi looked around at the car, unimpressed, but before she could think up a come-back, Deeks pulled over at the entrance to the driveway of a pretty house set back from the road. It was three storeys high, painted a brilliant white and had green ivy growing up the front wall. Whoever owned it was clearly a serious gardener, or at least employed one, as a neatly-trimmed lawn was bordered by a riot of coloured flowers that also popped up in window boxes, hanging baskets and big stone planters.

Deeks hopped out of the car and entered a security code confidently into the discreet brass plate attached to the gatepost. The large black metal gates swung soundlessly inwards, and Deeks drove his scruffy car up the driveway to park right outside the front door.

"Where are we?" Kensi demanded as Deeks let Monty out for a well-need stretch of the legs. The dog immediately honed in on the nearest flowerbed and started digging in it industriously.

"A friend of mine owns this place, and a few more like it," Deeks told her, as he went to grab Monty away from the beautiful garden. "One of the perks of actually using your law degree is that you get paid immense amounts of money."

"Where's your friend now?" Kensi asked, smoothing a hand over the loose beach cover-up she was wearing. Black, with a deep v-neck and sitting at mid-thigh level, it was fine for a day's sunbathing, but not exactly what she would have wanted to wear when being introduced to one of Deeks' friends. She would have appreciated shorts, at least.

"She's taken her kids to see their grandparents for a few days," he told her, digging in his pocket for a set of keys. "She lets me use the house when she's not home."

"Why?" Kensi asked, pulling her bag from the car and grabbing the bag of food that Deeks had picked up while she had been getting dressed. "It's a long way to come to play house sitter."

"The house has a certain attraction," Deeks said, grinning. "Come on."

He let them in, and deftly deactivated the security alarm. Inside, the house was immaculately clean, but had a definite lived-in feel. Pictures were mounted all over the walls of a happy family, with babies that grew into toddlers, then young children as Kensi moved through the spacious hallway, following Deeks into the large open-plan kitchen at the rear of the house. On one wall in the kitchen were a series of pencil marks, charting the heights of the children at different ages, and the large stainless steel refrigerator proudly displayed examples of artwork produced with more enthusiasm than skill. Modern, expensive appliances were teamed with well-worn solid wood furniture, the walls were painted a cheerful pale green, and the large French windows let in a good amount of light.

It was a happy home, she could tell, and she was glad that Deeks had friends like these, friends that could make a house full of love.

"Come and see," he beckoned from the French windows, and she joined him there. The windows acted as doors to the large patio area, complete with barbeque station, and from there a series of steep stone steps led down to a small cove. It was protected on three sides by high cliffs, and the only way to access the golden sand was either from the house, or from the clear blue ocean.

"Is that a private beach?" Kensi marvelled, sliding the windows across and stepping outside. The air carried the salt of the sea, but someone, probably the same keen gardener from before, had planted rosemary and other herbs in large planters. The smell was incredibly pleasant, savoury but light, and she sighed happily.

"Completely private," Deeks assured her, stepping behind her and toying with the hem of her cover-up. "The waves aren't as good as they are further up the coast, but on a good day the surfing's fun. Smaller waves, good for learners."

"And there's nobody home?" Kensi asked, turning her neck to catch Deeks' ridiculously plump lips in a small kiss.

"Not until late tomorrow night," he said, kissing her in return and letting his hands slide up under her cover-up and glide across her thighs. "Just us and the ocean and whichever one of the three or four guestrooms we feel like staying in."

"Let's go and check it out then," she said, and headed for the steps. Deeks followed behind with her bag of essential items that she thought necessary for a day on the beach.

The sand was soft and golden, and blessedly free from sharp shells or deposits of smelly seaweed. A small hut was tucked under the staircase, and Deeks pulled a couple of large foam prisms from a shelf. Kensi couldn't immediately discern their purpose, but she did spot a few surfboards in various sizes in a rack on the wall.

"This is why you didn't bring your board," she guessed, amused. "You already have one here."

She pointed at one that had "Marty" written in marker pen on a piece of tape stuck above it.

"I give Sheila's kids a few pointers when I can," he shrugged, heading back outside into the daylight. "I keep a board here so I don't have to try and fit mine inside my car when I come up. Grab an umbrella, would you?"

Kensi looked around and spotted several large beach umbrellas propped up in the corner of the hut. She grabbed the first one she saw and brought it outside.

Deeks had already laid out their towels on the sand, laying the foam triangles at the top and draping the towels over them. Kensi sunk the umbrella into the sand at the right angle to give them a little shade, while Deeks dug out their picnic lunch.

"Are you going to surf now?" she asked, as they shared the last of the sandwiches and packets of chips.

"No," he replied, grinning. "I'm going to get another fantasy ticked off my list."

Kensi grinned back, and arched an eyebrow.

"You brought me to a private beach to have sex?" she teased, pulling her cover-up off over her head, revealing the tiniest bikini that she owned. It covered her – just – but displayed a little more of her body than she usually showed on the beach.

"No," he said slowly, unashamedly raking his eyes over her exposed skin. "Although if that's on the cards I'll gladly tick that one off my list too."

Kensi rolled her eyes. "What did you have in mind, exactly?"

Deeks rummaged about in her bag until her brought out a bottle of sun cream.

"Remember that op with Callen's ex-spy wife? On the beach, when you were wearing that pink bikini?"

"You wanted to rub cream in me," Kensi replied, grinning. "Is that what this is?"

"Kinda," he replied, waving a hand in the air to indicate that she was partly right.

"Alright then," she said, laying down on the towel, exposing her back to him. "You'd better get going."

The large foam triangle bent under the weight of her folded arms, cushioning her from the sand. When she switched to her back, Kensi could tell that her upper body would be supported, making it easier for her to read. She's complained about laying flat on her back on the beach before, and she made a note to find some of these triangle things of her own.

She felt Deeks straddle her, letting his weight rest on his calves. She hissed as a line of cool lotion trailed slowly down her spine, but the noise soon turned into a light moan as she felt Deeks' fingers work it into her skin.

"You must have gone undercover as a masseur," she said in between sighs of pleasure. "No way you're this good without training."

"I did, for three weeks at a spa in Beverly Hills," he said, sweeping the calloused palms of his hands up her back and under the thin string of her bikini top. "But all I got were the fat, sweaty guys with mats of back hair. You would have freaked."

Kensi couldn't help but shudder at thought.

His fingers surely found little knots in her shoulders, and she couldn't help but grind back against the weight of him as little bolts of pleasure/pain worked their way through her muscles. She could feel the firm length of his hardness pressing through the thin material of their swimsuits, but he seemed more intent on covering her body with the cream than taking advantage of his turned-on state.

Kensi frowned. Ever since she had known him, he'd flirted with her, teased her and made blatant sexual advances. Now that they had moved their partnership into the bedroom, he made the most of the license that gave him. In theory, her barely covered body, sun cream and their position together should have given rise to two or three jokes by now, if not a lot more. She would have bet that her bikini top would have been discarded, at the very least.

He shifted his weight off her backside and scooted further down her body, massaging the cream into her legs. When he had finished she rolled onto her side and tugged slightly at one of the thin straps of her bikini top.

"Are you going to do the front, too?" she asked, smiling in invitation.

"I think you can handle that," he said, smiling at her. "Do my back?"

"Sure," she said, nonplussed.

She made sure that all the skin of his back was covered, and tried to replicate the motions that he had used on her. He sat patiently as she worked the cream in, and didn't respond when she deliberately brushed her breasts against the tanned skin of his back.

"Thanks," he said cheerfully when she finished.

"No problem," she replied, still a little confused. She could tell he was still turned on, and he had admitted that beach sex was one of his fantasies. So why hadn't he responded to her? Or tried to get her bikini off her?

They finished applying the cream to themselves in silence, then Deeks settled back happily against one of the foam triangles.

"Come here," he told her, extending his arm, and she did as she was instructed, propping herself up on the other triangle and tucking herself into his side. He passed her a pair of sunglasses and her Kindle, and pulled out a copy of iNational Geographic/i for himself from the bag.

"We're going to read?" Kensi asked slowly. "Here, alone, on this private beach where nobody can see us?"

"Yup," he said cheerfully. "I've been wanting to read this article on Bondi Beach for weeks, but we've been so busy at work I haven't had the time."

He then put his nose in the magazine and stopped talking to her. Still a little confused, Kensi fired up her Kindle and found the novel she had been reading in tiny chunks for the last few months. She loved her job, but it didn't exactly allow for much downtime for things like reading. She checked slyly to see if Deeks was looking at her, but he was engrossed in his magazine. Relieved, she selected her novel and brought it up on screen. If he found out that she was reading a romance, he'd have ammunition against her for weeks.

The rhythmic sound of the gentle waves breaking on the beach was incredibly soothing. A few seabirds perched on the high cliffs around them interrupted the peace and quiet occasionally with some squawking, but the lack of road noise, loud music and cell phone ring tones blaring soon had Kensi relaxing completely. She felt tension ooze out of her body, and she was able to immerse herself fully into her book. Deeks' hand stroked the bare skin of her shoulder gently, and she sighed in pleasure.

"Good book?" he asked her, some time later. She was twelve chapters in and the heroine was about to ruin her fledgling romance with the hero by doing something stupid. The path of true love, even fictional love, never did run smooth, it seemed.

"Yeah," she said, still engrossed.

She felt his lips kiss her forehead.

"This is nice," he said in satisfaction. "Just us, and the waves. Complete relaxation."

Kensi got to the end of the chapter, and twisted in his loose embrace to face him.

"This was your fantasy, wasn't it?" she asked softly. "Just you and me hanging out at the beach, with no interruptions."

His face flushed red a little, but Kensi was positive that it had nothing to do with sunburn.

"It's not exactly the wildest of my fantasies," he began in explanation, looking a little embarrassed.

Kensi kissed him to shut him up. As Deeks talked a lot, this took a long time.

"It's perfect," she told him softly. "Just you and me. No Eric in our earwigs or bad guys to stake out or even surf boards to distract you. Just us doing normal couple stuff."

He kissed her that time, and that went on for a long time too.

"But," she went on, carefully putting her Kindle aside. "Just because you get fantasy number…which number is this?"

"Fifty one," Deeks replied, smiling.

"Just because you get fantasy number fifty one fulfilled, it doesn't mean that I can't get one of mine ticked off, does it?"

Deeks knew a rhetorical question when it started to untie a bikini top in front of him and wisely stayed silent. Kensi rolled herself out from under his arm, and slid herself neatly across his body to straddle him.

She pulled at the string holding the halterneck together and the small scrap of material fell from her body onto the ground. Neither of them cared to find out where it landed.

"What…what did you have in mind?" Deeks asked, his hands already in position on her backside, his fingers pushing under the edge of the bikini bottoms.

In return, her hands went to the blue board shorts that he wore, and she started to undo the knotted cord that held them up.

"Can you believe," she said in mock-amazement, "that I have never been skinny-dipping before?"

He swallowed audibly.

"Really?" he managed weakly.

"Oh yes," she nodded, tugging at the loosened shorts. He obligingly lifted his hips and she had them whisked away in seconds. "You try skinny dipping on US military property as a teenager. No chance."

"Then we should do something about that," he said, his eagerness clearly visible in more ways than one.

Kensi stood up in one fluid movement and quickly stripped away the rest of her bikini.

"Race you to the water!" she called, and took off down the beach.

"Kensi!" he yelled. "Not fair!" and scrambled to his feet to run after her.

He caught up with her as she was plunging, laughing, into the shallow waves and he tackled her with a yell, dunking them both under the cool water. They bobbed to the surface laughing, and she couldn't help but pull him close for a deep kiss. His lips were salty, just as his skin had been that morning, and she kissed him again.

"Thank you," she said, as they swam out from shore into the deeper water. "For today, and the whole private beach idea. It's wonderful."

"It's my pleasure," he told her, tugging her through the water until she wrapped her legs around his waist. The water was shoulder- deep, but he could still touch the bottom with his longer legs. "But you know, since you're getting one of your fantasies come true, I should get another one."

"Really?" she said, linking her arms around his neck, anchoring herself to his body. "And which one would that be?"

"That would be number seventy five," he said solemnly, one large hand coming to rest between her legs. "Watching you come over and over again in the water."

"And just how are you planning on…oh!" Kensi squealed in surprise as he quickly slid not one but two fingers inside her and angled his hand so that she could grind against the palm. It took a few moments for them to coordinate their movements but when they hit the right rhythm it was unlike any experience Kensi had ever had. There was something about the contrast of the warmth of his body and the coolness of the water, the firm strength of his body as he kept her grounded and the freedom that the ocean gave her, supporting her body when she let go of his neck to allow a different angle. There was the feeling of exposure from being outside, yet the comfort of privacy as they were the only people around. This, all combined with her complete and unshakable trust in him not to let her go made it very easy for her to just surrender the great waves of pleasure thundering through her body.

When her body calmed, she looped her arms back around his neck and pulled him in for another salty kiss.

"Seventy five is a keeper," she gasped, nibbling at his ear.

"I can tell," he said wryly. "I'm not sure I'm ever going to get full use of these fingers again."

He held up the unharmed digits in question for inspection.

"I can think of something else you do have full use of," she grinned, snaking one hand under the water to find him standing proudly erect. Before he could say anything else, she manoeuvred her body and sank down lazily onto his length.

His only response was a long groan.

She didn't come again, but that was alright because she had lost count of the times he had pleasured her. Instead she set a very slow rhythm, gently pulling herself up and down as he braced his feet into the soft sand of the seabed and babbled helplessly in her ear about how beautiful she was and how much he loved her. She could see his whole body tense up just before he released himself in her, and his dopey, blissed-out orgasm face soon beamed at her.

"Fifty one, seventy five and seventy six, all in one afternoon," he said as they separated and floated on their backs in the gentle waves.

"It must be some sort of record," Kensi sighed, watching the fluffy white clouds drift overhead.

There was a short pause, before Deeks said speculatively, "Depending on what Sheila has in her kitchen cupboards, we could always go for number two hundred and forty three."

"What's number two hundred and forty three?" Kensi asked suspiciously.

Deeks grinned at her.

"Dare you to find out!" he challenged, before dunking her quickly under the water and taking off towards the shore.

Kensi smiled back, watching him move powerfully through the water. After all, she couldn't let herself back out of a dare, could she? Laughing, she swam straight after him.