Dana Scully grinned as she ran along the narrow strip of sand between the water and the rocks. It wasn't often that she bested her husband, Fox Mulder, in a race, but she was on the verge of winning this one.

"Got you!" Mulder murmured triumphantly in her ear. Then, holding his wife in one arm as though she weighed scarcely more than their daughter in the other, he casually placed his foot on the bottom step and said, "I win".

Scully smiled. "Probably for the best, Fox," she said good-naturedly. "The loser has to cook dinner and I think we're all beter off if I'm the one to do that. Melissa's digestive system might not be up to handling your cooking."

So Mulder kept Melissa occupied while Scully cooked a meal consisiting of freshly caught fish that they'd purchased from a local market that afternoon, new potatoes and green beans with slivered almonds. She cooked separate portions of green beans without almonds and unseasoned potatoes for Melissa, which Mulder fed to her while she finished their own meal preparations. The baby then sat in her high chair with a few cookies to keep her amused while her parents ate their meal and sipped the white wine they'd selected to go along with it.

"I'm glad you were able to take off Friday, so we could get up here late Thursday night," Scully said.

"Well, I figured everybody would be on the road Friday evening, with it being Labor Day weekend and all," Mulder replied. "Besides, while a three-day weekend is better than a two-day weekend, a four-day weekend is best of all. We had all day yesterday, today and tomorrow to relax; we won't have to worry about packing up and heading home 'til Monday afternoon."

***

After dinner, Mulder offered to clean up the kitchen and load the dishwasher, but Scully encouraged him to play with Melissa instead. Scully got to spend a lot more time with their daughter than Mulder did; she only worked three days a week now and never went on business trips. While Mulder's own workload and business travel had declined dramatically since his days on the X-Files, he still put in 40-plus hours a week at the office, as well as as taking occasional out-of-town trips to advise and assist agents who suspected a serial killer at work in their cities.

When Scully finished in the kitchen, she walked into the living room and saw Mulder bouncing Melissa on his thigh, chanting the old nursery rhyme, "Ride a horsey, ride a horsey, into town" while their daughter laughed with glee. The rapid movement of Mulder's leg brought a memory that had been buried in the depths of her subconcious to the forefront of her mind and, before she could bury it again, her husband looked up at her.

"What are you thinking about, sweetheart? You've got a funny look on your face."

"I'll tell you later," she promised. She would, too. He'd probaby enjoy hearing about it and the memory was basically pleasant - if a tiny bit embarrassing - for her, as well.

***

Several hours later, after their sandy young daughter had been bathed, read to, rocked and finally put to bed, Mulder and Scully were back in the living room.They sat side by side on the couch, his arm stretched along the back of the couch, sipping wine. They were similarly attired, each barefooted and wearing a T-shirt and shorts.

"So. . .you were going to tell me what you were thinking about when you saw me bouncing Melissa on my leg earlier," Mulder prompted.

"Well, it brought back some memories. One of something that actually happened and one of. . .a rather persistent fantasy I used to have of you, back in the early days of our partnership. But both seem kind of silly now.

""I'd like to hear," Mulder replied. "Is this a childhood memory?"

"No," Scully said, shaking her head. "It's more a memory of. . .sexual awakening."

"Go on."

"As I think I've told you before," Scully began slowly, "I didn't have much experience with dating in high school. I never had a boyfriend 'til my senior year and then he and I never did more than hold hands or kiss. No heavy make out sessions or anything like that."

"Is this going to be the story of how you lost your virginity?" Mulder asked, squirming slightly.

"No, things didn't get quite that far. But it is about the first time I experienced an orgasm due to stimulation from someone other than myself."

"And it involved a guy's thigh?" Mulder inquired.

Scully nodded. "When I was freshman in college, at Berkley, I had my first really serious romantic relationship. His name was David. I lived in the dorms, but he had an apartment off-campus. One evening, after we'd been dating for about a month, he invited me to his place. We were on the couch, started kissing, and pretty soon progressed to some heavy petting. We'd sort of scooched down on the couch, so that he was lying on his back and I was on top of him.We were kissing and he was putting his hands. . .well,pretty much all over; down my shirt for a while, then on my bottom. Then he decided he wanted to kiss my breasts, so he shifted and pulled me up, then put his thigh between my legs and sort of. . .flexed it. I climaxed from the pressure and vibration."

"So did you two ever. . .?"

"Nope. We continued to date and engage in heavy petting for the rest of that semester. To be totally honest, we probably *would* have progressed to actual sexual intercourse by the end of my freshman year if we'd stayed together. As it was, however, the first thing he told me when we saw each other after the Christmas break was that he'd gotten back together with his girlfriend from high school during the holidays and things were over between the two of us."

"You said there was fantasy of me in here somewhere,too?"

"Oh, yeah!" she replied with a grin. "This is probably going to sound sort of silly, but here goes. When we first started working together, I *promised* myself I wasn't going to have sexual fantasies about you.You're a very attractive man, and I acknowledged that I might have fleeting moments, but I swore I wasn't going to dwell on them. At that point in my life, my career was of paramount importance to me and I'd already been burned once by becoming romantically involved with a man at the bureau."

"How long did this self-inflicted moratorium on sexual fantasies involving the two of us last?"

"Until you winked at me."

"Winked at you? When was that?"

"When we were trying to capture John Barnett. He'd targeted me as a way to get to you and you and the other agents were all at my friend's cello recital to protect me. When no one else was looking, you gave me a tiny smile and winked at me.

""I remember that now. I was just trying to reassure you that things would be okay."

"I knew that. But, later, after Barnett was dead and I was home in bed, my thoughts kept drifting back to that wink. It had been comforting but, at the same time, sort of sexy. Generally speaking, when a man winks at a woman it's kind of a. . .flirty gesture. So I made a compromise with myself."

"What?"

"Well, by that time I was 30 years old and, while I hadn't really had a lot of sexual experience compared to most women my age, it wasn't like I was a virgin,either. But I'd made myself a promise that I wouldn'thave sexual fantasies about my partner; I figured it would be too awkward to work with you every day if I was imagining you naked every night. So I made a compromise with my conscience; I wouldn't fantasize about actually having sex with you, but I could allow myself to fantasize about making out with you."

Mulder chuckled. "Scully, you've got to be the only person in the world who would make that distinction within a *fantasy*! By the way, I was having sexual fantasies about you - very explicit ones - nearly on a nightly basis at that point in our partnership, and I never noticed it impeding my ability to work with you during the day."

"Do you want to hear the rest of this or not?"

"Definitely. Please continue."

"So. . .I used to fantasize about making out with you.We'd be on a couch, not in bed, and we'd be clothed, more or less, but not as formally as what we wore to the office. A lot of times we'd be wearing pretty much what we have on right now - T-shirts and shorts - or sometimes your shirt would be off, but no more than that. We'd start kissing, letting our hands roam across each other's bodies, then we'd shift positions so that you were on your back and I was lying on top of you. We'd kiss for a while longer, then you'd pull me up and start kissing my breasts and you'd put your thigh between my legs so that I could rock back on it and. . .I'd climax."

Mulder was quiet for a long moment after she finished speaking. Finally he asked, "Want to?'

"You mean. . .do I want us to do what I've just described?"

"Yeah. Sounds kind of fun, actually. I've brought you to climax with my fingers, or my mouth or my penis, but somehow I've never gotten around to giving you an orgasm with my leg. Besides," he lowered his voice seductively, "if we get to act out one of your fantasies, then I get to tell you one of mine and you can decide whether or not we enact that one."

"God, yes!" Scully breathed, climbing into his lap and kissing him forcefully.They began making out in earnest, Mulder leaning back on the couch so that Scully could lay atop him. They kissed over and over; during one of the moments when they'd come up for air, Scully tugged his T-shirt over his head so that he was barechested, but she remained fully clothed. Mulder would have liked more access to his wife's beautiful body, but was willing to let her take the lead; it was her fantasy, after all.

This was fun, Mulder mused, as Scully zeroed in on his neck with the apparent intention of giving him a hickey. Like most romantic relationship that begin when both participants are over the age of 25, theirs hadn't spent much time in the "make out" phase. For years, they'd been partners -and friends - who limited their physical contact to an occasional pat on theshoulder, brief handclasp, quick hug or rare kiss to the forehead or cheek. Then, in a matter of weeks,they'd share a couple of tentative mouth-to-mouth kisses and quickly thereafter dived headfirst into an actual sexual relationship. The one thing that had made their progression from platonic friendship to physical intimacy different from that of most thirtysomethings was that they'd made a brief stop at a Las Vegas wedding chapel before consumating their relationship, having sexual intercourse with each other for the first time on their wedding night.

Mulder reached underneath Scully's shirt and unhooked her bra, then let his fingers play across her nipples.She'd recently weaned Melissa and, while he'd been supportive of her decision to breastfeed for a full nine months, he was glad to be able to touch and suckle her breasts again without getting a face full of milk in the process.Scully groaned as Mulder lifted her above him and latched onto one of her breasts with his mouth. He wasn't sucking so much as teasing the nipple with histongue, flicking it rapidly. He'd also, as she'd instructed, pushed one of his thighs up between her legs and began to jiggle her against it, maintaining a firm grasp on her hips. She could feel the familiar pressure beginning to build inside her and shifted to try to relieve it; she began to arch herself against him and, pushing down hard against his leg, let out aloud moan as she climaxed.

When she came down off her high, she realized that Mulder had lowered his leg so that she was now lying completely on top of him, their faces next to each other. "So," he asked, brushing a strand of hair away from her face and tucking it behind her ear," was 'thigh sex' as good as you remember it being?"

"No," she replied with a smile. "It was much," she stopped to kiss him lightly on the lips, "much", another quick kiss, "better. As I always knew it would be. You've got nice legs."

"I didn't think women ever looked at men's legs," he replied with amusement.

"Well, it seems to be a bit of an idiosycrancy of mine," Scully confessed. "Other women always check out whether a guy has broad shoulders, or big biceps or a cute butt; and, I must say, you score real high on all those categories, Mulder. But I've always liked guys with long, well-muscled legs. It was one of the first things I noticed about you."

Mulder smiled and cuddled her closer. He wondered if Scully would get sleepy now; she often crashed after an orgasm.

***

"So," Scully said, lifting her head from Mulder's chest so that she could look into his eyes, "you were going to tell me one of your fantasies? It seems like you need taking care of." She rocked her hips against his erection to let him know what she meant.

"Mine can wait until tomorrow night, if you want," he said. "That's one of the advantages of being a 40-year-old married man instead of a horny19-year-old. I know you're not going anywhere and I take almost as much pleasure in your climaxes as I do in my own."

"No, it's still early and I'm not really sleepy, just very relaxed. Tell me."

"Okay. Being here on the beach reminded me of it, butit's a bit more complex than yours. Like yours,though, it begins with something that happened long before we ever met and ended up sort of. ..incorporating you into it."

"Mmm. What does it involve?"

"Nothing kinky, honestly Scully. This is just a persistent fantasy I've had ever since I was about 14.The first time I remember having it was the summer before I started high school, here at the beach house. It was probably triggered, at least initially, by seeing girls on the beach in bikinis.

In this fantasy, I'm walking along the beach and I come across a girl in a bikini. She's gorgeous. In the early fantasies she was a blonde and she has nice breasts and legs, but the really stunning thing about her is that she has an absolutely perfect ass."

This time, it was Scully's turn to chuckle. "So you always zeroed in on that part of a woman's anatomy,even as a teen?"

"Yep. It think that's probaby an almost inborn tendency. Some guys look at breasts, some at legs, but I was always an ass man. So, anyway, this woman looks up as I'm walking by and asks if I'd mind putting some suntan lotion on her. I say sure, no problem and start rubbing the lotion on her. One part of the fantasy -an important part - is the smell of the suntan lotion; all. . .tropical. Well, after I've rubbed it along her thighs and stomach and arms, she says she really prefers to sunbathe topless and asks if I'd mind putting the lotion on her breasts. I say fine and she drops the top of her suit. So I rub the lotion into her breasts, getting them slick and her nipples all pointy."

"I thought you weren't interested in breasts?"

"I never said I was totally *uninterested* just that they were never the major draw for me," Mulder answered. "But, after that, she turns over and asks if I'd mind doing her back. So I rub the lotion into her back and up the back of her thighs and then she informs me that she's decided she'd really rather sunbathe totally nude and would I mind pulling off her bikini bottoms and rubbing the lotion on her butt. So I do that, working the lotion into her ass for a long time and eventually she starts to moan and sort of wiggle. At that point, I take off my own bathing suit and start stroking myself with one lotion slick hand, while using the fingers of the other to stroke her pussy."

Scully could feel Mulder's erection, which had begun to subside some early in the conversation, pressing rock hard against her belly again. "What happens next?"

"Then she gets to her hands and knees and starts begging me to fuck her. I slip inside her; she's wet and I'm slick from the lotion, but it's still a tight fit. At first, I reach around and play with her breasts for a bit, but she keeps asking me to do it harder, so I eventually place my hands on her butt and just go all out. After a bit of that, she'd come and start moaning about how incredible I was."

"And??"

"Usually that was about the point where I needed to wash the sheets when I was a teenager," Mulder explained with a laugh. "Fucking her from behind, knowing I'd brought her to climax, was usually enough to trigger my own orgasm."

"You said this fantasy ended up incorporating me into it?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "For years the fantasy was always the same; even when I was lusting after - or sleeping with - brunettes in real life, my fantasy woman remained a blonde. But after we first met I noticed a couple of things; one immediately and one gradually, over a period of several months."

"What?"

"Well, the thing I noticed immediately was that you were the first woman I'd ever met in real life who had an absolutely *perfect* ass, the same as my fantasy woman. What I wasn't aware of at first was that my fanatsy was slowly beginning to change. First, her hair went from platinum blonde to strawberry blonde; gradually; it turned to red. Then, for the first time,her face really started coming into focus. . .and it was you. By the time they'd closed down the X-Files -right around when we found the Erlenmeyer Flask -she'd become you. For years, I used to dream of coming across an X-File that would take us to someplace like the Florida Keys, so I could make my fantasy come true."

"There's a small problem with part of your fantasy, Mulder," Scully informed him softly.

"I know you're not much of an exhibitionist, Scully; also, I wouldn't want to leave Melissa alone here in the house while we went down to the beach. So, I figured we could make use of my old bedroom; the one at the end of the hall with a single twin bed in it."

"That's preferable to outside, Fox, but location isn't the main problem with your fantasy. It's the idea of you stroking your cock with suntan lotion, then putting it inside me. There's a reason sexual lubricants are unscented. Any kind of heavy perfumes are likely to play havoc with my vagina, making intercourse painful, rather than pleasurable. So we'll need to make a few minor modifications."

"Such as?"

"We'll bring a box of Melissa's baby wipes into the bedroom and set them on the nightstand. After you've put the lotion all over me - but before you start stroking yourself or playing with my pussy - use them to wipe your hands off thoroughly. That way you won't have to disturb the fantasy by getting up to wash your hands, but I won't start screaming for you to quit as soon as you slide into me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go put on my bikini."

***

Mulder grinned when he entered the bedroom a few minutes later. Scully had changed into her bikini and even, for good measure, put on a pair of sunglasses.The overhead light was off, but the lamp beside the bed was on."So. . .what do I do?" she asked.

"Smile up at me and ask if I'd mind putting suntan lotion on you. Just in your normal voice; after all, for a long period of years, this fantasy was specifically about you."

"Mulder, would you mind putting some suntan lotion on me?"

"Be happy to, Scully." Mulder poured the suntan lotion into his palm and then began massaging it into Scully's arms, legs and belly.

After a few minutes Scully said in a sultry voice,"Mulder, would you mind. . .I mean, would you think it terribly unprofessional of me, if I sunbathed topless?I hate having strap marks on my shoulders."

Mulder grinned at the amount of ad libbing Scully wasdoing. She was really getting into it, he realized.Well, hell, why not? He'd certainly gotten into *her* fantasy. "That would be fine, Scully. Would you like me to put some lotion on your breasts?"

"Please," she said, as she undid her bikini top and dropped it to the floor. Mulder once again enjoyed the sensation of running his hands around her breasts. He worked the lotion into them, squeezing gently with his hands and thumbing the nipples into tight peaks.Competing with the smell of the suntan lotion was the musky scent he'd learned to idenitfy as a sign of Scully's arousal.

"I think that's enough for my front, Mulder," she finally said. "I'll roll over and let you do my back."

Mulder began smoothing the lotion into her back and up the back of her thighs. He could tell his wife was enjoying his attentions - the growing wet spot at the crotch of her bathing suit was proof of that."You like this?" he inquired.

"Mmm. yes. But I really think this beach is secluded enough for me to sunbathe totally nude. Would you mind just pulling off my bikini bottoms for me? Toss them anywhere."

Mulder did as she had asked, sliding the scrap of material off and dropping it on the floor, then beginning to massage the lotion into her bottom. He was almost painfully hard by this time and soon removed his own bathing suit as well. Then he carefully wiped both his hands on the baby wipes and begin stroking his own arousal with one hand while slipping two fingers of the other hand into Scully. She began to wiggle and whimper softly.

After a few minutes of his attentions, Scully reared up on her hands and knees and, turning to face him over her shoulder with a look of enticement, murmured,"Fuck me, Mulder! Please!"

Mulder slid in from behind and reached around to fondle her breasts. Within moments, though, she breathed out, "Harder!" That was all the encouragement he needed. He placed his hands on her ass and began to thrust into her more strongly, while she writhed against him.With one last wiggle, Scully climaxed. The force of her orgasm, her internal muscles squeezing him tightly, brought about his own climax. Mulder came with a harsh groan of her name, then immediately collapsed on top of her.

"Oof, Mulder, get off! You're squashing me!"

"I hate to inform you of this, Scully, but 'get off, you're sqaushing me' is not an approved line for this fantasy."

"Fantasy's over, Mulder. Now it's back to reality."

Mulder rolled over, stopping himself with one foot on the floor before he slid completely off the narrow bed, and spooned Scully up next to him. "I'm glad," he murmured.

"Glad about what?" she inquired sleepily.

"That you're my reality, not my fantasy."