Misconception: M insert between Chapters 33 and 34

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It takes only a heartbeat of her walking away for Castle to follow.

Of course he follows. Of course he chases right after her - he's learned his lesson.

But when he catches her, he slides his arm around her stomach, that bare and silky skin, and he halts her forward movement. He crowds close to her back, letting her feel his own heat at her shoulders, her spine, his mouth at her nape, and he circles her belly button with two fingers before dipping lower.

Kate lets out a noise he wants to hear again and again.

He pops open the button of her pants, smooths apart the zipper. He leaves his mouth on her neck and glides down, lips and fingers both, and she moans in that breathless way that lets him know he's got her.

Her arm lifts and snakes around his neck, hanging on to him. He can feel the heat of her groin at his fingers, tantalizing, and he pauses a moment.

She's barely breathing.

Castle pushes the material of her pants aside and then down her hips, letting it fall, pool at her feet. She shivers; she's only in a pair of panties, and he likes his much better.

"Navy blue?" he murmurs.

She lets out a little breath of laughter, and he nudges her forward again, taking her arm down from around his neck. Kate half-turns, he can see the shimmer of self-consciousness on her face, the way she's been surprised by him, and he releases her wrist.

"Now walk," he says, nodding towards her bedroom. He slips one finger in the waistband of her panties. "Let me see you."

Kate - wow. Dark, dark eyes. Hair in a tumble around her face. Arousal like a deep well, endless.

She knows what he's asking for, and she curls her fingers at his hip and teases along his bare skin. Making him wait for it. And then she turns back around and steps out of her pants and across the floor, entirely self-possessed.

He watches the sway of her hips and the long lines of her legs, waiting just long enough to make them both crazy with it, and then he comes after her. He claims her hips and waist with his hands, skating up her ribs to capture her breasts, nestling his hips against her ass.

Kate stutters to a halt, but he pushes her forward again; she's trying to turn in the hallway and get at his pants. But he growls against her neck and makes her move, and she utters his name sharply and grabs him by a belt loop and yanks.

He stumbles over his own feet as he follows, laughing at them both - her impatience and his own games, catching the lust in her eyes and making that vital connection. But his laughter dies out the moment they get to her bedroom.

She's mostly naked in the half-darkness, her breasts gorgeous as she turns to him, stepping in close and pressing her palms flat to his chest. She traces a line in towards his sternum and up to his shoulders, down across his arms until their fingers are tangling together. He's struck silent by the weight of her body against his, the feel of her breasts and the soft skin at the insides of her arms where they touch.

She lifts on her toes and the friction of that movement nearly has his knees buckling, but then her mouth catches his, her tongue sliding inside.

He groans and untangles from her fingers, taking handfuls of her hair as he cups her face, slanting deeper for their kiss. Vaguely he feels her touching his sides, and then a dark jolt of need while she finishes unbuttoning his pants and pulls his zipper down.

His breathing is harsh when she takes him in her hand, his cock already straining to meet her, harder than he's been since-

"Mm," she hums at his mouth. "Hello."

He croaks out a laugh and clutches her, has to let go, smooth his hands down her arms and squeeze. "This is - going a little faster than I think you'd like."

"I'd like anything," she murmurs. He jerks his head back and she's blushing furiously, mouth open. He laughs, and she gets even more pink, flushed at the tops of her breasts and her arms as well. "I meant - Castle." She huffs at him but he likes that too, this eagerness he never expected, so he carefully extracts himself from her fingers to give them both a little bit of time here.

He plays at the line of her panties, liking the reaction he gets, how still and intent she is, focused. He's seen that look on her face when he's tried to distract her from paperwork, and now he can never unsee it, never dissociate it with this moment right here. Concentrating.

Trying so hard to do what she wants to him, but unable to help the way he can make her feel.

He seizes the chance to push her towards the bed, shedding his own pants as he moves after her.

To chase her. As he always will.

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She lies back and he follows, crawling over her and dropping his hips so that he's cradled between her open thighs. His face is fierce in the half-light of her bedroom, leonine, and he ducks his head to claim her mouth. Savage.

She wraps her arm around his neck and arches into him, into that dominating kiss, the way their tongues mate, duel. He growls and she feels the way his hand travels down her ribs, across her hip, teasing inward before he presses against her sternum.

She drops back, releasing her hold on him, but she runs her toes up the back of his calf as he gazes down at her. His hips rock into hers for the move, but his mouth is wicked and he's going down, gripping her thighs open, touching his nose to the cotton of her panties.

"Castle," she jerks. He chuckles against her and hooks his finger in the material, tugging it away, and her legs twitch, trembling already.

"Mm," he says, as if what have we here will come out of his mouth next.

It better not.

Instead he places a kiss in the crease where her thigh meets her hip, and her stomach flutters. He tugs lightly, agonizingly slow, and she bumps up her hips to encourage him. He's deliberate about removing her panties, like maybe he's thought about it before. A lot.

She hurriedly shimmies her hips and works them off, flinging her underwear off her foot, impatient.

He flicks his eyes up to her, smirking, and she takes advantage of his self-important distraction to knock her knee into his shoulder, hook her leg around his arm to trap him.

Castle huffs, lifting an eyebrow at her.

"What did I say about foreplay?" She curls up and tugs on him, trying to get him to move.

Castle nips at her stomach. "This isn't foreplay, Beckett."

"It's all foreplay now," she growls, tugging him up, up-

His body presses into hers, and it's good, it's really good, his weight on top of her, but she has a fleeting thought of flipping him over and pinning him.

Mm, next time. Tame him.

His fingers travel.

"Oh," she breathes.

Castle has an insufferable noise in return, she's fairly sure he's smirking again, but she really doesn't care. Bare skin, his weight, and she widens her thighs to feel more of him.

"Oh, God," he groans.

"I said," she whispers in his ear, "I'm done with foreplay." Kate reaches between them and Castle's grunt is delicious - she's remembering that - even as she teases them both with slow slides.

"You're so wet," he mutters at her ear, like he didn't believe her. His mouth is wet, his groan at her jaw, the side of her neck, their chests brushing, friction and heat.

"Come on," she says, nipping at his cheek and finding his mouth. For a moment, she gets lost in his kiss, caught up entirely, and before she can find her way back again, Castle is there.

He pushes inside her slowly and she groans, clutching at him, losing her breath at the way he fills her. She's tight, and he's - oh - he's - so good.

His hand feathers at her side and she jerks; he sinks deep and they both moan.

Kate drags her hands up his back and wraps her arms around his neck, barely able to believe him here, having him here.

Castle lifts and she clutches at him, too soon, too soon for him to go, but then he strokes back inside her.

"Oh, God." She finds herself meeting him, the push of his body, the clash of hips. She finds herself needing it, urging him on, unable to hold back, faster, faster- "Harder."

"Kate," he breathes at her neck. His hand lifts her hips for that thrust. When he withdraws, he kneads her breast. She moans and rides the building wave, the squeeze of her breast before he coasts up to cradle her head, his thumb pressing open her mouth.

She sucks on his thumb and it drives him into her, deeper, his growl filling her as he comes in close to kiss her again. She can't quite hang on to it, working herself against him, his fingers tangled in her hair where he braces himself above her.

"That's it," she gasps, closer, already so close. He touches her everywhere, roaming, claiming, drags down her side to squeeze her thigh.

A sharp clutch of need, her back arches. He presses his thumb in to find her, and she cries out, blossoming into orgasm even as he thrusts. It catches her hard, twisting her higher; she clings to him. He's losing his rhythm, insistent now, words gritted out. She sucks in a hard breath, gripping at him, dizzy, and then his climax overtakes them both and she's tumbling through the heat and light until she falls.

He crushes down on top of her, both breathing hard, her heart out of beat to his, thud-thud, his mouth open on her collarbone.

Kate draws in around him, turning into his body, and he cradles her head in the crook of his arm, attempting a kiss, sloppy and imprecise, and really, really wonderful.

"Hm, compliments already?" he drawls.

She laughs, must have said that out loud, barely a laugh, just a breath she manages to find, lightly combing her fingers in the sweat at the nape of his neck. "No," she promises, "wouldn't want to feed your ego."

He does laugh, but he drops his head against her breast and she feels that puff of air and his lips, and oh, that was good but she's not going to be content with just good for long. How soon can she wake him up for more?

But his hand plays at her hip, his thumb smoothing over the bone. Her skin ripples. He's not exactly dropping unconscious here, doesn't even seem tired.

"Castle?"

He places an open-mouth kiss over her belly button.

"Now for foreplay."

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