Chapter 11

Kate stretched one leg out of the milky water, let it come to rest along the curl of the porcelain's edge and her eyes slide shut. They'd spent more than an hour out walking the beach before retreating to the warmth of the house, to the heat of that bath, to what remained of their first day together as something more than they'd been the one before.

Her body sat nestled between his legs, her back set against the rise and fall of his chest, the gentle strike of piano keys serenading them from somewhere off in the distance. It felt like the most familiar sort of new Kate had ever lived. It felt like she was home.

"This tub reminds me of that hotel you kidnapped me to in L.A.," she said. "There was one just like it in my room."

"Kidnapped," Rick echoed but with a sneer. "Sounds like you had it really rough." His hands came up out of the water and over her breasts, gave her shoulders a squeeze before disappearing again beneath the surface.

"You know what I remember about L.A., besides how incredible you were for Royce?" Kate hummed her curiosity. "Well, of course, there was you climbing out of that pool. That was… wow. That was like Christmas and my birthday rolled into one. But, no, not that. What I remember most is how badly I wanted to kiss you that first night. I mean, every time I'm around you I want to kiss you. It's always been that way, but that was the first time, those few seconds before you got up, that I thought maybe you'd actually let me, and that was like fire."

Kate trailed a finger across her lips with the memory. "I got up because I would've let you if I hadn't."

"Really?"

"After I went into my room, I came back out. I don't think I would've ever told you that," she thought aloud. "You'd already gone into yours."

"Did you crawl out through the hole I stared into your door?"

They both laughed.

"Lanie told me it would be harder to keep pretending I didn't love you than it would be to let myself finally feel this, all of this. That night with you was a really hard night to pretend my way through." A soft smile came and went. "Actually, I remember I did take you to bed with me, in a way. I know it wasn't… it shouldn't have been with me while I was out there doing what I was doing, but with you so close, I just needed to do something to try to get you out of my head so I could fucking focus."

Rick bowed for her ear. "If that means what I think it means, I should apologize in advance to your back. I promise he means no harm. Also, this is one of the sexiest things I've ever thought in my life."

Kate wrapped her fingers around one of his hands, guided it to her breast. "I should probably come clean and confess that wasn't the first time-or the last. I guess you've been inspiration for me, too. That seems only fair."

"You were with Josh then," he remarked, not as some sort of charge but in woeful recollection, "speaking of hard things to pretend. If I ever told you I was happy for you two, I lied. I was bitter and jealous, with a dash of I-hate-that-guy."

"I was. But Josh wasn't you. I never let him in, and he never tried to fight his way in." She let a brief moment pass. "Do you really want to get married for a third time, Castle?"

He turned his head, settled his cheek against her hair. "No, I want to truly be married, for the first time, and to you, if I'm that lucky. Look, I'll take as much responsibility for the failure of my first two cracks at it as I earned, and I'm sure I did earn a lot of it, but none of us made the investment we should've and that was because none of us was where we were supposed to be. I just want to be able to show you that it's always been you, that you're my only place."

Kate pulled her body up, scooted around to face him, reached out and caressed his cheek. "I do love you. I wish it hadn't taken me so long to say it."

Their lips met and lingered.

"Just never stop," Rick whispered against hers when they parted.

"Do you maybe want to go back in there," she said with a flick of her chin toward the bedroom, "do some stuff to each other's bodies that'll make the bed blush?"

Without a peep, he thrust a hand into the water, came out with the stopper and its chain.

"I'll race you."

xxxx

Martha found Rick with his feet kicked up on the desk in his office when she returned home from a dinner outing that evening, his fingers fluttering across the keyboard of the laptop he had propped up against his thighs.

He'd given Kate a head start back to the city, knowing it would take her a bit more time on the bike, and then he'd raced to the loft, abandoned his bag in the foyer, and immediately began filling pages with the words their night together had inspired.

Except they weren't words intended for any book. They weren't meant for anyone's eyes but Kate's, and that, for him, was an intimacy he hadn't previously known. Despite his prowess at penning lucrative tales for the masses, he couldn't recall ever having been moved to write for just one. But, then again, Kate wasn't "just" anything, and though he didn't know what might come of it, the urge to get it all down simply overcame him.

"It's nice to see you, darling," she said as she stepped through the doorway. "Getting some work done after spending the weekend at play, are we?"

She startled him to a jolt. He didn't even know she was there until she opened her mouth. "Jesus, Mother, remind me to buy a bell or something to tie around your ankle." He folded closed the lid, set his computer aside. "Where were you?"

"I had a bite to eat with a friend." Martha approached the desk, tapped its edge with her knuckles. "And you, hmm? How are things with your friend?"

A grin tugged at his lips and then erupted. It would've been easier to stop a speeding train with a feather. There wasn't any point in lying, anyway. He knew she'd been the one to give Kate the address to the house, hence her glaring tone.

"Well, Mother, my friend and I haven't really talked about me talking about how things are, so I guess, for now, I'll just say that seeing my friend was a very nice surprise, and that I think we'll be seeing a lot more of one another from now on."

Martha threw her hand over her heart, her face as light as her son's. "This mother couldn't have asked for better news, and with it-" She paused when his phone rang, turned, and headed for the door. "I'll leave you to your work," she said with a wave.

"Hang on a sec, Mother. Hey," he answered Kate's call and requested the same. "Thank you for helping my friend. And me."

"I have only one thing to say, kiddo, and that is it's about damn time."

Rick leaned back in his chair once she'd gone, brought the phone up to his ear. "Are you home and in one beautiful piece? I already miss your face."

"I am. I got here a few minutes ago. I think I'm going to jump in a shower, get rid of the chill. I wanted to ask, I mean I know you've been gone all weekend and I understand if you need to be home, but I was wondering if you might want to spend the night here with me."

"Yes."

"If you haven't eaten, maybe I can make us something for dinner."

"Yes."

She just kept going on, straight through his repeated green lights.

"We'll obviously have to go separately to the precinct in the morning, but I just-"

"Kate, hear me," he interjected with a chuckle. "I'll be there in an hour. We'll eat. We'll have a sleepover. Tomorrow will be tomorrow and it'll be fine, okay? Now, hang up, have your shower and think of me the entire time, because you can be damn sure you in there is all I'm going to be thinking about."

xxxx

Rick knocked on Kate's door an hour later, nearly to the minute, and she answered wearing that same bathrobe she'd emerged from the bathroom in the weekend prior. His body reacted to it instantly, though he did manage to mask the severity of its buckle behind a boast about the bottle of wine he toted over with him, and, thankfully, she didn't seem any the wiser.

"You smell good," he breathed hotly against her neck. "I bet you taste even better, but that's for another room." He peered over her shoulder, sniffed at the air. "Funny, she said she was going to make dinner, and yet."

Kate plucked the bottle from his hand, walked off for the kitchen with him right behind. "Oh, you know, make, order, whichever." She floated a gotcha! eyebrow. "Our pizza should be here in a few minutes. Will you answer the door when it shows up? I don't feel like putting clothes on."

He reached for two glasses when she pointed. "So many things for your future reference, Beckett. Um, it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll say yes to anything you ask if it involves you not wanting to put clothes on."

"Noted, thanks," she said with sass, uncorking the bottle and pouring for both. "So, Alexis and your mom were okay with you leaving again after you just got back?"

"Thank you." Rick raised his glass to her, swallowed a sip. "Of course, they were fine. Alexis had homework to finish, and she promised to keep an eye on Mother so she didn't get into any trouble."

He could see she wanted to ask but maybe wasn't sure how, so he offered. "Just so you know, I didn't tell them I was coming over here to spend the night. I said you called about a case. You and I haven't discussed yet how much you want or don't want people to know. With Gates, I'm sure work is probably going to be an issue, so."

The arrival of their pizza delivery butted in, and Rick went to tend to it. They sat beside one another on the sofa, ate over the coffee table.

"This is good," he commented around a bite. "Thank you for ordering." He nudged her with his elbow. Kate gave it right back.

"Do you want to tell everyone, Castle?" she asked finally. "Right away, I mean."

He set his slice on his plate, rubbed her back with his hand. "If you're asking me to sneak around with you for a while, to steal kisses and secretly whisper in your ear all the naughty things I'd like to do to you, then my answer is yes. And, if you're asking me to take out a billboard in Times Square tonight, announcing to the world that we love each other, then my answer is yes. Kate, this is big and new, what's happening here, and I get that. I really do."

She leaned in and kissed a spot of sauce from his lips. "Lanie already knows, obviously. I'm sure Martha probably thinks something's going on. I didn't say it in so many words, but-"

"I didn't either. And I did. She's known how I feel about you for a long time. How could I keep it a secret, really? I can't get the woman out of my house." Rick drew his fingertip down along her neck and into the vee of her robe. "I just want to love you. That's all I care about."

With her eyes fixed on his, Kate took his hand in hers and guided it to the bow of her sash. He promptly yanked on its end without need of further cue.

"I think we should go into the other room and talk about it some more," she suggested. "Maybe I'll let you whisper in my ear for a few hours. We can heat this up after. Or we can have it for breakfast, y'know, if a few hours somehow turn into all night long."

"Mmm, cold pizza's my favorite." Rick slid the robe from her shoulder, sampled the freshly perfumed skin beneath. Suddenly, in a single motion, he curled an arm behind her knees and stood, lifting her along with him. The table and its doodads rattled in the wake. "Well, my second favorite," he said and carried her off to the bedroom.

xxxx

They came to a decision that, at least for the present moment, they'd play in it alone together, that it might be fun to tiptoe and tuck away into the shadows, and so Rick ducked out of her apartment before the sun the next morning, set off to ready for the day at his own.

It would be his first back at the 12th after a week away, and he arrived with a pair of coffees in hand-too anxious and too early, it seemed-to a near-empty bullpen. He parked himself in his chair in wait, and after a couple of minutes, grabbed a pen and a sticky pad from Kate's desk, her absence affording him the opportunity to scribble a note, which he then folded and tucked beneath her cup.

Not long after, the elevator chimed and Kate emerged from it with Captain Gates at her side. He immediately straightened up like he was a boy in school and his teacher had just walked into the classroom.

Kate's eyes smiled as they neared. Her captain's did not.

"Mr. Castle," she began in irked voice, "if it was true, I'd tell you it was nice to see you. It isn't. Fifteen minutes, in my office, Detective Beckett," she continued as she moved along, leaving Rick, once again, with dashed hopes of his pseudo boss's, at the very least, acceptance.

He threw a glance over his shoulder, turned back to Kate. "Maybe if I brought her a coffee, too."

She settled her bag under her desk. "Yeah, I don't think that'll do it, Castle." When she sat, she folded her hands gladly around her own.

"It will if I lace it with something," he grumbled. "Don't worry. Yours has been stirred only with vanilla and love. I did put another little touch on it, though." He waggled a finger and she lifted it off the desk.

"Is this going to be some new thing you do now?"

Rick leaned in, spoke quietly. "If you enjoy it, it can be. Maybe you should read it first."

Kate unfolded the square of paper and read what he'd written, that same smile in her eyes narrowing them to slits.

The only thing I'm going to be able to think about all day today is the sound of your voice begging me not to stop, it said.

When she was through-four passes later-she crumpled it up and shoved it into her pocket, coolly drank down a sip of her coffee.

"So?" he asked, his body still close. "What do you think?"

She slowly slid the cup his way. He eyed it and then her with a brew of curiosity and confusion.

"I think if you're going to start writing me notes like that every day, Castle, it'll save you five bucks, because I definitely won't need that stuff anymore."

XXXX