Author's Note: okay, so this one is rated M. Just to be on the safe side.

Kate woke slowly to gentle tugging on her hair; Castle was running his fingers through it rhythmically, playing with her nearly dry hair. They'd taken a long shower together- Kate glanced at the clock- two hours ago, before eventually curling up and sleeping for a while.

"You're a lot… cuddlier than I would have thought," Rick noted softly, indicating that he'd noticed when she'd woken up. His hand began trailing up and down her back gently, making Kate shiver in pleasure.

"Mmmm… don't tell the guys," she mumbled. Kate readjusted, nuzzling her head against Rick's shoulder, and wrapping her arm and leg- which were currently draped over his body- more tightly around him. "I do have a reputation to maintain." Kate gently slid her leg up his body, over his groin and rested on his lower stomach.

Rick groaned. "Careful, or you'll wake Big Castle."

"Big Castle?" she asked, skeptical- not necessarily about the validity of the moniker, but the ego behind it.

Kate could hear the grin in his voice when he replied, "You know from experience now that that title is accurate." Kate only chuckled in response so Castle added, "Besides, it hurts his feelings when I call him 'Little Castle.'"

"Aww…" she teased, running her leg gently over him again. "Is Little Castle sensitive?"

Rick chuckled huskily, his arm wrapping tightly around Kate's shoulders and pulling her closer. "Not at the moment," he answered. "But do that with your leg again and he'll show you just how sensitive he can be."

Kate laughed again but did as he suggested and then reached out and took him in her hand. She squeezed gently and cooed, "Aww, he's crying. He is sensitive."

"Minx," Rick gasped and pushed Kate onto her back. At least, she would have been on her back, except that she pushed back and attempted to climb on top of him. After a long moment of playful struggle, Kate finally landed on her back, Rick pinning her wrists to the bed above her head.

He moved down, trailing nibbling kisses across her chest and making her moan. He readjusted his hold on her, moving both her wrists into one of his bigger hands. His now free hand moved to follow the trail of kisses he left across her skin.

"I could get out of this hold if I wanted to, you know," she informed him, trying to sound in control, though she lost some of the effect when her voice came out breathy and trembling.

"I know," Rick acknowledged. "But I also know you don't really want to do that, now do you?" To prove his point, he took a particularly sensitive peak of flesh into his mouth and made her moan again.

"Maybe I do," she gasped urgently. She slipped one hand easily from his grasp and made a fist in his hair, pulling his head up to hers and taking a deep kiss.

Rick responded just as urgently, gasping, "I love you," between kisses. It was only one of at least a dozen times that night he'd told her that he loved her and Kate's heart still swelled in response each time he said it. She had never realized how much she craved to hear those words from a man, but most especially from Castle. Those three simple words made her love him even more, though only half the time did she say them in return. The other half, she made a teasing retort, like now.

"Then love me, already," Kate gasped. Her now free hands went to his rear end and squeezed, yanking his body closer.

Risk was poised over her, ready to take her when her cell phone on the night table buzzed.

Rick groaned. "Ignore it," he pleaded, kissing her. And in an attempt to distract her, he began pressing into her.

But when the theme song for Cops began blaring from her phone, Kate slapped his left cheek- not the one on his face- and told him, "I have to get it. It's Esposito. There's probably a body."

Rick collapsed onto her, burying his face in the crook of her neck and groaning. Kate tapped his backside again and said, "Come on. Get up"

Rick rolled off of her, onto the bed and Kate followed him, draping her torso over his to reach across him for her phone.

They both noticed her bare breasts pressed against his chest and Kate had to clear her throat before she could answer her phone in a normal- almost- voice. "Beckett."

"Hey, you okay?" Esposito asked, hearing something off in his boss's tone.

"Sure, I'm fine," she snapped. "I'm assuming you didn't call just to ask how I'm doing, seeing as it's four in the morning. So what's up?"

"Yeah, we've got a body. Real freaky one, too." He gave her the address and then asked, "How soon can you be here?"

Kate looked down at Castle and said, "Half hour?" which made Rick smile.

"Great," Esposito said. Then he added, "I'll call Castle for you."

"No!" Kate snapped. She recovered quickly and added, "I'm staying with him, remember? I'll just go tell him."

"Oops," Javier said, and Beckett could hear the grin in his voice. "Ryan is already calling him."

Just then, a second phone buzzed and started singing Let's Hear It For The Boy.

"Is that Castle's phone I hear? It's gotta be, he's got that gay ring tone set especially for Ryan." Esposito teased "Are you two in the same room? Or, are you in the same bedroom?"

The momentary horror and fear of getting caught sleeping with Richard Castle faded and then Kate got angry. "My personal life is none of your business, Detective," she replied frostily. "And neither is where or with whom I sleep."

Kate snapped her phone shut before the man-child on the other end could respond to that. She threw the phone onto the foot of the bed, sighed, and propped her chin on Rick's chest. "The guys know," she informed him. "About us."

"Good," Rick replied, running his hands up her arms and into her hair. "I wouldn't want to try to hide our relationship from them when I can't even look at you without wanting you again."

"Relationship?" she asked skeptically.

Rick glared at her- as much as he could with her naked body draped over him- and he informed her, "You let me in tonight, Katie. I'm never letting you go, now."

"Good." Kate smiled and moved to kiss Rick just as urgently as she had before they were interrupted.

Moments later, Rick held her away and asked, "Don't we have a date with a dead body?"

"He's already dead. He can wait a few more minutes."

"Minutes!" he asked skeptically. "I should hope you know me better than that by now."

Kate groaned in real disappointment, maybe even hamming it up a little bit. "You're right," She complained. Then she started moving away from him. "I guess we should get dressed."

"No, no, no!" Castle whined, acting almost like a child whose Christmas was about to be cancelled. "I can make it minutes," he promised in the voice of a boy who was promising to be to be extra good this year.

Kate laughed but allowed Rick to keep her in bed for many long minutes.

Almost an hour later, Kate and Rick approached the crime scene, walking separately toward annoyed looking detectives, Ryan and Esposito.

"Took you long enough," Ryan complained.

Kate could hear Rick chuckle quietly and was just able to keep her poker face in place… until she glanced over at Castle. And a small smile broke the solemnity of her face.

"Really?" Esposito asked, sarcastically. "You made all of us wait so you two could play Slap and Tickle?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Detective," Kate replied, though her bluff was ruined somewhat by Rick's impish grin.

"Oh, come on! You're both wearing 'I Just Got Me Some' expressions."

"Don't we have a dead body waiting on us?" Kate asked impatiently.

The group turned, Kate leading the way to where she saw her friend and neighborhood ME kneeling over a body. Esposito took the opportunity to whisper to Castle, "Come on, man. You gotta tell us. Did you an' Beckett…"

Castle smirked, but was smart enough not to answer with Kate so close. Although, he did step more quickly and when he caught up to Kate, he put his hand on her back, between her shoulder blades. And the fact that she allowed the touch- she didn't acknowledge him in any other way, she simply allowed the touch- said more to Esposito and Ryan than any long winded stories Castle might have tried to spin for them.

The ME looked up to see her friend letting Writer-Boy touch her- at a crime scene no less- and Lanie smiled. She called out to Ryan and Esposito, "You two owe me fifty bucks!"

Kate rolled her eyes- Castle smiled impishly- and she said, "What have we got so far?"

Lanie eyed the couple standing over her and replied, "I'm guessing an all-nighter leading up to a quickie before arriving at the scene."

"How can you tell what the vic did all night?" Rick asked, being a smart ass.

"I wasn't talking about our vic," Lanie countered.

Something caught Ryan's eye and he lifted the vic's hand, careful not to contaminate any possible evidence. "Look at this," he said, revealing a lightly rumpled tabloid cover, prominently displaying a full color shot of Kate and Rick attempting to devour each other at the Natural History Museum.

"Looks like he was killed for reading worthless trash," Kate said dryly.

"I take it back," Lanie said, turning to Ryan and Esposito. "You guys owe me a hundred bucks. Each."

"Man," Esposito complained. "You guys couldn't have waited one more week?"

Kate turned to Castle and complained, "Am I the only one here interested in catching a killer?"

He smiled in return and announced, "Get serious guys. We've got a body here." The group laughed over the irony of Castle telling the rest of them to get serious. When they all finally turned to give their attention to the body, Rick leaned toward Kate and stage whispered, "I got your back, baby."

While everyone else laughed again, Kate folded her arms and turned to glare at Castle. "You're not going to make this easy, are you?"

Rick took her hand and unfolded her arms, twining his fingers with hers. "Where would be the fun in that?"

She rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Lanie, dismissing Castle and the others. But she did allow him to continue holding her hand… at least, as long as it wasn't getting in the way of doing her job.

THE END

Author's note: I'm going to miss this story; it was a lot of fun. And getting reviews was always amazing! I want to say thank you to everyone who reviewed! It made my heart happy to know I wasn't the only one enjoying this story! I wish you all sweet dreams of Castle and/or Beckett tonight!