A/N- This is the complete M chapter that replaces FFnet chapter 29 (or 28 according to my chapter titles) and can be read instead of the other chapter i posted tonight. And it's a long one!

If you've not read Erosion from the beginning- DON'T CHEAT! Get your lovely self over to .net/s/7859049/1/Erosion and read from the start like everyone else had to! Hopefully you won't be disappointed.

It was my intention to challenge myself to write a totally T rated fic (love scenes and all) but having finished this scene it just didn't feel complete and i put off posting it, and ummed and ahhed and eventually, with 90min before i intended to just post it anyway, i asked for a second opinion (god bless Twitter!)

The end result is two versions. One to satisfy my personal challenge (and i hope it still feels intimate and if anyone at all bothers to read the T version i'd love to hear if you think it feels complete as it stands) and the other is the extended director's cut! dedicated to Madsthenerdygirl and Trish and everyone else that pretty much clamoured for the sexy-times ;)

The T version is age-appropriate-ish for older teenagers IMO (but i really have no clue).
The M version is for an adult audience but is (i believe) character and relationship-appropriate so if you're just avoiding M cos you don't want a smut-fest then i think it's still okay. ? maybe ?

Huge thanks to Deb whose input, in my opinion, made this even more delicious. Seriously. Good times! *snort* If i was you i'd be signing up for author alerts from Deb838 cos if she ever posts anything here it's gonna be good!

Apologies for this huge author's note ramble, but there will be no note from me at the end of this! LOL! ;)

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Erosion
Chapter 28- Together

Kate could feel the weight of his thoughts even as she lay against him, face buried in the warmth of his neck, surrounded by the scent of him. His hands ran slow soothing lines along the length of her back from her neck to the curve of her hip. Even as his sure strokes calmed her anxiety they created a knot of tension in her belly. She ran her hand along his side and up over his chest, and timed the press of her lips to his ear with the tangle of her fingers at the top button of his shirt. His breath caught and the hand on her back stilled.

Kate undid first one button, and then another, enough to slip her hand inside his shirt and sucked the lobe of his ear into her mouth, running her teeth over him until only her lips were left to soothe the sensitive skin.

He groaned at the sensation, chest muscles flexing under her palm, and she rolled into him, her leg falling between his as she pressed herself against his thigh.

"Come home with me," she growled into his ear.

"Kate, you're not making this easy," he said, his voice rough. His hands gripped her hips and he fought the instinct to rock their pelvises together. "I can't think when we're like this."

"Then stop thinking."

"It's been twenty-four hours since we first kissed, maybe forty if you count your accidental half-asleep kiss, that's not what I call giving ourselves a chance to catch up."

"Not exactly our first kiss," she reminded him, knowing full well he hadn't forgotten. "Besides, it's been too long since I first wanted to kiss you, and I'm all caught up."

"Kate." He ran the pad of his thumb over her brow in a soft caress, silently questioning her conviction.

"No, unless you're not ready, Castle? Because this is what I need from you. This is what I need to give to you. I want you, Castle – all of you – please don't make me have to keep asking."

The last of his resolve crumbled with the weight of emotion in her voice. He knew he had a choice; to either assuage his own guilt and tell her now about everything he'd hidden from her whilst she was at her most vulnerable, and risk their future, or he could wait and hope that the bonds they were now forging together would be enough to get them through should he continue to keep the truth from her for just a little while longer.

He closed his eyes and pressed a kiss to her lips. "Let me get my toothbrush and my jacket," he whispered.

###

She wished they could have taken a cab instead of her having to drive the squad car. Once Castle lifted the brakes he didn't stop moving, and his hand on her leg made concentrating impossible. It had started at her knee, deliciously soft figure eights that looped from her patella to the inside of her leg, before he inched higher up her thigh and it took all of her self control to stop herself from increasing the gap between her thighs to let him in.

Instead she bit down on her lip and let the tickle and tingle of his caress flood her. The drive to her apartment seemed to take forever.

He crowded into her back as they stood in the elevator; one hand around her stomach, the other clutching his overnight bag. Kate wanted to lift her arms to loop backwards around his neck, to press her backside into him and have him kiss her neck. But she doubted her own ability to stop it at that. She knew she would end up grinding into him, demanding his hand at her breast. So she reached behind herself to steady his hips against her, delighting in the sensation of him brushing faintly against her and the proof of his arousal.

Kate pressed a hand to his chest when they got to her door, holding him an arm's length away, as she dug in her bag for her keys. She had them inside in a moment, and she dropped her bag and keys to the floor. Rick placed his bag down, and they stood together, not touching – eyes never straying – as they removed their shoes and jackets. Rick held out his hand for her coat, and then he hung them together in her hall closet. With his bag in hand once more, he waited while Kate removed her badge and gun and stored them in the kitchen drawer at the bottom of the stairs. Neither spoke as they climbed the steps to her bedroom together, hand in hand.

The curtains were open onto the cityscape and the room was lit with the red and golden lights of the surrounding skyscrapers. It painted the bed and the bookshelves and the huge wall canvas in a tableau of light and shadow and, as much as Rick would have liked to look around – his first glimpse of Kate's private domain – his eyes barely left the woman in front of him.

Kate stood facing him, her back to the bed, as she undid the buttons of her shirt. Her eyes were dark and wide as she watched him watch her. Rick stood enthralled as each button came undone revealing pale skin and dark lace. He wanted to watch her face, see the play of emotions – desire and delight; her own hunger for him and the enjoyment he knew she got from seeing him so lost in her – but the movement of her fingers, the twist and splay of each inch of her shirt, drew him in like nothing he'd ever experienced.

A small part of his brain wondered at the way she affected him – it was hardly the first time a woman had undressed for him – but this was Kate, and she was standing in front of him, smiling the most wonderful of secret smiles, hair tousled, eyes dark; he couldn't ever remember being more aroused by anyone in his life.

He wanted to step into her, kiss her, run his hands along the skin that she was revealing to him, but that would mean sacrificing the previously only imagined vision of her slowly undressing for him. So he stood anchored, chest heaving, lips parted, as she undid the final button, dropped her arms, and let her shirt fall to pool at her ankles.

It wasn't until she reached behind her back to undo her bra that he stepped forward, a tiny growl of 'no', and he raised his hand to skim along the smooth skin of her shoulder, taking the strap of her bra with him to fall over the curve of her arm.

He kissed her then, hot and hard, tongues delving deep as they finally gave in to their desire. He explored the expanse of skin at her back, cupped his hands to glide up the length of her side, stopping at the line of her bra before stroking her through the thin fabric. Kate arched into him, desperate to have his hands on her; the catch of breath and answering moan could have belonged to either of them.

Rick reached behind her with one hand and undid the clasp of her bra, his other hand never leaving the curve of her breast. He wanted his own shirt gone, wanted skin on skin, but couldn't contemplate abandoning the satin smooth curves to complete the task.

"Off," Kate complained, tugging at his clothes. "I need this off." Her hands worked at the buttons of his shirt briefly, before she changed her mind and, instead, undid the buckle of his belt, tugging hard at the leather to pull it fully from the loops of his pants, before popping the button of his jeans and pulling the zipper wide.

Kate had the buttons and zip of her own pants undone in an instant and, as she shimmied them down the long length of her legs, Rick did the same, pulling his socks off as he went.

Standing in only her underwear Kate grabbed the sides of Rick's open shirt and tugged him back towards the bed. She placed one knee behind herself, and then fell backwards pulling him with her. He landed on top of her and she laughed at his grunt, brought her legs around him and rolled him over until she was bent over him, straddling his hips, her hair falling around his face.

Rick brought his hands up to tangle in her hair, scraping it back over her ears to hold it away from her face before he pulled her down to him to capture her lips in another kiss.

Kate bent her arms to keep her hands splayed across him, enjoying the solid feel of his shoulders and the flex of muscle across his chest. When she came to the barrier of his clothing she broke away from his kiss, took the ends of his shirt and lifted it up his back, forcing him to lift off the bed and pulled it from his arms. Kate resisted his attempt to pull her back down, instead she sat back on him and trailed her fingertips over the line of his clavicle, and then down the centre of his chest.

His hands settled at her hips, thumbs stroking the crease of her thigh, fingers curled to hint at touching the curve of her bottom. She watched his face as she explored him, teased goosebumps from his skin and left a trail of fire in her wake.

"Thank you," she whispered.

He lifted his eyes to meet hers, and the sincerity and gratitude in her expression made him shake his head, "You can not seriously be thanking me for this?"

Her lips curved in the hint of a smile, and she shrugged. "I told you I'd follow where you led, but I didn't. I made this about what I wanted."

Rick loosened his hold of her hips and brushed both hands along the tops of her thighs to the curve of her bended knee, and then stroked back up again. "You told me what you needed, and what I need is for you to keep doing that."

"Even if it's not what you want?" she asked.

"You think I don't want this as badly as you?" He chuckled at the too-serious expression she wore. "I will never get enough of this – of you – I want everything you'll give me." His hands left her thighs to glide up over her stomach.

Kate lifted onto her knees and leaned over him again. "And I want to give you everything," she exhaled against the skin of his cheek, her sigh sounding in his ear, before she turned to glide her lips sideways across his mouth, the mere suggestion of a kiss.

His voice was just as breathless, but he was smiling when he replied, "We're not even completely naked and already we're perfect in bed."

"Mmmm, we'll see." She laughed deep in her throat. "Why don't you stop talking and put your money where your mouth is."

"Forget the money, I'd rather use my mouth," he said, and his hands gripped the curve of her ribs, lifting her along his body as he bent his head; his mouth went immediately to her breast.

Her spine arched as her head tipped back and she growled out her agreement. "I'd much rather you use your mouth like that too," she panted. With one hand holding his head to her chest Kate rolled onto her side, the hook of her leg drawing his body to follow. "I've always liked your mouth."

With a slow swipe of his tongue Rick left her breast and brought his head up beside hers, a pleased grin shaping his lips, "Really? You like my mouth?"

"I'd like it a whole lot more at the moment if it were doing something other than talking," Kate pretended to protest.

"Ah, that's not true, Detective," he teased her. "I know you like the sound of my voice."

Kate wrapped her arm around his waist in a hug and bent her leg to slide her foot to the back of his knee, nudging his leg between hers. "Then let me hear you; talk to me, Castle."

Rick pressed his elbow into the mattress and lifted his torso off the bed just enough to tilt over her, his cheek skimming hers, the slight scratch of stubble over the silk of her skin. "Do you want to hear how incredibly badly I want you right now?"

"Mmmm," she encouraged him with a moan.

"How the feel of you against me, my hands on your skin, the way you move; how much it makes me ache. Is that what you want me to tell you?"

Kate's fingers twitched against his back and a shiver ran through her. She turned her head, her eyes closed, and let her open mouth rest against his lips; feeling his words.

"Or that your kisses, the feel of your mouth, the glide of your tongue; it makes me want to taste you so badly. Even now, the way we are –" He pressed his hand over the curve of her breast. "You're exquisite, but I can think of nothing but having my tongue against you."

"Oh, god, Castle." Kate arched into him, his words painting a picture that set her on fire.

Her hand moved to glide over the satin of his boxer shorts and she rolled her hips. She swallowed the sound of his moan, effectively silencing him as she captured his mouth and refused to let go.

Together they shed the last of the barriers between them and, as skin met skin, they lost themselves in exploration and discovery; both finding something they'd always hoped was there but never been brave enough to reach for.

Kate's hands skimmed over him; not knowing where to touch him first. She let her hands roam over his back and around to his stomach, scratching her fingernails over his heated skin. One thumb dug into the furrow of his hip and she teased her way across him; leaving him panting in her ear. His hips followed her hand, seeking her touch, and he settled between her legs. She smiled into his skin, and massaged her way around his body to cup his arse and pull him into her, before letting her fingers lightly trace the curve of him and glide over the crease between his cheeks.

Rick moaned into her neck and his hands grew bolder. Moulding and squeezing her breasts he kissed his way back to her mouth leaving a wet trail along her throat. She tightened her legs around him, holding on, having no choice but to give all her attention to his mouth and his kisses.

Rick's hand left her breast to caress its way down her side, past her hip, to the back of her knee. He lifted her leg to settle more closely against his waist, and curled his fingers around to the inside of her thigh as he trailed back up. He didn't stop when he reached the contour between her legs, and even before he touched her Kate knew how wet he'd find her.

Their mouths stilled against each other as his fingers slid through her folds. Kate's arms came around to clutch at him as she surged into his hand, his name escaping in a growl. He moaned into her mouth, amazed at her response to him. His kisses grew frantic, his tongue plundered her mouth, and Kate tilted her neck back in surrender.

Kate became aware of how forcefully she was gripping him and forced her hands to relax. She curled one arm under his to circle the back of his shoulder, tracing the hard line of his trapezius to the ridge of his scapula, feeling the flex and ripple of his muscles. Her other hand grasped his neck, fingers kneading in time with the undulation of her hips.

Kate wanted desperately to touch him, but the dance of his fingers through the satin warmth of her centre was intoxicating. When her stomach clenched and she came dangerously close to losing control she reached for his hand, dragging him away, and tilted her hips sideways.

Interlocking their fingers Kate brought their joined hands to her mouth and kissed his fingertips; tongue swirling and teeth nibbling across the pads of his fingers before sucking them into her mouth. For four years his fingers had tapped out the story of their alter-egos and she wondered how often he'd imagined them together as they were now – finally.

Rick watched her through hooded eyes; focused solely on her mouth and the movement of her tongue. He couldn't help but imagine what magic she could perform on other, increasingly insistent, parts of him.

With her mouth still tantalising his fingers, Kate dropped her other hand to where he pressed against the inside of her leg. She cupped him, squeezing his balls briefly, before wrapping her fingers around his cock and, with a firm hand, drew along the length of him, smoothing her thumb across his tip. Rick's head fell to the pillow, his face pressed into the curve of her shoulder, and a tremor ran through his body.

Kate repeated the movement, slow strokes over him that had him groaning in her ear and his hips rocking against her hand. With his eyes squeezed shut, teeth clenched, Rick lifted onto his knees, and Kate's hand fell away. He inched up her body, found both her hands and lifted them above her head.

He slowly shook his head at her in awe, mouth twitching with a smile, "I'm not done with you yet," he told her, as he watched the hunger and desire burning in her eyes. Seeing the affect he was having on her made something in his chest expand as he felt the balance of power shift.

He kept her arms pinned above her head, and she allowed it. He dropped his kisses to her breast once more, tweaking and pulling the nipple into his mouth with his lips and his teeth. Kate knew how close she was to orgasm, and as much as she wanted the night to last forever she couldn't stop her body from arching into him, desperate for his mouth on her.

She twisted her wrist out of his grasp and he grunted in protest.

"Bedside cabinet," she panted, her hand reaching blindly for the drawer.

He saw where she was reaching and he leaned over the bed to help. He opened the top drawer and fumbled inside, found a familiar feeling packet and pressed it into her palm, returning immediately to her other breast. He ran his tongue along the underside of her, flicked over her nipple and then pressed a loving kiss against her sternum. He couldn't help but feather another gentle kiss over the scar above her breast but he didn't pause or allow his mind to drift from the vision of her beneath him. He trailed a path along the centre of her body; knees shuffling down the bed. He stopped to scrape his teeth over her belly button, and nibble at the curve of her stomach, while deepening his grasp at her sides, before he turned his head to follow the valley of her hip down the inside of her leg.

He moved leisurely, gliding his lips over her inner thigh before dipping his tongue to find the inside of her folds, teasing her; slow strokes that had her writhing, desperate for him to find her centre. Kate clutched at the blankets, hands gripping and pulling at the bedclothes, gasping for breath from the sheer pleasure that wove its way through her body. She wanted to wrap her hands around his head and pull him tight against her, instead she threw one leg over his back and rocked her hips, using the pressure of her foot to encourage him deeper into her.

"I want you inside me, Castle," she panted, needing to feel them fused together. She was so close to orgasm and she wanted him there with her.

"Mmmmm... not just yet. Come for me, Kate," he murmured, the vibration of his words travelling through her. He finally stopped teasing and found her clitoris with his tongue and his lips and his teeth. He sucked her into his mouth and moaned against her; overcome with the scent and taste of her, the slippery heat against his tongue.

Kate let go of the blankets and her hands flew to his head; one hand against his cheek, the other to tangle in his hair. He didn't stop with his open mouth kisses against her and she felt the delicious build and swirl of tension in her stomach until she was panting and rocking against him.

"Oh, god, your mouth!" she cried out, and she could feel his laugh against her.

His thumb dipped to circle at the edge of her opening and he sucked at her again, drawing her fully into his mouth and then flattening his tongue over her. Kate's hips came off the bed and she shuddered against him, a long low moan reverberating in her chest. He felt her pulsating against his tongue; and though he couldn't have imagined it was possible, his desire for her grew even more.

Rick didn't let go, he kept his mouth on her, circling around the outside of her clit to draw out her orgasm. Her hips kept circling, and her breath came fast and shallow.

Using the grip she had on his hair she tugged at him roughly, dragging him up her body to her mouth. She kissed her wetness from his face, her arms around his neck, her legs encircling his hips. His cock pressed insistently against her and she wanted to feel them move together.

She moaned with impatience as she felt around on the bed for the abandoned condom. Rick beat her to it, and he tilted his head and used his teeth to tear the packet open. He sat back on his haunches to slide the condom on, and Kate took advantage of the opportunity to watch him, her eyes roamed over him, loving the site of him kneeling between her legs; the sheen of sweat across his chest, the red flush of his cheeks, the overwhelming proof of his need for her.

She scratched her fingernails over his nipples and watched his stomach muscles clench in response. When he leaned over her again she shook her head, kissed the side of his face and, with her hand on his shoulder, she spun them over.

With him lying beneath her she draped her body over him, kept her weight on bended arms to hover so that only the ends of her hair, the peaks of her breasts, and her stomach brushed against him. His erection bumped at her hip and she slid over him, lowering herself until he was trapped between their bodies.

She looked him in the eye; holding him there, daring him to move as she shifted slowly, back and forth, then dipped her head to his nipples; sucking on the left nipple, before catching her bottom teeth across the hardened nub, then shifting to the right. At the same time pressing into and shifting away from the hardness between her legs.

She balanced her weight on her knees and the knuckles of one hand, and reached for him with the other. Holding the base of him steady, she pressed him into her; circling the tip of him around her already engorged clitoris. His breath came in a series of low moans and short puffs as she rocked above him, her breasts swaying. Rick couldn't resist the temptation to cup her, feel the weight of her breasts fall onto his palms.

Rick's eyes were glazed, lids heavy, his gaze focused on her even as he struggled to keep his eyes open. Kate was amazed at his self control. He rocked and circled against her, and she could feel the tension in his thighs beneath her, the heavy throb and twitch of him against her palm, but his hands never stopped in his caresses as he sought to bring her with him again.

Kate guided him to her entrance and leaned back into him only enough to have him slip just inside her before she held still. Rick's hips stopped moving and his eyes fell closed, an open mouthed gasp escaping from him. His hands tightened briefly at her breasts, and then one fell to her hip, closing around her side with his fingers pressing into her.

"I'm gone the minute you're around me, Kate," he panted, his thumb moving roughly over her skin to find her clitoris. He used the hand at her chest to hold her weight above him, his other hand frantic between their bodies.

Kate's head dropped forward, her eyes closed, and she spread her knees to fall onto him. He slid into her in one smooth movement, and she ground her hips hard against him; delighting in the uncomfortable pressure of him filling her.

With a strangled growl Rick's eyes flew open and he arched into her; unable to restrain himself any longer. Kate was hot and tight around him, his thumb slipped over her, slick and wet, and he was lost in the sight of her riding him; mouth open, eyes closed, hair tumbling across her naked shoulders.

With both hands tight at the base of her hips, hands splayed to circle her, he anchored her against him and thrust into her.

She cried out, her hands coming up to squeeze her own breasts, "Again, Castle. Don't stop," she pleaded. He didn't need any further encouragement.

Their pelvises fused and rocked together, slipping and grinding, and Rick couldn't hold himself in check any longer. He throbbed and groaned his release, a white-hot burn of ecstasy that left him gasping and his vision dimming. He tried to direct what remained of his conscious thought to keeping his thumb moving against her.

The sense of power she felt at Castle's orgasm was enough to bring her to climax again, and she convulsed against him, her muscles contracting, prolonging his pleasure. She stayed above him as they rode out the aftershocks, and then she flopped gracelessly on top of him. His laughter greeted her and he dropped kisses across her shoulder, the only part of her he could reach without moving.

"Extraordinary," he sighed, breathless.

She could barely find the energy to moan her agreement.

###

Rick woke as the first of the sun's early morning light lit the room. Kate lay pressed against him, gloriously naked, and the dawn bathed her skin in shades of grey; a portrait in black and white. The sheets lay tangled around their hips and knees where they'd been abandoned when finally they'd slept.

Lying with her felt surreal, as if any moment he would wake from a dream and find himself alone. Despite promises to wait, and the light that had ever so gradually crept into her eyes over past months, he'd never rid himself of the doubts; never managed to escape the fear that maybe, maybe, his love for her wasn't enough.

His eyes travelled the length of her, drawn to the mesh of their limbs, the contour of them wrapped together. He refused to even consider the possibility that this was all they would ever have, and he made a silent vow that he would fight not only to defend her, but to defend what they could be together.

Overheated skin had cooled overnight and Rick's hand was drawn to the pebbled expanse of skin beneath him. He trailed his palm lightly over her shoulder, and then down her arm, skimming over the peak of her breast, past the faint pink scar almost invisible in the pale glow of morning. Her body responded to his touch, and by the time he reached the flat plane of her stomach she was rolling into him.

Kate's arms came around his waist and she kissed at the skin of his upper chest; open mouthed, teeth nibbling.

He felt, more than heard, the murmur of her morning greeting against his skin.

Rick resisted the urge to close his eyes and instead he trailed his fingertips from the curve of her hip along the length of her spine and watched as a trail of goosebumps rose along her skin. She shivered when he reached her neck and let out a hum of approval.

"Cold?" he asked.

"Yes, but you're warm," she replied, turning her head to rest her cheek upon his chest and laying her leg over him. "And I want to see you." She slid her hand across the solid expanse of his chest and over the swell of his bicep. "I don't get to see this very often."

"Ah, I've been reduced to eye-candy," he teased, as his own hands helped to raise her body temperature.

"Shut up, Castle, I'm trying to concentrate," Kate huffed, and she mapped the curvature of his chest muscles and the taper from shoulder to waist with her hands and her eyes.

"You're concentrating?" he asked, amused.

"Hmmm, when we're at work later today and you're in a button down shirt with your jacket tight across your chest I'm going to look at you and remember this." She stroked and massaged her way across his deltoids and over the smooth curve of his shoulder. "And you're going to know exactly what I'm thinking about."

"Then we better make sure to give you plenty to think about."

He rolled her onto her back, bringing his weight down over her, and she wrapped her legs around him.

"This new 'waking up together' arrangement just gets better and better," she replied.

And then they were both too busy to talk.

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A/N- Thud! Leave a review.