One Writer Girl

Chapter Four

She was pressed into his side teasing him, surely that meant he was allowed to be touching her? He could take a chance, judging from her current, casual state of dress she probably didn't have a gun holstered to her thigh. He could just run his hand along her leg, a simply brush and survive without his life coming under immediate threat. An innocent, accidental touch… she'd buy it, right? Of course, there was nothing innocent about the heat of fire that burned in his veins with every brush of their bodies. There was nothing accidental about the way he longed to mark her as his. Mark her with his hands, his lips, his teeth, his love.

He stretched out his arms, encircling the laptop still perched on his lap, but instead of bring his hand back to the keys, he dropped them to his sides – his right arm coming to rest against the long plane of Beckett's leg. She didn't shoot him. She didn't acknowledge his new closeness with words – a short, strangled exhale of breath was his only clue that she'd noticed. He wondered if she could feel it too, the tingling intensity of their proximity.

"Castle," she murmured softly, tilting her body further towards his, the sharp angle of her knee pressing into his thigh. He fixed his gaze intently upon hers, the move enough to ensure that she knew she commandeered his undivided attention. Whether she was aware of it or not, she always had his attention. "Do Nikki and Rook make it?" she worried her bottom lip between her teeth, steadily staring as his chest, avoiding the intensity of his gaze.

"Of course," he stated – the response immediate. He didn't need time to mull it over.

"How can you be so sure?" she queried, absentmindedly running the pads of her fingers over his outstretched arm – his now hyper aware outstretched arm. Her touch left a trail of heated goose bumps in its wake. She didn't seem to notice, eyes still studiously avoiding his. He struggled to tamper down the urge to kiss the questions away from her lips. She seemed so hesitant, so unsure – he was suddenly very aware that they weren't really talking about Nikki and Rook. He needed to phrase his answer very carefully. She deserved an honest answer.

"Rook loves Nikki. He thinks she's remarkable. Extraordinary," he cleared his throat, swallowing the emotion, the I love you behind his every word.

"Nikki, does she love Rook?" Beckett breathed, her voice dropping to a whisper. Castle found himself wanting to answer that the question was better posed to her – who were they kidding? This was them they were talking about, it had always been about them.

"Nikki is a complex character. People find her cold, closed off to love. She's been hurt before. They're wrong. The only reason she's been hurt so badly is because she loves so deeply. If Rook proves himself to her, she every bit as capable of loving him back," Castle reasoned, his voice thick. He wanted nothing more than to prove himself to her, starting with just how physically compatible he was sure they would be. Her cheeks were tinged the slightest shade of pink, her eyes lidded. He wanted her taste on his lips. He wanted her with a painful, aching desperation. He wasn't sure he could leave her house tonight without pressing his lips to hers just once – it wouldn't satisfy… It would never be enough – unless she was kissing him back.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Beckett's heart was pounding from her chest. It was also burning, a fire that couldn't be quelled. She couldn't control it. Couldn't rein in it. She didn't even want to try anymore. The way Castle was looking at her was the sweetest kind of unbearable. Her doubts, her fears were erased with his careful words. He believed in Nikki and Rook – he believed in them. Nikki and Rook would make it. He may not have written the ending in ink, but it was solidified in his mind. The way he spoke was free of uncertainty. He wanted that story for the pair of them. He loved her. He saw her capable of loving him – and she was, wasn't she? She was.

Enough thinking, the time for thinking was over, it was time for action.

"Save that," she nodded briskly at the laptop. Castle's fingers automatically flicked the keyboard shortcut. "Move it," she added. No sooner had the words left her lips than the laptop was falling from Castle's fumbling fingers to the ground. Oh well. He'd buy another if need be. Besides, it was probably fine – what was a scratch every now and then? His hands flexed at his side – wanting to touch, but waiting for her to take the lead. He wasn't sure exactly what was happening. Maybe, she was about to kick him out for mentally undressing her with his eyes over and over again in his mind? Or, for the dumbstruck staring? What if she didn't want Nikki and Rook to end up together? What if –

He was cut off from his thoughts by soft, warm lips pushing against his. Oh god. Kate Beckett was kissing him, him. Unicorns were real. Aliens roamed the earth. His father was a spy. All seemed more plausible than this. Beckett willingly kissing him – no undercover pretence, no pretences at all. Just her, alive and tender above him. He kissed her back, pushing into the seam of her mouth with his tongue. She devoured him, teeth clashing in battle for dominance that he didn't have a hope of winning. Besides, why would he want to win if losing felt this good? He lost the ability to form coherent thought – he lost the ability to do more than kiss her back with every ounce of his passion.

She let loose a guttural moan that turned every utterance of his self control to dust. He pushed her back into the couch, hands roaming, eyes burning, lips consuming. She dragged his mouth to her jaw, panting for air.

"Kate," he breathed against her skin, reverence colouring his tone.

"Castle," she echoed, running her fingers lazily through his hair, keeping him close.

"Are you sure you want this? I'm – ah – not going to be able to stop if you keep touching me like that," he groaned, his gaze steady and so very dark.

"Can't let my fictional counterpart get all the happy endings," Beckett sighed, pressing a chaste kiss to the underside of his jaw. He hummed his agreement. She manoeuvred herself out from under him, rising to her feet on slightly unsteady legs. She shirked her shirt, sashaying towards her bedroom, her intentions more than clear. "You coming, Castle?" she smirked, turning back towards him – his eyes ballooning at the expanse of bare skin before him.

"I love it when you talk dirty," he gulped, stumbling across the room in her wake.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Beckett woke to sound of steady tapping – akin to rain, but not quite the same, more regular, a certain beat to it. She edged an eye open to catch the subtle glow of Castle's laptop, his fingers running over the keys in practiced motion.

"Castle, if I read about what we just did in the next Nikki Heat, we will never do it again," she muttered, her voice still heavy with sleep.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," he soothed, his hand brushing the hair carefully away from her face. "Go back to sleep."

"Mmm. Read to me, Castle," she ordered a little mushily, her eyes slipping shut once again.

"I'm beginning to think that stands for something else," he chuckled, running a hand up her thigh in a move that was far from innocent.

"You complaining?" Beckett wrenched her eyes open, only to narrow them in a fierce glare.

"No. Never. In fact we should do it again," Castle tone was solemn, but his eyes were dancing with unshed laughter.

"What happened to go back to sleep?" Beckett sighed, stifling a yawn. Despite her words, the manner with which she moved her body to straddle his convinced Castle that sleep was totally off the agenda, at least for the moment.

As she lay, sated in the arms of her writer, Beckett was utterly convinced of the merits of being a one writer girl. There were no downfalls. He was rewriting their story with a happy ending. A beginning solidified in the most permanent of ink, love stringing each and every page together, life building the chapters. Theirs would be a story worth reading.

Fin.

AN: Thanks for all the support – you guys are undoubtedly the greatest! Let me know what you thought.