This one's for Shannon, my joy on the worst days. Tha gaol agam ort, darling.

After our swim we lay on our shadows naked,

more than together, and saw high in the blue

two chalk lines kiss and slowly disappear.

- The Malham Bird, Dannie Abse

beginning

"Hey."

Kate slides her palms up either side of Castle's spine, her thumbs out to clatter over every notch of his vertebrae. Her fingers curl around the rise of his shoulders and she arches forward onto tiptoe, her chest flush with his back.

He half-turns to look at her, a soft and somnolent smile that opens his whole face to her. So much ancient, beautiful love in his eyes that she leans further in to him, dusts her mouth over his.

"You changed."

A laugh sparks up out of her at that, lifting her chin and curling in wisps around his jaw. "You thoroughly enjoyed undressing me."

"Mm, yeah." Castle turns to lean against the balustrade, lacing his fingers at her back and then sliding lower, tugging her in to have their hips clash. "You looked so beautiful today."

He cradles her cheek in his palm, the rise of her cheekbone nudging at his heartline. Kate fists her hands in the material over his hips and tugs upwards, leaning in to press her nose to the bare skin of his sternum.

"We finally made it to Bora Bora, huh?" She grins into his skin, his hand coming up to cradle the nape of her neck.

Rick laughs at that, turning her around to face the water with him. The slow, threading lap of the water underneath them tugs at her, a tide of warm and beautiful love she could sink into. "Only took us two years."

"It's worth the wait."

Castle hums, almost nuzzling at her cheek. The solid heat of his body behind hers acts as a buffer against the curling breeze and Kate leans back against him, lacing her fingers with his and bringing the tangled mess of their knuckles around to rest at her stomach.

"You like it?"

"I'll let you know once I've seen more than the bedroom." Kate laughs, leaning forward to watch the rippling waves below. It's so clear, a plunge like glass to the ocean floor, and she longs to slide underneath the surface and dive down to where it's cool, bask there.

With him.

She wants to share everything with him, all the time, and maybe that's foolish, maybe it'll wear off, but she can't bring herself to care.

"We could swim tomorrow, after breakfast."

His voice tears through her, sitting low in her stomach like pooling heat, like need. Kate squeezes the knot of their hands and shifts, her hips slipping into the cradle of his. "Let's not make plans, hmm? Just take it as it comes."

Castle laughs at that, a shift like seismic activity all through him that desecrates her. "Too easy."

"You calling me easy, Mr Castle?"

She steps away from him, sinking onto the corner seat and hugging a cushion to her chest, her toes trailing into the plunge pool. Castle groans, planting a knee next to her hip and crowding her, his mouth hot and insistent against hers.

Kate lifts a hand to clutch at his shoulder, a whimper caught in the back of her throat at the sweep of his tongue, the shock of teeth making her whole body shudder.

He pulls back, settling at her side and tracing the surface of their pool with his toe, flicking the water up to spatter over them both. She laughs, turning in to him and resting her cheek at the hard edge of his bicep.

"No. Not easy. The most challenging, worthwhile thing I've ever done."

"Thing you've done?" Kate smirks, catching the soft skin inside of his arm between her teeth and sucking, relishing the bite of the salt that clings to him.

He opens his mouth as if he's going to argue with her and she surges, sliding her tongue inside and stroking over the roof of his mouth, grinning into their kiss as he grasps for purchase at her hips. Kate rises onto her knees and shifts to bracket his thighs, sinking down into his lap and groaning.

Castle gets his hands at the hem of her shirt and tugs upward, and she falls forward on a gasp, her mouth landing somewhere south of his ear. "Wait, wait, Castle. Not out here. They'll see us."

"No one's gonna see us. All the other bungalows are empty." He grits out, palming her ass and bringing her tighter against him, his mouth dusting over hers.

So much reverence there, even as his hips buck underneath her.

"You don't know that."

Castle falters, and Kate shifts back far enough that she can see him properly. He's still, his body too careful below hers, and she has to cup his cheeks to have him meet her eyes.

"Actually, I do. I booked up all the surrounding bungalows."

Kate lets out a slow breath through her teeth; even now his wealth feels like drowning. "Why would you do that?"

"You're loud, Mrs Castle."

It cracks her open, her face flooding with light that she sees reflected back from him, the both of them full up with it. "You gonna make me scream, Rick?"

She rolls her hips against his, lazy and slow and teasing, and his pupils bleed out into his iris, the blue laced with ink like the birth of a storm.

"Well, yeah. It is our honeymoon, after all."

Kate brushes her mouth to his for that, hovering there to taste him. Just a shared breath, not even really touching, but it feels so good.

After everything they've fought through, all the hurdles and hurt and the battles they faced, it's amazing to have him here with her, breathing forever into her mouth. His hands come up to cradle her, palms pressed to the wings of her shoulder blades, and his forehead meets hers.

"I love you, Kate Castle."

He pulls back again, that same hesitant, beautiful love blooming on his face as when he'd waited at the end of the aisle for her, as when he'd held her in his arms and they'd danced.

Her husband.

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