Good Morning, My Love

AN: Everybody seems to be doing it – so I'm doing it, too. Hope you're not promo-fic'ed out yet! ;) Warning: SPOILERS for the promos of episode 5x01.

(Have avoided reading the other ones while I was writing so any similarities to other stories are coincidental and likely because there aren't too many places you can go when you stick with what we were given which is probably all just a big misleading tease. lol)

He jolts awake, his body bounding upright in his bed, the shock of the sunlight bright and flaring in his eyes. He reaches over, at once assailed by a devastating ache for her warmth, her body, her presence. But he comes up empty; the sheets tangled but void of Kate and no, please, it can't have been… His chest constricts, throat clogged.

"Hey." Her voice is like a soothing balm to his racing, paranoid thoughts, morning-rough and unbelievably sexy, and he tastes the sweet relief on his tongue. He lifts his eyes toward the doorway, soaks up the reality of the moment.

She's leaning against the door frame, her smile warm and happy, her hair adorably mussed up and he wants to run his hands through, tilt her head toward his mouth again. She's encased in one of his shirts, only buttoned in a few strategically chosen places; his fingers tingle with the need to slide it off her. He runs his eyes over her long long legs, naked and smooth, his mind flashing back to the moment when they were wrapped around him, lithe but so strong as she rocked into his body. The longing for her slams back full force, laces his blood, just as intense as ever, maybe more.

This is the most devastatingly beautiful thing he's ever seen.

"So this wasn't a dream."

Her smile brightens at that and she shakes her head, the tousled curls bouncing, framing her face, shimmering like gold in the morning light. His heart hammers in his ribcage, stealing his breath. Kate pushes off the door frame and he can't stop watching every step she takes, still in complete, stunned awe that she's here, that she came to him. That this happened. He's envisioned it so often, dreamed about it, wished and hoped and ached for it that the reality is almost surreal.

She folds one leg under herself as she sits down by his hip, nudges a mug toward him. "I made coffee," she states the obvious, looking up at him from under her eyelashes. Her eyes are pure amber; almost translucent bathed in the early sunlight, her smile serene, but with a hint of tentativeness, shyness to her that he's never seen before. He wants nothing more than to pull her into his arms once more, feel and smell and taste her all over again, make sure that she is real, that it is truly her in his arms, Kate, amazing, intriguing Kate.

Instead he sips his coffee, watches her over the rim of the mug, trying to take his cues from her. He feels like a teenager again, unsure and a bit awkward and should it really feel weird, when they know each other so well? Know all of each other now? Or well, he realizes, maybe that's precisely why. Knowing all. It can be scary, overwhelming, heighten all your innate insecurities.

She's playing with the sheet, her slim fingers twisting and smoothing the fabric in repetitive gestures and his stomach flutters; fear and worry that she might regret this suddenly flare in his mind, harsh and razor-sharp. He can't breathe; puts his mug on the nightstand.

"So you liked it?"

Her words pierce the awkward silence between them, leave him stunned, speechless, questioning. How could she not know? This coyness is unlike her; he never expected it but it's sweet and endearing and suits her too, adds yet another layer to her intriguing personality that he's sure he will never get enough of. He feels warm all over, completely dazed, can only nod.

"Yeah."

She smiles, drops her eyes to the sheet. "Me too," she admits, her voice low but so sexy that he feels his blood rushing in his ears, and then she flips her eyes open once more, looks at him with a shy but pleased smile, a sparkle of mischief in her eyes.

Castle reaches out, cradles her cheek with his palm, running the pad of his thumb over the elegant curve of her cheekbone and she tilts her head into his touch, her eyes fluttering on a sigh.

"Where did this come from?" He murmurs, trails his thumb lower, grazing across her bottom lip, feeling her warm breath stuttering forth. "If you have to ask, I must not have done it very well," he adds with a grin.

She bursts out a laugh, wide and bright, her head thrown back, exposing the long, pale line of her throat. She is exquisite and it hits him hard, brings it home all over again, how he never would've gotten over her. He sends the dark thoughts scattering, focuses instead on this version of Kate, who is here, now.

"No, that's not it," she grins at him, sinks her teeth into her bottom lip for a moment in what he knows is a deliberate gesture. "At all."

He wiggles his eyebrows at her. Yeah, he thought so too.

"Smugness does not become you, Castle." She teases, but there is no bite in her words, her smile softening instead, melting as she takes him in, watching him attentively until the air is charged between them, the sparks of sexual tension ready to ignite all over again. He can barely breathe, filled with an unbearable ache for her that he's not sure will ever go away.

Castle curves his palm around her neck, tugs her closer. "Then why the worry?"

She drops her eyes again, lays her hand on top of his thigh, branding his skin with mindless doodles of her fingertips. "Just… We were fighting, before, and…" She sighs but he reaches for her chin, tilts her face up to him.

"Kate," he murmurs her name, like a prayer on his lips. She watches him, her eyes wide, laced with a hint of worry. He's so in love with her, it's all-encompassing and overwhelming, and he had said he was done but the truth is, when she showed up at his door, wanting him, there was very little hesitation before his heart made up his mind.

"Nothing's changed. I'm still here."

The relief blooms across her face, illuminating her eyes and her smile as if she's lit from within and he can't help the surge of pride that wells in him, that he is the one who makes her this happy. The one she wanted.

"Yeah?" The word bursts from her chest on a contented breath, drips from her lips, stretched wide in a smile and he simply nods.

"But, well…" He trails his fingers down her neck, across her collarbones, along her silky warm skin, and she tilts her head, openly giving him better access. Slipping lower, he follows the line of the button tab of the shirt, watches it part over her skin, until he hits the barrier of the first fastened button. He rests his fingertip there, just lightly on top of her scar, where he can feel her chest lift and sink with every rushed breath.

"If you need some more convincing…" Then he deliberately slips open that button, then the next, watching her closely while he slowly slips the fabric off her shoulders, revealing the smooth lines of her body to him, for the first time in broad daylight, silky and sun-kissed.

She sways closer; her voice low, breathless. "I could do with some more… convincing." Kate trails her fingers higher on his leg, her path now a purposeful tease. "Just to make sure…"

"Really?" He murmurs, barely able to hold on to any coherent thought when she is so close, naked and so very alluring, her scent teasing his nose, heating his blood, his insides clenched in anticipation.

Kate smiles at him and his heart stumbles because it is the most beautiful he's ever seen her smile. She leans toward him, her face ever closer. "Yeah," she whispers and then her mouth is on his and she kisses him, her lips on him tender, sweet and exploring, light nips and the slide of her tongue, hot and wet against his skin. He groans, pulls her into his arms, rolling her underneath him in one fluid movement until she is stretched out, the lithe pale lines of her body melting into the sheets.

"You are so beautiful." So beautiful, it aches. She shivers, eyes fluttering on a sigh as she laces a leg around his hip, holding him to her and he can't wait any longer, slips his mouth over her lips, dipping inside the mysterious depths of her, her body pliable, willing and wanton in his arms.

He makes sure she is thoroughly convinced.

Fin