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November 7, 2011
This story takes place immediately after Cops & Robbers, in season four. Beckett had dinner with the Castles and this is what follows.
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Mission Impossible
It was an amiable family atmosphere with much teasing and so forth. Since Martha and Alexis cooked, Castle and Beckett were on cleanup duty. Finally, Martha headed upstairs, Alexis, still moping after her breakup with Ashley, followed moments later.
Castle's eyes followed Alexis up as she disappeared, and his voice drifted off in the middle of his tale.
"Do you need to check on her?" Kate asked, seeing the concern in his eyes.
"Yeah, I think I will." His gaze returned to Kate's. "Do you mind?"
"Go." she answered. "I'll be fine."
He nodded, "I'll be back in a moment." He hurried upstairs, and she watched him go, smiling again, that small smile that always seemed to appear when Castle exercised his concerned father role.
Kitchen clean, she refilled her glass of wine, and wandered across the loft, pulling the door to his office open. The room was lit by jagged chunks of light slipping through the gaps in the shelves and falling to the floor or desk. She hesitated, her eyes wandering across the room, before she strolled to the desk. She trailed her fingers across the satiny surface as she considered the space where Richard Castle wrote the novels that gripped her from start to finish, the sex scenes-no. The love scenes between Jamison Rook and Nikki Heat. She'd never admit it to him, but those scenes held her more enthralled than any other, the spare details were utterly unnecessary to her imagination, as she already knew what Jamison Rook looked and sounded like. Only too many times her thoughts wrapped around him, around herself and Castle...
Dangerous thoughts, she chided herself in the quiet of the loft. She sipped her wine and turned away from his desk, glancing around the office again, she noticed the door tucked into the corner for the first time.
A closet? she wondered. Storage? But she knew enough of the loft's floor plan to know what lay somewhere behind it. Frowning, she considered it. Twenty feet away, off the living room, his bedroom door was on the same wall. She bit her lip, fighting curiosity. She glanced toward the stairs. The only sound was the distant whir of the dishwasher, and her own heart, pounding in her ears.
She moved toward the closed door. One last peek at the empty staircase through the shelves of the bookcase, and she gripped the knob, turning it carefully as she pushed it open.
The room beyond was hung in shadows, the dark windows doing little to illuminate it. Kate left the door open as she entered, her heels clicking on the wood floor before a lush carpet dampened their sound.
It was his bedroom, the decor both warm and masculine, like him. Her eyes lingered on the bull elephant charging out of its frame where it hung on the wall, so powerful, so close, she felt captivated, vulnerable before its raw power. It seemed ready to come alive and trample her. She almost wished he would-that Castle would.
She tore her eyes away, finding instead a male lion, also sending shivers down her back. She turned toward the wide bed that was the room's center piece. She ran her hand over the dark leather of the headboard, her fingertips trailing over the maroon throw cushions. She smiled. How many times had she imagined this room or the feel of this bed? The thoughts had taken her unawares the first time, before she'd been willing to admit her attraction, or that she liked working with Castle. Then one day, everything changed, in her heart at least.
She tested the mattress with her fingertips, feeling its give. This was one of those days, when she wanted to forget about the careful path she'd chosen months ago, and let herself stop thinking, and embrace the emotions roiling around inside her, feel him along every inch of her body and finally... Her knee seemed to rise on its own, pushing against the edge of the bed as she tried to turn herself away. Her body had other ideas, and she found herself sitting on the bed's edge, one foot tucked beneath her, wine sloshing in the goblet.
She belonged here.
She wanted to belong here, she corrected herself, her fingers splayed as she explored the nubby texture of the coverlet. She wanted to be more than partners... She stretched out, lying on her side, feeling the firm support of the mattress, breathing deeply of the myriad scents teasing her senses. She sighed, thinking of the solid friendship and partnership at the heart of their relationship now. A frown marred her brow.
Someday, they would have more of each other, she vowed to herself, in the meantime... her gaze wandered over the headboard and cushions again. She wanted to leave something behind. Something he could find and recognize as hers. Nothing too identifiable... the ring and the watch, he'd know. If her handcuffs weren't completely necessary for her work, she'd consider leaving them. A corner of her mouth tipped up. Would he notice if she left without her bra? Probably. Her panties? The small smile widened as she imagine him finding such a personal, sexy item in his bed tonight, his perplexity at how they came to be there... He'd know whose they were, of that there could be no doubt. But it would hang in the air between them, unspoken...
She rolled to her feet, grinning as she set her wineglass aside and unfastened her jeans, kicking her heels off. She'd have to hurry. If he found her partially disrobed in his bedroom, he'd- It'd be more awkward than she wanted to think about. She grimaced as she shimmied her jeans toward her ankles, her panties sliding with them.
"Kate?"
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