A/N: This is the first chapter in a new story I'm trying out. I hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I own Castle. All of these characters are mine. *uncrosses fingers* Okay I don't own anything.
Kate knocked on the door and waited for Rick to answer. He said he had thought of something about the case, but that she had to come over to find out. Kate was pissed off enough as it was, and the long wait he was forcing her to endure outside his door was doing nothing to soothe it. She hoped he had something good. This case was starting to get to her. She knocked on the door again. "Castle, hurry up!"
The door swung open to reveal a very dashing Richard Castle, not that Kate noticed at all, her thoughts completely focused on the possible break in the case. "Well hello, Detective. Won't you come in?"
"Castle, why did you make me come all the way up here? Why couldn't you have just told me on the phone and saved me the trouble?" she asked as she moved into his loft, quickly shrugging off her coat and laying it on a nearby chair.
"Well, I wanted to show you something that's all," he said as he ushered her over to the couch. "Sit."
"Castle, just tell me what you figured out about the case so I can get out of here," she said, remaining standing.
"I will if you sit."
"Why are you making such a big deal about this? Just tell me what magical theory you dreamed up this time so I can go."
"I will, if you sit."
"What is wrong with you today?" she practically yelled. "You acted strangely at the precinct, left early, called me over here, and now won't talk to me about the case until I sit on your couch? What's going on? What are you trying to do here?"
"Okay, look," he said, giving up and standing, "I really wanted you to be here, and I didn't know how else to get you to come..." he trailed off, clearly nervous about her reaction.
"Are you saying that you lied to me? You don't have any leads?" She said, dangerously quiet.
"I'm sorry, I just didn't know how else to get you here." He started to back away from her.
She followed him step-for-step, poking his chest as she spoke, "So you, Richard Castle, lured me here under false pretenses, making me believe we possibly had a break in this ridiculously frustrating case, to what, get me into bed? What did you think getting me here was going to do?"
He was now backed into the wall opposite his front door. "It's not like that Beckett," he said seriously.
"Oh really? Because I'm pretty sure you've never exactly made your desires a secret. I mean, I knew you wanted me, but I thought we were friends now, that you had moved pass that obvious lust from when we first met. Clearly I was wrong. I can't believe you lied to get me here!" she exclaimed, backing away and starting to turn towards the door.
"It's not like that Kate, and you know it," he almost whispered. He didn't want to fight with her.
She turned back to face him, half way between him and the door. "What's it like then Rick? Please, enlighten me."
"I thought we could have dinner," he confessed, gazing over at the table he had set up next to the couch.
She followed his gaze, her eyes falling upon the table for the first time. Atop a plain white table cloth were two tall candles set up on the ends and wine glasses in between them, a wine bottle chilling in the middle; Kate scoffed. "Quite the romantic setup you got there Castle," she turned again to walk toward the door, "Lie to me again about your intentions for the night."
That was enough; he couldn't take it. "You know what, if by now you can't trust that I care more about you than a one-night-stand's worth, then go ahead and leave." He wasn't speaking softly now.
"Try and stop me!" And she was gone, the door slamming behind her.
Rick sighed. That hadn't exactly gone as he had planned. He knew that she would be mad at him, but he figured she would have at least let him explain himself, but no, she had just left. He was still fuming mad when his phone rang. "What?" he barked into the phone.
"Jeez Rick, really know how to flatter a girl don't ya?" Paula's voice drawled.
Apparently not, he thought to himself. "Look, I'm not really in the mood. What's up?"
Suddenly Kate burst back into his loft. He looked questioningly at her. "I forgot my coat," she snapped.
To Paula's question Rick replied, "Oh that's just Detective Beckett, delightful as usual," he said sardonically. Kate gave him a look that usually would have terrified him, but barely affected him in his infuriated mood. "Definitely not as delightful as you though, darling."
"Trouble in paradise?" Paula asked, chuckling. "Hey, don't even think about using me to make her jealous. That woman is too handy with a gun to mess with. Leave me out of your little lovers' quarrel."
Kate made her way back to the door again, not wishing to hear whatever date Rick was already setting up for the night that she had refused to provide for him.
Without giving him time to respond Paula continued, "Actually, I need to talk to her."
"What?"
"I need to talk to Detective Beckett. Put her on the phone." Paula said impatiently.
"Detective," he called bitterly. Kate stopped just as she had reached the door.
"What now Castle, I see you got someone to fill in for the night," she bit back.
"Actually, it's Paula, my agent. She wants to talk to you."
"Why?" she asked, trying to ignore the weight that lifted off her at the realization that he wasn't making a booty call.
"I don't know, why don't you saunter on over here and find out," he said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.
Kate glared at him as she walked over, taking the phone. "Beckett," she said out of habit, trying to leave out all of the anger that she didn't wish to direct to the woman; that was only for Castle.
"Hello detective, I have a proposition for you."
"Okay..."
"Actually, you both need to hear this."
Kate rolled her eyes at her unfortunate situation. She moved the phone from her ear. "She wants to talk to both of us," she directed as Rick.
He sighed as he closed the distance between them and lowered his ear to the phone that was now between them. He tried to push some of his anger aside so that he didn't sound like he was yelling at his agent. "What's going on Paula?"
Rick straightened, and Kate raised his iPhone a little to accommodate, shifting a little bit closer to him, their ears brushing. The contact was lost on neither of them. Cherries flooded Rick's senses. Good god, the cherries. Every time they got this close he had a hard time handling the smell. Damn cherries, they almost instantly zapped away whatever anger he had. He breathed her in.
"Well I was thinking about doing this wonderful new thing that could garner a lot of publicity for the book and the police department, which I know is important to you Detective."
Kate was getting lost in the close contact. She could feel him breathing her in, could feel the tip of his nose gently touching the top of her hairline as he shifted his head to look at her, could feel her heart thumping uncontrollably in her chest.
"Detective?"
She ventured a look up at him. He usually wasn't that much taller than her, but she hadn't worn heels today so she really did have to tilt her head back slightly to look him in the eyes. They were dark. She couldn't handle the intensity of his gaze and quickly looked away.
"Detective Beckett?"
Kate heard the woman this time, struggling to remember what she was supposed to be replying to. "Yeah, that's, um, important, yeah. I mean, it's important to the chief at least, so yeah. Important." Kate couldn't manage coherent sentences with her drastically clouded mind.
"Well I was thinking..." Paula continued on with her publicity strategy, but neither of them heard.
They both acted as if they were listening, both remaining close to the phone in between their ears. Rick's eyes fluttered closed. Why does she smell so damn good? Why the hell are we so close? Oh, I hope we never move from this position. She smells so good.
Kate's eyes closed as well. God, stop breathing so hard Castle. Why can't you breath like a normal person? Why can I feel your breath on my skin? God, now I'm not breathing like a normal person. We are too damn close. This cannot end well. Good god being this close to him is intoxicating.
"Are you two even listening? Hello?"
Rick managed to hear Paula after she repeated hello a few more times. "Yes, of course. We're uh, we're right here." His voice was husky.
Kate looked up at him again. This time she didn't look away, sure her eyes reflected the desire she saw in his. She couldn't ignore it; it was too strong. She had felt it before, but it was never this overwhelming. They had never been forced to be this close for this long before. She just couldn't ignore the attraction she had gotten use to shoving to the back of her mind.
Rick gently slid the phone out of her hands. "I'll call you back."
A/N: I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this particular moment, or rather, how far I'll go with this particular moment, so I decided I'd cut it off here and post what I had. ;) Leave me a review if you liked it! This is my first try at a multi-chapter fic, so I'm not sure how well I'm going to do. But if you want more, leave a review, I've become more addicted to them than I am to Castle. That may not be true. But it's close.
Okay, I'll stop rambling, but seriously, reviews warm my heart. :)