A Moment Captured
"Stay right there," he said, his voice gentle yet insistent. He rolled onto his side and plucked his cell phone from the nightstand as she waited and watched in confusion. "I have to be able to look at this every day."
"Look at what, Castle? What are you doing and why do I have to stand here naked? Your shirt's just-" His white button-down lay discarded on the floor at her feet, having tumbled from the bed during their fiery fourth go at each other.
He held up the phone in front of him and centered her bare form on its screen. "Don't you dare reach for that shirt," he admonished, working to find the perfect frame in which to capture her and the moment. The storms of the previous hours had gifted the room an ethereal morning light, and soft, golden rays of sun filtered through the window's drape and enveloped her body. "You look perfect just as you are."
She felt herself blush, his focus titillating in its new embodiment. Their first night together had been nothing and everything she'd imagined it would be, the very thought of the journey their bodies had taken still arousing her every sense. "Are you…? Castle, you're not taking my picture, are you?" She remained motionless, even as she scolded him for his unauthorized action, even as he grinned with unapologetic contentment.
"I am taking your picture," he admitted gladly. "And if you were me and you saw you as you are right now, you'd be doing the very same thing. You're the reason artists exist, Kate, and I want to remember this forever." He pressed the button on his phone's camera and the snap of the shutter echoed into the hush.
"You can't just use that whole memory thing like the rest of us, huh?" she asked him playfully.
"Well, my memory's very tired after four years of such strenuous use," he quipped, pressing the button for a second shot. "Now it can have a bit of a break once in a while." He darkened his phone and tossed it aside, his eyes wandering her body hungrily as she stood there before him.
She looked up and met his eye, feeling him watching her. "And what about the rest of you, Castle? Does it need a break, too?" It was all in her voice, all the waiting and wanting and pleasure she'd already lived. "It has been through a lot these last few hours."
"Get back over here, and leave the shirt there," he told her, and she came, climbing onto the bed and settling across his lap where he guided her. "Trust me," he said, his fingers spread across the warm skin of her back, "I will never want or need a break from you or from this." He leaned in and kissed the flat of her neck. "In fact, my thought is we never leave this bed again as long as we live. I mean, you don't have to go to the precinct anymore, and the world's already heard more than enough from me, so it just feels like the right thing to do, doesn't it?"
She shifted as tightly into him as she could, allowing her more direct access to his ear. "You do," she whispered flirtatiously. "And if you're very good, I might actually let you keep one of those photos."