Takes place during chapter 10 of Caught in the Riptide.
"You're sure?" he whispers, caressing the surgical scar he had yet to see before now, slipping his hand around her back to trail up and down her spine, memorizing each knob of her vertebrae that arches and shivers under his touch.
"Yes," she breathes, dusting her fingers at his nape, urging her hips up to meet his once more, engaging in a dance that turns his blood to lava, molten and boiling beneath the surface. "I'm sure of you."
A ripple of light flares through his eyes before the deep pool of indigo consumes, flashing dark and hungry, and Kate drags him down, her mouth already open and waiting, her skin hot and desperate for the sear of his. But Castle has other ideas.
He kisses her, long and slow, thorough and maddening, but doesn't stay, his mouth traveling down to the sensitive skin just below her jaw, his lips sucking and his tongue laving over her quickening pulse. She arches when his tongue licks a path down the column of her throat, the caress of his lips and the occasional graze of his teeth almost enough to make her beg. She's never wanted anyone like this, never wanted both a body and the heart that came with it so fiercely, so much so that it leaves her breathless and ready to combust.
Kate draws him back up with the hands that cradle his skull, keeps him close with the fold of her legs around his waist and the needy fusion of her lips.
"You taste like chocolate," she hums, her smile quirking against his, but her tongue darts in for more, savoring the flavor of s'mores and red wine, of salt and an addictive sweetness that has always been his alone.
"So do you," Castle murmurs, his voice so deliciously dark, and she finally snakes a hand between them, claws at the buckle of his belt and the button of his jeans. Kate manages to inch his zipper down, applying purposeful pressure that he bites her bottom lip for in retaliation, but she doesn't stop, slipping her hand inside, palming him through the soft material of his boxers.
Her name grinds past his lips and the heat in her abdomen flutters, burns with anticipation, but before she can work his jeans and boxers from his hips, his hands are pinning hers above her head, stealing her control, and for once, she's okay with that.
Castle's thumbs soothe over the pulse points of her wrists, his palms eventually covering hers and allowing their fingers the opportunity to lace, but she can't remain underneath him like this, with his half naked body so close and radiating heat from above and his eyes greedily roaming every exposed inch of her as if she's something worth marveling over. No, she needs more. Kate cranes her neck from the pillow, undulates her lower body against his as she tries to reclaim the refuge of his mouth.
"Turn over," he husks instead, resisting the offering of her mouth with visible strain, and she can't help the shudder that trembles down her spine or the fire that cascades through her veins, she can only withdraw her hands from beneath his and roll to her stomach.
Never has she been submissive in bed, never willing to hand over the dominant position to another, but with Rick, it's different. Everything is different. It hasn't even been a week, but she trusts this man, trusts him with her body and her heart, far more than she probably should.
Castle sweeps her hair to the side and then his lips are at the back of her neck, just below the fine hairs at the base of her skull, hardly touching her skin but setting it to flame. His mouth journeys to her shoulder, grazing across the flesh of back with brushes of his lips that are too soft, too much for her to handle. His teeth snag in her bra strap, drawing it down as his fingers unhook the clasp, his warm palms splaying wide over the flare of her back.
Her hands fist in the pillow when he roams her naked skin, his hands everywhere, his mouth exploring the length of her spine, each knob of her vertebrae given special attention, but she has to gasp his name when his tongue sweeps along the dip in her spine, every nerve ending in her body ready to fissure and explode.
"You okay?" he rasps, his own voice raw with it once he's back at her ear, but his lips upturned at the dampened spot of her temple as her breath comes in sharp, embarrassing pants.
He's hardly even touched her yet, hasn't worked nearly as hard as any other man has to push her to the edge, but lying beneath Castle with his mouth teasing her skin, open and hot at her spine - she is so close to coming undone. And she doesn't want to wait anymore to watch him unravel along with her.
Kate reaches beneath her, extracts the bra from her chest and tosses it across the room as she returns to her back, relishing in the subtle dilation of his pupils, his eyes reaching a new shade of black and blue at the sight of her breasts. She whimpers when his thumb sweeps over a nipple before moving onto the other, his mouth soon replacing the brush of his finger, his tongue swirling over the taut peak, and she has to clutch at his hair, twine her fingers in the strands to hold to some semblance of control at the friction so good she could come from it alone.
He drifts away from the tips of her breasts, kisses his way back up her chest, trailing his lips along the bones of her sternum, learning her body like a foreign language.
"Gorgeous," he sighs into the hollow of her throat, so full of awe, but she can't – she can't wait, can't handle his words, his fleeting touches when her body is too eager for the embrace of his.
She shoves at his pants with determination this time and he finally takes the hint, aids her in removing his jeans while she shimmies her hips, works her shorts down her legs and kicks them off, ready to do the same with her panties when – oh, oh he's right there, hips cradled between hers, his body sinking down so that barely a fraction of space remains between them. But even that is too much.
"Castle," she gasps in protest when he moves, descending lower, but he quiets her with the scrape of his teeth to her stomach.
She mewls as he teases along the waistline of her panties, arching her hips and reaching for the underwear herself, but he draws the black cotton down her legs before her fingers can drift past his head, lets her fling them from her toes, and smears an open mouthed kiss to her inner thigh. And then finally, finally he's above her again, his expression tender but wild, and Kate wraps her arms around his neck, kisses him hard, battles every fierce stroke of his tongue with her own until they're both panting.
She breaks from his mouth on a moan when his fingers suddenly slide between her legs, slicking through the wetness pooling there, his eyes flaring wider, his pupils like a moonless night sky. The sparks of pleasure jolt through her body with each slow glide and circle of his fingertips, sending her hips rocketing upwards, desperate. Fuck, he has her so very desperate.
"I want you," she breathes, as if he can't already tell, profusely. "God, Rick, please just let me-"
His hand abandons her and she whimpers, her entire body trembling with a need so strong it scares her, scares her how out of control she is beneath him. The haze of lust is thick in her mind, a fog clouding her senses, but Kate maneuvers a hand between them, brushes her knuckles over the quivering muscles of his abdomen, and finds him straining and pulsing against her thigh.
Castle's forehead falls to her jaw as she curls her fingers around his length, memorizes the weight of him in her hand until the pressure between her legs begins to reach unbearable heights.
"Kate," he chokes, and she turns her head, finds his mouth even as she teases them both with torturous strokes through her folds before positioning him at her entrance. She lets go to clutch at his back once he finally pushes inside her, her lips parting on a soundless gasp that he shares, swallows. "You're so - so tight, so good-"
Her hips involuntarily jerk and he groans, sinking in deeper, only to withdraw, glide back in, and steal her breath. Kate's arms coil around his head, needing the anchor of him to hold onto as the starbursts of heat increase, spreading fast and blissful through her blood.
He's better than she could have imagined, so right inside her, and never once did she picture her recovery taking such a drastic turn, could never have imagined Richard Castle would end up in her bed, in her heart, but she's grateful, so grateful, and now she doesn't want to let him go.
His fingers tangle in her hair as he drives deeper, drawing out of her long and slow, so achingly slow, and diving back in with a devastating twist of his hips that pulls whispered strings of words and curses from her mouth that eventually form the chant of his name over and over again from her lips. The pace of his thrust hastens, matching the prayer of his name on her lips, and Kate twines her legs around his waist, emulates his ardent rhythm with fervor, already so close – too close – the wave already building and threatening to drag her under.
"Castle," she chokes, clinging harder, biting back a sob at the press of his thumb to the core of her, causing her vision to go blinding with light and the hot swell of her arousal to crest against the shoreline of his body.
White-hot pleasure ripples through her entire body, her walls narrowing and pulsing around him, clenching hard and devastating their rhythm, dragging him down to drown with her.
Castle crumbles atop her, his body collapsing to meld with hers, his skin hot and his mouth open against the hinge of her jaw. She unlocks her arms from their vice around his head, but doesn't drop her hands from the sweaty strands of his hair, trailing her nails along his scalp as her heart attempts to slow from its stampede and her limbs fall loose beneath his.
Rick takes a deep breath, the bones of his ribs expanding to fit against hers, and Kate hums, still thrumming with the lingering vestiges of pleasure. His hands flex at her back, feathering along her sides and over the bones of her hips, coaxing her skin to simmer with heat once more. Castle shifts above her, his eyes bright blue, dazed and swimming in bliss, and she grins up at him, rubs her heel at the back of his thigh, feeling the skin ripple beneath her touch, feeling him stir inside her.
"Okay there, Castle?" she husks, watching in fascination as those blissed out eyes spark with electricity, a hint of challenge.
"More than," he murmurs, smearing a languid kiss to her mouth, slicking his tongue along the seam, stealing inside only to drift away a moment later.
Her brow furrows, goosebumps spreading across her flesh as the warm weight of his body abandons hers. "What-"
His fingers slither down her sides while his lips kiss a path down to her stomach, trailing down between the vee of her legs. Familiar fire spills through her bloodstream, eradicating the lazy afterglow with fresh waves of heat, need.
"Not through with you, Kate."