It's short, but I had to get it out there. Hope you enjoy.
There was a quiet rap on her door and Kate grinned, quickly undoing two more buttons on one of Castle's old dress shirts, revealing a peek of her lacy black bra. She walked over, the hardwood floor of her apartment cold against her bare feet. Sliding a hand up to her already mussed hair, she bit her lip, grinning in a sultry, teasing way as she swung open the door.
"Hey Cas-"
Hand dropping out of it's position in her hair, Kate's sexy teasing smile was quickly replaced with a look of horror and embarrassment.
She tugged at the hem of the shirt, willing it to be longer as she took in the sight of Kevin Ryan standing in her doorway.
Shit.
Ryan's face was absolutely the reddest she'd seen it- and that was saying a lot- as his gaze drifted from her long, toned legs stretching out of the royal blue dress shirt (that barely came down to her thighs and was most certainly was not apart of her work wardrobe), to the scandalous-looking piece of lingerie poking out of her shirt.
He continued to stand there, eyes moving finally upwards to her hair. He didn't know how to describe it any better than simply 'sex hair'.
Ryan began to stutter out jumbled apologies, his face the ultimate picture of awkward embarrassment.
Seeing his boss in that type of revealing clothing- no matter how attractive she may be- was never something he had wanted to experience. Especially when she arrived at the door thinking he was her boyfriend. Oh jeez. This picture was never going to be erased from his mind.
Attempting to regain a little bit of her dignity, Kate quickly buttoned up her shirt. How many buttons had she had open? Five? Six? Ryan had Jenny, obviously, but there was no denying that he had gotten a good look at the detective's assets.
"I- I'm sorry, I'll just be, um, going-" Ryan flushed again, gaze dropping to the floor as he backed a little out of the door frame.
Kate bit her lip, nodding. "Yeah, okay, I'll, uh, call you?"
"Uh, yeah. It was just- case stuff." Ryan looked a little bit like he wanted to die. Kate couldn't blame him. She felt the same way. Oh god.
He hurried out, and Kate quickly shut the door behind him, falling back against it and letting out a whoosh of air. That probably topped her Awkward Moments of the Year chart.
In some ways, she was thankful that Ryan had been the one at the door, because she knew he wouldn't run his mouth regarding such an embarrassing moment for the both of them. Had it been Espo, however, Kate knew he would not have hesitated to tell all of their friends and probably even family about how the usually laced-up Detective Beckett had answered the door half-naked and ready to seduce her writer. Regardless, she would never live this down.
At work the next day, Ryan couldn't meet Beckett's eyes. In fact, he wasn't able to look at her properly for the rest of the week. The others didn't ask. They were curious, sure, but eventually decided they didn't want to know.
Back at her apartment after work that day, Kate swore to herself that she would always use the peephole, whether she was expecting Castle or not. There was no way she was taking any more chances.
So the next time the doorbell rang, she stood on her tip toes and gave the person at the other side a long, hard look through the tiny one-way window before running into her bedroom, stripping off her work clothes, throwing on one of Castle's shirts, and running her fingers through her hair before answering the door with that same teasing smile she had accidentally given Ryan the day before.
"Hey, Castle..."