Par for the Course
She's not sure she'll ever really be used to it. Waking up with him next to her, helping him make breakfast as she cradles a mug of coffee to her chest, letting him tease her back into the bedroom.
Which is why the shirt she had slipped on for breakfast is on the ground and her coffee is cold and only the thin blanket covering her back as she watches him get dressed. Her head is pillowed on her arm, hair in a tangled mess against the grey of the sheets.
"What's on your docket today?" she asks drowsily.
He buttons the pair of cargo shorts, glancing at her as he goes to the dresser for a shirt. She knows the picture she paints – one that tempts him to forget any plans and spend them in bed with her. "Mini golf. Alexis invited her roommate for the fall along in an attempt to get to know one another." Dragging a hand through his hair, he sits on the mattress. "What're you gonna do with yourself while I'm out?"
Kate pulls herself up, pressing herself to his back as she touches her lips to his neck. "I'll find something. Sara seems nice." His head turns, nearly clipping her nose with his chin. He looks confused, brows furrowed. "Alexis's roommate. You seriously didn't know her name?"
"I… knew her name."
"Sure." She pushes away from him, flopping onto her back. "Let me know how badly they beat you."
His lips skim up her bare arm to her shoulder. "Come with us."
"Why? So I can witness your defeat in person?"
"Nevermind. Don't want you with me after all." He lets his elbows dip so that his chest touches hers. She shivers. "Hope you can amuse yourself here."
He shifts away, moving to roll off the bed. Kate grabs at the pockets of his shorts, bringing his hips flush against hers.
"Invite me," she says into his mouth before she darts her tongue between his lips. He groans, pulling back. She chases, arching her head up to keep their mouths close. "Invite me to mini golf, Castle."
"Have to ask Alexis."
"Then ask her," she states, skimming her fingers under his t-shirt, "while I get dressed."
Kate lets the sheet fall away after she shoves him off her. Giving her hips a little sway, she heads for the dresser for underwear. When she turns back, tossing a heated glance over her shoulder, and finds him unashamedly staring, Kate narrows her eyes. It gets him moving, nearly falling off the bed as he runs for the door.
Once she has underwear, she unhooks a sundress from a hanger. The red silk caresses her skin as she steps into it. She zips it up, brushing a hand over the skirt as she leans down for a pair of sandals. Sitting on the edge of the bed to buckle the black shoes, she listens for his voice in the living room, asking Alexis if it's cool if Kate joins them. She steps out into the study as she braids her hair, glancing through the space left in the bookshelves at the two.
"It's fine. It'll be good to have even teams." Alexis is lacing up her sneakers, hair pulled back in a ponytail. "It'll make your defeat less embarrassing if you have a teammate. Right, Kate?"
She's impressed that the girl heard her so she shifts out of the study, grinning at Castle. "Gotta help the male ego out whenever we can. It's part of the burden we women bear."
"Right." Alexis gives Castle a shove on his shoulder so he topples off the arm of the couch onto the cushions. "Get your shoes on, Dad. We're meeting Sara at the course in thirty minutes."
The mini golf course is right on the river, crowded with families on school vacation for the summer and tourists who had hit up every other place in their travel books. Once they grab putters and fought over their golf balls – Kate snuck ahead of everyone and snagged the last purple one leaving blue, pink, and yellow for the other three – they have to wait a few minutes before the first hole is cleared for them.
Kate swings the golf club in a circle at her side, rustling her skirt with each spin. "You ready to get your ass kicked?" she asks, shooting a confident smile over her shoulder at Castle.
"Funny. I was gonna ask you the same question."
"They always like this?" They both turn when Sara speaks, the girl talking to Alexis as they sit on a bench.
Alexis smiles, shrugging one shoulder. "They're… them. It's hard to explain," she says. She and Sara get up and Alexis nudges Castle's arm. "We're up, guys."
The girls go first, Sara laughing as her ball bounces off a rock and into a rough patch of grass that slows her pink ball to a stop. Alexis manages a little better, getting her yellow ball halfway down the little fairway, watching it roll around the edge of the green.
When Kate steps up to the little tee area, setting the purple golf ball on the mat, Castle stops her as she starts to swing the club. "What?"
"Trade with me," he demands, holding his club out to her. When she only quirks a brow, holding onto her golf club as he grabs for it, he sighs. "I need a longer shaft on my club."
She snorts, handing him her golf club and taking his in return. Before she steps back to the golf ball, she pushes up so that her chest brushes his, touching her lips to his cheek. "I think your shaft is just fine." As he gapes at her, she easily strikes the golf ball until it hits Alexis's at the end of the fairway.
He ends up in last place after the first couple of holes.
Kate knows she's distracting him. She makes a point of bending over to pick up her golf ball after each round, of letting her fingers slid over his wrist. There's a whispered "Glad you let me join your threesome" that makes his body jerk at Hole 7, sending his blue golf ball off into the water trap to the right as she giggles from the sidelines.
He gets her back on the next hole, stepping up behind her as she gets ready to swing. She jumps when his hands touch her sides, dipping his head to speak directly into her ear. "Keep your head down," he says quietly, "and spread your legs a little more."
It's her turn to gasp, shifting her head so she can glare at him before she thwaps him with the grip of her putter. "Get off me, Castle."
"Didn't say that this morning," he reminds her, moving off to the side, and leaning against the hole marker.
She's talking to Alexis and Sara about joining student organizations at college the one time he manages a decent shot. But she sees it from the corner of her eye, watches as he fist-pumps in victory.
"You see that?" he asks, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he runs over to the group on the way to the next hole.
"You've got a nice stroke," she murmurs, letting their shoulders bump as they wander behind the teens, "but your follow-through could use some work."
Kate gets out of his reach before he can pinch her butt, the golf club dangling from her fingers as she tosses the golf ball up into the air. She gives her hips an extra twitch, sending a wink back at him as they approach the last hole on the course.
Sara gets a hole in one, cheering. "Yes! Beat that, Alexis!"
The other girl doesn't, sinking the ball in three hits. She still grins, placing her golf club on her shoulder as she turns back to the adults. "Hey, guys? We're gonna go shopping for dorm stuff. I should be back at the apartment by dinner, okay?"
Kate is busy setting up her shot but Castle answers, telling them both to be careful. The girls head off to return their golf clubs at the main building. She gets as far as her backswing, eyes on the purple ball, when he kicks the golf ball down the fairway.
"Castle!" she hisses, stalking after him as he grabs up the ball and drops both hers and his blue one into the hole, one that automatically recollected the balls to the building. "What was that?"
"Finishing on a high note," he says, taking her by the wrist and pulling her back toward the eleventh hole. "Hopefully." He laughs at his own joke as he drags her around to the other side of the storage shed, shielding them from the people still playing mini golf. Castle opens the door to the shed, giving her a push inside, and closing it behind them. She watches as he twists the lock on the door, dropping the golf club onto the ground a moment before he grabs her by her upper arms, spinning her around.
He presses her against the shed door, instantly trailing a series of open-mouthed kisses down from her jaw to her collarbone. Despite the heat captured in the shed, she shivers, her head thumping against the door.
"Castle, what're we doing?" she stutters as he tugs the straps of her sundress down. They rest in the crook of her elbows, baring more skin to his traveling mouth.
He edges the bodice of the dress down, fingers tracing the curve of her breast as it is pushed up by her bra and gasping breaths. "Having sex in a shed at a mini golf course."
Her fingers bunch up his shirt at his shoulders. "Bucket list?" she manages, ending on a strangled breath as his fingers sneak under the cups of her bra.
"Opportunity," he says. She can feel him grinning against her chest as his teeth nip at her skin. Kate yelps when he rolls her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. "Plus you kept teasing me. Did you Google sexual golf innuendos?" he asks as he palms her breast.
She pushes up on her toes so she can nibble at his ear. "They just come to me."
He hikes up the skirt of her dress, fighting with the red fabric to keep it at her waist as he slides his hand down along her stomach. "Won't be the only thing coming to you."
She can't stop the rolling of her eyes, dragging her lips over his cheek. "You're ridiculous," she says against his skin a moment before she has to bite back a tiny shriek as his fingers tug aside her underwear. She gets his name out, a breathy whisper, before his fingertips tease at her entrance.
"What was that?" he chuckles as her hips buck against his hand.
Her kiss is sloppy, a frantic mashing of her mouth to his, as she fights to keep in the groan when he slips his fingers into her. She shudders out a breath, her knees buckling until he grips her hip, shoving her against the door to keep her still.
"Keep quiet," he murmurs as he curls his fingers inside her. His mouth captures her cry.
Her head falls onto his shoulder, muffling a little whimper in the fabric of his shirt. "Castle, please." She pushes up on her toe tips, her heel linking around his calf. She squeaks as his knees dip before he grips her thigh, hiking her leg up to his waist. The move allows him to push just a little further into her. She chokes, trying to stay quiet. "Hurry up," she growls into his neck a moment before she bites down on the muscles there.
Kate fights free from the straps of the dress, shoving them so they hang at her sides. She shivers when he drags his hand along her inner thigh, smearing her arousal along her skin as she pushes up to hook the other leg around his waist. She can feel him against her so she cants backwards, shoulderblades hitting the door. She fumbles with his belt as he lowers his mouth to her breast, suckling gently.
It makes her move faster, pulling at the zipper of his shorts before she can force them and the pair of boxers down past his knees. When he slides into her, Kate huffs into his shoulder, her hands tightening around his neck in an attempt to pull him even closer.
"You good?" he asks, moving his head back to run his lips over her cheekbone.
She turns her face into his, finding his lips again. "Make it quick."
She's still not completely prepared when he pulls out, pushes back in with a twist of his hips. Her high-pitched keening that the movement draws from her throat only serves to urge him on, repeating the motion. When he laughs – the bastard laughs, all low in his chest so the rumbling transfers right over to her body – Kate nips at his shoulder, turning the humorous sound into a drawn-out groan of her name.
The door creaks as his thrusts become erratic. He spins them away, planting her against the neighboring wall.
"God, I hope you're close," he mumbles into her ear.
Her fingers tremble as she releases his t-shirt and scrape down his chest on their way to where they're joined, pushing aside the skirt of her dress as it drops into her way. "Just…" Her forehead stays on his shoulder as she pulls some of the moisture up to circle the far too sensitive bundle of nerves. She gasps into his mouth, letting her nose slide along his as she clenches her thighs tighter around his waist.
He senses the change and shifts from long, fluid strokes to shorter, harder ones that make her panting turn to sobs of release that she somehow remembers to muffle. She's babbling, his name and oh and God, yes as he tips over the edge, following her.
He's leaning against her heavily, forearms holding them up against the shed wall as they recover. His breathing ruffles her hair, tangled and falling out of the braid she had twisted it into. She feels him shift under her a moment before he drops her gently to the ground, hands around her waist as he makes sure she has her feet under her.
As he rights his clothing, she smoothes a hand over the wrinkled skirt of her dress, twitching the hem in an attempt to disguise the evidence of the escapade. When she looks up, frown still on her face since the silk remains rumpled, he's grinning.
"What?" she sighs, sliding her arms into the straps of the dress, fiddling with the cups of her bra to get them back in place.
"We just had sex at a mini golf course. In a shed," he's saying, dipping his head down to kiss her gently.
Kate smudges her fingers over his lips, watching as his eyes darken even further when he tastes her on her fingers. "Not happening again." It's she who ducks her head out of the shed, looking before she yanks him out behind her by his shirt.
He nearly trips her up as she starts for the parking lot. "How was that for a hole in one?" She turns, walking backwards as she narrows her eyes at him. He shrugs. "What? I can do it too."
"Well I hope your innuendos are enough to keep you company for the rest of the day. That was your 'one'."
Of course she doesn't offer up too many protests when he demands a repeat performance at home.