Top to Bottom
Kate rolled off of him with a satiated hum, her leg left draped across his belly that now rose and fell with his pronounced breath. Their bodies still buzzed from the electricity of their connection, and it consumed the otherwise still room around them.
"God," he panted, "I love your body."
She knew that truth already, of course; it was in his eyes when he looked at her, in his lips when he kissed her, in his hands when he touched her. She rotated to face him, her head propped up against one hand while the fingertips of the other traced lazy figure eights onto the canvas of his chest. "Yours isn't so bad either, Mr. Castle," she eventually responded in puckish tone. "So, answer me this. What's your favorite part?" she pressed on, surprising even herself with the rather self-indulgent level of curiosity.
"My favorite part of what?" Rick replied in his haze, apparently oblivious to her allusion.
"Your favorite part of a cruise ship, Castle, jeez," she huffed. "What's your favorite part of my body that you just professed to love so much, yet apparently forgot about the second the very words came out of your mouth?"
Rick's body moved so quickly that she had no time to prepare. Kate suddenly found herself pinned beneath his heated skin, his mouth hovering just above hers, his breath tickling her parted lips. "Number one: your sarcasm only makes me want you more. And number two: I knew exactly what you meant. For in addition to your sarcasm, Detective, your exasperation also acts as something of an aphrodisiac," he confessed gladly, the snap of her tongue doing nothing to deter him from pushing on. "So, back to the question at hand, then, which, by the way, I'll need both of in order to answer properly and thoroughly. My favorite part of your body, hmmm…"
He began at her mouth, his finger brushing across her bottom lip before he leaned in to nip at it with his own. "Your lips are soft, unrelenting, and their kisses leave me weak." He aimed his focus downward, then, drawing the tip of his tongue along the flat of her exposed neck. "And that spot right…" he paused to bite her skin softly, "there that makes your body flutter when I do that."
He slid his arms around either side of her to help shift his weight. Balancing on one elbow, he moved his palm to her breast, gliding slowly along its delicate curve, and he could feel the beat of her heart as it began to race in response. "Ah, yes, perhaps the beautiful breasts you keep hidden in delicate lace for me to unwrap." He placed a lingering kiss between them, in the spot that smelled of that morning's soap and tasted faintly now of salt.
Kate's abdominal muscles tensed under him as she strained to watch as he traveled even further from his place of origin. Her immersion in his journey - in his reverence - excited him, and he was certain she could now feel the tangible evidence of that. Her eyes met his in the fleeting seconds before he dipped his mouth below her navel and found her arousal, and he could see the effect of his touch in them. "Or maybe this is the spot I'll pick," he whispered as his tongue teased her ever so briefly.
"Castle," she sighed, her body shivering in reaction.
"But, then again," he taunted devilishly, "maybe not." Her entire body was screaming for him as he trailed kisses down the length of her legs, his tongue leaving behind tiny spots of moisture like a path of breadcrumbs to help guide him home again. At the end of his line, he traced the arch of her foot with his finger and she jumped, the sensation heightened by his slow and deliberate movement. "And, I have yet to figure out how these are so beautiful when you wear those impossible heels all day. Those things are-"
"Castle," Kate interjected with audible urgency. "Stop talking and get the hell up here."
"Oh," Rick chuckled, "so you think I should start over again from the top? I guess you might be right, Detective. Maybe I wasn't as thorough in my examination as I could've been." He crawled back up her body, his mussed hair dancing against his eyelashes. "Before I begin round two, though, tit for tat - so to speak: what's your favorite part of me?"
Kate grabbed him and pulled him to her, brought her lips to his ear. "Your indecision."