Kate awoke to a salty breeze blowing in through an open window. The moonlight was shining in on the makeshift bed that at any other time would be called a pool table. She wrapped herself in the sheet that had made the tour of the house with her, and decided to take a private tour and search out her missing host.
The house was silent. She looked through the bedrooms where they had been, the study, and finally found him in the kitchen. She snuck up behind him quietly. "So did you work up an appetite Mr. Bestseller?" Her voice startled him, causing him to drop the carton of eggs he was getting out of the fridge. She giggled as he scrambled to catch them before they hit the ground.
She moved around the kitchen closer to where he was standing. While she was a bit more modest in an unfamiliar home, he had left the sheet with her and walked through the house full monty. During their afternoon activities, she'd been too caught up in the moment to fully admire the view. For a writer, his physique was quite impressive. Though he was no body builder, he was toned in all the right areas. Enough to melt a girl's heart. Or other regions.
He caught her staring and used the opportunity to call her out on it. "Why detective, you seem to be closely examining the evidence." He slowly stepped closer to her, hoping to snatch the sheet away so that he could do the same.
"Yes I am. Want to make sure that I know every detail, and leave no areas unexplored." She sidestepped his grab at the sheet and spun around to save the dignity that the sheet hid. Their game of cat and mouse soon led through the patio doors and onto the veranda. A little skinny dipping seemed like a nice beginning to round two. Kate jumped in the pool and swam to the center. "Care to join me?"
Rick smiled and dove in, staying underwater until he reached her. He kissed her knees, her thighs, her stomach, her breasts, all the way to her neck. He enjoyed every inch of the body that until that day was hidden to him behind the professional dress of a lady cop in a man's world. He still couldn't believe the last twelve hours. He'd went from heartache to heaven. Martha had told him that Beckett stopped by when she and Alexis were there, but if she knew about Beckett's breakup she sure didn't share. Now she was here with him, kissing him, loving him. He couldn't imagine letting her go again, having to go back to the city and having to share her with the world again.
They swam playfully in the pool, then moved to the grotto. Kate wondered how many stories these walls could tell. Not from Castle, but from the infamous parties that were held here. The grotto at the Playboy mansion might even blush at some of the celebrity pairings that had disappeared into these walls during one of Rick's gatherings. For now, they were it's only occupants. "Let me show you something special" he whispered. He guided her around a crevice that she hadn't even noticed, and they stepped out into a private room. "Stay right here" he whispered, kissing her on the shoulder. He stepped away from her in the darkness. She could hear only the echoes of the water lapping against the walls. She felt a robe slide across her shoulders as he guided her through the room. It was complete darkness, and there weren't even shadows to lend a clue to what she was about to experience.
"Do you trust me?" Castle whispered into her ear. Trust him? He'd saved her life countless times, proved to be the most devoted human being ever to walk the face of the earth, and proven that he was more than the shallow playboy that his image had suggested. "Completely" she answered. He laid her down on a feather filled chair, making her feel as if she were floating on a cloud. Slowly he began kissing her again, but not with the force and drive that their earlier encounters had. This was a gentle, loving embrace. He used his lips to feather her entire body, awakening a passion in Kate that she never knew existed. By the time that he'd worked his way back to her neck, Kate couldn't stand it any longer. She seized the opportunity to reverse the tables, and soon had Rick lying on the chair, and was again in total control of the situation.
Kate was lost in her emotions. Never had a man aroused her in so many ways. In all the years that she'd read his novels, Kate could not have dreamed that she would be here with him like this. She knew that if she surrendered to him that there would be no turning back. If he was her one and done, if she gave him her heart, that she would be lost again if anything came between them.
As she collapsed on top of him, both of them gasping for air, Castle put his arms around her and held her tightly. "Kate, I need you to hear me say this. I love you. You are the most extraordinary woman I have ever met. You are brilliant, beautiful, sexy as hell, and right now, tonight you are all mine. This is not Rick Castle talking. This is Rick Rodgers – the man. I truly love you with all that I am. I've been so reluctant to say this because I didn't feel worthy of you. But I can't let another day, another moment go by without you knowing exactly how deep my feelings are for you. I truly, truly love you."
Kate was awestruck. Rick Castle was a writer. He had a flourish with his words and charm unlike anyone she'd ever met. But this was not one of his usual bullshit lines. She knew that this was genuine. She wished that there was a bit of light so that she could see his face while he was saying these beautiful things to her, but perhaps the shy man that was Richard Rodgers needed the darkness to summon up the courage to say them out of a fear of rejection.
"Rick, I have idolized you from afar for so many years. Even before I met you I worshipped your writings. I've never told you this, but I started reading your books as a distraction from my mother's death. When I was trying to regain my grip on reality and work my way out of the rabbit hole, I used your books to help me deal with the pain, to escape it. When the opportunity to meet you arose with that case, I could barely hide my excitement. I knew going in that you'd be an arrogant, pompous ass, and you were." She could feel him shift and the grin come to his face again. "But there was also something about you – a wisdom, a soul. Something told me that there was more to you than just that partying playboy. There was a kindness about you hidden somewhere behind that false bravado that you displayed for the world. I was afraid to fall for you, that there was no way that a simple cop could be enough. Little by little, you opened doors and gave me glimpses into the real you, and I began to fall for you more and more. I kept trying to put up walls whenever I could to protect myself, because I was losing myself again, but this time it was to you."
"Last year, when you asked me to come here with you, I was terrified. I was hiding behind these other dates because I was falling for you and I knew it. I was afraid that I would still be just another conquest and I knew that I couldn't deal with that. Esposito said something to me that really made everything click. Other people had said it before but until that moment I either didn't see it or didn't want to see it. He told me that you had enough material to write a hundred Nikki Heat novels by then, so why did I really think that you kept coming back? That was the first moment that I gave in to the idea of a possibility. When you left that day with Gina, I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest again. I felt like an idiot for even entertaining the possibility that something was there."
Castle felt the pangs of guilt ripple through him, and it tore at his gut like a hungry lion. "Kate I never meant to hurt you like that. I didn't.." Kate put her finger to his lips.
"Shh Shh – let me finish. All summer I threw myself into work – not only on the cases I was working, but on rebuilding my mother's case. I thought that if I could find something new, a new lead, a new piece of evidence, it would give me a reason to call you and ask for your help. But there was nothing new. Before I used your books to save me from the hurt of losing her. This time I used her case to save me from the hurt of losing you."
"Kate you'll never have to worry about that again. I'm honestly in this til the wheels fall of, for as long as you'll have me. I'm not going anywhere."
"Damn right you're not." She kissed him again and reignited the fire within him so quickly that he almost ached. She kissed his chest, his neck, and then bit into his earlobe, setting him on fire. "Hang on tight" and with that he scooped her up and took her across the dark room. "I have another surprise for you." He laid her down and she began laughing hysterically.
"Richard Castle, your secret hidden room has a waterbed? I didn't even know they made these anymore!" He stepped away from her to light candles around the room. "I haven't seen one of these things since high school!" Seeing her excitement warmed him more, and he hurried to rejoin her.
"So tell me detective, did you ever do THIS on a waterbed in high school?"