First off, I need to apologize for my going AWOL on this fanfic; I'm currently involved in a varsity sport that takes up much of my time (especially now, in pre-season.). I hope that many people have not forgotten about this fic, and I really hope that I may have the honor of still having the fantastic reviewers that I did for the first two chapters. Please forgive my abscence; I hope that this chapter will make it up to all of you.

Now, without more hesitation, please enjoy the next chapter of "For Lovers Only". Please read and review and enjoy!

Beckett hadn't expected Castle's call so soon. Sure, she knew he was going to call eventually, but not a little over three hours after she gave it to him. He thought he was going to be with Gina or something, but apparently that was not the case. She picked up the phone.

"Castle?"

"So you still have my number in your contacts, huh?" Castle said over the phone. "Impressive, Detective."

"Yeah, well," she said, "In case another fan of yours decided to go psycho."

"Of course." He responded, but Beckett heard a tinge of hurt in his voice. Her words made their mark, a small blow compared to the hell he put her through. "How about we get dinner?"

He works fast. Beckett mused, but failed to vocalize her opinion. "... sure, that sounds good. Where?"

"My treat, somewhere special." He said.

"Castle..."

"I promise you won't regret it." He replied.

Beckett mulled over her options: she could either turn him down, and spend the night in with a good book and a warm bubble bath, or she could accept his offer, risk embaressment, and go to dinner with a married man that caused her anguish, heartbreak, and angst over the past seven years. It was an obvious choice.

"Pick me up in an hour?" She said. "I'm at Katic Suites, room number 0334."

"But of course, detective." Castle seemed only too happy to respond. "I'll see you in a bit."

She hung up, smiled softly to herself, and headed off to get ready.

The writer, however, was practically jumping up and down with joy over the success of his phone call. He had really expected her to turn him down, but once again she surprised him with her answer. Still that unsolved mystery after all. He thought, practically racing over to his closet. There, he found a simple suit that was going to be his clothing for the night. He put it on, sprayed some cologne, and picked up the phone again. He went through his contacts until he found the person he was looking for. Time to call in that favor.

The person on the other line picked up.

"Nathan Yves? Hey, Richard Castle. I was hoping you could help me out..."

A short while later, Castle was knocking at Beckett's hotel door. The door opened, and he had his breath taken away.

Katherine Beckett was wearing a red dress top with a pair of dark black jeans. Her hair was up in a bun with a strand of hair on both sides of her face. She had chosen the "smokey eye" look to make her eyes "pop" (Alexis had taught you a thing or two about girls makeup over the years), and she had applied just a dap of lip gloss to make the look. It was a simple outfit, yes, but Katherine Beckett was no simple woman; she looked as extraordinary as she did all those years ago.

"Wow, Castle..." she said, taking your appearance in. "I think I underdressed..."

"No, actually." Castle said. "You... you look beautiful."

She paused for a minute before smiling. "You look good too, Castle." She grabbed her bag and closed the door behind her. "Where are we going?"

"To the beach." He explained. "I had a friend of mine pull some strings. We should be alone for a couple hours to enjoy the waves... and some good food, of course." He extended his arm towards her. "Shall we go?"

She took it in a heartbeat, allowing her arm to wrap around yours. "Let's go."

The two walked out of the hotel that way and onto the boardwalk. Beckett had her sights on the beach, but Castle had other plans, swiftly leading her to the arcades.

"Always the child, I take it." Beckett said, amused.

"Oh, come on! You can't go to the beach without going for at least ONE arcade game." His playful smirk grew into a huge grin as he challenged her. "Scared of a little old writer, Detective?"

That did it. "You're on, Castle!" She pointed towards the water gun games. "Let's start the ass-kicking here."

"Challenge accepted." Castle remarked. "Prepare to lose."

They went on like that for a couple of hours - Beckett beat Castle at water guns, but Castle dominated at air hockey, and they continued an on-going battle of childish skill as they competed against each other at each arcade game. Castle doubted that he ever saw Beckett have this much fun in their entire time together; then again, that wasn't saying much, considering that they were usually in a professional setting whenever they did meet. Although that Forbidden Planet "date" was entertaining...

Pretty soon, the sun began to drop into the ocean, leaving a sunset in its wake. After one last roung of whack-a-mole, Castle took Beckett by the hand and lead her to a part of the beach that was previously roped off. There, Beckett fuond a picnic-like area awaiting them.

"Dinner on the beach." He proudly proclaimed. "From the best restaurant in town. We have seafood, chicken, beef, pork, and other good stuff." He sat down on the blanket that was left out for them. "All brought to you by Nathan Yves, the manager of Katic Suites. He sends his hello, by the way."

"Castle..." Beckett started, taking a step back. She didn't mind the food - it actually looked really good, and she was starving - but the romantic vibe that she got from the setting was more than enough to make her feel uneasy. After all, they were both married to other people; as much as she wanted him, she couldn't help but think that all of this was a bit much.

"I promise, it's okay." Castle said. "I know you're here for a week; let's make it count. Just one week together, and then we'll probably never heard from each other ever again. What's so wrong about keeping the next seven to ourselves?"

He had a point. When did Josh do something like this? Josh was out saving lives and, even though she admired him for that, there wasn't that much room for romance when your spouse was thousands of miles away saving lives. No, this was probably the first time in a year or two since someone had made you such a romantic gesture. And here was this man, your former "one and done", offering you a week of romance and bliss. Neither Josh nor Gina had to know about this...

So, slowly, Beckett took off her boots and joined Castle on the blanket.

They discussed their lives, caught up on the years of lost time - turns out Castle and Gina got married in Vegas, while Beckett and Josh said their vows in New York City. And although Beckett had dropped out of the project two years before Nikki Heat "left the force", Castle had managed to make the New York Times Best seller list for fourty-five consecutive weeks, making him richer and more successful than Derrick Storm ever did. Beckett, on the other hand, managed to take down her mother's killer. Each accomplishment was justified in its own right, and both were happy for each other.

Pretty soon, both Castle and Beckett had finished their meals and the sun was just about to set for good. What Castle heard next from the Detective surprised him more than anything:

"I want to sleep with you tonight."

Castle froze, quickly thinking back to how many drinks she had in the period of time they had talked. To be honest, Beckett had only had one glass of wine while Castle had two; there was still half the bottle left, if not more. He also remembered that she could hold her liquor quite well. "Are you sur-"

"You didn't hear me." She said seriously. She looked him in the eyes. "I don't mean have sex. I mean actually sleep with you, under the covers, actually falling asleep in each others' arms. No sex, nothing like that. Just pure, simple, innocent, sleep." He stared at her for a minute, not saying a word. Her nervousness over the question was getting the best of her. "Well?"

Castle finally nodded, a small smile on his face. "Sure."

They quietly packed everything up and left for Castle's beach house. Castle called Nathan Yves and thanked him for setting up the picnic for Castle's "writer buddies" to use (at least, that's what Castle told Nathan so Gina wouldn't get suspicious should she find out; she never really liked his writing buddies anyways) before welcoming Beckett into the beach house.

"And to think, this is what I missed all those years ago." Beckett said, looking around. It was a really fantastic place - simple yet high-tech, and very much relaxing. She could smell the sea from inside the house, which made the experience even better. She spotted a Xbox 360, PS3, and a Wii next to the flat screen TV, as well as multiple controllers and wires. There was a leather couch and a loveseat across the living room, allowing a large space for any type of gaming the writer pleased. She also noticed his laptop on the loveseat, with the screensaver saying "You should be writing" flashing in big, bold letters. Oh, Gina, Beckett thought, I don't think that would make him write anyhow...

"So, shall we...?" He trailed off, but Beckett knew what he meant. "Or do you want to just meet tomorrow?"

Beckett weighed her options. Castle was giving her an out, one final chance to scrap her plan and go their seperate ways. He knew that this was a huge leap for her, and he wasn't going to push her into anything that she decided against.

Then again, isn't that what caused their relationship to take a nosedive in the first place? They were so lost in the game that they forgot what truly mattered, what they were playing for. It was beacuse of that mistake that they actually ended up the way that they were now, semi-happy and seperated from the one person they truly loved.

Beckett was hell-bent on not making that mistake again.

"No, let's go." She said. "I could really use some rest."

That was all the concent he needed to lead her upstairs and into the king-sized bed, where Castle got in on one side and Beckett came in on the other. Castle wrapped his arms around her. Pretty soon, the detective's breathing evened out, and they were doing what Castle thought was impossible with such an extraordinary woman at his side - they were actually sleeping, not having sex, but sleeping together, in the most innocent sense of the word. Castle was used to more exotic "sleeping", but this was definitley a new approach.

Once again, Katherine Beckett had surprised the writer, allowing him to see just how uniquely extraordinary she truly was.

And Richard Castle was in love with it.

Slowly but surely, he felt his eyelids drooping, and soon enough he was asleep, too.

Please tell me what you think! Thanks again for reading, and I'll work my hardest to get an update in in the next 4 days. Thank you so much and please review!