A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has followed and reviewed. Your responses have had me smiling for two days straight :)

Love Shack
Chapter 3

The first room is lit only with harshly focused spotlights. The beams slice from the ceiling straight down to the floor, and every now and then, a lithe wrist or a bare shoulder flashes in one of the colorless columns. Everything else is lost in the blackness beyond. It's actually more private than Kate would have expected. The other rooms are probably brighter, but it's a nice way to dive in to their evening.

She guides Castle to an empty spot against a wall, in the shadow between two spotlights. As her eyes adjust, she sees another man in a copper mask making the rounds with a tray of drinks and canapés. She'd been a little surprised to read that it was a drug-free party, but she's glad for it. She doesn't want to experience tonight through any sort of haze. Just the smell of Castle's soap is intoxicating enough. His scent lifts from the heat at his pulse points, and breathing him in is like inhaling the fumes of a strong whiskey.

Castle moves closer to her to let the masked attendant through the crowd and his hand lands heavily on the curve of her waist. He's touched her there a thousand times before, but after months without his hands on her, it feels brand new.

Okay. Maybe she does need some haze, a little bit of liquid courage. She tilts her champagne glass to her lips and downs the crisp, sparkling liquid in one drawn-out sip, her throat working to take it all in.

It's ridiculous. He's her fiancé. He was - is - almost her husband. He's touched her hundreds of times, in hundreds of ways. She spent four years daydreaming about him, and two years acting on all the pent-up desire. It shouldn't feel like their first time all over again, but it does.

Castle leans in, his lips close to her ear, the silk of his mask smooth against her cheek. "Hey. You okay?"

She nods. He downs his own champagne, then turns to set both of their empty glasses on another passing tray. The lazy pulse of the music draws all of the small noises in the room into a psychedelic symphony of sound. If it were any quieter, she's sure they'd be lost in a very long and awkward silence. She presses herself back against the wall and he follows. He's so close, but he's not touching her yet, except for the palm that's burning on her waist.

"You know," Castle says, "I've been thinking. About what I would have missed most about you if you'd been the one who disappeared for two months."

She swallows and looks away. She's not sure where he's going with this, but it's already painful. Because she doesn't have to wonder about what she'd miss about him. She knows exactly how much it had hurt to lose him for two months.

"And?"

"Well, I would have missed the eye-rolling," he says.

It surprises her, and she looks up, making eye contact with him for the first time since they entered the house. She can barely see the blue of his eyes behind his mask. Still, something ignites between them.

"And I would have missed your collarbone," he murmurs, warmth unfurling over her as he speaks. He brings his free hand hand up between them, fingers hovering over her skin, but he stops just before he touches her.

"May I?"

She tilts her own mouth to his ear. "You don't have to ask, Castle," she whispers.

He closes the distance between them, running his fingers over the jut of bone at her neck slowly, reverently. He starts at one shoulder and traces the bowed shape of it from one side to the other, then his fingertips find their way back to rest just at the top of her sternum.

"A thousand other things," he says, and it doesn't sound like a line at all, it sounds like he's truly speechless in the face of all the things he loves about her.

"You know I think you're exquisite, right?"

His words finally make it through the messy tangle of her mind and she finally just feels. He's been saying the right things all along, really, but this is the first time she manages to truly put the evidence and doubt aside.

Something releases inside of her. They're in a room full of other couples, but he's always known how to make her feel like they're the only people around.

She ducks her head, a little embarrassed by the praise, but thoroughly pleased. "Mmm, exquisite, huh?" Her fingertips curl through his belt loops and she tucks her bottom lip under her teeth as she pulls him into her.

"God, Kate, of course. I know things have changed for you, but they haven't changed for me."

She wants to tell him that nothing's changed for her either, not behind the temporary wall she'd erected to protect herself, in a place where she's still in awe of him and completely, stupidly in love with him, but she's obliterated by his nearness and she can't seem to find the words.

Their lips are almost touching, and with the proximity comes a physical pull, a magnetic force that tends to close the distance between them with a sudden snap when they get too close. It's the same pull she'd felt after their first undercover kiss. What made her dive back in for more. At the time, she told herself that they'd needed to distract the guard a little longer, but the truth of it was that she couldn't deny herself one more taste of him.

They're undercover again, in the most unlikely of places, and she knows what's coming just like she did that night in the alley when he'd grabbed her arm to stop her from drawing her gun.

Their lips meet in a searing kiss.

The dam breaks. Finally, finally. This is the kiss she wanted in that hospital room. This is the kiss that will rebuild them.

She opens for him and sensations slide over her like silk. She doesn't know if it's from his mask or his mouth - all she knows is that she can't get enough, will never have enough of what this man does to her. She still can't believe that after so many years of emptiness she found this intoxicating joy with someone, with him of all people, and she loves him so much she could happily let him kiss the breath right out of her body. He must feel the same way, because he doesn't stop, doesn't let her go even when she's on the verge of fainting. But her body won't give up without a fight, and she can feel herself peeling away from his hungry mouth even though it's the last thing she wants.

He presses his forehead into hers, his breath coming fast and heavy.

"Wow," he whispers.

"Yeah," she agrees, half-laughing at herself. At them.

This is them.

Castle's already craving another taste of her. Now that they've started, he's not about to stop.

"Hmm, what else would I have missed?" he wonders aloud. "Kissing you here, I think," and then he trails his lips down to that spot on her neck where she's wildly ticklish if she's not in the mood. Instead of giggling, she lets out an explicit little gasp, and he grins against her skin. She's definitely in the mood.

She finally becomes aware of the heat that's pressing against her just above where their thighs meet. And then Castle starts sucking on her neck and everything speeds up, his hands over her body, her lips on his neck, and then they're rolling against one another, her back slamming up tight against the wall and her hips working feverishly against him.

They forget that they're at a kinky sex party. They forget everything except the fire that they're stoking between them. He lifts her off the ground and her legs have just started to come up around his waist when someone next to them clears their throat.

Seriously. Seriously?

Castle throws his head back and groans. He turns to look at who's interrupted them this time. He decides right then and there that in the morning, he's booking a trip for them to a deserted island. He'll use every resource he has to get Gates to approve Beckett's vacation request. It might be a bit tougher after that tactical smooch, but he's got connections.

"Sir? Ma'am?" The man responsible for his hand not being up Beckett's dress right now is one of the increasingly annoying attendants.

"If you'd like to come with me?" he says.

"Are we in trouble?" Castle asks. He's seen other people in this room doing worse - a lot worse - and wearing less.

"Of course not, sir. Although perhaps you'd like to follow me to your next room?"

Ah, yes. The tailored experience. The case. They're undercover. Right.

"That sounds great," Kate says, smoothing her dress and re-adjusting her mask.

The man turns and they can't really do anything but follow. Kate's a little wobbly on her heels and Castle steadies her without thinking. As they walk through the room, he stays close to her back, trying to conceal the very obvious evidence of how much he was enjoying his fiancé. They almost lose the attendant as he weaves through the other couples, but they finally make it to the other side of the room to a set of double doors.

"He'd better let us pick up where we left off," Castle grumbles lowly.

Kate smiles and reaches behind her back for his fingers, bringing their clasped hands up to her heart and squeezing tight. She takes a deep breath to prepare herself for what might await them in the next room.

The attendant opens the doors and lets them through.