Their eyes locked across the parking lot where, nearby, a body was sprawled.
Kate felt a flush crawling across her cheeks, soft skin stained pink with memories of the night before.
Because oh my god, she had come so, so painfully close to having full-blown phone sex with Castle. If she hadn't hung up the phone, if they'd kept talking for just a few more minutes... Minutes. Hours. Huh, didn't matter. But this was not going to be awkward.
Because she had not stayed awake for half an hour afterwards, staring into the darkness with her hands fisted into her sheets, trying to keep her disobediant body under control.
And she hadn't finally given into the urges pulsing through her after endless minutes of re-living that phone call in her head.
And she had most definitely not let her hand slip under the waistband of her underwear and- her cheeks became yet another shade of pink. Nope. Not thinking about that right now.
Castle greeted her with a shaky smile, and she knew he was unsure whether to give her space or not. As weird and hot as it was, knowing that he had probably done something very similar to her after their call ended, she didn't want him to back off, so she tossed a smile in his direction. The lines in his face relaxed as they turned towards Lanie, steps falling in sync.
As Lanie briefed them on the cause of death, Beckett found her concentration wavering, her attention zoning in towards the man standing next to her. It was like a switch had been flipped; now she'd put a toe over the line she'd drawn in the sand between them, she couldn't not feel that again. The line was smudged, the rules regarding their relationship were blurred.
It was like ripples of heat were radiating from his all-too-distant body and soaking straight into hers...
"He's going to combust if he can't have her soon..." her memories of his low voice husking down the phone line crept into her mind, sent a steady stream of incredibly vivid mental pictures to her brain...
"Beckett?" his voice snapped her abruptly out of her rapidly downhill train of thought.
"Huh?" she stuttered, working way, way too hard to keep her stupid, traitorous vocal cords under control.
"The leads? The ones that Lanie was talking about?"
"Oh. Huh. Yeah, right. Let's go." He shot her a look which told her he didn't miss the way her hands were shaking as she pushed her hair back from her eyes, but didn't say anything as they turned to leave.
"Tonight he wants her hard, fast, he wants her shattering around him-" She needed to stop thinking about it before she did something stupid, anything to get it out of her head.
Castle needed nothing more than to splash cold water over his face and calm down. Taking matters, uh, quite literally into his own hands last night may have provided some form of release, but it in no way compared to the reality he could have had with Beckett. He couldn't be entirely sure, but he thought that she was quite possibly feeling the same way he was right now, thinking similar thoughts, because he had not missed the little noises that had spilled from her mouth and into the phone.
And her word, oh, god, her beautiful, beautiful, sinful words...
"She fists her hands in his hair, holds him there, while she hooks her leg even tighter around his waist-"
A splash of water isn't going to do it for him, he needs to have a freezing cold bath and possibly suck on some icecubes- suck. Suck on. Oh, damn.
They walked in silence, a silence he would normally break, but right now he can't trust himself to place his feet in the right places, let alone speak normal words with no sexual connotations whatsoever.
This whole "give-her-time" thing wasn't overly difficult most of the time, but right now all he wanted was to find a bedroom or a closet or a tree, anywhere, really, even the ground, and- no. No, no, no, not thinking about that. No.
"It's too much but not enough so she bucks her hips against his, grinds in a tight little circle right there..."
Castle fought back a tortured groan, shoving his traitorous hands deep into the warm pockets of his coat.
"Beckett, do you think we should-" he uttered the worlds just as they walked around a tight corner, and she whirled around to face him while he walked a few steps more and-
Holy. Shit. Her face was so close, her hair dishevelled from the wind and the spin. He heard her suck in a sharp breath of damp air, watched as her throat worked, frantically trying to swallow. The air was electric all of a sudden, charged particles swirling into his lungs, and was this what it was like to be struck by lightning?
Castle expected her to step back, move away. She didn't.
"Castle." she croaked out, one of her hands shakily stretching out to land on his chest, slide up over her shoulder to the side of his neck, her damp palm catching the pulse of his jugular. His eyes searched her face, but all he saw was his own expression mirrored back at him.
Damn, damn, damn, he was so, so, too close, Beckett swore she could smell him, musky and manly and so overwhelmingly arousing that it froze her, every square inch of her body completely still.
It was a lethal cocktail of the words from last night and his incredibly close proximity that rooted her feet to the ground, glued her eyes to his face. She didn't think she had the ability to move in that moment; in fact, she wasn't exactly sure if she was breathing or not. Her heart was definitely beating, though, because it was thumping at racehorse speed in the back of her throat.
She found her hand rising without her permission, cupping his neck, thumbing the point where his pulse drummed under his skin. As fast as hers was. They matched.
"Castle." Beckett whispered, her throat clenching around her hoarse voice. Every little part of her (some parts more than others, in fact) was aching to kiss him, to bring her mouth to his and drink him in because she could NOT pretend that last night hadn't happened, but if she did that, she wouldn't be able to stop.
And if she couldn't stop, he wouldn't stop.
And they would end up having wild, frantic sex in a parking lot, which, although it sounded incredibly tempting, was probably not the best idea.
"Castle, is anyone in the loft right now?" she found herself whispering. That was it, the words were out there. No taking back, and she'd probably regret it later, but she needed him so freaking badly right now that the only thing that mattered was finding a place to be alone. And naked.
He shook his head, eyes wide, his irises burning such a dark shade of blue that she felt another pulse of heat in her stomach. There were a lot of things she was uncertain of, but she knew for sure that Castle was so, so turned on right now.
"Cab." she murmured, starting to walk, setting a fast pace that he matched beside her. "Now."