A/N: I already wrote a bit of a drabble about this moment from season 2's "Vampire Weekend", but I really wanted to expand on it and include it in this collection. Also, I don't own "Castle" or anything related to it.
Five Times Beckett Kisses Castle, chapter 3
He'd just told her that she smells like cherries, and he hadn't been expecting her to be looking at him the way she's looking at him. He'd expected her to roll her eyes, or glare at him, or order him to stop sniffing her. But she had turned to him, and now she's looking at him like maybe she'd heard what he tried not to betray in his voice- that he's intrigued by her scent and had been totally captivated by her in that moment.
He'd always expected her to smell like vanilla or spices, or even certain types of flowers, but not fruit, and especially not cherries. He associates the scent of cherries to playfulness, to things of his childhood- cherry bubble gum or cherry candy or cherry pie or the cherry cake his grandmother used to make. It suggests a whole unknown facet of Beckett's personality, a new layer of the Beckett onion, and he's intrigued and captivated by her, desiring even more than before to know everything about her.
She must have heard it all in his voice because she's holding his gaze, searching his eyes. He looks back into the depths of hers until he sees her eyes flick down to look at his lips. He then shifts his gaze to look down at hers. He'd always thought her lips looked so soft and perfect, and sometimes he just wanted to touch them if he couldn't kiss them. He'd notice them sometimes (or a lot of the time) in the way they formed a certain word, or the way she would absently touch them as she concentrated on paperwork or on the murder board during a tough case, and his mind would automatically go to this image in his head of him cupping her face in his hand and slowly running the pad of his thumb along her bottom lip. A shiver would go through her body and this would be his cue to replace his thumb with his lips and kiss her senseless.
But suddenly it's not just a fantasy anymore, this desire to feel her lips on his. Now he knows her lips are impossibly soft and perfect because she's kissing him, and now he knows that not only are her lips perfect in and of themselves, but they are perfect together with his. They fit together like two perfect puzzle pieces that were made for each other. He cautiously pulls her bottom lip between his, and after no protests from her, he gently sucks on it. She makes this short little "Mm." sound that's halfway between a moan and a whimper, and the sound of it hits him straight in the gut and smashes into a million pieces sending tingles all over his entire body. He intensifies the kiss then, still kissing her slowly but with more urgency and passion behind it.
He hears a sound to his left then, and remembers they are still in the precinct. For her sake, he puts his hands on the sides of her face and slowly pulls away. She looks shocked at what just happened, and a little disappointed that it ended so quickly, and a little insecure, and a million other things and she's so beautiful he doesn't want to look away. He smiles at her for a second, brushing his thumbs over her cheekbones before dropping his hands and looking to his left. He sees Ryan and Esposito with huge grins on their faces, walking backwards away from them, perhaps having walked in on them and deciding to make a louder entrance this time to keep from embarrassing them. At least Beckett would think there had been fair warning for them to have separated without having been seen. As the guys notice that Castle sees them, they begin to walk forward again as if they had seen nothing and were entering the room for the first time. Castle almost laughs at how quickly Beckett stands up, ramrod straight when she sees them coming.
"What's up with you guys?" she asks, observing their suspicious behavior.
"What, us?" Esposito asks.
"No, nothing's up," Ryan states, furrowing his brow.
"Mm-m." Esposito agrees, shaking his head, unable to suppress a smile.
"What's up with you?" Ryan asks Beckett.
"Nothing. Why?" She nervously clears her throat and pushes her hair back over her ears.
Castle can't help gleefully smiling at her discomfort, and Esposito gives him a knowing glance.
"Oh, nothing., You just seem…" Ryan starts.
"Flustered," Esposito continues.
"Yeah, flustered… and you're sure smiling a whole lot."
Her face immediately falls. "Tell me what you got," she says sternly, stretching out her arm, demanding the folder Esposito is holding. She grabs it from him as he offers it, and as soon as she's looking away from them, Esposito and Ryan give Castle the thumbs up.
Castle just continues to grin.