kimmiesjoy


6am.

"No." She stated, as she turned the wheel, eyes on the road, firmly ignoring him.

"Why not?" His voice came back muffled as he continued to riffle through the bag between his legs.

"Because..." She shuddered, "It's...gross and weird." The car started to slow as traffic picked up and she turned to face him. "There are just certain things that I do not plan on putting in my mouth."

Castle's head shot up and he quirked an eyebrow at her "I...er."

Kate rolled her eyes and inched the car forwards. "Your toothbrush being the main one Castle, jeeze."

He smiled. "But, you do realise we..." He licked his lips, slowly drawing his tongue across his open mouth before swirling it at her.

"Oh nice , Castle." Kate scrunched her lips in disgust at his imitation of their kisses. "Keep that up and we won't be doing it aga..."

His hand closed over her thigh and he tilted his head to one side smiling. "Don't make promises you can't keep Kate." His fingers dawdled over the tight denim, squeezing when they came to rest at her hip.

Cutting her eyes sideways, she smirked at him. "I'm not sharing your toothbrush Castle. Never, nope, nu-uh. "

"I don't see what the big deal is." He said removing his hand and bending back over to the bag in front of him. "Think about how far in my mouth your tongue has been, sharing a toothbrush is hardly..."

Her arm shot across the small space between them, the back of her hand clapping hard against his shoulder. "Don't make me gag Castle."

"Methinks the Detective doth protest too much." He chuckled into the bag, barely flinching when she hit him, "not to mention all the other places you've had your..."

"Castle DO NOT make me pull this car over." Kate threatened, her voice tight as she trod the line between laughing at him and smacking him again.

He sat up and turned towards her, challenging. "Ohh...really? We haven't even left the city yet and you wanna throw me out of the car? I will be remembering this when you wake me up in the middle of the night demanding..."

"Seriously...Are you planning on driving me crazy for the entire trip?" She asked.

"Hey, it's what I do." He grinned at her, before turning back to the bag once more, this time pulling things out of it.

Kate took a deep breath and let him remove things, watching the traffic with one eye and him with the other as he casually started to toss stuff over his shoulder and onto the back seat.

"Tissues, women always pack tissues." He grumbled under his breath, tossing the pack over his shoulder. "Water bottles, when she drinks nothing but coffee before midday."

Three loud clunks followed, as their only source of liquid, aside from the rapidly cooling coffee, hit the back seat, bounced and rolled out of reach.

"Castle?"

"A spare t-shirt, even though there are suitcases full of clothes in the trunk ." He mumbled "Mmm?"

A gust of air puffed past her head as the shirt went flying over her shoulder.

"You know I can hear you right?"

"Yes, obviously." He shrugged into the bag again, he had finally reached the bottom and his head snapped towards her wildly. "Hey, did you pack any snacks?"

"Why am I in charge of snacks?" Kate asked.

"That means no." Castle said grumpily, upending the bag completely in the foot well in front of him. Hoping in vain.

"No, it does not." Kate puffed hard, blowing the hair out of her eyes and reaching to open the window, needing the air to clear her head. She sat and grumbled at the assumption she should be in charge of feeding him when she was the one who had made up the coffee.

As far as she was concerned, her job was done .

Castle froze in his seat, a smile creeping across his face before he dropped both hands into his lap and turned to face her. "So there are snacks?" He asked, letting her hold his undivided and rapt attention as he sat staring at her, watching her drive, waiting her out.

Her eyes flickered from the road almost without her permission and Castle watched her grip on the wheel tighten. His smile grew because she seemed determined not to meet his eye.

Ohh he was winning.

Blinking slowly Kate kept her focus, what little of it she had control over, trained on the road...the traffic. But with every breath she became more and more aware of his eyes, the unfaltering gaze and the tension that had become suddenly, so familiarly, palpable in the small, enclosed space.

Weren't you supposed to get past that at some point? She wondered. Once you resolved it, or brought it out into the open. Wasn't it supposed to dissipate?

Not that she wanted to.

That delicious lick of sensation, sparking awareness down her spine, and trickles of heat through her stomach, all the things he evoked and awakened.

Nope she definitely didn't want to lose it, but their tension had been resolved...well and truly, in a lot of places and positions. In actual fact they have done quite a lot of tension resolving and relieving in this very car...

Yet...

He was still staring and she could feel his eyes everywhere .

Penetrating, heated touches against her skin and she might as well be driving the car naked, and oh...imagery.

The memories.

Her eyes darted to him again and she felt her tongue move of its own accord, tracing her lip wetly. It wasn't a deliberate invitation, no playful tease intended, just the natural reaction that he was so accomplished at tapping into.

When had she started losing the ability to control her own body?

Kate put her foot down on the brake a little too forcefully and the car jerked to a stop.

"So." He asked, his voice full of everything he was showing off in that tease of a smile. "No snacks?"

"No...no snacks."

"Ha." He barked triumphantly, "I knew it!"

"I still don't see why it was up to me to pack..."

"It doesn't matter." Castle said as he started to haphazardly pack things back into the little bag, scrunching and bundling things in a way that she found...

"Can you...?" She fought the urge to snatch the things from him and do it properly, difficult anyway given that she was driving, it was just, "You're doing it wrong." She said.

"Its packing Kate, it's not rocket science." He forced another bundle into the bag, her book, her phone, keys and...

"Hey watch the sunglasses would ya." She reached her hand across and snagged them from him before he could shove them in and crack the glass. Sliding them onto her face, she pushed them up onto the top of her head, effectively holding her hair away and keeping the glasses safe at the same time.

Kate caught the roll of his eyes as he stopped, dropping the half empty bag and folding his arms across his chest. "Well this is a fantastic start to a trip." He drew his lips together, scrunching them unconsciously as he pouted.

Kate pressed her teeth into her tongue, holding her jaw firm and hard as she fought not to laugh at him. He looked pathetic. And adorable.

Adorably pathetic? If that was a thing you could be, he was it, perfectly.

But he looked kind of sad and she felt...

"It's because we're tired." She said with a sigh.

"And I suppose that's my fault for planning a trip that meant we had to get up early and..."

"Hey Castle, " She interrupted, holding out her arm and waggling her fingers, " Hold my hand." She smiled at the look of surprise that crossed his face. "I think it was my fault for waking you up at 3am for sex." She snagged his hand and drew it into the middle of the car. "So just...hold my hand, anticipate the next time," She grinned at him. "And let's be grumpy together."

Letting out a long, over exaggerated sigh he squeezed her hand, three tight squeezes, before he spoke. "You're a hard woman to please Katherine Beckett," He smiled at her, quickly continuing before she could interrupt again. "But an even harder one to resist."

"And yet you managed." She teased, squeezing back.

"Pfft." He grumbled, "Two cold showers when you finally fell asleep, why do you think I was writing when you woke up?"

"Cold showers are no fun," She said, letting her voice drop low, quaking with a tone she reserved for the bedroom. "That's why I had mine extra hot."

"Mean," he lifted her hand pulling it to his lips, thumb tracing gently before he chased the movement with a kiss. "Any place with you naked is extra hot, but thanks for reminding me I missed you in the shower." He let out another long sigh against her skin. "Would have been the highlight of my day."

Slipping his fingers between hers so their hands were wrapped palm to palm she pulled them back from his face before letting them fall into her lap, the car finally starting to move freely through the traffic.

"Yeah yeah," She squeezed back.

"Soooo...?" He pursed his lips and waited again.

"What?"

"About those snacks..."