He has to ask. She's wearing gorgeous white lingerie and watching him with bedroom eyes, better than any daydream or fantasy he's ever had, but he still has to risk ruining it all with another question.
"What happens after this?"
Kate glances back to him over her shoulder, an eyebrow raised. "Which part?"
His cheeks grow hot and her smile grows wider before she slows to a stop at the edge of the bed, taking a breath as she turns to face him again.
"I don't know exactly what happens next," she admits, their twined hands hanging between them. "I'm obviously not the best at this, but I - I hope we can figure it out together."
He tightens his hand around hers, watches some of the trepidation tugging at the corners of her mouth ease.
"Can I call you my girlfriend?" he asks, because she just looks so small and afraid in that moment, standing vulnerable before him in an off white chemise that highlights the gold of her skin, the pink in her cheeks, the hope colliding with the terror in her eyes.
Her lips quiver with amusement, but she shakes her head. "Not a chance."
"Can I do this?" he inquires, leaning in to brush a kiss over her mouth.
Her breath stutters with surprise, but she catches his face between her hands before he can draw back. "Yeah, you can keep doing that."
"What about coming home with you after work?" he murmurs, tilting his head to tend to her jaw, dusting kisses to the sharp angle of bone.
Her spine arches, breasts pressing against his chest, her entire body humming. "It could be arranged."
He nips at her earlobe. "Will you be my plus one for Ryan's wedding?"
Kate wraps her arms around his neck, hands coming up to furrow her fingers through his hair.
"You don't think we've had enough of those for a while?" she muses, turning to smirk against his cheek.
"Just as guests this time," he clarifies, his breath hitching as she nuzzles her nose to his cheek, so tender and sweet. It almost has him wondering where this side of her has been all along, but he's been receiving glimpses over these past few months, hasn't he? The smiles she reserves for him, the way her eyes light up when he walks into the bullpen every morning. They used to flush with dread and irritation, now they shine so bright they could illuminate the room. "No more playing bride and groom for a while."
"No more playing, period," she chuckles, sighing when he reclaims her mouth.
Her lips part almost instantly, welcoming his tongue inside with a soft moan he remembers from nearly a year ago, a sound that he's yearned for every night since he discovered it. The backs of her knees hit the mattress and her fingers curl in his hair as her legs begin to fold. His body follows obediently, arms winding around her, steadying her descent to the bed, and lying her down across it.
One of his knees falls between hers and Kate immediately folds a leg at his thigh, dragging him down on top of her. Her spine curves and he groans quietly into her mouth.
"You feel amazing," he breathes, bracing an elbow near her shoulder so he can hoist himself up, stare down at her.
Her hair is wild against the white comforter of the bed, a riot of brown and gold like the halo of her irises around the bleeding ink of her pupils. Her lips are swollen from her nervous biting, from the work of his own mouth over hers, and her chest is rising and falling with rapid breaths, her breasts straining against the lace of the chemise. Her scar on full display.
Castle bows his head to her sternum, finding the bullet hole in the middle of her chest with a reverent brush of his lips. Her hands cradle his skull and he trails his lips up the path of her bones to the pillar of her throat, kissing the hollow place between her collarbones before dusting his mouth to her chin.
"Love you." She shudders beneath him. "I love you, Kate."
He kisses her bottom lip, lets her draw him in deeper as he feels the corner of her mouth curl.
Her fingers rise to skim across his cheek.
"Mm, hurry up and make love to your fake wife then, Castle."
"Beckett," he chokes, but she's laughing into his skin, surprising him in all the best ways.
Kate kisses him, her smile dissolving amidst a moan he evokes, and he resolves to make her words true one day.
It's all so good, so breathtaking and surreal, that he forgets the entire reason they're here. He's pretty sure they they both do, until a bang on the door has Kate startling harshly beneath him. Her nails cut into his back and she's immediately squirming out from under him, towards the nightstand that holds her gun-
"Yo, Castle, Beckett, we got the creep," Esposito's voice booms from the hallway. "Hope you two are decent, because I got the extra key and I'm coming in."
Oh god, it's even worse than being caught by a serial killer.
"Shit," he whispers, scrambling off of the bed and towards their clothes. His pounding heart has him stumbling, tossing her his robe, kicking her silky excuse for one further into the bathroom and closing the door.
"Castle," she hisses just as the keycard swipes through the lock, beeping its approval.
He turns in time to catch the t-shirt she chucks at him, yanking it over his head and tugging it down to cover his bare upper body.
The suite's door clicks before Esposito is poking his head inside, glancing first to the bed, and then to Castle.
"Bro, what are you doing in your underwear?" he questions with a rise of his brow. Castle looks back to Beckett, sitting up against the bed's headboard, wrapped in the hotel's concealing robe with her legs folded beneath her, appearing utterly unaffected by what they were doing mere seconds ago.
Castle swallows, turns back towards Esposito with a shrug. Playing it cool like Beckett. "We didn't know if he was watching, had to be convincing."
"Oh yeah?" Ryan quips, trotting in behind Esposito with a smirk. "And uh, what did you two do this entire time, to be so convincing?"
Rick knows better than to answer that one on his own.
"Played cards," Kate answers, easing the top drawer of the nightstand open. "And did some light reading," she adds, holding up a deck of playing cards and a Bible.
Esposito rolls his eyes, but Beckett merely arches her brow in challenge, daring them to question her further. Which they won't. Maybe, now that she's his girlfriend - because he's totally going to call her that just to rile her up - she'll teach him how she manages to do that.
"Fine. Well, we caught the guy and figured out his way of getting into the rooms undetected," Esposito announces, nodding to the ceiling. "Air vents."
Kate flicks her gaze to the ceiling before returning her attention to her colleague. "In custody?"
"Down at the station awaiting a proper interrogation and confession," Espo confirms.
"Alright, let me change and we'll be right there."
"Sure you don't want to just question him in that?" Esposito comments with a smirk. "May actually get more out of him."
Her glare is enough to have Ryan shuffling out of the room, his partner following, closing the door behind them.
For a moment, Castle stands there, not sure what to say, if he should say anything at all or just start getting dressed. But then Kate is unfurling her legs from beneath her, climbing from the bed, and striding across the short distance to him.
He quirks an eyebrow in question, but she doesn't say anything, not before she braces her hands at his sides and arches on her toes to kiss him - chaste, delicate, promising. He didn't expect her mind to change within those last few minutes, but with the sharp slap of reality the boys brought, the reminder of the case, the real reason they were even here tonight... he won't deny he has his fears.
"Come home with me tonight," she mumbles, hands stealing beneath the hem of his t-shirt to span his spine. Her palms are warm, fingertips hot and branding every inch of skin she touches, and god, he wants to say yes without thinking.
He wants to stop thinking altogether. But he can't, not with her. He can't be too careful, can't mess this up; it matters too much.
"We could wait," he suggests, startling as one of her hands ventures lower, skimming along the curve of his ass. "Un-until Ryan's wedding. Just a few days away, could be like our first date-"
"It sounds perfect," she concurs, but her hand fails to move. "But I'm not waiting anymore, not unless it's what you need, Rick."
"Just need you," he confesses breathlessly, dropping his forehead against hers.
She touches her lips to the corner of his mouth. "Then come home with me after I collar this creep."
"You definitely know how to seduce a man." She smirks, the curve of her lips brushing his, but he's already nodding, giving in. "I'm ready when you are."