Chapter Six: Entwined

"Hey!" Rick called from the kitchen as she got in the door from work and Kate had to smile. It never got old, coming home to him every night. "How was your day?"

She dropped her keys and shield in the bowl by the door and slipped out of her heels, flexing her toes as she told him, "We made some progress. Looks like the Portman's aren't really the Portman's. Had a visit from a couple of U.S. Marshal's."

His eyes lit up. "Witness protection? That's so cool."

She ran through the rest of the day with him briefly while throwing her blazer over the back of a stool, updating him on all that they'd found - Espo still hadn't been able to trace that number and the warrant was slow in coming - and mentioned both her frustration at how slow it was going, all the waiting, and her instinctive reaction to Inspector Black.

"He's off, Castle. I'd love to get him an interrogation room and find out exactly what he was doing when Erin Portman was killed, but I don't see that happening without turning this into a departmental pissing contest of epic proportions. Anyway, I think it's more likely that whatever got her killed, if she even was, is related to why she was in protection to start with."

"And the boy?" he questioned, throwing vegetables into a sizzling wok.

"I released him. I wasn't about to call Black and let him know, but I put a car on him. If he really is the witness, I'm not about to risk his safety just because his Marshal gives me the creeps."

"He still wouldn't tell you anything?"

She'd gone to see Danny again after Black had left. "I met Inspector Black," she'd told him.

"Creepy fucker, isn't he?" had been all she'd gotten before he'd shut down again.

"No," she answered Castle.

"How'd your physical go?"

"Everything looks good. How were your meetings?"

"Fine," he answered, stirring a dash of sauce into the pan on the stove. "I played games on my phone while Gina, Paula and Gary fought about who had more control over my life. Paula won, I think. Maybe Gary? Either way, Gina lost. The book will still be released next month, as per Black Pawn's demands, but all the publicity will wait until after we're back from our honeymoon, per mine."

Kate moved through the loft towards his office to lock her gun in the safe and he called after her, "I've got some things for you to sign."

She spent a little time in the bathroom freshening up and when she came back she stepped up behind him, wrapped her arms around his waist and placed a kiss on the back of his neck. "Hi."

He spun around, swept her up in a hug and kissed her gently. "Hi."

"Smells good," she commented, checking the pan. Chicken and vegetable stir-fry.

"So do you," he murmured into her hair.

When they separated, he motioned towards a stack of paper on the counter and she rounded it and took a seat to read through them. It only took a minute, in which she could feel him shooting her anxious glances, before she realized what was in front of her.

"Castle," she began, her voice as hard as her tensing muscles.

"Just … just sign the papers, Kate, please?"

She flipped through a few pages. "These give me access to everything. They put my name on the loft, the Hamptons … Castle, they put my name on your Ferrari!"

"Of course they do. Well, not everything. There's Alexis' account, and mothers, those are separate and we'd both have to sign to authorize stopping those payments, but everything else, yes. You're my wife, Kate."

He'd been doing that more and more, forgetting, or more likely ignoring, the fact that they weren't actually married yet and calling her his wife.

"Not yet," she corrected for the thousandth time.

He waved it off like he usually did. "Semantics. Point is, what's mine is yours."

"I don't want your money, Castle," she told him firmly, pushing the papers away.

"I know you don't, Kate, but that's not the point. The point is you're my wife, I'm your husband, everything we have is ours now." She opened her mouth to argue, but he kept talking, "If I didn't have anything, we'd combine our assets as if it were nothing. Just because I've got more money than you doesn't mean we should keep everything separate. I don't want to keep anything separate. I want us to share everything as we share our lives."

"Castle," she sighed, "I have no doubt your people advised you against this. You should listen to them. I don't want your money, I just want you."

"Are you going to run off with it all?"

"Of course not!"

"Then what's the problem? Come on, Kate, you've already filled out the papers to change your banking details, you just have to wait until the account is set up to file them, and that form is in there too, by the way. This is just the same."

"Except it gives me access to everything you have, Castle. This isn't what we talked about; this isn't a shared household account, it's everything you own: your property, your books, your investments. Everything, Castle."

"Kate, I'd give you everything I had in a heartbeat. This way, we're sharing it. It's ours." He paused, wearing such a sincere look. "Please, Kate. Sign the papers."

"Castle …"

"Please."

She sighed. Thought hard. He made good points, but she just wasn't comfortable with the idea. He gave her his begging face and damn it, she was going to give in to that, couldn't say no to it. Damn his stupid hangdog look.

"Okay." Another sigh. "Okay, Castle, I'll sign." And, with more than a little reluctance, she did.

When she laid the pen back down, he was smiling broadly. "Congratulations, Kate, you're a millionaire."

She glared at him, then glared at the papers. Him again. He just kept grinning.

"What do you want to do with it?"

She stared, brow furrowing in confusion. "Do with it?"

"Come on, all that money, surely there's something you've always wanted but never been able to afford before. Well, now you can!"

"I'm not spending your money, Castle."

"Our money," he insisted. "It's our money. And I don't want you keeping track of what you spend, making sure you don't go over what you earn. I want it mingled, Kate, so that there is no mine or yours. Just ours."

"Castle," she sighed.

"You're my wife, Kate."

"Not yet," she repeated.

"You're my wife. Please don't argue with me about this. I just … it may make me sound stupid, but there's nothing I take greater pleasure from than being able to support my family."

He was so sincere about how much he wanted this that she had to let it go; anything to make him happy - he didn't need to know that she would, in fact, be keeping track of her spending in relation to her income.

So instead of arguing anymore, she stood and sidled around the counter to him, ran a finger down his chest and whispered, "No greater pleasure?"

"Well," he grinned, "perhaps there are a few things …"

"Just a few?"

"Mm."

He kissed her. It was firm, but gentle, and still her entire body sparked from the core out, a fast burn that left her fingertips tingling as they tangled in his hair. His fluttered up under her shirt, leaving a trail of heat in their wake.

She'd just parted her lips for him and pressed her hips into his, all the more to feel him come alive against her, when the chicken in the pan spat and cracked. They pulled away from each other.

"Oops," he muttered, reluctantly turning back to the stove. "Not burnt," he told her. "Want me to turn this off, maybe come back to it later?" A suggestive eyebrow dance.

"No," she laughed, then traced her hand down to cup him through his pants, thoroughly enjoying his guttural moan. "Turn this off, for now. Food first. You're going to need the sustenance for later, lover."

He pouted, but said, "Yes, dear."

She smacked his arm in response and set about choosing a bottle of wine for them to share.

"So?"

"So what?" she asked, straightening from the cabinet with a Sauvignon Blanc.

"What I asked before? What's the one thing you've wished you could afford, but never could before?"

"Nothing, Castle. Everything I've ever really wanted that cost too much, I've just saved for and gotten. You've seen my coat collection, right?"

"Okay, but what about other things, bigger things? What about a boat? Do you want a boat? Maybe a classic muscle car? What about season tickets to Yankees games for you and your dad?"

"Maybe for his birthday," she mumbled, more engrossed in checking the label of the bottle in her hand.

"Oh! A pony. Did you ever want a pony when you were little? We'll get one."

She laughed. "No boat, no car, Castle. We can get a pony, but you'll be the one walking it and feeding it."

"Come on, Kate. We've got enough money that we'll never have to worry, our kids," her stomach quivered with equal parts pleasure and anxiety at his word, "will never have to worry. We can do a little something with it."

She knew what he wanted, some kind of purchase or gesture to mark the entwining of their estates. He wanted to spend some of his money on something she wanted to prove to her, so she could prove to him, that it was no longer his, but theirs.

"Well," she started, frowning and thinking hard. "You've got that guy making the new phones for us, right? For us and Alexis and Martha and Dad?"

He'd told her about it a while ago, had started thinking seriously about it after Alexis was kidnapped. Inspired by the CIA he wanted to add panic buttons to all of their phones, their family, so that if something ever happened they could hit the button and send out alerts and GPS coordinates to the others. It had taken him a while to find a tech genius that could and would do exactly what it was he wanted (there'd been mumblings of altering base codes and other things that she didn't really follow - apparently the exact specifics of what he wanted went a bit beyond just an app), but last he'd mentioned it, the project was well underway.

"I do," he confirmed, looking at her questioningly.

"It's just, when you first told me you were doing it, I thought …" She bit her lip, completely uncomfortable with this. "Do you think maybe we could have them made up for the team? Ryan, Espo, the captain … maybe Lanie, too?"

He smiled. "I already am, Kate. But maybe we could do it for the entire Twelfth? Or we could have them made up for the entire department, if you wanted."

"No," she said firmly, knowing how far he could run with something once it was in his head. "That's … I like it, Castle, but it's just too much. But maybe if it works out for the team, the NYPD will think about doing it for everyone, within their budget."

"It's a great idea, Kate."

"One you already had."

"The whole Twelfth, then?"

"Castle …"

"Your family, Kate. The Twelfth is your family. Besides, it'll be a much better trial run, if it's for the whole precinct. Our team aren't the only one's who get into trouble a little too often. If it helps, if it saves someone's life, we can put it to the bigwigs at One PP."

She had thought of it before, but it just seemed like too much. She gave him a smile that she knew told him just how much she loved him. "Thanks, Castle."

He put down his bamboo spoon and reached over the counter to take her hand. "Kate, that's the point I'm trying to make. You don't have to thank me. I'm not doing this, we are."

Together, like always. It warmed her just as much as their kiss had before. She shot another look towards the papers, then around the loft where her things sat side by side with his. He was right. They weren't married yet, but … they kind of were now, their lives completely entwined.

What's his wasn't hers, what's hers wasn't his. It was just … theirs.

There wasn't a single moment of their very first night together that Kate didn't remember. Even the parts where her mind had turned to jelly right along with her body were imprinted in her memory.

If she brought it to mind and closed her eyes she was still able taste his scotch and her rain as their tongues mingled; she would still grow warm and wet at the memory of his fingers, exploring, learning, pleasing her body for the first time; she would still tremble with the remembrance of that first slide of his full length inside of her.

They'd barely made it to the bed before they were fucking, four years of built up desire exploding in a wave that just would not wait, refused to take it slow.

After, they'd talked in quiet whispers and then he'd made love to her with so much feeling that she'd cried into his neck, so very in love with him, so very relieved that she was there, with his naked body pressed against and inside of hers, happy and alive.

Then they'd slept, but just before dawn, Kate had been woken by the edge of an orgasm and had opened her eyes to find Castle's head between her thighs, his lovely mouth making her fall on a scream.

It was then that she'd realized that his mouth was her favorite part of his entire body. She'd loved it before, how it formed his beautiful words, released his sexy, rumbling voice, but as he'd kissed and licked and sucked her into a blubbering, shuddering mess that could barely bring to mind her own name, she'd decided that of all his wonderful parts, it was the best.

And right now, he was making damn good use of it. Her fingers tangled in his hair, tugged. So close, so close.

"Castle," she gasped, warning him, begging him, urging him on.

Through the haze over her vision she looked down, able to see his grinning eyes as they watched her lose her mind, her ability to think or speak or breathe. And then he winked and went to fucking town.

From his place between her legs, he worked her body like the maestro he'd become with it, ruthlessly keeping her perched right on the edge until she was swearing and moaning and babbling streams of words that didn't make sense even to her.

It was only when he decided that she could come that she did. Two fingers curled inside of her at the same moment he sucked hard and flicked his lovely tongue and she was gone, cresting and breaking, unable, unwilling, to hold back the cry that tore from her throat.

Her entire body was trembling, her breathing was harsh and her ears were ringing. When the grey fuzz that had encroached her eyesight faded, he had his chin resting on her belly, looking up at her with a smug grin.

"You don't even hear that, do you?" he chuckled.

"Hm?"

He laughed and moved, reaching over to the bedside before coming back to hover above her, waving her phone in front of her face. Oh. Not her ears that were ringing then.

Esposito's name and surly face were on the screen and Kate, not comfortable with even the picture of him staring at her in her current condition snatched the phone from her lover's hand.

"Beckett," she snapped.

"Whoa," Espo said. "I wake you up?"

"What do you want, Javi?"

Castle traced his fingers down the scar that lined her ribs, spanned them over her hip, and then trailed them further, further down, exploring her thigh with electric little touches until they stopped at her knee.

"What?" she asked.

Esposito paused a second, repeated, "I said that I got a call from the uniforms you put on Danny Portman. There's been an incident."

The knee was lifted, crooked over the bend in his arm and pushed up and back. It came to rest on her shoulder and her breath was hitching again.

"What kind of incident?"

"Seemed the kid was going to stay at his friends place, but then snuck out a little while ago. Uni's followed him back to the apartment. He went upstairs and they let him go, not knowing what he was planning."

She had to bite her lip so hard it nearly bled so that she didn't cry out when Castle pushed, torturously slowly, inside of her, inch by hard, thick inch.

A hitched breath before she managed, "What was he planning?"

There must have been a recognizable waver in her words and really, she wished Ryan had called instead because he wouldn't have picked up on it. Espo, once, long ago, had known Kate's sex voice.

"Oh, no! No way! Beckett!" A distinctive disgusted whine in the detective's voice. "No fucking way are you and Castle getting your freak on when you're on the phone to me!"

She'd have denied it, except they totally were and she'd never been able to lie to Esposito convincingly.

Deep, steady strokes were driving her higher and higher. Pulling back until only the head of his cock kept her open, followed by a slow, firm thrust that filled her so completely. Over and over until a warm tingle was coiling in the pit of her belly and the tips of her toes were burning. Castle would get his ear twisted for it later, but for now even she knew how loudly she was vibing don't you dare fucking stop.

"Espo!" she barked. "Just tell me what happened!"

A long sigh. "Danny beat the shit out of Victor Martin. The dude's been rushed to the emergency room and Danny's back in the station in cuffs."

Fuck.

Castle shifted just slightly and gave her a particularly hard thrust at exactly the right angle.

Fuck. She bit her lip, hard, so she didn't scream in Espo's ear.

"I'll be there soon," she told both partners, giving the same, but two very different answers.

The last thing she heard before the call was disconnected and the phone tossed away was, "Tell Castle he's paying my therapy bills."

And then she was clutching at powerful forearms and meeting him stroke for stroke. "Faster," she gasped. "Gotta' get to the precinct."

He complied, speeding up the movement of his hips into hers and leaning down to kiss her. It was hard and sloppy, his tongue licking soothingly over her abused bottom lip and then sweeping through her mouth.

He grunted and dropped from his hands down to his elbows. The angle changed and Kate lost the ability to breathe as he kept her leg pressed against her torso with his body, holding himself up as high as he could with his right arm and shifting just enough to allow his left hand in between them.

His skilled fingers found her clit and circled just once to drop her into an intense orgasm, the kind that left her head full and pounding. She clenched around him, arched up into him and let loose a string of, "Fuck, fuck. Yes, Rick, yes!"

He swallowed the long, joyous cry of release that followed with his fantastic mouth.