California Dreaming
Chapter 10
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"Parish."
Kate blew out an explosive sigh of relief as her best friend picked up the phone. Then, all in one breath, she said, "I'mgoingonadatewithCastle."
"Whoa, there girl. First of all, hello to you too."
The detective couldn't help the smile that tilted her lips. "Hey Lanie."
"That's better. Now that we've reminded you how to be polite on the phone, what did you say?"
"I'm going on a date with Castle."
There was silence for a moment. "A date?"
"Yeah."
"Like, he asked you out."
"Yup."
"And you accepted."
"Yes."
"You weren't coerced, threatened, blackmailed..."
"No."
"You weren't high or intoxicated?"
"Lanie!"
"What kind of date?"
"I don't know," Kate admitted, plopping down on to the couch of her new LA suite. It was certainly much more extravagant than San Francisco had been. LA certainly knew how to do glamorous better than San Francisco.
"He didn't tell you?"
"Okay, he did," Kate allowed. "A private beach."
"I told you we should have gone bathing suit shopping!" Lanie exclaimed. "Thank goodness you have some half-decent bikinis."
Kate snorted in laughter. "Yeah, well he caught a glimpse of that other nice little present you left me to find."
"Me?" There was a smirk in the other woman's voice. "Why would I smuggle anything along with you?"
"You're just lucky he chalked it up to being a swimsuit. I'd be screwed if he found out it wasn't."
"Literally screwed, or figuratively?" the ME inquired.
Kate wrinkled her nose. "Probably both."
"And would that be such a bad thing?"
This was the hard part and the part Kate had been dreading most. She was going to have to tell Lanie everything that had happened in the last couple of days. She'd called her best friend for advice on what to do, on how to handle Castle and the afternoon alone with him on a private beach. She appreciated his consideration of her inherent shyness and hatred of everything paparazzi, but at the same time, it was a terrifying aspect in itself. There was a lot they could do on a private beach, a lot they could get away from.
"After the last couple of days, I'm not sure," the detective admitted quietly.
Lanie was quiet for a moment. "Look, you called for my advice, right?"
"Yeah," Kate breathed into the phone.
"Then here it is: let it go."
The brunette wrinkled her brow. "What?"
"This fear, this reluctance, this worry? Let it go. This is Castle, honey, and even if you don't want to sleep with him, you trust him. You trust him a lot. More than that, you like him, so a few hours alone with him isn't going to rock anyone's boat. And think of this... out of all of the people in his life, our of all of the things to do, why you, and why this trip?"
She'd never thought of that before. Why had Castle been so insistent upon her presence for this trip? For the most part, she'd been left to her own devices so it wasn't necessarily because he wanted someone to come with him. He could have chosen some groupie, or had a contest if company was all he wanted. Plus, he knew full well that she wasn't about to just jump into bed with him so bringing her along as a bed partner had long been out of the question. He'd claimed it was to say thank you, claimed that she needed a vacation, but the way he'd acted since they'd arrived in California, the look in his eyes when he'd been all but begging her to spend the afternoon with him, told her that there was something else a-foot.
"Exactly," Lanie said, bringing her attention back to the conversation. "He likes you, honey. A lot. And like I already said, you like him. There's nothing stopping either of you from indulging a little bit while you're away from home."
"And when we get back?"
Lanie chuckled slightly, as if she was in on a joke Kate certainly didn't understand. "When you get back, you take things from there."
"You make it sound so easy," Kate admitted on a sigh.
"Because it is that easy. Girl, you have to stop over thinking. Take a chance. Live in the moment. Carpe diem." The ME paused. "You know you'll regret it if you don't."
Kate huffed. The worst part of it was, Lanie was totally right. She did like Castle and he'd found out a way to get past her walls, walls that she'd put up years ago and fortified with years of experience. But here was a man, a compassionate, sweet, pain in the ass, and she was running scared. Where was the courage she'd had last night when they were sharing war stories? He knew some of her most intimate personal secrets and he could read her like no one else could.
"You're going to analyze it to death, Beckett," Lanie's stern voice floated over the line. "Go, have some fun, maybe make out with him a little, then come home and give me all the details. Now go! You have an afternoon with a hot writer to get ready for!"
Kate had to admit Richard Castle really did know how to charm a girl He took her to a completely secluded private beach. That was where they'd spent the last two hours He'd even treated her to a picnic, a picnic that had already been set out at a blanket when they'd gotten to the beach. She was overwhelmed.
Even then, he'd allowed her to choose what she wanted to do. It had been a relaxing couple of hours and she couldn't help but fall under his spell of sand and sun. They'd done everything from playing in the waves to building a sandcastle like children, to lounging around. It was the latter they were doing now, Kate with a book by her head as she dozed in the sun.
She jumped as Rick's hand slid over her back. "What are you doing, Castle?"
"Can't have such flawless skin getting red as a lobster," he replied, his voice a low rumble. "Relax, Kate."
She was already relaxing under his hands, muscles turning to butter. His hands were heavenly kneading her skin. She jumped as he snapped the back of her bathing suit. "Hey!"
"What happened to the red strings?" he asked her in a low murmur. "Not that this," his fingers ran over the strap across her back, "doesn't accentuate all of your assets."
She rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses. "You can't be mature for more than five minutes, can you?"
"Because, Kate," Rick rumbled in her ear. "Mature is boring."
"Mmm." She couldn't stop the moan, both at his fingers and at his words. "Are you calling me boring?"
"Oh no. We both know I think you are the exact opposite of boring."
She knew exactly what was coming next, but she didn't expect the breathless tone.
"You, Katherine Beckett, are extraordinary."
She flipped over then, onto her back, simultaneously raising her sunglasses. "Are you trying to seduce me, Castle?"
Rick moved, faster than her eye could really track until he was leaning over her. "That depends," he said, straddling her body. "Is it working?"
Kate swallowed thickly, enveloped in all things Richard Castle. "Yes," she breathed.
The next thing that registered in Kate's head was that he was kissing her. Kate's mouth opened almost immediately under his, her hands coming up to his neck to hold him in place. Her body took over, meeting every thrust of his tongue with a parry of her own. His hands blazed trailed up and down her sides and her bare leg wrapped around his hip.
"My God, Kate…"
She didn't want to talk. They'd done more than enough talking. Hell, he'd been seducing her with words and innuendos since Day One. She hadn't been kidding when she'd told him that he had no idea things between them would be steamy, but she hadn't really anticipated being burned alive.
Rick tore his mouth away from hers, following her jaw line to her neck and her ear. Kate released a breathless whimper, her nails scraping down his back. He came back to her mouth, this time with a slow luxurious kiss that cooled the flame. Eventually he pulled back and Kate took in the glazed look in his eyes, the way his hair stuck out at odd angles from her fingers and his swollen lips. How on earth had she resisted that for so long?
His hand came up, stroking her cheek. "Couldn't resist, could you?"
Instead of slugging him, she laughed, shaking her head against the sand. "Last time I checked you were the one that kissed me."
"Ah, but I have never made a secret of how utterly irresistible you are."
The blush raced over her face and she looked away from the intensity and truthfulness in his eyes.
"Kate?"
"Hmm?" Her fingers were tracing through his hair without the conscious permission of her brain.
"Can I take you to dinner?"
Two things:
1) I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. Which is weird. There's something in me that says it's missing something. Which is not meant to be a way to dig for sympathy or anything (laughs), merely meant as a statement of subjective fact. Or, actually, a worry about how I don't know how I feel about this chapter.
2) I had this written LONG before last night's ep. Heck, I've had it written for longer than I've had some of the other chapters here done. Which is why the line in last night's ep about lounging in the sun made me laugh just a little bit harder.
Despite my odd feelings on this chapter, what matters is that you guys enjoyed it. The next one probably won't be up until Sunday at the earliest, but that depends on how bored I get in class tomorrow. Isn't it irritating when profs post readings and half of the reading is missing? I have a reading I'm supposed to do tomorrow but only the odd pages are there. Weeeeeiiiiiiird.
Review? Pretty please?