"It started with a whisper, And that was when I kissed her, And then she made my lips hurt..."
"I feel like people are staring." Kate said as she came to a stop at his side, turning on the spot in front of him and surveying the room.
Heads turned in her direction, turned back again when she caught them, only to focus in on her the second she looked away. Her head darted from side to side. Trying to catch them or give herself whiplash he wasn't sure.
It should be comical but it wasn't, he was fairly certain she was going to kill him.
"Yeah?" He dropped the paper, swallowed, bit at his lip and opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
"I can feel their eyes on me. It's weird." She shook her head at herself and singsonged, "It's almost like they know." She snorted at her own silly joke and grinned at him.
"That's because they do." Castle blurted out, quick and sharp before he changed his mind.
Kate froze, her mouth half open and her eyes wide wide pools of oh my god, what? And it took a good ten seconds before she even attempted to suck in a breath.
"How do they? Why do they? How?" She flailed verbally, but her body remained rigid as she sought control.
"There is a picture."
"A picture."
"Well three pictures actually."
"Three."
"Of us."
"Pictures of us."
"In the paper."
"Pictures of us in the paper." Kate nodded, absorbing nothing. "What were we doing?"
And that was when he caught it. The corner of her lip, the slightest of quivers that shook the slender muscle.
She couldn't do that here.
"Kate -"
"What were we doing, Castle?" She turned towards him, fully engaged now, the smallest corner of her mouth still holding his rapt attention.
"In one we were sitting on a bench having coffee."
"Explainable."
There was another waver in resolve, the slightest fraction of lifting at the bottom left edge of her lip. Her mouth was always her tell, well sometimes her eyes too, but damn right now her entire body was a walking billboard.
"The second?" She folded her arms, knuckles white against her plaid shirt.
"Holding hands under the trees."
Her mouth twitched, full on twitched and he caught it, knew what it meant and his heart soared.
"Little harder." She breathed, her voice being chased by a squeak she couldn't squash. "Still always a reasonable explanation lurking somewhere, right?"
He took a step towards her, dropped the paper he had been clinging to onto her desk and found himself standing toe to toe with her.
"Right." He agreed, even though there was nothing at all reasonable about the way her eyes were dancing.
"What was the third one?" She asked, and there it was, that beautifully soft and tender, brighter than the sun smile that he had been sure was lurking under her shock. Sure was locked down somewhere just ready to erupt.
"In the third one, you had your arms around my neck." Her eyes flitted up, smoothed their way across his shoulders, treading the path her hands had taken in the park.
"I did." She dipped her head in acknowledgment, remembering. Remembering all too clearly as the latent heat of their exchange reignited. She remembered their conversation. The things he had asked her, the commitments he had been seeking.
"And your fingers in my hair." His voice quivered through the words as if he couldn't quite force them out, couldn't bring himself to be the one revealing their exposure.
"And your hand was tangled at the back of my neck." She smiled, doing it for him and enjoying it because that was something of a thing between them, her love/hate relationship with his fingers. The way they moved against her skin, the simplest of touches setting her alight.
She touched the back of his hand, oblivious to everything but the memories in her head and the man she was reaching for.
"And your other hand was here." Her fingers drifted to the dip of her waist, the narrow valley above her hips. She mimicked the way his hand had moved against her, watching his eyes follow her movement.
"It was."
"Before you slipped a key into my pocket."
"And you threw yourself at me." Castle smirked, waited for her eyebrows to raise, for a look or a word of denial.
None came. Just acceptance.
"Bit of a giveaway." She let loose the smile again, knocking him backwards as she stepped in closer. Her fingers toyed with the edge of his dark blue jacket, lashes casting shadows on her cheeks before she looked up at him. "So, they know?"
He shifted uncomfortably but didn't see the point in denying it. His hands fell until one lingered above her own, their fingers separated by the thin material of his jacket. "There were a few comments when I brought over your coffee."
"Oh?"
Her smile lifted, changed and made her look mischievous, as if she knew what was coming. He could not believe she was as ok with this as she made out.
"Something about keeping you happy." She grinned, he cleared his throat and carried on, "In more ways than one."
"Who said that?" Kate choked out.
"I think it was Karpowski, might have been...someone else..." His eyes darted, not wanting to get anyone into trouble with a rampaging Beckett.
Only she wasn't rampaging.
She was, in fact, looking up at him like she was going to...
"Er we can't do that here." He held out a finger in front of her face, aiming it at her smiling, puckering lips.
"Who said?"
"You. You said. A lot." Castle took a step back, away from her. "You made points, there may have even been spreadsheets and memos on the fact." He took another step but she only countered and followed him. "There was definitely a private email." He stepped back, quoting as he went, "No touchy feely in the workplace."
"Compromise? No touchy, a little feely." She took another step towards him, the grin wide and exuberant now, teasing and just plain evil.
"Nothing where people could see us." He jumped back several steps at once, narrowly avoiding a chair, "Which is why I'm blaming you for the park."
"Cats out of the bag." She shrugged, reminding him of the woman who resigned her job and threw herself through his front door, in one striding confident move. "What difference does it make if they see a still image, or we..." She eyed him hungrily, skirting her desk and marching him backwards as he fled from her intense gaze. "Put on a show."
"YOU said not where Gates could catch us." He oofed as he thudded into the wall.
"Gates isn't here." Kate said winding her body around his like a contented cat.
"Yes she is." Came the Captains voice from behind her. "You two. My office. Now."
