Chapter XVI

Hamptons, Long Island

He'd never have imagined that he'd be seeing her bare back a second time today. And if someone had told him he'd be lying in bed next to her this time, his own back equally bare, he'd have laughed at the implausibility of it all.

So, it was only fitting that he pinched himself after pushing his body up on his elbow.

Just to make sure it was real. Not a figment of his sizeable imagination.

His arm was a bit rubbery after all the exertion it went through the last couple of hours. Along with all his other limbs. But was it ever worth it.

A smile broadened his lips at the recollection.

He'd always suspected that making love to her might be intense, maybe a little wild. Because she was fit and strong and fearless. But he'd never have imagined it could be so much fun. After all, unlike himself, Kate Beckett was a Very Serious Person. But there was a lot of giddiness and giggling that he hadn't expected, including that incident with the slippery satin sheets that had sent him rolling off the side of the bed and her following suit on top of him.

It marked the first time he'd done it on the floor next to the bed. And already it made him want to have her all over again. In every nook and cranny of this house.

After breakfast, on the kitchen counter. In the pool. Beside the pool. On the beach.

On his desk.

Outside, on the back porch in the middle of the night.

The shower. Oh, definitely in the shower.

In the guest room too, with the window wide open during a spectacular purple sunset.

Against the door during a rain storm.

He was getting hard – and how that was possible after the last two hours was astonishing in and of itself – just thinking about it.

It scared him too. How often he thought of her being around in the future. It wasn't something he'd done with any of the women he'd dated in the last few years, and it meant he was giving Kate the chance to hurt him. Again.

His stomach clenched at the thought and he fought back the sudden wave of panic that gripped him.

He took a deep breath and thought back to the panic on Kate's face when her dress had slid to her hips in his kitchen, in the unforgiving light of day.

In that moment she'd trusted him not to hurt her. So he told himself he was going to do the same.

Maybe he wasn't sure yet whether he could trust her, but he decided to take the risk and do it anyway. She was worth it.

He was half sitting now, leaning against three pillows, and it gave him the perfect view of the gorgeous curve of her back, marred only by the ghastly bruise covering a good portion of her shoulder blade. It's why she was sleeping on her stomach, because it hurt to lie on her back too long. She still wore a bandage on her left wrist too, and it made him feel guilty because they'd made love with such a physical frenzy that it had left him winded. And he wasn't recovering from a recent collision with a moving car.

That said, he'd probably be sporting a couple of fresh bruises later on too, including the four crescent-moon indentations on one of his biceps, where her nails had dug deep into his flesh.

He grinned at the recollection of what happened afterward. The way he'd made her cry out in ecstasy.

Worth it, he thought. So worth it.

He trailed his index finger along her spine and heard her moan into the pillow in response.

"Sore?"

She turned her head around, so that she was facing him and a sleepy smile spread her lips. "You have no idea."

He winced. "Sorry."

Beckett pulled herself up against the pillows, along with the comforter, much to his disappointment. "I'm not."

"Let me know if you need some ice. Or more Advil."

Her hand reached over to his thigh and she gave it a squeeze. "Might take you up on both a little later."

He took her hand and brought it to his lips. He was already so addicted to the taste of her. "Later, meaning you'll stay?"

She sighed. "I don't know. I just know I can't move right now." She was suddenly serious again. "I didn't expect…this."

Her gravity was rubbing off on him. Making him a little melancholy. "What happened today, it's not a one-time thing for you, is it?"

Her golden-brown eyes widened in surprise. "I don't want it to be, no. Do you?"

Was she kidding?

"No," he shook his head and met her eyes. "I don't."

Her relief was as obvious as his and that made his heart beat faster. "But…" This afternoon's bliss almost made him forget about the shadow still hanging over them. The stalker who'd nearly succeeded in killing her only days ago. "But you being around me, it's not safe."

"Rick…" She was going to argue against it. He could see it written all over her determined face.

Truth was, he wanted her around. Now more than ever. And she wanted it for the sake of the case. It would be a most convincing charade now because it no longer was a charade.

What a mess.

"Look," she was sitting up now, leaning against the headboard, and it was hard not to be distracted by those beautiful, perfect breasts, even though she was back in cop mode, oblivious to the effect her body was having on him. "We can't start anything while there's someone out there determined to ruin every date you go on, and so far the only thing that's brought them out of hiding is us doing this."

"You're saying in order for us to start something real we need to stay on the case and keep up the pretense?"

She smirked. "No, I'm saying we need to catch this freak. And so far that's the only thing that's gotten us close."

"I don't like it…"

"I know you don't. I'm not saying I like it either and if you have a better idea, I'm open to it."

"We could run off to Fiji for a couple of years."

"I said better, not crazier. Also, there's one more thing. If we do go ahead, my boss, Captain Gates, she can't know that we're, well, we're doing this for real. She'll say I'm compromised and take me off this case."

Castle hadn't considered that. "Interesting complication."

"Does this mean you're onboard?"

"Onboard with fake dating so we can move on to real dating?"

She grinned. "Something like that."

He had to take a moment to think about it. "All right, but if anything else ha-"

"Hey," she'd turned around and was on her knees, about to straddle his thighs. "I learned my lesson. I won't be caught off guard a second time. Besides…" She cupped his jaw and kissed him. "I need to be in shape if we keep this up."

Long, soft hair tickled his neck. "Does this mean you're coming to the play?"

Her body softened into his. "I better not. I'm not in shape to be your bodyguard yet and, officially I'm still on leave for a few more days. If I'm seen in public with you already, Gates will think I'm trying to get back into this before I'm officially cleared and she'll have a fit. I need to do this by the books."

"So you're going to drive back to Manhattan?" He didn't try to hide his disappointment.

"I should."

"Don't. Stay here."

"Rick, I can't…I don't have anything here."

"You have me." The fact that she smiled at that cheesy line made him grin. "I'm serious," he added. "You need to recover. What better place than here? I'll feed you, make sure you rest, be your personal nurse."

"Naughty nurse?"

"Can't turn that down, can you?"

"Look, I can't….be seen with you until I'm officially back on duty."

"So stay on the property. There's lot of space. Rest. Eat. Make out."

"Fine," she rolled her eyes, still on top of his thighs. "I'll stay tonight and head home tomorrow."

Castle pulled up his knees, pushing her closer to him. "All right then, I'll wait until tomorrow to convince you to stay another night."

Her lips were back on his. "You drive a hard bargain." After a lingering kiss that had him wanting more, she pressed the palm of her hand against his chest and slid off him. "You should get going. Don't want to miss your daughter's big night."

She was right, he realized. He reluctantly untangled himself from her and got out of the bed.

She looked up at him with a lazy smile, enjoying the sight. "Please tell Alexis I'm sorry to miss it."

"I'll tell her the truth," he told Kate. "I trust her. And she likes you. She'll be happy about it."

"I like her too."

He thought about her being in the house alone and it sent a chill up his spine. What if someone had seen her coming here? "Make sure everything's locked after I leave, okay?"

"I've got a gun. I'll be fine. Hell, I hope they try coming in here when you're out."

His frown deepened. "I don't."

She sat up and covered herself with the comforter, forcing him to listen instead of look. "I mean it. Let them come."

The chill was still there. Dating a bullheaded cop who wasn't going to let him control a damn thing was going to take some getting used to. Maybe even give him a few grey hairs.

He bent down to kiss the top of her head. "Just stay in one piece until I get back, okay?"

"I feel like I'm back at work already." She answered with one those smiles that lit up her eyes and made feel like he was on top of the world. Then she gave him a mock salute. "Aye, aye, captain."

Beckett ended up joining him in the shower before he left for the play, where they made love one more time, with hot water streaming down above them, loosening their muscles.

Maybe too much so, she thought, as they tightened up now when she was wrapped up in one of his thick, soft bathrobes in the kitchen, making herself a cup of coffee from his expensive European machine, but only after she went online to figure out how to operate it.

She was definitely sore, she thought when she sank into both his robe and his sofa, cupping her mug of designer coffee. But it was a good sore, she decided, a steady, pulsating ache that resulted not so much from her car crash injuries, but from her entire body rediscovering muscles it hadn't used since before she'd been shot. Yoga, she thought. She'd do some yoga first thing tomorrow morning to stretch them out, no matter how painful it was.

She sipped some of her coffee and thought back to the last few hours. It had been so terrifying at first and then became something so exhilarating it had reawakened all her senses and reminded her how much fun life could be.

He'd seen the rawest, worst parts of her body in broad daylight and still made her feel as though it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever touched.

He'd kissed her scars over and over again, and now it was all she could think of when she looked at them. The way his lips had caressed them and worshipped her.

Maybe you did it for that reason. She smiled at the memory. You're so smart, Castle.

No matter what happened between them next, she'd always be grateful for what he'd given her today.

You made me feel comfortable in my own skin again. Made me feel whole and beautiful, not broken or damaged.

It was as though he'd plowed through a wall that she'd built around herself. One that no one else but him had been able to penetrate since she got shot. Perhaps even before then.

Not that she wanted anything to happen between them, Beckett thought, running a hand through her still-wet hair. He'd only been gone an hour or so and she already missed him. Her body was aching for him again, as though he'd been gone for months. As though she hadn't managed to live her entire life without his touch.

It frightened her a little, how much she craved him.

Her cell phone, which was sitting on the coffee table, next to the Glock she'd retrieved from her car, suddenly buzzed and it snapped her out of her thoughts.

She picked it up and saw that it came from the 12th.

"Beckett."

"It's me," Kevin Ryan told her over the landline he was using. She could hear the buzz of the precinct noise in the background. "The King of All Surveillance Technology. KOAST for short."

She straightened her spine. "Tell me that means you got something."

"Do you have any idea how many cars and streetcams and plates I've looked at the last two days?"

"Ryan…"

"I got somethin'.You did good to catch the last letter on the plate, that's what clinched it, from all the other silver goddamn Civics in the city. You'd never think there were so many."

"Ryan, tell me what you got." She'd moved to the edge of her seat now.

"It's…" There was a dramatic pause on the other end. "Complicated."

"Complicated? What do you mean by complicated?"

"Gates thinks you should come in for this one. And Castle too." Ryan paused again. "That reminds me, do you have him back on board for this?"

"I, uh…I do. I think so."

"You think so? Can you come by with him then?"

"I'm at his Hamptons home. I wanted to talk to him in person and that's where he's been the last couple of days. His daughter's doing a play here tonight."

"So, you're, uh, spending the night out there?"

"No," she shot back indignantly, glad that he couldn't see her during that lie. "I'm about to head back into town. But it's getting late, and he's already at the play. He won't make it in tonight."

"Okay. Come in first thing tomorrow morning. Both of you."

"In the meantime, tell me what you got."

"You'll find out tomorrow morning."

"Ryan!"

"You're on medical leave. I sure as hell won't be the one responsible for causing you any unnecessary stress."

"What you're doing right now is causing me unnecessary stress!"

She could almost see his grin through the phone. "'Night Beckett! Enjoy the Hamptons for us."