For a moment, when hands skimmed along her sides as she stood alone at the bar, her spine straightened and she prepared to thrust her elbow back into the handsy creep behind her. But when she looked down, saw the thick fingers spreading tentatively along her hips, one with a barely noticeable tan line on the fourth of his left hand, she relaxed.
"Mr. Castle," she purred, turning her head to see him hovering at her back, apprehensive to go much further with his touch. It led her to believe he was less the playboy image he had projected for the world to see, and more the gentleman she had met nearly seven years ago. The realization had warmth unfurling low in her stomach.
"So you do know who I am," he grinned, eager arousal and an odd spark of delight swimming in his eyes. "A fan, perhaps?"
She laughed, took a meager sip of her drink before stealing one of his hands from her waist and twirling around to see him. His eyes flickered down her body, appreciating the full view of her in the vintage Versace dress, and Kate stepped in closer, regained the attention of his wandering eyes.
"In your dreams."
"You are welcome in my dreams every night," he returned with ease and she bit her lip, saw the action made his pupils dilate.
She tugged on the hand clasped loosely with hers, led his willing body into the sea of dancers.
"I think you should dance with me."
He smirked, stayed close as she led him out to the middle of the floor. "Whatever you want."
Talking over the booming pulse of the music wasn't ideal, but he managed to make it work, keeping his lips near her ear.
"So what's your name, beautiful?"
Kate rolled her eyes, but allowed an indulgent grin to stretch across her lips as she draped her arms along his shoulders, encouraged him to move with her to the thrum of the electronic beat.
"You can call me Lola."
He scoffed, shaking his head at her as if disappointed. "That's not your name."
She cocked an eyebrow at him, pressing closer so that her chest brushed against his. "It's not?"
He blinked, but shook his head again, curled his fingers over the bones of her hips, holding to her as she swayed with the rhythm before allowing his hands to drift further down, splay possessively across the small of her back. His palms burned through the silk of her dress and she fought the urge to cant forward, drive her lower body into his.
"It's not."
"So?"
He surprised her when he jerked her forward, not rough, but unexpectedly quick, and her eyes darted to his lips before she could stop them, watched the way they moved when he spoke.
"If the night ends the way I think we both intend for it to, I'm going to want to know whose name I'm whispering in the dark."
A shiver of unadulterated need clambered up her spine and she spun around to hide it, fit her back to his chest instead and grinded into the cradle of his hips. His breathing stuttered but he swiftly recovered, planting his hands at her waist, gliding the tips of his fingers over her abdomen.
Her arms laced around his neck and she turned her head, caught his ear between her teeth in an impulsive moment before murmuring in his ear, "If the night happens to end that way, Mr. Castle, you won't be able to speak, let alone say my name."
One of his hands slithered up her ribs, thumb skimming the underside of her breast, and she arched in surprise, her body rising to meet the warmth of his palm.
"Quite confident there, Lola."
She knocked his hand away and grasped it painfully tight in her own, kept it glued to her waist, not willing to allow him to any more free-range exploration. This was her game and he was not about to throw her off with a few intimate sweeps of his fingers.
But then his lips skated down the slope of her neck and her head fell back to his shoulder, inadvertently offering him invitation to press his open mouth to her throat. A low moan escaped her lips as he sucked hard enough to bruise, laving his tongue over the throb of her pulse.
Her fingers tangled in his hair when he used his teeth to nip at the straining tendons of her neck, teasing before taking a moment to soothe the skin with his scalding tongue, and then he was spinning her around.
She gasped before she smothered the sound with a growl, silently reprimanding herself for allowing him even an ounce of control. She was not here to flirt or dance, especially not with him, not without purpose. But her breath still quickened when his hands traveled down to cup her ass, squeezing gently.
Part of her wanted this, had been yearning for it since she had laid eyes on him for the first time in over half a decade. She knew all too well how good his touch could be, how good they could be together and she couldn't control the electric current between them; she wasn't willing to try, not anymore.
She caught his face between her hands and tugged him down by his ears, claimed his mouth in a savage kiss that made him groan. Castle hauled her closer, drew the knee she had already curled at his thigh even higher and - shit, it was like she was that young, desperate girl all over again. She couldn't stop her body, her mouth, and he was not helping - one hand encouraging the treacherous roll of her hips while the other snaked around her neck, thumb tracing the underside of her jaw.
It was wrong, it was so wrong, but she sucked his tongue into her mouth and dug her nails into the muscles of his back and she didn't care. She would just – she'd get him out of her system, that's it. She would allow herself the night, just one night, and it'd be fine.
"Take me out of here," she husked, clenching her fingers around the waist of his jeans, scoring her nails into the leather of his belt.
"Really?" he panted, tightening his grip on her as if she would take the words back and elude his touch at any moment.
She nodded briskly and grabbed at one of his hands, clasped it tight in her own and began leading him towards the nearest exit, ignoring the intense wave of déjà vu rolling over her.
Her hands wandered without mercy during the cab ride, fingers trailing too high up his leg and toying cruelly with his belt buckle. Her open mouth trailed down his throat to his collarbone, nudging the fabric of his partially unbuttoned shirt to the side and tracing her tongue along the sharp path of bone. He responded to her advances with fervor, brushing a hand up the back of her thigh, thumb skirting under the hem of her dress, and pulling her tight against his side, eventually forcing her chin upwards and sealing his lips over hers once more.
She groaned, craving more, always more, and tried to remember the plan as his tongue stroked hotly against hers. She couldn't forget the mission, the true reason for their reunion, but her body was having a hard time staying in control, undulating against his, inching closer and ignoring the muffled voice in her head telling her to slow down.
Castle swallowed the embarrassing, breathless noises she was unable to hold back and she knew she should feel mortified that they were most likely giving their driver one hell of a show, but all of her energy was currently focused on not swinging a leg over his lap and riding him until she could feel nothing except the white-hot bliss of release.
The taxi came to a stop without her realization and it was Castle who broke away from her, panting in short, sharp bursts as he withdrew a few bills from his back pocket and handed them to the red-faced cabbie before shoving the door open and tugging her out with him.
The elevator was worse.
The walk through the ritzy lobby was nothing more than a glamorous blur until they reached the elegant lift, where she was instantly pressing him into one of the gleaming gold panels the moment the doors slid closed. She was all over him then, touching everywhere her fingers could find - in his hair, under his shirt, palming his ass. She hissed and nipped at his lower lip when his leg slid between her thighs and gave her the friction she'd so desperately desired.
Her hand tripped down his chest, undoing a few more buttons of his shirt in the process, and lingered momentarily at his belt before going lower and cupping him through his pants.
He jerked and tightened the arms banded around her body.
"Don't," he choked and she hummed in satisfaction at the sound of desperation, squeezed the bulge in his jeans once more before the elevator dinged its arrival on his floor.
She forced herself to refrain from touching him, aside from the link of their hands, while they walked the long hallway to his room. She may be allowing herself to break a few rules tonight, but if she didn't get a grip she was going to jump him in the hall, and she knew she'd be pretty ashamed of that in the morning.
But once he managed to slide his keycard through the slot and get the door open, she crowded his back, molding herself against his frame and raking her nails up and down the front of his upper body. She gasped when he spun around and pushed her back up against the door once they were finally inside, lifting her hands above her head and effectively pinning her there as his mouth returned to hers.
"Please, Alex," she moaned, twining a leg around his thigh and dragging him closer until she could rock her pelvis hard into his.
But he wasn't moving, his lips paused against her chin and her eyes fluttered open to see his brow was furrowed.
"You…" He looked up at her in confusion, stared at her for a long moment, and then his eyes flashed with startling clarity and she realized she had to get out of there. Now.
"Let me go."
"Kate," he breathed her name. "You're - I can't believe I didn't-"
"Don't, don't," she pleaded, craning her neck, desperately trying to cover his mouth, to stop him from saying it.
"I looked for you," he murmured, holding himself out of her reach, but releasing her wrists in favor of brushing his fingers over her cheek, as if he was seeing her again for the first time. "I know it wasn't - but I had hoped…"
"Castle, please," she sighed, using her freed hand to collect his from her face and holding it between them, hoping that somehow the revelation of her true identity wouldn't change the course of their evening. She didn't want to remember the past, she didn't want to remember at all, she just wanted to forget. "Please, don't make it personal."
His eyes darkened at that and he swept in fast and hard, laid a brutal kiss upon her lips that had her head thumping back against the door.
"Too late," he mumbled into her mouth, but she merely threaded her fingers through his hair and kissed him back.
She would still get the job done. She could still fix things. Just. This first. She just needed him first.
A/N: The following chapter will be rated M. Please feel free to skip over it if you're uncomfortable with the content. T rating will return by chapter 8.