Castle stood semi naked, looking ruffled and bewildered in the doorway.
"Beckett?" he said lamely, stating the obvious.
"Castle," she replied with polite formality before her eyes were drawn downwards of their own accord to his boxer shorts and back to his face with surprise. "Did I get you up?" she asked before thinking and then cringed at the double meaning in her words which became twice as disconcerting when Castle glanced down in panic.
Ooops, Beckett dreams always took a while to wear off!
"Err," he held a hand to his head as if puzzling out how to solve this kind of dilemma, "One minute," he said, shutting the door in desperation and biting his fist. He didn't know whether he felt embarrassed or excited. Anyway, no time to dwell on that. He sprung into action and bolted to the stairs, taking two at a time before sprinting into his bedroom and heading straight for the adjoining bathroom. Reaching behind the door for his robe which he hung on a hook, he grabbed the garment and dashed back to the hallway. Before he made it out of the bedroom however he glanced down in horror at the robe in his hand, black lace and pink ribbon? Gina's robe! He ran back to the bathroom in panic, scanning the room for his robe. He finally found it on the tiled floor, next to the bath, and dived for it, throwing Gina's robe over his shoulder in the process.
At last he could get back to Beckett. He turned but something made him pause and glance back over his shoulder. Where had Gina's robe gone? His eyes homed in on the only open window in the house. No, it could have, could it? He ran to the window and looked down just in time to see the robe flutter into the swimming pool below. Great! Oh well, no time. He charged back down the stairs, pulling his robe on in the process and running a hand through his hair a few times. At the door he paused before opening it and took in a deep breath. Then he leant casually against the door frame as if he didn't have a care in the world and reopened the door.
Beckett looked highly amused.
"Is it safe to come in now?" she said, barely holding back her laughter.
Castle grinned, opening the door wider and gesturing for her to enter. "Perfectly."
As Beckett stepped into the huge, high ceilinged entrance hall of Castle's beach house she tried not to be impressed. She had had a similar feeling of childish excitement when she had pulled up into the driveway. It looked magnificent from the outside, God only knew what it would be like inside, but what difference did it make to her? She had already felt the pull of chemistry between them again and she'd only been there for ten minutes but she had to remember why she was there, what she wanted. She had to keep that foremost in her head and not be seduced by awe inspiring, luxury beach houses or their owners.
She strode past Castle, briefcase in hand, into the hall with all the confidence of someone on a mission who knew what they wanted and how to get it. Castle watched her walk past and caught the unmistakeable waft of her perfume, reminding his senses that Beckett was in the room! His heart made a small leap of excitement. As he watched her, words popped into his head which quickly formed into a few sentences.
She strode past Rook with that sensual saunter. The sway of her hips looked good in the pair of tight fitting jeans that clung lovingly to her rear. He itched to run his hand over it, feel it's tautness.
God that was good; she was inspiring him already! She turned suddenly to face him and he tightened the belt of his robe. His mind was working overtime!
"Castle?" she questioned.
"Hmm," he replied, his mind still on her rear. She'd suddenly realised that she didn't know where she was going and since Castle seemed to be on another planet she looked purposely around at the multitude of doors and corridors and back at Castle questioningly. He snapped abruptly out of his daydream. "Ohhh, this way," he said, leading her into the Kitchen/lounge area.
"You haven't been answering your phone," she pointed out, entering the kitchen, heading straight for the table and placing her briefcase on it.
Wow, she'd been trying to contact him after all. He'd kind of hoped she would and he'd been disappointed when he'd heard nothing from her.
"There's a problem with the line," he explained, glancing towards the telephone on the Kitchen counter top.
"And your cell?" she questioned.
"No coverage," he shrugged.
"Well Montgomery's been trying to contact you," she told him.
He tried to hide the disappointment by an expression of surprise. "We got another case?" he asked hopefully.
"Not quite," she replied, delving into her briefcase and pulling out a sheet of paper and a pen. "Since he couldn't reach you he's asked me to get you to sign this," she said, pushing the paper across the table towards him and holding out the pen.
Castle frowned in confusion and approached the table, glancing down at the paper. "What is it?"
"It's a contract relieving you of any obligations towards the precinct," she said simply. She had thought carefully about how to phrase that.
His head shot up. What the hell was this all about? Disappointment quickly developed into annoyance.
"You mean relieving you of your obligations towards me."
She bristled at that. "Hey listen Castle," she came back with anger, "I have no obligations towards you," she stressed.
He shrugged. "The precinct then." She was splitting hairs.
"I fail to see how the precinct is obligated towards you either," she pointed out.
Castle folded his arms in front of himself and stared at Beckett for a few moments before speaking, trying to figure her out. "We had an agreement. It seems to have benefitted us both. Why would you want to end that?"
She'd hoped that he wouldn't want to go into this. She sighed. "Because you're a writer and I'm a cop. Don't you think it's time that we got back to our jobs?"
"As far as I can see we've been doing that. You've been solving murders and I've been writing," he smiled, hiding his inner turmoil.
She sighed again. "No, I mean…I mean…" She faltered.
"What do you mean?" he cut in, scrutinising her face.
She ran a nervous hand through her hair. She didn't want to give too much away; she needed to win this battle but she really didn't relish him finding out why, uncovering all her ridiculous yearnings, and he was very observant. She would have to tread carefully.
"Look, the guys have been brooding away since you've left and they've lost their buddy. It's hard to get work out of them. You've come in, shaken the whole order of things up and left. I need order in my team and stability. You're…" she tried to think of the right word, "Unstable," she finally said for want of a better word.
He thought for a moment. "I'll come back," he said simply.
She put a hand on her hip. "What? And then leave again?"
"No. I'll come back for good," he replied.
"For good?" she frowned, searching his eyes, trying to find a way to break him. "Why would you want to do that?"
"Why would I not?" he countered.
"Because as you said, you need time to write," she replied.
"Yeah well turns out I'd be better writing back at the precinct. I need the ideas."
"Oh come on Castle, you must have got enough now to write fifty books!" she said in desperation, quoting Esposito.
She was trying to get him out just because he'd left for the summer and he wasn't going to let that happen. He hadn't wanted to leave anyway; he'd only done it because of Demming but if he had to put up with them two together to give him time to work on Beckett then that's what he would do.
He played his trump card. "You said that you've loved working with me."
He r eyes flitted from his. "I didn't say that exactly."
He smiled. "Sure you did right before you asked me to come back in the fall." He watched her intently, homing in on any reaction he saw.
"I didn't say that either, you're twisting my words." She began to feel trapped and awkward by the intense way he was looking at her. He could see her weakness and wanted more. He suddenly felt an intense need to hear her admit something.
"So the guys missed me then, what about you?" he asked in a soft voice.
Her heart thudded at his question. She shrugged, attempting to look casual but fiddled with the pen top nervously. "I've been busy," she replied, avoiding the question.
"So you haven't missed me then?" he pushed.
She frowned. "Not really," she lied.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "So in the whole of the last two months are you telling me that you haven't thought about me once?"
She felt trapped. "Castle, will you just sign the contract so that you can get back to being a writer and I can get back to being a cop!" she exclaimed with exasperation, holding then pen out for him again.
He looked at it and contemplated something. If she truly wanted him out of her life then he would sign it but she wasn't as good as she thought at hiding her emotions. He found it easy to read them in her face. He'd done it on the very first day he had met her when he had pretty much summed up her life and he'd seen the raw emotion right there.
"Okay," he said to her amazement, taking the pen suddenly from her and bending over the contract. He placed the nib over the dotted line and made a pretence of reading the details. She watched the nib hovering over the contract and suddenly felt cold fear grasp her. She took a breath to say something as she felt the panic take over but what could she say? She'd gone this far. A frown flickered across her brow, a telling Beckett sign of pain and confusion. Her eyes flicked from the contract up towards Castle and she suddenly couldn't breathe: he was watching her.