Chapter 7: Keep This Between Us
Disclaimer: Castle belongs to the genius that is Andrew Marlowe, and I hope you guys have figured out by now that I am not him.
Kate awoke to feather light kisses being placed on her neck and shoulders. She was sure that they had set an alarm last night, but clearly Castle had other ideas in how to wake her up.
"Morning," he said placing another kiss to her now bare shoulder. Her t-shirt had been bunched up, she was guessing by him.
"How did you know I was awake?" She asked.
"I assumed that you don't smile in your sleep, and you breathing lightened." He answered.
"Watching me sleep, Castle? That's a little creepy." She said turning in his arms to look at him.
"Just admiring, detective." He said placing a kiss to her lips.
"You have morning breath." She informed him, scrunching up her nose. "And what time is it?"
"Don't complain about my morning breath or no more of these for you." He said kissing her again. "And it's a little after 8."
"What time do we have to leave to be at the wedding?" she asked. He was tracing his hands all over her bodily sleepily, and it made it even harder for her concentrate.
"We should be good if we leave around noon." He replied placing more kisses to her neck.
"Castle," she said, shying away from him. "We should probably talk about this before tonight. You can't expect to just come up and kiss me and everyone just act like it's a normal thing." She said, sitting up to look at him.
"Kate," He replied, shifting to lean against the headboard, placing a hand on her knee. "I can understand if you want to keep this to ourselves for a bit." He finished.
"Its not that I don't want people to know." She could see the semi-hurt look on his face. "Its just that this is all so new, we are still testing the waters, I think we need to figure this all out before we go ahead and broadcast it to the world." She sighed, she had known last night that this conversation needed to happen, but it seemed to be a lot harder than she originally intended.
"I agree," He replied, much to her shock. "I just don't know how I'm supposed to last all day without doing this." He said kissing her. She leaned into him as his hand that was previously on her knee was now smoothing along her thigh and one of her hands had made it into his hair. As they broke apart and he leant his forehead against hers the smile couldn't be missed on either of their faces.
"I'm sure you'll survive Castle, you've only been doing it for 24 hours." She laughed.
"But you know how long I've been wanting to do it KB?" He asked jokingly. "Now why don't we head downstairs to make something for breakfast so we have time to get ready and leave by noon." He said climbing off the bed and holding his hand out to her. She too got up but snuggled into his side instead as the pair of them headed to the kitchen.
Kate found herself in the bathroom attached to the guestroom shortly after 11am. She had decided to do loose curls in her hair and was currently working on those while Castle was finishing getting ready and loading the SUV for the drive to Ocean City. It was only a little over an hour of a drive and Castle didn't need to be there for the wedding party stuff until 1:30pm, so as long as they left around noon they would be good.
Kate and Lanie had agreed to meet up, both having to be early because of their dates in the wedding party, and catch up before the wedding. Kate already knew she would be getting the third degree about what happened this weekend, she was definitely going to need some luck to lie to her best friend.
Kate had finished with her hair, done some light natural makeup with just a little extra sparkle to it, and now she had gone to pull out her dress. She was beyond anxious to see Castle's reaction to her in this dress. It hugged her curves, showed off the small of her back, and the v-neckline teased just a little bit. She was sure that Castle was going to have a hard enough time keeping his hands off of her after the new aspect added to their relationship this weekend, but with this dress, she was just adding to the fire.
She slipped into the dress and stepped into the 4-inch heels she had picked out for the night. She was sure that come the end of it her feet would be throbbing, even chasing down perps in NYC, she got to sit at her desk quite a bit and relax her feet. If she knew Jenny and Ryan she would be dancing into the wee hours of the night, and these heels seemed completely unforgiving.
She smoothed down her dress, fixed her hair, and touched up her makeup a tiny bit before grabbing her small bag that would still need to be placed in her overnight bag, which Castle had most likely already put in the SUV.
She had to admit that her favorite part of the dress was the extent it showed off her legs. The dress hit her mid-thigh, so it was definitely not too short, but just short enough that when matched with her heels it played off her long slender legs.
"Kate!" Castle called up from what sounded like somewhere near the front door. "Are you almost ready to go, KB?" He asked.
"Be down in just a second, Castle," She yelled in reply back to him. This was it, the moment of truth. Kate grabbed everything she had left in the room and made her way down the hall to the elegant curving staircase.
She saw Rick standing near the bottom of the stairs, he was looking outside, holding her jacket in his hand, and she let her heel click a little louder than normal along a step and broke him out of his trance.
"Kate-Beckett-I-Umm," was all he managed to get out.
"You just gonna stand there with my jacket Castle? Or are you going to help me put it on?" She asked teasing him. His mouth wide, his eyes big as they scanned over every inch of her body, from the tall heels that adorned her feet, to the hem of the dress hitting her thigh, and the way it showed off her figure, the jeweled halter strap, and finally her own eyes, meeting his, sparkling a little more than he was used to.
"I-Kate- you look gorgeous." He said finally feeling like he had found the words. He thought she always looked beautiful, but seeing her in this, he needed to pick his jaw up off the floor. He was a grown man, not a teenage boy seeing a girl in something that fit her perfectly for the first time.
"Thanks Castle, but you know, I really would love my jacket." She said rolling her eyes and laughing at him a bit.
"Right, of course." He answered her and slipping the jacket over her shoulders. Spinning her into his arms afterwards and meeting her lips with his own. She got lost in the kiss, she was matched in height with him with her heels on, and she used the opportunity to lightly nip at his bottom lip, as he had done so many times to hers. When the need for air became too much for either of them they broke apart. Kate found herself pressed between the wall and Castle's body, trying to place when exactly they had ended up in this position. His forehead was against hers, and his hands at her hips pulling her body flush against his.
"I just had to get one more of those in," he said giving her one more quick kiss. "Now lets hit the road KB." He said, grabbing her bag from the bottom step and heading towards the car.
The drive took a little over an hour in the good weather. They hadn't had any snowfall in the last few days so with the roads dry and mostly traffic free they made it to Ocean City with time to spare.
They headed into the hotel to check in and Kate was amazed at the room. He had gotten a two-bedroom suite, what a perfect gentleman he was, considering he would have booked the hotel much before the weekend and things changing between them. Kate said they may as well forgo the second room and she thought Castle's jaw was going to go through the floor again.
"You know Castle, just because you can't be all over me tonight doesn't mean I'm completely off limits, I mean everyone knows I'm your date to the wedding." She said with a little eyebrow raise. She did love to tease him, because he really was such an easy mark.
"And you Katherine Beckett, along with being my date tonight, may be the biggest tease I know." He replied, moving to stand in front of her and trace his fingertips along her side, sending shivers all through out her body, their eyes connecting in the heat of the moment. Rick leaned in to place his lips against hers when the two were interrupted by a knock at the door.
It opened to reveal Lanie and Esposito, both looking stunning and matching all done up for the wedding day. Lanie demanded girl time with Beckett before the ceremony began and Esposito was sent to get Castle to get ready.
Lanie and Kate proceeded to grab champagne and a quick lunch from the hotel restaurant while they passed the time and Kate surprisingly managed dodged every question Lanie threw at her about the intimate Hampton's weekend, which she only could have learned about from Esposito. She was going to have to kick Castle for not being subtle and demand that her learn that quality if they were going to keep any of this between the two of them for any more that a couple days.
Kate smiled at the thought of them keeping things to themselves for a bit, as much as she wanted everyone to know that her and Rick were finally taking that leap, diving into this head first, she loved that it was just between them for now. Nothing to worry about, no questions to answer, they could just be happy and the time would come when they decided to tell everyone. But for now it was for the best, they still had a lot to figure out, and she was sure it would all only be easier without the complications of everyone else involved and trying to explain themselves. They could worry about all of that later.
Authors note: So as always thank you for all our awesome reviews and alerts! And I hope you enjoyed Chapter 7. It was a little bit filler, but I had to get them out of the Hampton's and to the wedding location, so it served its point! Please leave me some feedback, especially all of you who have not done so yet, I love to know what you all are thinking (even if its completely horrible) I love every piece of feedback or suggestions!
Also, in a matter of hours I will be moving up to school. And unfortunately I may be without internet for a day or two, which means as much as I can write, posting wont be an option. Its also going to be a busy week for me, so I hope to have chapter 8 up for you guys soon, but I don't want to make any promises as to when it will be up because I am not exactly sure!
