Hi! So the response from the first chapter is great, you guys make me so happy!
First things first, I promised you a URL at the end of last chapter and did not come through with that. Thank you to those who informed me about the spaces in the URL, I've never really had to know that before, so thanks for informing me. Here it is with the spaces (I hope):
www . dancedressshop . com/images/latindress/large/LD-SG1118 . jpg
Remember that the dress is red and the accessories do not exist (unless you'd like them to, I suppose, it's not that important).
Thanks to anyone who reviewed the last chapter, please continue to let me know what you think. And if you haven't reviewed it yet, feel free to start any time.
So… onward!
Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, own none of Castle.
"Hello all, I hope you all remembered your partners tonight!"
Kate looked around the room to see happily married couples, couples in love, everybody there was together.
Beautiful couples with arms wrapped around each other and completely infatuated looks on their faces. She looked to Castle, seeing that he wore the same sappy expression. But they weren't touching. In fact, they were much too far apart from each other—the odd couple out in the room.
She longed to be closer to him. He longed to wrap his hand in her's and tell her he loved her. She longed to tell him the truth, but she was afraid. They couldn't talk about it, though, it was as if the subject was taboo.
"Our first dance tonight will be "If I Loved You" from Carousel! Okay, assume the dancing position."
Beckett froze at that moment. She knew she wanted to tease Castle tonight, but how much could she stand? Did she really think this through? Could she stand being in this close proximity to him? Could she stand his arm around her waist, his hand in hers?
Castle pulled Beckett to him in one swift motion. His arm wrapped around her slender waist and his hand rested in the small of her back. Their eyes connected and suddenly, the whole room could have caught fire and neither one would have noticed. It was them and only them. Beckett slowly extended her arm for Castle to take with his free hand.
"Okay, before I teach you anything, let's see what you've got! Let the music inspire you, let it flow through you, let it be the guiding hand in all your movements." Martha pressed the play button and the music started.
But somehow I can see
Exactly how I'd be
Castle started to move with Beckett following his lead. The look in his eyes, the intensity of his gaze, it was as if he was teasing her back because the breath caught in her throat just as it had in his earlier.
Their eyes were hopelessly locked together, again, lacking the will to look away. Castle spun Beckett out.
If I loved you
Time and time again I would try to say
All I'd want you to know
Beckett spun back into Castle's arms, but barely paid attention to the dance anymore. The words to the song were hitting Beckett like a ton of bricks.
If I loved you
Words wouldn't come in an easy way
Round in circles I'd go
Longing to tell you
But afraid and shy
They were still moving in perfect time to the music, but Beckett no longer registered the movements. The words made sense! The words made sense. Beckett couldn't get over the fact that the words made sense. It was about two people—each too shy to express their love—so they couch their true feelings in the form of a question, and they pretend it hardly matters… when of course they know it does.
This song was her and Castle. She knew he loved her, remembered it perfectly and replayed the words frequently in her head. She loved him too, honestly, even the songs made sense!
I'd let my golden chances pass me by
Soon you'd leave me
Off you would go in the mist of day
Never, never to know how I loved you
If I loved you.
While Kate lost herself in the truth of the song, apparently she had unconsciously started singing along softly.
"My, my… Detective, what a beautiful voice you have." Castle breathed the words into her ear, sending shivers down Beckett's spine.
"Shut up, Castle." She took a step closer into him, knowing that surely would shut him up. Of course, it did because now her breasts were brushing up against his chest. She had finally regained her composure and remembered how fun teasing him could be.
Castle sputtered as he tried not to look down and stare. Just keep eye contact, look at her eyes, only the eyes. It became a mantra as they twirled around the dance floor.
"You know, Beckett, you're not half bad at this dancing thing," he choked out after Beckett fully extended her right leg straight up in the air when he dipped her for the final notes of the song.
Upon standing back up, she spoke into his ear, "I'm good at all sorts of things, Castle."
And yet again, Beckett had rendered Castle incapable of words or thought this evening.
Castle turned to look around the room, trying to find some distraction from Beckett's innuendos and his wild imagination.
He saw the mirrors, and the poles, and some mats in the corner. He saw couples in love who could hold each other close.
Oh, he saw his mother! That was good. Mothers are a fantastic distraction.
He cleared his throat, focusing on anything but the beautiful woman in the scanty red dress standing much too close… or maybe… not close enough.
After what felt like a thousand years, but in actuality was probably only a few seconds, Martha finally began to speak.
"Oh, darlings, you are fantastic! You don't even need me to teach you how to dance, you're all lovely."
Martha then taught a few tricks to feeling the music and creating choreography on the spot for events like weddings so they could always be the best dancers in the room. The most important piece of advice was to simply feel the music and each other.
"Okay my lovelies, it looks like we have a few minutes left, let's switch up the song and see what you can do, now!"
Martha looked at Beckett and Castle before she walked over and inserted a new CD into the sound system.
The music began, and Rick recognized the song instantly as one of his mother's favorite love songs of the theater: West Side Story's "One Hand, One Heart."
This could be a potentially dangerous song to dance to with Beckett, and he could see the fear in her eyes, too.
"Beckett, if you don't want to do this song, we could, uh… sit this one out or something."
Beckett truly was afraid of this song because of what it meant. She couldn't show Castle that, though.
"What do you mean, Castle? It's just dancing." She stepped way too close to him and wrapped a hand around his neck, waiting for him to assume the dancing position.
Castle gave in and he placed one hand one the small of her back and locked his free hand with her's.
Make of our hands one hand
Make of our hearts one heart
Make of our vows one last vow:
Only death will part us now.
Both of them were nervous; they felt feelings they tried so hard to suppress every day. And generally, they did a very good job at it. But here, now, in a room full of couples dancing to a beautiful love song only inches apart, their feelings could not be ignored.
Make of our lives one life
Day after day, one life
With Maria's words in the song, Beckett realized how much she actually would like one life with Castle every day for the rest of her life. There was no denying on her inside that she loved him, but she could not say it… not yet. She inched closer to Castle, to her man. And he was her's as she was his, even if they never officially decided that, it was plain to see. They loved each other.
Now it begins, now we start
One hand, one heart
Even death won't part us now
Neither of them noticed, but they both softly started singing to the song. They sung because they meant the words, maybe not the way Tony and Maria did, but they meant it in their own way. This was their start, and even through Montgomery's death, and her mother's death, and the countless other deaths she dealt with every day, she knew he would always be there for her. They were not making wedding vows as Tony and Maria, but they were definitely making promises to always stick together, and that was more than Beckett had ever gotten from anyone before.
Make of our lives one life
Day after day, one life
Now it begins, now we start
One hand, one heart
Even death won't part us now.
By the end of the song, Castle was rubbing small circles on the bare skin of her back. The things it did to Beckett… well it shouldn't be legal. It turned her on, more than a touch that slight should. Her breath quickened ever so slightly and she silently prayed Castle could not tell. After all the teasing she'd worked so hard at all night, his minor motions were a thousand times more potent. There was no waiting for him to cave and jump her tonight, his self restraint was too great. Her legs felt like jelly, she was amazed that she could continue their dance.
The very second the song ended, she whispered huskily in his ear, "Take me home, Castle, now."
Of course, he obliged. Like he could say no to her.