Hey guys! Sorry it has taken me so long to get to this. I know, I suck, but whatever. Anyway, I am currently working on finishing this one up - maybe a few more chapters if people are interested and working on additional chapters to my longer stints - Never Know and Method. Anyway, maybe if were lucky, I will finish up my online course sooner than expected and get that all out on paper. I wish I had had the opportunity to update more frequently of late, but you gotta do what you gotta do, eh? Anyway, I hope you like this and we will see where it goes. Enjoy.
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"Ahhaha." Grinning like the idiot Kate assumed him to be, Castle jumped to his feet and grabbed her glass, placing it on an empty table to their side. Turning toward the crowd, he made his way back to where they had begun. Noticing quite quickly, however, that Beckett was not at his side, he returned to hers. "Hurry up. Hurry up!" Grasping Kate's wrist, Rick pulled her gently toward his destination and gestured toward the stage in a wild manner.
"Sixty-five hundred," a woman called out from somewhere within the crowd.
"Seven thousand," Ruthie, the woman who seemed to be a little too enthralled with plastic surgeons, countered. The stakes were getting high and Beckett knew that if she were betting her own money, she would have lost long ago.
"Come on!" Castle urged Beckett, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet next to her.
Brow furrowed, she turned to face Rick. "Seven thousand dollars? Are you kidding?" Kate shook her head. The look on his face told her that he was not.
Richard shook his head right back at her, grabbing her shoulders for added effect. "Kate! You forget that I'm paying for this, not you! Just bid!" As if in a wild bout of mania, Richard gesticulated about the room.
Ignoring his actions and focusing instead on his words and tone of voice, Katherine scowled. "I don't think I like your attitude," she informed him as she crossed her arms.
Castle slapped his hands to his face, slowly dragging them down over his eyes with much more pressure than necessary. The situation was getting the better of him. "Kate!" he yelled, grabbing her bicep in his large hand. "You're not getting the whole saving me thing here, are you?"
"Fine!" she exclaimed, prying her am quickly from his grasp. "Ten thousand!" Kate bellowed in the direction of the stage. Her eyes never left Castle's as if she was daring him to challenge her.
Scoffing at Beckett's bid, he leaned closer than was necessary before whispering into her ear. "Ever hear of small increments, Kate?"
"Do you want some bimbo to win or are you gonna let me bid?" Shaking his head and then nodding at the appropriate times, Kate understood that Castle was giving her permission to do whatever it took to win that auction.
"Eleven thousand!" yelled Ruthie, or as Kate had begun to call her in her head, Betty Big Hair. It was then that Beckett realized not only that did she not want this woman to win a night out with Castle, not only that she would be jealous of anyone who did, but that she wanted, actually wanted, to win this auction. She would go through the particulars of it with Lanie later, but for now, it was time to focus on winning herself a man.
Without delay, Kate offset Betty Big Hair's top bid. "Fifteen!" She was becoming frantic and wondered idly to herself how far she would continue this game in order to win.
Sensing an odd lull in the storm of action, Castle sprung on the opportunity to end the monstrosity of an auction once and for all. "Fifteen thousand going once!" he shouted to no one in particular.
As if taking great offense to his words, Martha grimaced at her son. "Hey, that's my job." Waiving the book in the air as if to clear it, she continued with her duties. "Fifteen thousand dollars going once…" Pausing long enough to allow a counter bidder to make an offer, she searched the room. "Fifteen thousand going twice…" A small pause again caught the room in silence.
"Oh, please god!" Castle murmured to himself, quiet enough for it not to travel across the room, but not so quiet that Beckett herself could miss it. Rolling her eyes while trying to hide the smile playing at the corner of her lips, she stared instead at the stage.
Raising the novel in her hand, Martha shouted toward the crowd. "Sold for fifteen thousand dollars to Katherine Beckett!" Kate felt an odd floating sensation. She had won.
"Yes!" Castle shouted, dragging the word out longer than necessary. Sensing the angry glances thrown at Kate from seemingly every other woman in the room, he offered condolences. "Sorry ladies, don't feel bad." Grasping Beckett's hand, Castle led her toward his mother and the stage.
"Please come claim your prize," she urged. "I see you already have your date." The smug smirk that played across Martha's face caused her son's mind to reel. Had she planned this? Did she expect the entire thing to play out in this fashion. He had the feeling that she had. His mother was conniving like that. However, he couldn't find it in his heart to be angry with her. She had accomplished something he had been trying to do for months. Martha got Kate to agree to a date with him, Richard Castle, and just the thought brought an enormous grin to his face. As they reached the stage, Martha handed the book down to Kate. Castle promptly fished his checkbook from his breast pocket and wrote the check, ignoring the questioning eyes of the crowd. Obviously, it would look quite odd to be paying for your own book, but he didn't really care. He had a date with Beckett.
Rick extended his arm toward her. She took it gently with her free hand, grateful to have something else to do than fidget. Leaning down to her ear as they made their way through the parting crowd, he inquired, "So what do we do now?" As they approached a table just beyond the throng, Castle released Beckett and pulled out a chair for her.
Sitting down, she shook her head. "We keep looking for our perp, Castle."
Sliding her chair into the table before sitting beside her, he pulled the book from her fingers. "No, I mean about this," he said, shaking it before her face.
Katherine smiled and rolled her eyes at the man next to her. Holding up a hand, she shook her head from side to side. "I've already got one, thanks." Reaching for the fresh water glass before her, Katherine took a sip, blatantly ignoring Richard.
Sighing with exasperation, he tossed the offending article onto the table. "Not the book," he wailed, sounding more like a small child than a bestselling author. "You know," he said, wiggling his eyebrows as he leaned toward her. "You won, and that included the pleasure of my company."
Kate chuckled, glancing at the glass in her hands. Taking in the sight of the pathetic man before her she almost smiled. "Castle, I am burdened by the 'pleasure of your company' every single day. I think I'm good."
Castle's mouth dropped open into a wide gasp. "Kate, I am insulted. You have hurt my feelings. I will now proceed to pout." Closing his mouth and puffing out his lower lip, Richard leaned closer to the woman next to him.
"Pout away, Castle," she told him, drinking once again from the water in her hand, wishing that it were the vodka she had finished all too quickly.
"You know," he began, pulling his glower back into a normal expression. "Kate, your complete disregard for my wellbeing is really upsetting."
"Shut up, Rick." Kate attempted to hide her smile behind the sheer glass of water as Castle leaned in impossibly closer.
"I will if you go out with me." His suave, debonair tone cut into her conscious mind and it was all she could do to keep her gaze away from his face.
"No." Katherine stated bluntly. "I already performed one good deed tonight. Another," she continued, gesturing with her glass, "will throw off the earth's gravitational pull." Richard Castle scoffed.
"Going out with me is a good deed?" A smile began to grow on the detective's face as she attempted once more to keep her gaze on anything but the man on her left.
"Yep."
"Monosyllabic woman strikes again!" Richard rolled his eyes theatrically before finally seeing the smile plastered across his companion's stunning features. "Wait!" His exclamation shocked Kate, causing her to focus her attention fully on him once more. "Yep? Like yes, you will go out with me?" It was Katherine's turn to roll her eyes.
"No, Castle. Yes to your previous question," she clarified, folding her arms across her chest as she placed her glass down before her. Castle cocked his head to the side as if trying to remember, his patented brow furrow beginning to grow upon his forehead.
"What previous question?"
Beckett closed her eyes and sighed heavily through her nose before continuing. "Good lord! Your petulance resembles that of a two year old child." Castle turned to her once more, seemingly put off by her comment.
"Yeah, and you're 'miss flexibility' over there?" Using air quotes, Castle added his own flair to what was quickly becoming an interesting conversation. Kate lifted her chin to give an air of poise before gracing him with a remark.
"As long as everything is exactly the way I want it, I am completely flexible." This is exactly the sort of response Castle had been expecting, and he was prepared with his own quick retort.
"Oh yeah?" He prodded. "And what do you want?" By this point, Castle was within a few inches of the detective's face. She was not going to be able to back down from this particular challenge. Rick would see to that.
"Huh?" Katherine's mind was fuddled by the unexpected proximity of the man who called her his muse. The faint smell of his Armani cologne overpowered her senses. All she could think about was getting closer to see if she could possibly smell his musk through the intoxicating scent. She imagined herself leaning in towards his neck. Her tongue would dart quickly out. Would he taste as good as he smelled? If they were to dance, she would be able to nonchalantly rest her head against him and take in his scent without him even knowing. Kate imagined that she would lay her head upon his shoulder press her delicate nose against the crook of his neck, breathing him in.
"Eloquent, Kate." His crisp, seductive voice curbed the barrage of images racing through her mind. "What do you want?" His minty breath flew across the contours of her face, bringing her back to reality. Without even thinking, she answered.
"Let's dance." Even though Beckett had acted on impulse, she was not upset with her actions. She really did want to dance with this man. She wanted him close, especially with all of those piranhas flitting around the ballroom.
"Really?" Castle wondered, an unquenchable grin unfolding on his lips. "I thought you didn't dance." Katherine bit her lip, quelling a grin of her own.
"I'm a compulsive liar." One eyebrow raised, she awaited his reaction, hoping it was a positive one. When they had been dancing not fifteen minutes earlier, she swore she had felt something – a moment between the two of them.
"I'll remember that." Castle stood, holding out his hand as he took a slight bow, unaware of the jealous stares of several women across the room. "Well then, may I have this dance?"
Katherine Beckett smiled, well aware of the covetous glances directed toward Castle as she allowed the attractive, pain-in-the-ass writer to lead her out to the dance floor. For now, she didn't have to worry about them; the 'White Whale' was all hers – at least for tonight, and for now, that was all that mattered.
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End of Chapter Notes: Review please! If you want to, that is. I love you, I love reviews, and I love pie. I made some today, btw. Peach. Didn't turn out half bad if I say so myself. :) Wanna know what perturbs me of late? Why is the grocery store called Von's in southern California, but Safeway everywhere else? That's just stupid!