A/N: Please note that the rating has been bumped up to M for this chapter.


"You're sure?" he asks, placing a palm to her cheek and skimming his thumb over the papery thin skin beneath her eye as he tries to breathe – the humidity of the air combined with the scalding heat of her hand making it hard to get a steady breath in.

The water sloshes and spills over as she cranes forward to touch her forehead to his, her hand still wrapped around the pulsing length of him, her other splayed over his chest, over the pounding of his heart.

"Yes," she promises, sweeping her lips over his. "I'm in this, Castle."

He reaches forward, turns the running water off before it can overflow completely, and secures a hand at her hip, aiding her balance while she rises on her knees. Her eyes flutter as she teases his tip through her folds, slick with more than water, and he clutches hard at her hipbone, sharing a gasping breath of relief with her when she finally sinks down, takes him deep inside, enveloping him in an all consuming heat.

He runs his fingers up her sides, over her ribs, feels the shiver that travels through her. She's taking a moment to adjust, dropping her forehead to the slippery slope between his neck and his shoulder, and he waits patiently, savoring the narrow, pulsing heat of her engulfing him. But then her hips roll, experimental and slow, and they both groan.

There isn't a lot of room in the tub, but Kate leans forward, drapes her body over his, sealing the warmed planes of their flesh together and it's already more than enough, almost too much. Sensory overload for a body that's been craving hers for so long.

Her arms hook around his neck, folding at his back, and her forehead returns to rest against his once more, the position so intimate, so close, he can't remember the last time he felt comfortable allowing another person to love him like this. But with Kate, the proximity feels right and he meets her gaze, sees her watching him with eyes molten and yearning, as if she's waiting for confirmation.

She holds his gaze as she undulates against him, deliberate this time, and the sparks of pleasure, the frissons of intense heat, burn bright across his body.

"I imagined us too," she tells him, the husk of her voice threading through the scant space between their mouths, and he thinks for a second that she may push him over the edge with her words alone. "I imagined doing this so many times."

Her hips shift and twist over his before she grinds. His breath catches in his chest, but it only takes him a moment to plant his feet to the slippery floor of the tub and meet her with a shallow thrust that makes her spine arch. She moans, long and breathless, digging her fingers into his back, and dropping her head to his neck.

The rhythm they find is gentle, a slow back and forth motion that eventually has the waves of cooling water swelling like the tide and lapping against the rim of the tub, eventually flowing over, splashing the wooden floor of her bathroom.

Her lips skim his neck, wet kisses from her warm mouth spreading heat along his throat, across the line of his jaw, and he pants her name, whispers breathless words of encouragement and worship and love against her temple, feeling her control slip more with each syllable that leaves his lips.

It isn't long before her muscles begin to clench around him, hard and tight, and he slips a hand between them, circles her clit, giving her the solid pressure she needs until she's going rigid against him, cresting on the wave of pleasure and breaking against the shoreline of his body with a soft cry. His own release follows all too soon, drowns him, the rippling aftershocks of her orgasm finally pulling him under deep and heavy.

When he emerges, he feels her trembling atop him, the water around them lukewarm now, and he tries to sit up, drain the tub and refill it with another batch of simmering water, but Kate shakes her head, dusting her lips along his clavicle.

"Not cold."

He relaxes back into the slick wall of the tub at that, revels in the warm and loose weight of Kate over him. Her body is like liquid, so pliant and boneless as her breathing finally calms from the short, sharp bursts against his throat, and when she doesn't speak again, he expects her to fall asleep just as he's tempted to.

"You love me?" she hums instead, the words torn between a question and a statement, one he can't refrain from responding to, especially when he knows the confession slipped into her hair only moments ago.

"I do," he murmurs, stroking the wet rope of her hair down her back, feeling her sigh beneath the weight of his palm between her shoulder blades.

The gentle curve of her smile brushes against his throat, traveling upwards until he tilts his head down, offering her the reverent press of his mouth. The caress of her lips, the tease of her tongue in his mouth, elicits a stir between them that has a wicked, satisfied grin tugging her lips upwards.

"It's mutual."

He stills, speechless and uncomprehending, frozen even as her lips continue to work against his at a languorous pace, but at his lack of participation she pauses.

"Castle?"

His body jolts with electricity, his heart filling with joy and disbelief and he stares down at her.

"Really?"

Her eyes soften, traces of sadness pooling in her irises, and she curls her fingers around his ear, stroking the shell with her thumb. "Yeah, Castle. I love you."

He resists the urge to haul her closer, knowing the rush of movement would have another wave of bathwater surging onto her bathroom floor, so he settles for embracing her tightly, resting his cheek atop her head and cradling her body as it relaxes deeper into his, the two of them one sated bundle of twined limbs in the confined space of her bathtub.

"Don't let me fall asleep," she mumbles, using her dripping fingertips to rub at her eyes after a few minutes.

Castle chuckles, blinking away the drowsiness clouding his own eyes. "Why? I'll keep you from sinking under. Good at that, remember?"

The light huff of her laughter against the exposed skin of his chest has him surrendering to a soft shiver.

"I'll dream, nightmares about the cold," she admits, taking a deep breath, her ribs expanding against his, before she grips at the edges of the tub behind him and pushes herself up. She rises from the water shimmering and flushed and the sight has him wanting her all over again. When he fails to follow suit and step out of the bath with her, she notices.

Kate offers him her hand and he sits up in the tub, unplugging the drain on his way out, and smiles when she drapes a towel over his shoulders. "Besides," she murmurs, smiling back at him with a sultry lift of her lips, barely taking the time to dry off before she's dropping the towel and feathering her fingers up his arms, coaxing him closer as she walks backwards towards the bedroom. "I don't want to waste time sleeping."