A/N: Okay, so here's a puzzle: a lot of people were hoping this story would head down the M route, judging by comments in reviews and a few PM's, and then when it actually did, the reviews fell off. Is that because: a) You don't actually like M? b) You didn't enjoy how the last chapter turned out? or c) Y'all are too shy to admit you actually read it? I'm just curious, not complaining. :)

If you didn't like it or don't like M, I'm afraid there's one more chapter like that before we begin to wrap this baby up. Hope you enjoy...

Chapter 11 – Flying

Kate reaches for the new bar of soap she laid out earlier. It's called Spiced Fig, which amuses Castle for some reason.

"Mmm, I like it. Even your soap is spicy," he teases, skimming her shoulder with his nails.

He flinches and then laughs in surprise when Kate turns around and flicks water in his face.

"Are you really wasting time mocking my soap, Castle? Hmm? When the phone could ring at any second and we'd have to leave things…hanging…hard as that sounds," she adds, curling forwards over her knees as she giggles quietly at her own joke.

Castle steals the soap from her, dips it into the water and begins to rub it slowly between his palms to work up a good lather. "Mean, Beckett," he grouses at her phone joke, since she already knows how on edge he is about her getting an untimely callout.

Kate turns her head to the side, her cheek pillowed on her hands. "Oh, now it's Beckett, is it?" she says with amusement.

"Mmm," murmurs Castle, a little distractedly, since he's currently focusing on the elegant arch of her back stretching out in front of him, the splay of her ribcage and the moguls of each individual vertebrae leading up towards that dip he wants to kiss at the nape of her neck. "Let's just stop thinking about the phone for a second. Because we…have unfinished business."

While he soaps her back, he insists he's going to wash her hair for her too. His large hands diligently smooth scented bubbles all over her flushed skin, and it's as sensual an experience as Kate could ever have hoped it would be – being washed by her partner. He remains behind her, hands sliding around beneath her arms while he whispers in her ear for her to close her eyes and "Just feel, Kate," as he runs his hands over her breasts, both at the same time, fondling their soft but firm texture, palms circling easily with the extra layer of lubrication supplied by the soap.

Kate groans when he squeezes her nipples in the pincer-like gap between his thumbs and index fingers, and Castle presses a kiss to the nape of her neck to soothe her.

"God, you devastate me," he whispers, grazing the very top ridge of her spine with the rough tip of his chin, before licking it and then blowing on the sensitive patch to confuse her senses all over again.

"Me?" Kate chokes out, drawing in a stuttering breath as he continues to touch her to distracting effect. "You're the one…oh, God, Rick," she exclaims, gripping the side of the tub again. "You're the one who just made me…ah, fuck! How the hell do you do that?" she cries out, half-laughing when he finds another surprisingly sensitive spot near the base of her back and massages it with just the right amount of pressure to make her moan aloud.

"I've been watching you, remember? You thought it was all just creepy staring on my part," he crows, fingers continuing to apply variable, intermittent pressure to precise points either side of her spine that she wasn't even aware were tense. "But I was gathering intel, Detective, getting to know my subject—"

"Your subject?" snorts Kate with considerable surprise and amusement.

"Okay, maybe I'm getting a little too…"

"Deep throat about it?" suggests Kate, with an amused chuckle.

Her choice of words has Castle coughing and fighting for breath.

"Deep throat? Beckett, really?" he squeaks in amazement.

"Castle, you just got me off in my bathtub. We have to be able to talk about this stuff. Anyway," she says, taking the bar of soap from him and lathering up to continue washing herself, "since when were you so coy about sex talk?"

"Coy? I'm not coy," he scoffs dismissively, reaching for her bottle of shampoo.

But she has just a little bit of a point – this is Kate he's touching, fondling, arousing and kissing and all the other magical magnificence in between. It's taking him some mental agility to get his head around the fact of her giving herself to him like this without breaking his fingers or putting a bullet in him.

For a man, Castle is surprisingly gentle and skilled with first the shampoo, which he of course uses too much of, leaving her with a mountain of suds on top of her head, slowly dripping down her ears, before sliding down onto her shoulders.

But he manages to rinse it off without getting any in her eyes and then goes on to coat her hair from root to tip in creamy conditioner. He instructs her to lean her head back, bracing her with his knees, while he massages her scalp so expertly that she thinks she might be in danger of coming all over again just from this skillful manipulation alone. His fingers knead her scalp from back to front and ear to ear far better than in any Manhattan salon she's ever been to, and tingles race up and down her spine the slower and more carefully he works on her.

It's still a little strange, still a little awkward, when any lengthy silence falls over them. But Castle being Castle, he mostly chats to her quietly while he washes her hair, and she loves him for it – for keeping up a crazy, funny running commentary to keep them both amused and relaxed. He injects stories about a stroppy, bossy, redheaded Alexis. Aged five, he tells her, she went through a phase of making him perform elaborate styles on her hair for parties or even first thing in the morning before school – like French braids - with his big hands.

"She made me work ribbons into her braids. Have you any idea how tricky that is to get right?" he asks Kate. "Then she complains 'Daddy you have such thick fingers and thumbs'," he says, mimicking Alexis' childish, high-pitched voice.

Kate clears her throat before she speaks, dropping her hand beneath the water to touch his knee. "Can I just say that I love your thick fingers and thumbs?" she blurts in confession, laughing when she hears herself, how dirty and inappropriate that sounds given he was telling her something his five-year-old child once said.

Castle chuckles when she dips her head, covering her face in her damp hands. "My God, that came out all wrong. I'm so embarrassed."

"Don't be," he grins, skimming down her arm with his fingertips. "I love your breasts, your…oh God, so much of you, Kate, it's not even fair to name everything or single out specific features."

"Thank you," says Kate, sincerely, catching his hand while it rests on her shoulder and turning her head to look at him.

"For what?" asks Castle, stilling, his fingers still trapped under hers, a puzzled little frown creasing his brow.

"For making this so easy. For just being you," she shrugs.

He leans down and kisses her fingertips. "No need to thank me, Kate. Why don't you just…show me," he adds, winking at her and then offering her his hand to help her up.

The water has started to cool and so they stand to shower off the soap and conditioner, finishing their ablutions separately before getting out.

They both get wrapped up in a single large bath sheet at first, giggling and kissing and groping one another, until Kate starts to shiver and Castle insists she dries off properly.

He wraps her in a fresh towel all by herself, tweaks the end of her nose and then gives her a little space to do her own thing, while he finishes drying himself off. He scrubs at his hair with the towel, skin pink and glowing from the hot shower, and then he winces as he asks her for a comb, hoping she won't tease him for being just a little vain.

"Ah, that perfect mane of Castle hair. And I thought it just magically styled itself," teases Kate, carding her fingers through the damp strands of his hair and teasing it into an exaggerated peak at the front that makes him look kind of Elvis-like, taking her back to that ridiculous trip he and the boys made down to Atlantic City. She's glad she has no real idea what went on there before and after she arrived.

Castle appraises her handiwork in the mirror and slowly shakes his head, before attempting to tame it back down.

"Hey," says Kate, giving him a nudge, "there's a comb in that middle drawer," she tells him, pointing to the far end of the vanity.

Once they're both dried off, Kate quickly blows the excess moisture out of her own hair with the hairdryer, while Castle wanders off into her bedroom to have another snoop about. He's wearing a fresh towel, slung low on his hips, and Kate bites her lip just thinking about what's going on underneath there. Though briefly sated by the fun they had in the bath, just being near Castle, being able to look at his naked body, touch his warm, soft skin, and kiss him whenever she feels like it is keeping her in a state of restless excitement.

When Kate comes out into the bedroom wearing a short, silky robe a few minutes later, the tie fixed sloppily in a bow by one hip, the front gaping slightly more than normal, she finds Castle studying a framed photograph of her and her dad which was taken during her period of recuperation up at the cabin.

He stands up guilty when her hears her come up behind him, drawing back a little from his close examination of the picture. She runs her hands up his bare back and out across his shoulders, finally settling them on his upper arms, and then she leans in to press a kiss against his spine, before resting her cheek on the back of one arm. She lets out a long, slow breath when she sees exactly which picture he's looking at.

"You look so…" Castle hesitates before he makes any further comment on the photograph, weighing his words carefully.

"It's okay," whispers Kate, rubbing her cheek against his arm. "You can say it. I look terrible."

"No," he says," putting the frame back down and turning round to face her. He rests his hands on her shoulders. "You look fragile is all I was going to say. Seeing that makes me want to protect you, to look after you, when I know you…you would never want me feeling that way about you. You're so independent, Kate. And while I love that about you – how strong you are – sometimes I just wish—"

He pauses, running his fingers over the silky collar of her robe, before he looks at her again.

"What? Go on. It's okay, Castle. You can say it. What do you wish?"

"That you'd let me help you more, confide in me. That you didn't feel the need to do everything by yourself all the time."

Kate drops her head and looks at the floor. When she raises it again, she's smiling.

"Well, there is this one thing I really don't want to do by myself," she says, gently tugging on the front of his towel and giving him a playful, saucy look. "Wanna help me?" she asks, backing away from him, beckoning for him to follow her with her finger crooked, her lip mischievously drawn between her teeth.

"Sure," he grins wickedly, before telling her in a more serious tone. "But don't think you're off the hook because you distracted me with sex, Kate. We will be returning to this discussion at a later date," he warns her.

"Sex? You thought I meant sex?" she jokes, only with a completely straight, even slightly shocked face.

"Why? What did you…?" mumbles Castle, standing stock still in the middle of her bedroom, the slight…disruption arising beneath his towel betraying him more than he'd like.

"I have uh…this…this light bulb in the kitchen that needs replaced and…well, it's a little beyond my reach…" she grins, trailing off when Castle finally spots the twinkle in her eye and realizes that she's joking.

"You little vixen," he grins, making the couple of long strides it takes to reach her. "Just for that you…you..."

"I what?" pushes Kate, arms crossed over her chest, one hip kicked out to the side casually, a 'gotcha' expression on her face as she watches Castle flounder for words for once.

"Just shut up and come here," he tells her, tugging on the satin sash on her robe to bring her crashing into him. "No more games, Kate. We're all done with games," he whispers, gently cupping her cheeks and kissing her softly on the mouth.

He presses his forehead against hers', peering into her eyes, so close that she's out of focus.

"Not all games, I hope?" she says, watching as Castle tugs her closer by the collar of her robe, until their hips are pushed hard up against each other.

He links his arms low on her waist behind her back, holding her to him.

"Just…no more misunderstandings, okay? I don't want us to go through another night like last night. I want to be in your life because I'm good for you, Kate. Do you understand? I—I don't want you to ever have to worry about me because I'm off on some stupid, self-indulgent bender or…or save me or protect me from anything."

Kate runs her hands up and down Castle's sides. "We work, Rick…together. Somehow we work, and in the beginning I didn't like it and I couldn't have explained why for the life of me that, out of everyone I've ever met, you were the one person who made me feel safe and cared for, understood and…yes, loved, I guess. Even from pretty early on."

"But that wasn't a good thing, was it?" says Castle, understanding that for her somehow it wasn't, not then.

"At first…no, it wasn't. I didn't want to like you, even though I loved your books. When I met you I was so…career-focused and serious. I was on this mission to bring my mom's killers to justice because I thought that's what I needed to do to survive, and you just seemed so…so frivolous…the life you led. Or at least the life I thought you led. That's how it looked to me from the outside anyway. You know what they say about not meeting your heroes…" she shrugs.

"So what changed your mind?"

"You did. Gradually. And there was Alexis of course. You were such a great dad, Castle, so dedicated to your little girl. That showed me a whole other side to you, a depth I had no idea was there. Anyway, my point is that I was wrong about you and I took far too long to trust you when all the evidence I needed was right there in front of me everyday you showed up…because of me."

"So then we're agreed? We can trust each other with more than just our lives from now on?" he asks, resting his hands on Kate's shoulders, realizing how ridiculous his statement would sound to anyone but them.

"You trust me with your heart? Is that what you're saying?"

Castle nods, tucking one quick drying curl behind her ear and then kissing the top of her head.

"I trust you with my heart, yes, since we've…cleared the air, so to speak. And I always trusted you with my daughter, Kate. I know you'd never intentionally hurt either of us. My mother? Meh," he shrugs, a wicked grin suddenly transforming his face into something fun and joyful, "you can do what you like with her."

Kate laughs, breaking up the tension in the bedroom.

"Your mom played a not insignificant role in getting us to this point, I'll have you know. Don't underestimate her. She's a smart woman. She didn't let me off the hook easily, I can tell you."

"Oh God," groans Castle, burying his head in Kate's neck. "What did she say?" he asks, his voice muffled by her hair and skin.

"It doesn't matter now," she tells him, stroking the back of his head, her heart stirring at the silky brush of his hair beneath her fingertips.

"No secrets, Kate."

"Okay, she just told me not to hurt you. That I should let you down gently," Kate confesses quietly, dipping her head.

Castle strokes her cheek with his thumb.

"Don't look at me like that," she tells him, wrapping her fingers around his wrist.

"Like what?"

"Like you feel sorry for me. She was just protecting you. And I'm not proud of the way I handled any of this. Don't think for a second that I am. I know I have a lot of making up to do…Alexis and Martha included."

"Making up," repeats Castle, stroking his finger over Kate's lips, his eyes locked with hers. "Sounds like it could be fun, Beckett. What do you say? Should we have a go at making up? See if we're as good at that as we are at solving crimes together?"

Kate smiles, a genuine, excited, sexy, flirtatious smile.

"You always know just the right thing to say, don't you?" she says, running her fingers along his jaw and leaning up to press her lips against his, so softly that he shivers and she notices his nipples tightening.

"I try my best."

"Professional pride, huh?"

"You know me so well."

"I'd like to know you even better," she whispers, kissing him softly at the side of his mouth and then brushing her nose against his cheek. "Would that be okay?"

Castle's eyes drift closed with the caress of Kate's eyelashes against his skin. "I'm sure it could be arranged," he breathes, fingers flexing against her silk-covered hips.

"No more games, remember?" she tells him, touching his eyebrow with a quiet, meaningful reverence.

"I'm not playing games, Kate. What you see is what you get."

"Well, I like what I've seen so far. How about we take this to bed and you show me some more?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

Castle leads Kate over to the side of the bed by the hand and then he kisses her again, with more fervor this time, stirring the passion that's been simmering between them both since they got into the bathtub together.

He breathes slowly, thumbs caressing her neck, hands resting lightly on her shoulders, as they take their time to explore one another more deeply, lips barely brushing and then sucking fiercely, tongues stroking hungrily; a ceaseless outpouring of the desire that they're finally acknowledging exists between them.

Castle's right hand slips from her neck and he slides one side of her silk robe off her shoulder exposing the smooth, tan orb of skin that's been hiding underneath. He breaks away from her mouth to kiss his way down along the curve of her neck all the way to her upper arm and then he repeats the same worship on the other side. Her robe is only held together by the loose tie at her waist now as it drapes down her back, hanging from each elbow.

"May I?" he asks, eyeing up the sloppy bow she's used to draw the two sides of her robe together.

He's holding onto one of the ends waiting for her permission to pull on it and have the whole thing fall wide-open to expose her glorious body to him again.

"You may," permits Kate, when his eyes rise from her midsection to lock with hers.

He gives the silky tie one sharp tug and the bow disintegrates before his eyes. When he untangles the remainder of the knot the robe parts in the middle, showcasing Kate's flat stomach, her firm, pert breasts, her silky curls and the long length of her legs.

"Just stunning," says Castle, his tone of awe not dimmed in any way from the first time he gazed at her naked body.

"Now my turn," says Kate, running her hand up Castle's arm, where he's reached out to place his hand on her waist beneath her robe.

She watches his throat bob a little nervously as he swallows, head dipped to watch her wrap her fingers around the tuck he's made in the towel he's wearing around his waist.

He glances up to look at her face and the expression of unabashed arousal he finds there makes him harden even more beneath the meager covering he has on. His state of excitement couldn't be more obvious if he tried, since the towel is now tented in front and threatening to part of its own volition.

Kate seems unfazed, if anything the way she's licking her lips proves she's getting more eager by the second. She gently pulls on the terrycloth, untwisting the turn he's made in the fabric. "Ready?" she asks, giving him a beautiful smile that is just slightly tinged with shyness he isn't expecting to see.

Before he can even answer her, she takes the towel away, tossing it onto the bottom of the bed behind her. She stares at him with hungry, possessive eyes, her cheeks, chest and neck all flushed pink at the sight before her.

"That fantasy you've been holding onto?" she says, reaching out to wrap her fingers around him, before proceeding to stroke Castle's length with her hand.

He swallows hard and reaches out to hold onto the nightstand for balance. "Yes?" he growls, covering Kate's hand with his own and joining her in the lazy, stroking motion she's performing on him.

"I want to make it a reality, Castle. Now," she says, her tone insistent, verging on desperate.

She releases him and shrugs the remainder of her robe off so that it falls soundlessly to the floor, leaving her completely naked, just like Castle. Then she sits down on the bed and immediately eases back to make room for him. She beckons him towards her, her thighs falling open in definite invitation for him to settle in between them.

When his naked body finally layers itself on top of hers, she thinks her heart might stop. She's breathless and they haven't done anything yet. His skin is warm and so smooth as he carefully moves on top of her. Her breathing gets faster, her heartbeat erratic, and by now her body is so aroused again that it's almost embarrassing.

Castle kisses her hungrily – her mouth, her cheeks, her neck. He lifts up a little so that he can get a better angle on her chest, slowly dragging the flat of his tongue down between her breasts until she's thrashing her head from side to side, gripping the covers in her hands and begging him to stop torturing her.

"Kate?" he finally whispers, cupping her cheek to get her attention and make her open her feverish eyes.

"Mmm?" she murmurs listlessly, stretching like a cat on the bed, her back arched and breasts pushed up high so that all Castle can do is stare.

He almost loses his train of thought. "Uh…do you have anything? Protection?" he clarifies, and her eyes fly open. "I'm sorry, I didn't exactly come…prepared," he admits, biting the inside of his cheek, feeling like an inexperienced teenage boy at his high school prom. "Last night…I wasn't exactly—"

"Nightstand drawer. My side," she tells him, falling back onto the mattress when he gets up to go look where she instructed.

She lies there thinking this is one other subject they need to discuss at some point – very soon – though not right now, since it might break the mood. She hears him slide open the drawer, find the box and then open it to withdraw one foil-wrapped condom.

A second later and he's back in front of her, crawling up over her body with a slightly embarrassed grin on his face. She looks down, sees his erection settling between her legs, rising high and proud towards Castle's stomach. He is spectacular in many ways, this man she's been lucky enough to find and fall in love with, and his physicality is just one of the many ways in which she's finding he surpasses her expectations.

He places the wrapped condom down on the bed off to one side and resumes his worship of her breasts, circling each nipple with his tongue, before sucking the peaked flesh into the hot, demanding cave of his mouth. Kate cries out when he draws particularly deeply on her left nipple, the suction powerful to the point of pleasurable discomfort for a brief second before he blows on the puckered flesh to soothe her.

"Oh God," she moans, clawing at his back, arching her hips up towards him when arrows of pain and excitement shoot straight from her breasts to her core every time he sucks a little harder.

"Please touch me," she begs, palming the back of his head.

Castle hums against her right breast and then releases it with a wet pop when he breaks suction. Kate stiffens when she feels his fingers creeping up the inside of her right thigh. He strokes higher and higher and she moves her legs even wider apart, so desperate for him to touch her that she makes this open invitation as obvious as she can.

"I love how into this…how eager you are, Kate," he whispers, moving his attention to her other breast just as he reaches the top of her thigh and lingers at the apex. "The golden zone," he tells her, flicking at her nipple. He strokes his thumb up into the sensitive dip of her groin, hovering there for a second, caressing the thin, taut layer of skin, before he uses two thick fingers to part her glossy folds. "God, you feel amazing," he exclaims, sucking down hard on her breast again.

Kate shudders bodily, squirming against his hand, seeking out more friction. "I love the way you touch me…like you've been doing it forever," she tells him, cupping the back of his head again and curling forwards to kiss his damp forehead.

She sinks back down onto the bed, her arms thrown over her head in a pose of pure submissiveness.

Castle runs one hand down over her long leg, reaching behind him until he can grab her ankle, and then he lifts her leg up and plants her foot flat on the mattress. This position leaves her even more open than before, and he uses that access to lean down between her legs, flick out his tongue and lap at her juice-covered folds.

Kate is going crazy, driven nearly out of her mind with desire. She fights the urge to squeeze her thighs together to make him stop as he quickly winds her higher, working her with practiced ease. She can feel her muscles fluttering already, an early spasm, and she desperately fights to tamp down her own excitement, to kill the provocative thoughts racing through her brain - that they're really doing this for the first time after all the months and months of desperate fearful longing that it would never happen. So she fights to blank her brain for a second, to regain a little control, because more than anything she wants to feel him inside her now. She wants them to be joined, for it to mean something, to finally make that special, most intimate connection that will be the last piece of the jigsaw for her.

When she can't take it anymore, she touches his shoulder, tightening her fingers around it to get his attention.

"Castle, please," she hisses, and he eventually stops laving her into a mess of sensitivity long enough to look up into her desperate face. "I want you inside me," she says simply, as honestly as she can. "Please? Let's make that fantasy come true."

Castle wipes his damp mouth on the back of his hand and then he nods. "I'd like that too."

Kate lies down again to wait for him, hears the sound of the condom packaging being ripped open, and then the papery whisper of Castle sheathing himself in the fine layer of protection. She's on pins and needles waiting for the moment of truth – when their bodies will finally be joined together after three years of badly concealed, and often poorly denied, foreplay.

She feels his hand smooth it's way up the outside of her left thigh and she casts her eyes down to watch Castle graze her clit with his tip, shooting sparks up her spine and making her muscles contract. She holds her breath, her entire body tingling and as alive as she's ever felt in her life while he takes himself in hand and prepares to enter her for the first time. He circles around a few times, coating the head in her body's natural juices and then he nudges at her entrance once or twice before slowing feeding his rock hard length into her, inch by inch. It seems to take forever for him to slide all the way inside her body, tip to root, until their pelvises kiss and they are entirely joined to one another.

Kate lets out a shaky breath and she feels Castle twitch deep inside her. She answers him with a quick squeeze and release of her internal muscles, and his eyes fly up to her face once he tears his fascinated gaze away from where his body disappears inside hers.

"Okay?" he asks her, solicitously, barely moving a muscle.

"Better than," nods Kate, smiling and reaching out to take his hand. "Move with me?" she asks, lying back on the bed and letting a sigh slip from her lips as he indulges her request, withdrawing until he almost slips all the way out, and then driving his hips forward again to push all the way back in.

He does this a few times – slow and steady – until Kate gets used to the girth and length of his body's intrusion into hers, and he feels her getting even wetter, her muscles relaxing around him, body stretching as she eagerly begins to move with him, setting them up with a regular rhythm.

"I dreamt about this," she confesses, letting the words fall out breathily from between her damp lips.

"Me fucking you?" asks Castle, enjoying the flush that flares on her cheeks and the dark flash that glints in her eyes when he talks dirty to her. He tucks this little gem away for future use.

"Yes," she admits, listlessly, reaching behind him to cup his right buttock and pull him more deeply into her.

The rounded muscles of his ass flex beneath her hand every time he moves his hips, and they're even more toned and firm than she always suspected they would be. Rock hard is the expression she wants to go with, thought this applies to more than one piece of his anatomy right now.

"Where was that?" he asks, coaxing the information from her, his hands on her hips, fingertips pressed into the small of her back, thumbs in the dips where her hipbones meet her flat stomach, as he braces her body to receive his more forcefully.

"LA," she stammers out, her body shuddering around his as he drives into her again. "We were in LA."

"For real or…" asks Castle, stalling in his smooth rhythm because he suddenly realizes that he actually want to know the answer.

"Yeah, for real. That night…in the hotel…and then again after we came home. Lots of times after that," she tells him, groaning in delight when he pushes particularly deep, catching her off-guard.

He withdraws again, circles her entrance with his tip, teasingly, and then pushes back in, moaning aloud with her at the thought that she wanted him this whole time; that he didn't create or imagine or overestimate their connection.

Their bodies are on fire, both of them hot and bothered, sweat beginning to slick the skin of their stomachs as Castle slides further up the bed, takes hold of both Kate's hands and links them with his own, raising them high above her head.

"I wanted you so badly that night," he confesses, thrusting into her just that little bit faster, until she catches up and begins arching her hips up into him at the same pace, abdominals and thighs flexing to meet every buck of his hips.

"Me too," she whispers, flicking her tongue out to wet her dry lips.

"Seriously?" asks Castle, clenching her fingers, spreading them wide between his own.

"I came back out to find you," she confesses, eyes burning the truth into him. "But you'd already gone to bed."

"God, no, don't say that," growls Castle, driving into her even harder in an attempt to eradicate the memory of all that wasted time and pointless miscommunication. He buries his face in her damp neck.

"Wouldn't have been the same," Kate assures him, shaking her head. "We're both free now," she whispers, carding her fingers through his hair, as they continue to slide up and down on her bed. "No regrets," she says, tugging on his chin, before smothering his lips with her own.

Castle is shaking all over by now, his muscles tensed, making love to Kate Beckett for the first time an overwhelming, cathartic experience that comes closer to 'fucking' for both of them than it does to loving; they're both so aroused, excited, desperate with anticipation and almost four years worth of horny appreciation for one another's bodies.

Kate lifts her legs higher, wrapping them around his waist to allow him to drive even deeper into her at a sharper angle, and this one simple act of urgent desire does it for Castle.

"Kate, not gonna last much longer," he tells her in a slightly panicked whisper.

"Thank god, me too," she tells him, hurriedly finding his mouth again and pushing her tongue inside to stroke against his.

They both speed up, finding a desperate, almost manic rhythm that carries them off towards a spectacular crescendo.

Flesh slaps wetly against flesh and they grunt. The bedframe creaks, and a lamp eventually topples over on the nightstand, but they ignore all distraction, too wrapped up in one another to even notice if her apartment was burning down around them right now.

"I love you," Castle whispers, letting go of her hips to raise his hands to her face and run his fingers through her hair, and then, drowning in his deep blue eyes and the truth of his words, Kate finally comes.

She stalls in her movement, breaking the rhythm they've perfected, her body growing rigid, stuttering against his, and she panics slightly, fearing she's broken the spell, until she sees Castle's face tense up, his expression of absolute concentration morphing into something closer to pain, if pain also means ecstasy, and then she feels him shatter with her.

His arms surround her suddenly, tightly, his open mouth pressed hard against her neck as their bodies shudder and quake with the power of their release coursing from him into her and back again.

"Oh…God," exclaims Castle, thrusting himself into her again; a slow, deep roll of his hips that strokes something deep inside of her and has her keening into his shoulder to muffle her cry, her teeth bared on a ridge of muscle.

They coast like this for many seconds, bodies slowly sliding together and then parting slightly, dragging out this first shared experience of carnal pleasure for one another, as wave after wave of ecstasy ripples through them. And they gasp for breath, skin damp and slick with perspiration, fingers clutching at each other, bruised lips coming back for more, sloppy desperate kisses that match the rolling of their hips, clinging on, chasing the last dying embers of their orgasm as if they'll drown without it.

Finally the flames subside, dying back to a pleasant hum that puts a smile back on both their faces – goofy grins they hide from one another - amongst the rumpled sheets in Castle's case, and in her partner's sweat slicked neck in Kate's.

They lie still eventually, coming down from the natural world's best high, until Kate feels Castle begin soften inside her, their skin drying in the warm bedroom air, bodies sticky and damp.

"Hey," she whispers, stroking her hand down his back, kissing his shoulder. "Castle," she says a little louder, moving her legs beneath him to stir his sex-sleepy body.

"Mmm, I'm here," he murmurs, needlessly adding, "Not sleeping, promise," heightening Kate's suspicion that he just might have drifted off momentarily.

"Don't get cold," Kate warns him, when she herself shivers, goose bumps racing out to texture her skin.

"Moving," mumbles Castle, bracing with his arms to lift his body off of hers.

Kate smiles and moans throatily, a lazy sound of pure pleasure, when she feels him slip out of her.

"Sorry if I was squashing you," Castle apologizes.

But Kate slings her arms around his neck and pulls him back down on top of her, smothering his yelp of surprise with a crushing kiss when he topples.

"Hey," he laughs, quieting her fierce kisses with gentle brushes of his own lips, stroking her cheek. "I like you like this."

"Needy?" she asks, bumping noses with him, while they smile and stare into one another's eyes.

"Clingy," grins Castle, flinching when she flicks at his ear. "What? You don't like clingy, but you're okay with needy?"

"My brain is messed up," she moans, shaking her head. "Pay no attention to anything I tell you right now. Wipe it from your mind."

"What if I told you that I think we're amazing in bed? Would you pay attention to me if I said that?" he asks, kissing her cheek and then returning to peck at her lips, over and over again - tiny, ticklish, feather light kisses - until she starts to giggle and squirm and finally pushes his face away.

"You're delirious," she tells him, poking him in the ribs. "We both are. Our brains have been wrecked by sex."

Castle grins down at her, holding her chin between his thumb and forefinger. "Wrecked?" he repeats, cocking one eyebrow at her. "You sound drunk, little lady."

"Little lady?" laughs Kate, her shoulders shaking.

"Kate, I really have to go to the bathroom," Castle explains, reaching behind his head to prize her arms from around his neck again. "Promise I'll come right back. But I have to deal with this," he says, looking down between their bodies, "before we make a mess."

He kisses her lightly on the lips one last time, before backing off the bed, laughing in surprise when Kate groans in displeasure at him leaving her alone.

As soon as he's gone, she flops back down onto the mattress, stretching languidly to ease the kinks out of her tired muscles from their recent exertion and from lying still for too long afterwards.

She's vaguely aware of the toilet flushing and then the sound of water running in the sink, since Castle has left the bathroom door ajar. But everything else just fades away into nothingness as she finally drifts off to sleep with a sated smile still on her face.

TBC...

Thoughts?