Disclaimer: Wouldn't get to write this either...
What If…?
More M Rated Content. Not suitable for reading at work!
Chapter 6: Shower Me With Compliments, Shower Me With Love
(Or as Castle calls this chapter: 'Just Shower With Me')
When Castle returns to the bedroom carrying two steaming cups of strong coffee, he notices immediately that he can't hear the shower running. In fact, he can't hear anything at all.
He saunters into the room still naked, almost whistling to himself he's feeling so chipper even though it's barely five o'clock in the morning, and then he comes to a dead stop when he sees his partner laid out in his bed, a sheet drawn up to her waist, pillow discarded by her side…sleeping like a baby!
Her face is wonderfully serene, a willo' the wisp of a smile playing at her sensual mouth. She hair is spread over the pillow on one side, curls tumbling over her forehead and obscuring one eye where she's turned her head to face Castle's empty side of the bed.
He has never really had the opportunity to watch her sleep before, and certainly not in his own bed. She looks so soft and unguarded, her dark lashes feathered down over the swell of her cheekbones, her skin pale, lipstick long worn off by the ravages of his mouth on hers the night before.
He pads closer to get a better look, quietly depositing the coffee cups on the nightstand.
Looking at her like this is close to overwhelming, feelings of love rather than lust filling his heart to the brim. Last night still feels like a dream he's going to wake up from, something ephemeral that will disappear when he tries to hold onto the memory too tightly. So this concrete proof that she is still here, that they spent the whole night together, and that they're making plans for this new day as if nothing about that is strange or unusual, fills him up with joy.
But coming back to his current problem: Detective Kate Beckett is asleep in his bed, they have a warrant to serve on a bad guy in less than an hour and both of her colleagues are expecting to meet them at this address just before the takedown, where there will be a team on site for back-up and Gates running point from the One-Two, no doubt.
So, what exactly is the protocol in this situation, he wonders? She looks so serene, so deeply asleep. Should he awake her? And if so, how does one wake one's…what even are they this morning? Partners still, no doubt, but is she his girlfriend? Not a one-night stand surely, but, are they friends with benefits? They haven't talked about any of this stuff, about what comes next, and…
Okay, Rick, breathe, he counsels himself, mesmerized by the rise and fall of Kate's chest…her very naked chest.
He decides he needs to take a minute, and he doesn't want to leave her looking so exposed, so he gently draws the sheet a little higher over her body, leaving just her shoulders bare, and then he turns away to go and use the bathroom, shaking his head, never imagining he'd see the day when he, Richard Castle, playboy extraordinaire, would be covering up Kate Beckett's naked body.
He uses the bathroom, washes his hands, brushes his teeth, splashes cold water on his face, and then stares in the mirror at himself, casting a critical eye over his own body.
He's not exactly buff, he knows, as he turns to the side, sucking in his gut a little as he checks out his own profile. He has been slacking a bit in the gym department lately, especially when depression struck over the state of his relationship, or non-relationship, with a certain female detective who is now sleeping not too far from him right now.
But Kate seemed pretty enthusiastic, pretty obviously turned on, when she saw him naked for the first time last night. She had blurted out "Fuck!" in fact, he thinks proudly, giving himself a more favorable once-over in the mirror, when she stripped his shirt off, and then when she tossed his pants…
He grins at himself in the mirror, full-on preening now.
Yeah, best night ever!
Castle rubs a hand over the dark growth at his jaw, rasping the bristles that he knows he is not going have time to deal with this morning. He spots several red marks around his neck, particularly over his Adam's apple, where Kate's teeth must have lingered, and there's a pretty livid bite impression on his right shoulder that he's fairly certain CSU would have no trouble tracing back to Kate. He touches it gingerly, nodding to himself with pride at this badge of honor, this little reminder, if any were needed, that he made Kate Beckett lose control last night…more than once!
When he steps back from such close inspection, he sees the dark circles under his eyes from an entire night spent without sleep, and again he grins to himself. Since it has been a long time for him since an entire night without sleep meant an entire night having sex, and never before with Kate. If he were entirely alone right now, he would be dancing, dancing his lucky little socks off.
But, first, back to sleeping beauty…
He leaves the bathroom to go and check on Kate. She is still sound asleep, and looking entirely too adorable now that she has rolled onto her side and tucked her hands under her cheek.
But she'll kill him if they're late for this bust, and he would really like the opportunity to stay in one piece right now, in the hope that he can persuade her back to his place tonight for a little follow-up research.
So he approaches quietly, so as not to startle her, and then he tenderly sweeps the hair out of her eye and off her forehead. She stirs slightly, and he steps back a little in panic, before reminding himself that he's supposed to be waking her up, not letting himself stare at her until she wakes all by herself to find him towering creepily over her…butt naked.
"Kate," he whispers, sitting down next to her on the bed, covering up his…m-modesty with the corner of the sheet.
"Mmm," she moans quietly, burrowing deeper into the pillow, and bringing a tender smile to his lips in the process.
"Kate, time to wake up," he sings quietly, smoothing his fingers over her bare shoulder and down her naked back, experiencing yet another surge of love in his chest for this woman, when he feels the warmth of her body under his hand.
"Castle?" she whispers, sounding a little confused, and he has a moment of panic, when his heart leaps into his throat that she's going to look at him sitting on the edge of the bed, naked as the day he was born, and she's going to scream out in horror, declare that last night was all a huge mistake and can they please just forget about it and go back to how things were before.
If she says anything in the vaguest regions of this he will be crushed, because after last night, there is no going back for him, only forward, forward, forward and more, more, more.
But all she says, with the sleepiest inflection in her voice, is, "What time is it?" and then, "Is that coffee I can smell?" once her eyes finally blink open and she smiles up at him.
"Time you were in the shower, I'm afraid," he says apologetically, handing her the cup of coffee as she struggles to a sitting position, completely ignoring the sheet he strategically placed over her chest when it slips back down to her waist again once she's upright.
The woman has absolutely no body issues he's discovering, no hang-ups, and he absolutely loves that, had no idea that she would be this open with him…immediately. In fact, if last night is anything to go by, she revels in her ability to turn him into quivering pile of goo with the barest swing of her hips or a slow bat of her dark and dangerous lashes.
She sips the coffee for a quiet second, and then hands him her cup, running her fingers through her tousled hair and raising her already perky breasts even higher in the process.
He's so flustered by this half-naked vision of all he's been yearning for for the best part of four years finally sitting up in his bed, that he takes a quick swig of coffee from Kate's cup, completely forgetting his own.
"Sharing coffee already?" she points out, nodding in his direction, and he freezes with the porcelain halfway from his lips. "You'd better get a taste for sugar-free vanilla in that case, Castle," she teases lightly, taking the cup from him again, and draining the rest of the contents.
And bizarrely, this might be one of the most intimate moments he thinks he has ever shared with any woman.
Kate nudges him off the bed so that she can get up, and once they're both standing, she gives him a very heated, very slow once over.
"Looks even better in daylight," she comments flippantly, before turning away to saunter into the bathroom with a mischievous grin on her face.
Castle trails after her like an obedient puppy, but she closes the bathroom door in his face, calling out, "I draw the line at letting you watch me pee," so that his face goes bright red.
He hears the shower being turned on, and then the barest of mellifluous notes when Kate starts to sing something he can't quite hear, and before long, the door is thrown wide again and he is apparently permitted to enter his own en suite once more.
Kate is hovering in front of the vanity mirror, in a pose vaguely reminiscent of his own from just a few moments ago.
She's touching her fingers to her neck, and when he stands behind her, he sees what she's examining: a red and purple mark that must have come courtesy of yours truly the night before.
He braces himself for a telling-off, a flash of anger, some rebuke about how she can't go in to work with a giant love bite on her neck. But it never comes. She just grins back at him and then sighs, turning away from the mirror to wrap her arms around his torso and kiss his bare chest, and it's such a natural, loving gesture that it kind of takes his breath away.
"I'm gonna need your help this morning," she says, kissing his neck now, as she moves in even closer, pressing her impressively flat stomach against his hip.
"Name it. It's yours," he croaks, feeling himself responding with embarrassing speed to having her this naked and this close to him, draped all over him in fact, his writer's brain helpfully supplies.
"I have some cosmetics in my purse, but…does Alexis have any concealer, do you know?"
"Uh, concealer? Sure, she has a ton of stuff up in her bathroom. Why don't you just go up there and help yourself after you shower?"
"After we shower," corrects Kate, smoothing her hand across the firm plane of his chest, down over his stomach, and then even lower, until suddenly she's stroking the hard outline of his cock.
"Uh, Kate…?" he chokes, dropping his eyes down to watch her caress his still growing erection with complete and utter fascination.
"Mmm?" she hums, letting her clever fingers skim below the base to tease the soft, sensitive skin underneath.
"Sweet Jesus!" he curses, rising up on tiptoe in response to this unexpected invasion.
"Something the matter, Castle?" she smirks, kissing his shoulder, as she returns to smoothing her hand up and down his shaft with a rhythm that he's finding hard to resist joining, while she tightens her grip around him.
He manages to stop himself from pumping against her fisted hand, but only barely. And it seems Kate is not to be dissuaded. She draws him over to the shower stall, by his wrist thankfully, and then backs him inside.
It is a huge shower cubicle. In fact, you would have no problem fitting the Giant's entire offensive line-up in here, it's so huge, and there's a small bench built into one side, which Kate immediately has her eye on.
"Do we even have time for this?" squeaks Castle, watching Kate hungrily as she lets the spray from the shower start to run over her back and shoulders and then cascade down her entire body, sparking off her breasts as it hits the raised peaks of her nipples when she throws her head back in what looks suspiciously like ecstasy, her eyes fluttering closed on a throaty moan as the warm water soaks through her hair turning it almost black.
"Things would progress a whole lot faster if you weren't standing way over by the door," she says coyly, holding out her hand to him, while chewing her lip with just the barest hint of shyness and uncertainty.
Well, if she doesn't want to hurry, who is he to clock watch. He's only the Civilian Investigator after all, so what does he know about takedown protocol. Kate Beckett is naked in his shower, and she wants to have sex with him…again! So, who the hell is he to knock her back?
"Oh god, you feel so good," she murmurs, kissing him while she turns him around until he is the one standing under the spray from the large rainfall showerhead.
"Seriously?" he mumbles against her lips, skimming his hands up and down her back, cupping her deliciously pert ass. "You too."
"Mmm, come over here," she growls, taking his hand again and leading him closer to the little bench.
She guides his hand between her legs without any preamble, and Castle nearly yelps when he feels the slick of slippery wetness that's waiting for him.
"Holy fuck," he whispers, surging against her mouth, while his flattened fingers begin to slide back and forth between her silky folds.
Kate starts to moan loudly, clinging onto his shoulder and side, as she rocks her hips over his hand, breathing heavily.
She opens her eyes, checks behind her and then raises one leg up to place her foot flat on the bench, immediately opening her legs wider and exposing more of herself to him.
Castle is so lost in touching her, occasionally dipping his fingers inside her, his mouth hotly sucking on her breast, that it comes as a bit of a shock when she pants breathlessly in his ear, "We don't have much time. Need you. I need you inside me."
Then her fingers are grasping his erection again, guiding him towards her, before everything becomes kind of a blur of blinding arousal and uncontrolled lust.
He pushes into her quickly this time, stifling her gasp of surprise with his mouth and the hot intrusion of his tongue, and then they begin rocking together immediately, the rhythm much faster and more urgent than the night before.
Kate wraps one arm around his neck and braces her free hand behind her against the cream tile, while they fuck, the only word for it, fast and furiously under the jet of steaming hot water.
"This is so freakin' hot," exclaims Kate at one point, laughing as she arches her hips up to meet every thrust, beautifully breathless and giddy, her cheeks flushed from the heat and exertion, while he watches her abs clench and contract with equal parts envy and admiration.
He's assuming she doesn't mean the water is hot, more that they are, and as he feels her getting closer, her movements slowing as she grinds fully against him, clenching her inner muscles tightly around him, he lets her set the pace so that she gets exactly what she needs to come first this time.
"Mmm," she hums again, licking her lips. "I'm almost there, Castle. Touch me," she whispers, plucking distractedly at his arm.
Castle lets his fingers trail down over her stomach, leaving her breast with some regret, and then he presses the heel of his hand into the soft hollow of her abdomen, just above her pubic bone, while his index finger slides lower, parting her folds a little to find the tight nub of nerves of her swollen clit.
"Oh, yes, right on the money," she grits, clenching her teeth, as he begins to circle slowly, brushing the slightly uneven texture made by every arch and whorl of his fingertip over the sensitive bundle of nerves.
He can still feel how wet she is, despite the water from the shower washing over them, the slick, clear, gel of her arousal coating his fingers and easing the path across her swollen flesh.
She drops her head into the crook of his neck when the inevitable wave hits her, clinging to him for support, her mouth open on the soft skin covering muscle and tendons, and the water sloshes over them both, shooting out sideways to spray the walls on either side of the shower.
"Oh, god, Rick," she cries out, nails digging into his back, as he begins to feel her buck and flutter and then still when her orgasm hits hard.
He doesn't need any other prompting to finish off himself. One look at the ecstasy on her face, one glance at her seriously hot body clinging to his and then the shudder that passes though her as her climax reaches it's peak, and he is gone.
He feels Kate's lips brushing breathlessly against his own, her tongue licking at the seam of his mouth and then entering to stroke softly inside as he flexes his fingers on her hips, preventing her from moving while he spills inside her, over and over.
He lets out a slow breath once the peak of his climax passes, and comes round to feel her fingers massaging his scalp, while she gracefully lowers her leg down from the bench to stand on two feet once more.
"Best morning ever," he whispers stupidly, kissing her lightly.
"No arguments here," she whispers, kissing him back. "Except we might now be really late," she adds, biting her lip and cringing a little.
"Whatever I can do to help. Just let me know."
"Shampoo and conditioner would be a start," she says, glancing around.
"Here," says Castle, handing her some fancy European brand that smells of citrus and him, and that it faintly excites her to be using so soon.
"Let me soap up real quick and I'll get out of your way," he offers, grabbing a large bar of creamy soap from the dish that's built into the wall, beginning to lather it between his hands immediately.
Kate watches him for a beat or two, holding the shampoo bottle in her hands, a kind of stunned smile on her face.
"What?" asks Castle, blushing and hesitant, as he begins to spread the creamy foam across his chest and under his arms, working quickly and vigorously.
He looks down at his own body to see what she might be looking at, to check that nothing is awry. But everything seems normal, and when he looks up at her again she's still smiling.
"Kate?" he laughs, embarrassed now, and feeling self-conscious. "What are you…? You're staring," he exclaims, still laughing nervously.
"Mmm. At you," she agrees, coming towards him.
She kisses his jaw, the side of his mouth, playfully nudges her nose against his, and then scoops a large mound of foam off his chest and begins rubbing it over her own breasts.
"Oh, you are too much. Way too much," he laughs, spanking her on the ass when she turns her back on him with a mischievous grin.
"Hey, you wanted it. We opened Pandora's box, Castle. No going back now," she tells him with the sauciest smile he's ever seen, before pouring shampoo into her palm and bending forwards to begin washing her hair.
They hurry around one another, trying to get ready as fast and as efficiently as they can.
Kate applies what little make-up of her own she has with her, everything except her liquid liner unfortunately, which leaves her looking younger and less wide-eyed than she normally looks. Her hair gets toweled dry quickly and then she fixes it into a tousled bun, pinning it in place with some bobby pins she managed to find in a zipper pocket in her purse.
They throw on clothes in kind of a random fashion. Even Castle's normally fastidious attire is thrown together, though he does draw the line at donning the grey sweat pants from the night before.
Kate borrows underwear from Alexis' clean laundry and makes Castle swear to never ever tell his daughter that she did so, on pain of never having sex with her again. Though he secretly thinks that not even she would be able to hold to that promise if required.
They finally meet at his front door with ten minutes to spare, breathing heavily, looking a little frazzled and a whole lot sleep-deprived.
"Oh god. We are totally busted when they see us," says Kate, giving them both the once over.
"What makes you say that?" asks Castle suspiciously, running a nervous hand through his already perfect hair.
"We look like we've been up all night fucking each other's brains out is why," Kate tells him candidly, as if pointing out something blindingly obvious, which she obviously thinks this is.
"Nah," says Castle, shaking his head as he grabs his keys and opens the front door for her. "Don't worry. Relax. You are over thinking this, Kate. No one will even notice."
Ah, such famous last words…
A/N: Wow! So y'all loved the last chapter! I did as instructed and took my laptop into hiding so that I could keep writing, and as it turned out, they obviously weren't quite finished…eh…enjoying one another yet, so I'm afraid the story still has a little more to go, as usual with me.
Thank you for your support once again. Probably one more chapter left…I think. But please don't hold me to that. Liv