WARNING: Rated M.
Fantasy Fridays
Chapter Fifteen: Rabbit Beach
"It can't be much further," Kate says, flicking the flashlight over the slick black walls of the cavern.
Castle picks his way gingerly across the rocky ground, struggling to keep up. She's the navigator, and he's in charge of carrying all their stuff: the white towels supplied by their boutique hotel, a stack of books (because they go through a few each day), the cooler, even a beach umbrella. Thank goodness she talked him out of bringing the folding chairs.
They left New York - and D.C. - behind on an impromptu getaway, and she's blooming in a way that he hasn't seen since their first summer together. She was getting restless and bored, and when she'd been out of a job for a month and there was no sign of the NYPD having her back, he knew it was time for distraction techniques. And no one does distraction techniques like Rick Castle.
They work their way through the twisting tunnel and daylight fades up on them in a welcome glow. The concierge at the hotel had warned them the tunnel would be pitch-black and the path treacherous, only for the most able of tourists. They'd scoffed - don't they know who we are? - and headed out to buy the most serious flashlight on the island.
He thought his suggestion of picking a vacation destination from a map - whilst blindfolded - was a great idea. But when Kate's thumbtack had landed on an island so far off of mainland Italy that it was closer to Tunisia, he'd almost chickened out.
Castle blinks when they step out of the tunnel. The beach certainly hadn't been easy to get to, but it's so worth it.
The late afternoon sun sizzles on the horizon over the textured navy of the Mediterranean.
Kate turns and flashes him a wide grin, picking up her pace as she skips down the white sand embankment. She soaks up the sun and reflects it like some sort of goddess, even though she's several shades paler than the people on the beach below them.
And once her toes are in the water, splashing through the thin strip of beach that leads to the wider sprawl of sand where all the people are, Kate peels off her bikini top.
Castle trips over a grassy reed and the contents of the bag go sprawling.
Kate turns and laughs, giddy at the sight of his gaping mouth. Her breasts are paler than her bronzed shoulders, and they bob as she trots towards him to help him pick up their stuff. But before she bends over, she drapes her bikini top - there wasn't much of the gold shimmering fabric to begin with - around Castle's neck.
"Cat got your tongue, babe?" she asks.
"Um. You just took off your top."
"Observant," she laughs, then takes the umbrella from him, spinning it over her shoulder and carrying on towards the beach.
Castle stands in shock, the beach bag hanging limp from his hand. Is the formidable Detective Katherine Beckett prancing on a beach topless? Have his wildest dreams come true?
He trips over himself to catch up to her, and when they get close to the sunbathers, he gets it.
It's not just any beach. It's a nude beach.
Well, clothing optional, it appears, because about half of the occupants are sporting their birthday suits. His brain nearly goes into nuclear meltdown.
So. Many. Boobs.
Kate looks back at him and laughs again. His eyes dart from her face to the bare and perfect breasts he knows so well, then into the distance behind her where a myriad of other chests are on display, and shit, he thought he was roasting before…
"Come on, Rick, when in Rome…" she says.
He almost points out that they are most definitely not in Rome, because people wear clothes in Rome, but as usual, he's curious. Has to dig for the story.
"Did you know?"
"Know what?" Her tongue peeks out from between her teeth. Oh, she is a little minx today.
"Did you know that this was a nude beach?"
"Well, of course I did, Castle, the concierge told us."
"Oh, right, right. Except that I don't speak Italian."
"Neither do I," she grins. Damn her and her uncanny ability to pick up the basics of a language from a stupid phrasebook. She'd summarized the conversation for him, conveniently leaving out this little tidbit.
She steps into him, walks her fingers up his chest where his flimsy t-shirt suddenly feels like a fucking fleece bathrobe. He'd laugh and make a joke about being overdressed, but he's a little distracted. Her devious fingers slide down to the ties on his board shorts. She winds the strings around her fingers and tugs the bow free.
He grabs her wrist.
"Uh. Maybe not just yet," he mumbles.
Her eyes sparkle. He wonders if he's ever seen her so radiant. She tucks her hand into the crook of his arm and they pick their way down the beach, looking for a spot. And every time he looks at her, he does a double take, because she's still topless.
Yep, definitely still topless.
"Loosen up, babe."
"I don't know where to look," he whispers, panicked eyes taking in every type and age of naked body.
"Oh, come on, you can't tell me you've never been to a nude beach."
"I've never been to a nude beach."
That slows her down. "Seriously?"
"Didn't do a lot of exotic traveling before I had a kid, remember? What was I supposed to do, let my toddler look at other people's … dangly bits?" At that moment they happen to pass an older gentleman with very dangly bits, who greets them with a cheerful buon pomeriggio. The man doesn't even stare at Kate's chest. Hmm. Better man than I, Castle thinks. He knows from experience that when faced with a naked Kate Beckett, you look. He'd peeked when she was in the tub after her apartment blew up. Just for a second. Before she told him not to look. Definitely before. Probably.
He's amazed that no one stares at her at all as they walk through the foaming bubbles where the water meets the sand. She looks so confident in her skin, and he realizes that he's nowhere near done peeling the layers of this woman. He knows she likes to be naked - but he thought it was just at home, just for him. But this, the way she sashays down the beach, it's for herself. There may as well not be anyone else on the beach at all.
He'll have to ask her a bit more about her year abroad, because it looks like she's done this before.
"How about there?" she asks, shielding her eyes with her hand and gesturing to a small patch of sand between two groups of naked people.
"Uh, let's keep looking," Castle says. Too close. Way too close to other naked people. One woman turns over and he swallows and looks away awkwardly, because he can see everything.
Kate's eyes light with amusement.
The beach isn't large, and it doesn't take them long to get to the end of it.
A few people are hiking down towards them over the ridge at the far end, wearing towels around their necks to catch the water still dripping from their hair.
Kate addresses them in Italian, and Castle's hand lands on her hip, squeezes. He's just a little too turned on by the sight of his girlfriend speaking a foreign language like a native.
"There's another beach, just over that ridge. Guy said it's molto bello. Wanna try it? If we can't find anywhere there, though, you're gonna have to suck it up and drop your shorts over here, because I came here to read on the beach." She steps up into him, "and I intend to get a very even tan."
He gulps. Nods.
He'll follow her anywhere.
The second beach is even more exquisite, the sand even more sugary, the wind gentler. As the sun slides towards the ocean, the people start thinning out.
And then they stumble onto a perfect cove within the cove, a private paradise shielded by rocks and tall grasses. It's open to the beach, and people passing by on their way back to civilization have only to turn their heads to see Rick and Kate, but it's private enough. Castle lays out their towels and starts to mess around with the cooler.
He hears the swish of fabric, then sees the gossamer white skirt Kate had been wearing flutter towards him and then down to the sand.
When he turns around, she's sliding her bikini bottoms off. Stepping out them.
She lies down on her towel, quite the vision wearing only her Audrey Hepburn sunglasses, her engagement ring, and her Brazilian wax job.
Rick takes a deep breath and peels off his t-shirt. When he loosens the ties at his waist, he notices Beckett's head tilt minutely towards him. Even though he can't see her eyes behind her sunglasses, he knows she's watching.
He turns with his ass towards the ocean and takes off his shorts.
He tries to lie down without letting the setting sun see his man parts.
When he's on his stomach, his head resting on his arms, he relaxes. The breeze does feel kinda nice on his butt.
Kate rolls onto her side and presses a kiss to his shoulder.
"See? Not so difficult, was it?"
No, not difficult. Hard, yes, but not difficult.
He dozes off, maybe only for ten minutes because the sun still hasn't dipped below the horizon. He's relaxed now, and he's almost completely forgotten that there are people just on the outside their cove.
He rolls over, finally exposing himself. Well, the nap didn't help him much, because the erection he's had since she took her top off is more obvious than ever. He must have been dreaming about her.
She's reading her book, lying on her stomach with her ankles crossed, swinging them in the air. Her toenails are sparkly and golden, to match the swimsuit that's in a neat pile next to her. She's moved her towel so her body is parallel to the shoreline, which is just perfect for what he has in mind.
She's facing away from him, so he creeps a hand into their bag and gets the sunscreen out, pouring a huge amount onto his palm.
She hears him approach - so there is some cop in there after all - but doesn't have time to ask him what he's doing before his wide hands are pressing from her shoulders to her smallest vertebrae, smoothing the cool sunscreen over her golden skin.
The book drops from her hands as his fingers work their magic, humming over her body and bringing every inch of it to life. He coats her back, her shoulders, then starts rubbing closer and closer to the sides of her breasts, over the slope of her ass.
He presses himself into her thigh, can't help the way he drives his hips forward, rubs against her.
He hears laughter, carried on the wind, and he freezes as a group of women trudge along the beach down by the water. They don't turn their heads, don't even seem to know that anyone's in the little cove.
Okay. He may have been shy before, but now the exhibitionist streak Beckett's brought out in him over the past few months is kicking in. When the women have passed and the beach is quiet again, Castle runs a hand over Beckett's hip. Gentle. And then aggressive as he turns her onto her side.
She's facing the ocean now, and he rubs more sunscreen over the gentle rise of her breasts as they point towards the sea. He comes in close behind her, his cock fitting perfectly against the curve of her ass.
He tweaks a nipple, then the other, and she grinds up against him and moans, a soft, throaty noise that he's become addicted to.
They shouldn't be having sex on a beach, he vaguely remembers reading somewhere that that isn't what nude beaches are for, in fact you can get in a lot of trouble for being a perv, but he simply can't help touching the woman who's going to be his wife. Not when she's stretched on on a beach in Italy, arching so her breasts fit into his palms.
He circles her belly button with a finger that's still slick with sunscreen, then moves down to touch her where she's slick with something else entirely. Her hair smells of salt and sea when he buries his face into it, her head thrown back on his shoulder and his growl bursting in her ear.
He grabs her knee, ruthlessly, jerkily, and shoves himself between her legs, sliding easily along the length of her just under her folds. Heat prickles over his whole body as he angles towards her heat.
He's heard his name from her lips now hundreds of times, knows exactly when it means to stop, and when it means hurry the fuck up, and right now it's a gentle sigh, permission, invitation.
So he shoves up into her, feels her clench at the intrusion, feels her stretch and contract around him as she adjusts. It's always like this, every time. Even though she fucked him senseless in their hotel room this morning and made them miss breakfast, he still feels like he's pressing into her for the first time.
He works up a smooth, maddening rhythm behind her. She grabs the arm that's grabbing one of her breasts for leverage.
More people approach, and Castle stops moving again. He's stiff behind her, nervous, and she is too. She starts to close her eyes tight, pretend that she's asleep, but she tells herself that if the people happen to glance over at them, they just look like a couple who are having a little snuggle on the beach. Spooning. Maybe napping.
And then, while the people are still in sight, Castle starts moving. He pistons into her, his pace painstaking and slow. Their bodies barely move, only his hips shifting as he pulls back, then drives in, slides out. Her whole body flushes with adrenaline and arousal because he's fucking her on a beach in broad daylight and people are a few yards away and if they turn their heads at all they'll be caught.
It's enough to make her want to push the limits.
When they're alone again, she turns in his arms. She feels him slip out of her, feels empty for a moment before she swings a leg over him. She's facing away from him, and he knows what she wants right away.
He spins like a crab, turning so that she's facing the ocean like a carved mermaid on the front of a ship, his cock buried deep and straining up into her, her hands on his knees.
She starts bucking, riding, and when they hear another couple walking towards them, there's no time to freeze or slow down. Some electric current passes through them, and they don't have to look at each other to know that this time the plan is hurry up, quick, and Kate's fingers fly down to her clit to mash insistent circles and Castle's fingers are going to leave bruises because he's holding her by the hips so tightly, helping her rapidly on and off his cock.
It sparkles through them when they go over the edge together. They do what they can to muffle their cries.
But it's too late. Even though they're limp and sated, one of the passers-by turns his head. Studies them for a moment. Then nods with a wide, knowing smile.
And Castle grins right back, proud as a peacock to have been almost caught.
"Aha," Kate pants, poking an accusatory finger into his back after she's rolled off of him and he's flopped face down onto his towel. "There's the Rick Castle I know. Couldn't figure out why you were being so modest before. You know you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. In fact," she scratches her nails lightly over the curve of his ass. "You'd probably wow most of the guys on this beach with your … assets."
Kate's silent for a second, then the corner of her mouth quirks.
"When we came out of the tunnel … you had an erection the size of the Leaning Tower, didn't you?"
"Yep. Got it pretty much as soon as you took your top off."
"I can't believe I didn't notice," she hums, looking disappointed in herself.
"Belt tuck," he offers by way of explanation.
Kate laughs and runs her palm over the dimples in his lower back.
"Well, it was convenient, because it's been a fantasy of mine for a very long time to do it on a beach," she says.
"Is that so?"
"Mmmhmm," she purrs.
She stretches out on her towel, feeling uninhibited and easy. "You know, I think coniglio means rabbit in Italian."
"Rabbit beach. Fitting," Castle grins. "Since we just - "
Kate slaps at him playfully. "Sshh. I know what we did."
She looks up at the sky. The stars are starting to twinkle in the dusky blue.
"Can we come again tomorrow?" she asks.
He waggles his eyebrows. "Literally or sexually?"
A/N: Happy Friday, friends! Send uofmcowgirl some love for always being available when I have stupid questions like what position I should use.
I think I asked somewhere around chapter five, so it's time to ask again: what's been your favorite chapter so far?
Also, out of curiosity, I'd love to know how many people are reading. So if you're not following yet, or if you're following me as an author but not the story, would you mind taking a sec to hit 'follow story'? You won't get double emails or anything, don't worry.
Thanks for reading!