A/N: The questions I used in this chapter have been stolen, borrowed, and pieced-together from a multitude of websites. Interesting stuff.
Could use some more prayers for my mom. Thanks, guys.
I'll jump on the Happy Birthday, AC bandwagon! I hope you have a wonderful one. :-)
Disclaimer: Not mine.
00000000000000000000
"Hit me." He's totally ready. How bad can this be? He can prove his intentions to Kate's friend (he always thought of Lanie as a mutual friend, but she's looking like she wants to eat him alive, so he's not sure anymore).
"Bro, you're going to wish getting hit was the only punishment you had to endure. Girl cuts on dead people all day—has no mercy for the living."
"You do realize I can hear you, right?" The M.E. angles her head and shoots daggers at Esposito.
"Man Code states that I must warn Castle of any impending danger."
"Does Man Code keep you warm at night, too?"
"You're on your own, dude." The detective settles back in the chair, crosses his arms, and gestures to Lanie. "Proceed." Kate smiles, clearly amused by the back and forth. Esposito lifts a finger off of his elbow and waggles it dramatically. "Don't laugh, Beckett. You've gotta answer, too," he mumbles, cryptically.
Kate sobers a little at that, which he finds interesting. Huh. She was totally cool with throwing him under the bus. Evil.
"Okay, so these are compatibility questions," Lanie starts.
"I'm an Aries. Beckett is a Scorpio." He's proud that he knows that. He won't tell that he went to a website last summer when he was all sulky and mopey and entered their birthdays in these little drop-down boxes to find out what their compatibility was.
It said their love match is hot and heavy (uh huh), she's intense and magnetic (yep), and they both have a need to be in control, which may cause heated arguments, but make the sex even more worthwhile (yes, yes, and oh yes). He never believed any of that stuff and had only been searching for something else to feel pitiful about, but, geez, there are some major accuracies there.
Lanie is just staring at him. What? He didn't say any of that aloud, did he? Then, she rolls her eyes. "Honey, we ain't talking about whether her moon is circling Uranus or any of that crazy planet stuff. This is real life."
"Told ya," Esposito squeaks out.
Okay, he's ready to crawl back under his blankets now. Preferably with Kate. He'll show her some more compatibility…
"Alright, question one," Lanie holds the phone close to her face, squints to read, but after she sees the question, clears her expression. "What is your financial standing?"
"Oh, no fair," Esposito grumbles.
"I'm comfortable."
"I'm out of a job."
They answer simultaneously and the tone in the room momentarily shifts at Kate's response. So, yeah, why did he agree to do this again? If he's regretting it after the first question, it doesn't bode well, right?
"I've got savings," Kate lifts her lashes and her lips, stares him down. "You won't have to be my Sugar Daddy for quite a while."
He lets out a laugh on a whoosh of breath, while Lanie says "You passed" and scrolls down her phone's screen.
"That's it?" The Latin detective is scowling. "None of our answers were that short."
"That's because you kept getting them wrong. I finally had to grade on a curve."
"Hmph."
"Next. Do you want kids?"
Huh. Well.
He's got one.
But, that's not what we're talking about now, and as witty as that answer might be, he doesn't want to have to dig himself out of any holes. He can feel everyone's gaze on him. Why does he have to answer first? "Kate?"
"Go ahead. Answer." Her face is blank, giving nothing away.
"If the biggest argument is over who answers the question first, I'm leaving." Esposito leans forward, waits for his response.
"Shh." Lanie waves Esposito off, but her eyes never leave his own, are boring into his soul, he thinks.
"These questions probably aren't meant to be read in front of other couples, huh?" He's stalling and everyone knows it. This feels like the dream where you're out in public in your underwear and no one breaks eye contact with your crotch. At least his crotch is under the table. Gotta get your wins where you can…
"Would your answer change if we weren't listening?" Lanie is hardcore.
"Touché." He squirms around in his seat. He doesn't recall his dining room chairs being this uncomfortable. "Um." Deep breaths. "Yeah. I—If she is their mother, yes."
The poker face in front of him crumbles and she adds "I wouldn't be opposed to it."
Whew. Wow. Babies. Not right now, of course, but…if he's dreaming this, he's going to be royally pissed.
"Passed. Again." Lanie fires a glare at Esposito and he rolls his eyes.
"I wouldn't want to be that syrupy," he defends. "It's a little unnerving."
He should probably be more offended by the knocks at his manliness this morning, but Kate's lips are quirked up blissfully, and he can remember his name rolling off of those lips as she arched against him over and over and over. He's beyond caring about much else right now.
Lanie presses on, clears her throat before asking the next question. "Would you be willing to go to couple's counseling or therapy, if needed to better your relationship?"
"Yes." Their answer is quick, easy, and synchronized.
"See? That's not normal."
"They've been doing that for years, baby." She looks pleased and Kate is beaming back at her, proud. Of him? Them? Or maybe because Lanie called Esposito baby? Ha. Either way, he's totally passing this. "Where do you envision yourself living in the future?"
"Like, city-wise? Or where in the city?" Kate asks the questions, so hopefully she's answering this one first. This is a lot of pressure. They're totally in the groove now, though. Speaking of grooving, she's biting her lower lip again, and he wonders if she knows how crazy that makes him. Last night—right when she was about to—um, yeah—she slipped her kiss-swollen lip between her teeth and he couldn't help it, pulled it away and sucked it into his own mouth.
She throws him a seductively slow blink and, oh yes, she knows exactly what she's doing.
"Either."Lanie. Hmm, probably not a good idea to forget that they're not alone. Even for a few stolen memories worth of time.
"Vague questions deserve vague answers," she replies. "I don't care."
"You're not allowed to answer I don't care," Esposito explains, shaking his head and clicking his tongue.
"Why not? Cause I don't really care either. Just somewhere without my mother—that's all I ask." Kate laughs, but kicks him underneath the table and mouths 'Not nice' to him. Well… This is all about truths, right?
"I answered I don't care to the baby question, and we argued for an hour."
Lanie gives Esposito the 'are you kidding me' stare and Castle sympathizes a little. Kate's eyes are on him when he turns his head and, my God, why aren't they alone again? Her foot is back on him, swirling circles on his shin where she kicked him moments earlier.
"Last question."
"Wait, there are way more than—"
"It's the last question," Lanie growls.
Castle's totally sure he's missing something here, but Kate's still touching him, distracting him. Her toes are now skimming at the bottom of his lounge pants, running up underneath the edge of the fabric. Her feet are cold, but the skin-on-skin contact is still electrifying. If he fails this last question, she'd better come to his defense and admit that she was seducing him with her foot. Oh, that doesn't sound good, so maybe not.
"How do you keep yourselves sexually engaged?"
He can do nothing but swallow hard and bite his tongue to suppress his whimper. Doomed, that's what he is. Doomed because he's already completely sexually engaged after one night and can't foresee a future in which he wouldn't want her every single day. Her heel perches between his open thighs on the chair. And there is no way he's talking about sex when that's all he wants to do right now. No. Freaking. Way.
"Dude, this is the easy question."
"I, uh—" He cannot talk about this with an audience. Performance anxiety.
"Seriously, Bro?"
"I think this might be one of those questions where the answer does change if you two aren't here." Kate answers first and he just nods because yes, yes that's his answer too. He wants to show her his response while they're alone…on his bed, shower, desk, floor, anywhere and everywhere.
"I think that's our cue." Lanie lifts out of the chair and crowds into Esposito as they head towards the door. Kate uses her foot to push his chair back a little, indicating that they're giving their company a proper send-off. "I'm so glad you're okay, honey." She pulls Kate into a strong hug that warms his (manly) heart.
"You hurt my girl, I'll kill you." Lanie moves from Kate to sling an arm around his neck and smack a kiss on his cheek, taking the sting out of her words.
"Duly noted."
"He'll cover it up," she points to Esposito who smiles in agreement as he opens the front door, "and I'll keep your body hidden in my morgue."
"That's morbid. You have nothing to worry about."
"I do know that." She flits her fingers in a wave and pushes Esposito to the elevator. "Call me," she mouths to Kate, who bobs her head yes.
He turns to face her, bumps the door with his hip, satisfied when he hears it click shut. "You are a wicked woman."
"I'm innocent." She strides closer to him; her body grazes his, close, but not pressing.
"Uh huh. A tease is what you are." He reaches forward and fingers a button on his dress shirt, hers now—he'll never be able to wear it again and not be distractedly aroused.
"Tease would imply that I'm not intent on following through on my tormenting."
"And, are you?"
"Tormenting?"
He barks out a laugh. "Following through."
"Ah, that." She rolls her eyes back in thought, then blinks them back to his. "Pretty sure." She finds his mouth, delves in, and threads her tongue through his lips to roll it against his. "You know," she muses at his jaw, pushing him backwards a step until he hits the cool mahogany, "we're right back where we started."
She presses her body against his, slithers against him in all the right places. "Want to finish what we start—where we're starting it—this time?"
"I feel like that question should be totally confusing, but I'm on the same page."
"Ooh, book metaphors. Talking dirty now." He grips her hips, tugs them to his, enjoys the little whimper of pleasure she emits.
She's weaseling her way out of his embrace and his body is coiled so tightly with desire for her that he can't stand it, grasps for her. But, she's sliding down down down his body until she thuds to the floor upon her knees. She leans up and into him and he's gripping her shoulders because nothing else makes sense right now. "Take this off," she's sliding his tee shirt up his chest as far as she can reach from her position.
"Kate—" She bunches the material and stills until he pulls the fabric from her grip and jerks it up and over his head.
"This is what I wanted when I woke up this morning," she whispers, leaning up to press hot, wet kisses along the sensitive skin on the side of his torso. It tickles and he squirms under her mouth. "But, I woke up and you were gone."
She blinks up at him, long lashes lending innocence to her expression, even as she slants back to toy with the drawstrings tied around his middle. She tugs on one and the loose bow dissolves under her touch. She cants in, braces his hips in her palms and slides her tongue along his waistband.
The knock at the door reverberates against his back. He whispers "no,no,no" and she breathes "don't answer it" at his stomach. Good plan. Not answering it. He cards his fingers through her hair to hold her still. Her lips go back to the sensitive skin beneath his belly button.
Another knock.
"Rick?"
Is that…?
"Katie? Are you there?"
Not again.
00000000000000000000
A/N: Thanks SO much for the outpouring of support for this fic. The reviews are all awesome. I'm not going to mark this Complete just yet. I felt like Jim would be the next at the door, but I've already written a Jim-heavy story, so I think that would be a little repetitive. We'll see.