"I…" he muttered against her lips. "You sure?"

She chuckled and let her mouth trail over his. "I'm sure. Think you can handle it, stud?"

His eyes were glazed over and heavy-lidded, his mouth hanging open, paralyzed. She nibbled playfully on his lower lip, and he blinked several times before he could respond.

"You never call me stud" he croaked after she pulled away, sucking on his jaw instead.

She pressed herself against his chest, humming. "Better earn the title."

Rick swallowed. He wanted to throw back something witty, charming even, but her tongue was wicked against his neck and his brain was starting to lose focus, so all he managed was a grin.

"I want you" he murmured in a low, incredibly arousing rasp against her hot skin.
"I need you" he added, even lower, barely more than a breathy moan. She cried out when his teeth closed around her nipple.
"Say something in Italian" he demanded as he unzipped her pants and dragged them down her endless legs, soothing her skin with his hands as he went.

"Ti voglio…ti voglio bene" she breathed and it meant 'I want you', 'I need you' and 'I love you' all at once.

His hands found her hips, slid under her shirt, upwards on her hot skin but stopping abruptly when his gaze fell on the open door behind her. Her short nails scratched lightly at his collarbone, the tip of her tongue teasing his throat.

"What?" she murmured when he didn't react, and he reluctantly pulled away so he could look at her face.

"Alexis" he said and licked his lips, as if remembering her taste, capturing and savoring it. "Let's…until she's out of the house. Wouldn't want her to hear you scream."

Kate laughed, startled.
"I'm not screaming" she insisted.

"Oh, but you will" he gleamed and she sucked her bottom lip into her mouth.

"I won't" she tried to assure him, but it fell flat because her voice hitched as his knuckles trailed from her hip across her stomach. She swallowed thickly, clearly more affected by his touch than she was willing to let on.

"Alexis" she repeated meekly. He nodded, but didn't stop the rousing motion of his hands. He leaned forward and kissed her cheekbone, right below her eye, gentle and soft and so, so damn mischievously innocent that she shivered at the teasing contrast, at the feelings rushing through her body.

It reminded her of a sizzling elevator ride more than half a year ago. It was just before the first time they'd had sex, after a ridiculously delicious date in a restaurant of complete darkness that had heightened their senses and boiled their blood until the tension had been simply unbearable. The result of said overdue date had been three rounds of breathtaking sex in one night, desperate against a wall in her apartment and on her couch, slower once they'd made it to her bed, lazy and sated and tired but unwilling to stop, his socks still on his feet.

"Do that again" he said throatily and she gulped at the sexiness of it.

"Do what?" she queried, her blood already heating up again.
"Laugh like that" he answered and the absurdity of his request had her laughing indeed. The moment the rumble spilled from her lips he shut her up with his mouth, turning her laugh once again into a yearning sigh.

Images of that night - and the many that followed – suddenly appeared in her mind, clouding her eyes, making her sway in his arms and arch her head upwards, her lips parting in anticipation of his soft mouth, a breathy hum leaving her throat as she-

"Bye, guys!" came the youngest Castle's cheerful voice from the other end of the hallway and startled them out of their close embrace as if they had been caught with their proverbial hands in the cookie jar.

"Have a good night?" Alexis called from the top of the stairs, making it sound like a question because they still hadn't made a sound.

Kate was the first to shake her head and return to the here and now. "Goodnight, Alexis! Have Fun!"

"Night, pumpkin!" Rick added, but the only answer they received was a subdued laugh and the closing of the front door.

Silently, they looked at one another, each holding the other's heated gaze. Instead of surging forward and ravishing her, like he desperately wanted to do, Rick took a step back and reached down, grabbing the ominous box and turning towards the door.

"Bedroom" he ordered, sounding suspiciously breathy.

"Come back" she whispered and didn't care that it sounded almost like pleading. He did what she wanted and moved into her embrace again, smiling against her mouth when she sighed happily. With more strength than she'd expected from him he lifted her up and her legs encircled his waist, holding on to him and keeping him close.

She caught up to him a few steps into their bedroom, and stopped him with a gentle hand to his shoulder.

He turned around with darkened eyes, looking out of it. Lost in thought; in memories, maybe.

"Huh?"

His lips were bruised from her kisses, his breathing shallow and his cheeks flushed. He looked so cute, so utterly flustered and dazzled and in love with her that she forgot what she was going to say and leaned up to take his mouth in a kiss that that licked at his boiling blood like fire. The box tumbled to the floor between them and his large hands went around her, straight up her shirt, splaying the expanse of her back and crushing her into his body.

Her hips knocked into his broad frame and she swung her leg around, moaning his name as she rocked against his thigh.

Kate gasped when he sunk down on top of her with his full weight, pressing her into the luxurious satin, enveloping her in a searing kiss. He then went on to devour the soft flesh where her shoulder joined her neck.

"Rick" she moaned when he skimmed her most sensitive area through the fabric of her panties.

He stripped off her shirt and threw it across the room, then picked her up and carted her over to their bed, throwing her down so enthusiastically that she bounced on the mattress.

Startled, she laughed, the breathless sound and the dazzling smile making him pause to take her in for a moment; heaving chest, flushed cheeks, glowing eyes, sweat already forming on her skin in the early summer heat.

He shook off the light jacket he'd worn for the publicist's meeting and started on the buttons of his pressed shirt, thankful that he'd gotten rid of the restricting tie a couple of hours ago.

Kate shifted onto her knees and crawled up to him, unzipping his pants just as he finished off his buttons and ripped the shirt tail out of his waistband.

"In a hurry?" she joked as he nearly tripped all over himself in the haste to get out of his clothes.

"So little time, so-" he cut himself off by kissing her, his hands cupping her cheeks as he leaned over her and forced her back into the mattress.

"So much to do" he finished, panting. She clutched at him and pulled him completely on top of her, her fingers digging into the strong muscles where his neck met his shoulders as her eyes went unfocused once more, dirty dirty visions flashing in her head; promises of an exhilarating night.

When she grabbed his hair and pulled him up for a fiery kiss, he slid a finger into her wetness. Her body arched up to meet his touch and he added a second one. Then he sucked on her lip and pressed his thumb down on her clit.

A/N: I hope you were able to follow this chapter. It's probably a little confusing until you realize that the parts in italics are flashbacks. They're taken from the mother story of this ficlet, Ignition. If you haven't read it, you should. Not because I asked you to, but because you might actually enjoy it ;)

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter, because I'd really like to know whether it worked out for you. :)The next chapter will contain some actual smut, not just flashbacks. I just hadn't posted in a long while and even though I'm still very busy I didn't want to leave you hanging, so this is as much as I've got so far. I'll work on more as soon as I'm able to. As always, I'm doing the best I can.

Have a great weekend, dear Castillions! May we survive this Finale somehow...

Lina