Hope 6

Kate was waiting patiently where Rick had suggested that they meet. It was still another week to their date and while she hadn't yet come up with a place for them to go, her mind was racing way out in front. Rick had found someone else and didn't want to see her anymore. He had cancer and was dying. Those were just the first two ideas that came to mind.

She was biting her lower lip and was playing with her fingers as she looked everywhere, including at the concrete at her feet. Finally she saw him jogging her direction. "Castle?" What she wanted to hear was good news not all the bad items her imagination was running away with.

"Hi!" He sounded happy to see her and then he kissed her. She eagerly returned his kiss as most of her horrifying imaginings about why they were meeting melted away. Rick broke from the kiss and Kate took the moment to get a new lungfull of fresh air before she kissed him again. She let her lips rest against his after she broke from the kiss. She liked his kisses. No, maybe loved… No, no, she craved his kisses! "Why are we meeting? Our date isn't for another week." She willed him to have a good reason.

"One of my professors gave us an assignment. A 5,000 word short story that's due by the end of next week," Rick said. Kate felt her heart start flying in joyous relief. He wasn't dying and it wasn't another girl!

"I'm not sure I'll be done by our date." He didn't want her to hate him; it wasn't his fault.

Kate let her head rest against his chest. "Is that all?" She now knew their date was out of his control. Then an idea hit her and she lifted her head to look at him. "I can read it and offer suggestions for changes if that will help?" Kate really wanted to keep their date.

"You? Really?" Rick had never even considered that.

Kate was hurt. "Why not me? I like to read."

"But you're in Pre-law, not creative writing." He wasn't sure she would know what to do.

"And have taken a number of English classes. I may not be a writer, but I do have to write my own papers, I'll have you know." Kate didn't want to be mad at him, but she was. At least a little.

He didn't see the connection between the two majors. He shrugged. "Okay," he quickly agreed.

Kate had been expecting him to fight back and was taken aback by his agreeing. "Really?"

"Sure, I trust you and it would be nice to have some fresh eyes reading it before I turn it in. Plus if we finish fast enough we can keep our date." Rick pressed his lips against her forehead and held them there. "I'll even return the favor. If you need to write a paper, I'll read it for you and make notes." Rick was more than willing to do the same.

"DEAL!" Kate lifted up and kissed him; his arm hold her close. Then she felt his tongue trying to gain entrance. It was a first and she was willing to taste him. She opened her mouth and the tongue war was on.

Kate broke from the kiss and did her best to take in more air. She raised back up and quickly kissed him. "Let me know when you're done and we can meet in my lobby."

Rick followed her lead. "Deal. Where are we going on our date?" He was terribly curious.

"I don't know yet. I have classes too, you know." She had been thinking about where, but hadn't come up with anything yet.

"Sorry, Kate. I was just wondering. Anyway, I need to get busy writing if we're going to keep our date." He was ready to leave. He wanted to get done early so she would have a chance to read it.

Kate was the one who was curious now. "What are you writing about?"

"We were given four choices. One dealt with Christmas." Rick saw her shrug her shoulders. It wasn't her first choice.

"Another was on Presidents. Though he didn't say what President." Rick was thinking of being an ass and writing one about the President of Panama or something. Kate was shaking her head 'No' about that one. "Another was to write about a mystery. What he didn't say was to create one of our own or to write about an existing one." Rick was splitting hairs here and he knew it.

"That sounds good, more interesting. Write about that one. Dream up a new one. Create the perfect murder, that should be fun to read." She liked that idea.

"The perfect murder?" Rick started thinking. Then he tilted his head and looked at Kate. "Are you trying to kill someone?" he teased.

"NO!" Kate smacked his chest. "Pre-law, remember?"

"I'm teasing." He wrapped his arms around her. "I was just trying to see if there was an ulterior motive for reading about the perfect murder." He grinned at her.

"When I'm a lawyer I want to be prepared. You write about murder mysteries and I read them and get ready for people who try and get away with murder.

"But don't go all creepy on me. No little green men from mars or CIA plots." She wanted something more realistic.

"I haven't even written it yet and you're taking all the fun out of it," Rick pouted, but all in fun. It earned him another smack to his chest.

"Believable, Castle, or you'll get an F for your paper," Kate warned.

"Good point. Something believable and he or she gets away with it." Now he had a challenge. Something that would get him an A for his paper and satisfy Kate.

"She?" Kate questioned; she was thinking of the person being shot.

"Women can be killers." Lord knows he knew of one that wanted him dead. She'd simply left it to someone else to do the dirty work. "Poison, hired killer, husband hater." It wasn't what he was thinking of, but still.

"Fine." Kate was resigned to it being a woman who killed. "Just make it believable Castle, and be done before our date." She raised up on tiptoe to kiss him again.

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

Kate was sitting at her desk. She'd actually come up with a plan for their second date. She still needed a few things and needed to go to the grocery store.

Jen answered the phone after one ring and listened before hanging up. "Your boyfriend's downstairs." Jen watched as Kate jumped up and ran out the door. "Do I need to make plans to sleep somewhere else?" she yelled after her. But Kate ignored her jab and kept running.

Kate pushed the DOWN button and waited a few seconds, then pushed it twice. Followed by three more times. "Come on, come on." She didn't have the patience for this and was thinking about hitting the stairs when an elevator went BING.

"About time." Kate almost ran into the girl getting off and pressed 1 for the lobby. Then jabbed it twice more since the doors weren't closing.

"No, no, no. DOWN you stupid elevator." Kate hit the panel with her open palm. Up one floor and a girl got in and looked at the panel and settled back. She and Kate stopped at her floor and watched as no one got in. Kate could only sigh.

Kate found him sitting in a chair holding a number of pages in his lap. "CASTLE." Kate hurried straight at him and saw him stand up. She wasted no time; she kissed him then snatched all the papers out of his hands. "You finished!" Kate was dying to see what he had written. What did he think was the perfect murder?

"Yeah, last night actually. Then spent this morning rereading it looking for errors," Rick admitted.

"That's my job," Kate informed him tartly but she wasn't mad. She sat down intending to read it on the spot.

"You're going to read it now?" Rick had thought about simply dropping it off and then retreating to his room where he would sweat it out waiting for her to finish.

"It's only 5,000 words, Castle." Kate thought she could finish in no time.

"Well technically it's a little over that." Rick couldn't figure out how to reduce it to 5,000 words so it was a lot closer to 6,000. He sat down, watching Kate read and observing her face closely.

Kate would read a page and set it on the sofa face down next to her before starting on the next page. "Linchpin!" She didn't see any need for the topic. Still she kept reading. Then she stopped reading and looked at him. "I thought I said no CIA, Castle."

"Just keep reading." He liked it and thought Kate would too.

o- [:] -o

Rick was sweating bullets right up until Kate put the last page down. "What do you think?" He was dying while watching her reading.

Kate saw a fatal flaw. "He got caught, Castle."

"Just the guy that killed the kid. Sophia Turner, the one who ordered the hit, got away with it. And besides, Sophia killed him just after he killed the kid, so there's no one to rat her out." Rick thought it was perfect.

Kate thought about it. "A KGB mole finds what you call a linchpin that will cause China to stop funding the United States' debt. When that happens, the US economy will go into a deep depression. So the KGB defeats the US.

"Sophia gets a KGB agent to kill the kid and then she kills him and gets away with murder, all in the name of the CIA, while sending the US into a total economic collapse at the hands of China." Kate wasn't quite sure what to think of it.

"She's CIA and KGB. The KGB kills the kid and gets away with it. The CIA never finds out about Sophia and the CIA will never arrest her for killing a KGB agent. In fact they might promote her." Rick thought it was perfect.

The perfect murder!

Kate collected all of the papers and tried to get them to stack up neatly. "I'll mark it up tonight and give it back to you tomorrow."

"Where are we going?" Rick was dying to know that ever since he finished last night.

She teased him about her plan. "It's a secret. Just be ready for a late lunch and wear something cool since we're going to be outside; sunscreen might be a good idea."

"Outside."

"Don't hurt your brain, Castle, you'll never guess. Just be ready." Kate got up and bent down to kiss him, wishing she had her hands free to hold him and kiss him deeper.

"See you tomorrow!" She added a little sway to her hips as she walked to the elevators and pressed the button. Stepping into the car, she saw him still sitting there. So she blew him a kiss just before the doors closed.

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

Kate was walking into the lobby of her dorm when she spotted Rick. "I'll be right down." Kate rushed over to the elevators, stabbed the UP button several times, and watched Rick as the doors closed.

"Hands OFF!" Kate yelled at Jen who had been caught red-handed looking into what Kate had sitting on her desk.

Jen backed away from the desk. "I didn't take anything, honest. I was just looking." Kate added what she had come back with then started searching for his story that had her notes scrawled all over it.

"Your idea or his?" Jen was curious who had thought of this.

"Mine, if you must know." Kate thought her idea was brilliant.

"You must really like him," Jen commented, wishing she'd found him first.

"It's just a late lunch." Kate wasn't going to admit it to Jen. "Gotta go, don't wait up." She had no idea when she would be back. It was certainly going to be as late as she could arrange it.

Kate almost dropped her pile of papers when she stabbed at the DOWN button, but she caught herself and didn't drop her basket either.

When the elevator door opened she saw Rick sitting in the chair he also chose.

"Hi!" Kate's face beamed with a smile and she gave him her handful of papers. "I made notes for you. Use them or ignore them." She was silently wishing he made all of the changes.

Rick took the papers and noticed what was in her other hand. "What's with the basket?"

"Lunch… It's a picnic basket. I thought a picnic in our park would be nice. Then we can take in the movie that's being shown. It's free for students." Kate actually liked that part the best.

"Picnic in a park." Rick was willing. Especially if he got to hand feed her like they did in that movie, 9-1/2 Weeks. Hopefully she even had cherries.

"Let's go, we can take our bikes. Just don't lose those." She pointed at the papers he had in his hand.

"Bike? Like in bicycle or motorcycle?" Rick didn't know what she was thinking now.

"Bicycle, silly. …You do have a bicycle?" How could he not have a bicycle? He shook his head. "You don't have a bicycle?" What idiot didn't have a bicycle? "How do you get around campus without a bike?" As far as she was concerned a bike was a must-have.

"Walk or run mostly." Jumping was out since he was doing his best to cut down on that. He didn't want to get caught again.

"We're getting you a bicycle," Kate announced and didn't even think to question if he could afford one. "It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Mine certainly isn't." Hers didn't even have any gears.

"Oh, and a lock and a helmet. One with numbers not a key. And pant clips so that your pant legs don't get caught in the teeth. Plus blinkers for when you ride at night." Kate's list just kept getting bigger.

"Now?" Rick wanted the picnic, not to go bicycle shopping.

"No, silly. Picnic first. I'll get the desk to call us a taxi." She handed over the basket and went to the desk.

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

Rick had watched her race back up to her room and come back down with a blanket for them to use. One short taxi ride away, a little walking, then Kate announced she'd found just the right spot. Spreading the blanket out and unpacking her basket, they were soon able to enjoy their lunch date.

"Not too girlie for you?" Kate liked the isolation of where she had selected. It meant they were alone and she didn't see anyone else. She had also started smiling when she'd noticed that Rick had realized that she wasn't wearing a bra again.

She wasn't ready for sex just yet, though. She liked him and wanted to keep him. Not have sex with him then find out he was leaving her. Still teasing him was fun. She'd chastised herself for taking peeks at his groin. Jen's teasing over just how big his cock really was had gotten to her.

The main portion of lunch was done and now they were lying near one another as they picked up small pieces and ate them. Then Kate smiled when Rick's next piece was offered to her. He was feeding her. She opened her mouth, let him place it inside, and smiled while she chewed. Then she did the same for him.

With his next piece, Kate took his hand and let his finger remain in her mouth so that she could suck on it and twirl her tongue around it. Surprised and a bit turned on, Rick leaned in to kiss her and Kate kissed him back. She squealed a little when suddenly he was on top and kissing her. She slipped her arms around him and kissed him.

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

The following section is Rated M: Reader discretion is advised!

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

When Rick slid off to one side a little, she was all set to complain. She'd liked having him on top of her, holding her in place while they kissed. However, she soon found his hand on her breast over her top. When his hand started palming her breast, she moaned into the kiss.

As great as it was she wanted more, so she flipped them and now she was on top. Her kiss silenced any objection Rick had. It also gave her an opportunity so she took it. She ran her hand down his chest, over his stomach, and onto his cock that was still trapped inside his shorts. Since she didn't really have her hand on him, it was hard to tell just how big he was. But it wasn't difficult to tell that he had an erection.

Kate took her hand off his erection and used it to shove his Disney t-shirt up, exposing his chest. She stopped kissing him so that she could kiss, lick, and bite his nipple.

She felt him lift her dress and his hand was on her bare ass. Rick now knew she'd gone commando. She moaned when his finger ran up the crack of her ass. That sensation caused her to bite a little harder on his nipple than she had intended.

She ran her hand back down to his trapped cock and start massaging it from the outside. "Kate?!" Rick was thinking it was time to get rid of all their clothes and have sex.

"Don't move, Castle. Just touch me." She hadn't thought to bring a condom and doubted that he carried one around with him.

Then he flipped them again and pulled the top of Kate's sundress down just enough to expose her breast whose nipple was instantly in his mouth. She held his head in place as she moaned from the sensation. Then a gasp escaped her as she felt Rick's hand on her core followed by his finger slipping inside her. "OH GOD!" Kate lifted her ass to get more friction and willed him to start using that finger on her clit. She moaned when it actually came true. His finger was right where she wanted it.

Kate held his head to her breast. "Don't stop, Castle. Please don't stop." She got her wish when his finger sped up; it was soon all too much for her as she lifted her ass, bit down on her lower lip to keep from screaming, and climaxed. Another gasp escaped her lips when that same finger entered her yet again. It took a moment for her to calm down as Rick's finger just caressed her outer lips.

"Your turn, Castle." Kate flipped them and worked to get his shorts off only to find Disney boxers underneath. "You must really like Disney," she commented and momentarily wondered when the two of them would go there.

She finally had his shorts down around his legs and was now rubbing his hard cock from the outside of his boxers. "Kate!" Rick wanted, no, needed more. She started smiling. She had him begging already.

She pulled his boxers down; his erect cock sprang up and gave Kate her first look at it. He was circumcised which actually made her smile. It meant there was no foreskin hiding the head of his cock. It was exposed for her to play with. He wasn't long, maybe 5 inches or 5.5 inches at best, but he was big. So big that she started to worry that he wouldn't fit in her mouth. When he was finally inside her one day, he was going to possibly stretch her more than she liked. "Pocket Rocket," Kate whispered softly.

"What?" Rick had heard her say something but had missed it. His mind instantly started telling him that she hated the size of his cock. He was too small for her liking. Then she started licking it while massaging his balls. Rick began moaning instantly. "OH GOD!" She had somehow found just the right spot.

"KATE!" If she didn't leave that spot alone he was going to… He almost screamed as he climaxed.

She was caught a little by surprise by how quickly he came. Smiling to herself, she tucked that spot on his cock into her memory for next time.

She'd never really liked the taste of a man's come, still she wanted to taste his, so she licked the head just a little. He wasn't as bad as all the others. Maybe with a little more practice she might actually start to like it.

Kate slid up his body kissing the exposed skin all the way till she could kiss his mouth. A little of his come was still inside her mouth and Rick got his first taste of himself. "Happy second date," she told him before kissing him. When she raised her head, she said, "Tag, you're it." That was her telling him their third date was up to him.