Chapter Eleven
Having felt her skin under his hands and his fingers, rising over her on the couch he had momentarily paused to take in her expression. She was slightly flushed, her face relaxed as he had never seen it, mouth slightly parted eyes barely open as she gazed up at him. In that moment, he knew this had to stop.
He had to do something to break the moment and get some distance. The line had already been pushed far enough that he wouldn't be able to go back, wouldn't be able to honor his promise of everything going back to normal if this went one kiss or caress further. With that thought he hatched a plan and grinned at her before he tickled her ribs, pleasantly surprised to find that the hardnosed detective was in fact ticklish.
The sound of her laughter, however, was almost as personally assaulting as the moaning she had done while he lavished kisses across her skin. It was a kind of music that could easily become his favorite song.
It didn't last long, he knew she was strong and shouldn't have been surprised to find himself suddenly lying on her hardwood floor with the wind knocked out of him.
"What the hell, Castle?" she asked, but it was with a lighthearted chuckle that sent his heart reeling with something more than passion. It was his new favorite song, after all.
He didn't have his full attention on their conversation, but realized that something he said a moment later impacted her as her eyes softened. Her smile rose more sincerely than the light humor of a moment before. When she rocked her hips against him with a sultry grin and said, "There are other ways to make me smile." he groaned.
His eyes seemed to close without his knowledge or consent and though he felt her shift against him he didn't pull them open until he felt fabric land across his face and her weight lifting off of him.
He opened his eyes to see her standing above him, completely bared from the waist up and he was slightly awestruck by the sight. After a moment he noticed her hand and accepted it to stand beside her. Once he had regained his footing, he found himself drawn to her eyes, he could get lost just looking at her and without thinking about it he turned his hand to lace his fingers with hers. It was a long moment before he fully registered the tender expression on her delicate features and he knew he had lost the battle.
Whatever this woman wanted from him, he would give her. He could deny her nothing, despite the way it could impact him later. The thought that perhaps this really was the start of something for them, not just an errant thought or irrational plan to have a 'free pass' from everything for tonight, flitted through and he became suddenly hopeful. That look on her face washed away the last trapping of his worry as he asked her if she was sure.
She led him towards her room by their joined hands as she answered his question, but hearing her finish the statement with words like "today" and "tonight" has sunk his hope and hardened his resolve to end this here and now. It wasn't until she glanced over her shoulder to smile at him that a new thought struck him.
By the time they were standing beside her bed her was grinning with new found purpose. If they were only to have one night, he was going to make sure that it was a night that she wouldn't' be able to forget. He was going to do everything in his power to mark her with vivid mental and emotional visions so that any time after when those parts of her body he had labeled as his were touched, she would not be able to think of anyone but him.
He wasn't as arrogant a man as Beckett teased him of being, but this he was sure of. With plan in mind, he put everything he had into kissing her until she was panting and breathless as he lowered her to the bed.
His hands and lips went to work learning every inch of her exposed skin while he catalogued every sound and movement she made to guide his return path. After working his way down and teasing his mouth along the top of her pajama pants, he started to slowly make his way back up her body. He was proud to have her squirming against him, anxious for more and growing increasingly impatient if her vocalization was anything to go by.
He was grinning against her skin, which broke the soft suction he had been applying where he had stopped at a nipple, but it allowed him a moment to graze the rigid flesh with the edges of his teeth. The motion provoked a tug on his hair where she had fisted her hand and a sound that seemed to be as much a moan of pleasure as growl of impatience.
He released her from his mouth and continued his exploration up, feeling triumphant in the success of his plan to swipe all thoughts of anyone else from her mind. It was with this new mindset that he found himself completely thrown off his game when his lips reached her shoulder. Her thighs clenched against his hips and she rocked against him, taking him by surprise and he suddenly found himself pinned beneath a beautifully flushed Beckett.
All thoughts of driving her to distraction escaped when she leaned in and released all the passion of that moment as she kissed him, pressing down into his body and setting a fire wherever her skin touched his. She hovered over him enough that he could feel the teased peaks of her breasts brush against his chest, sending thoughts racing from his head and causing his hands to reach out again.
He missed the contact of his hands on her hips, her sides, her back, when she pulled away from the kiss and started to tease him as he had done to her. For everything he had done intentionally to mark her, he knew he was marked by the movement and now she was killing him slowly with gentle kisses and caresses across his chest down to his stomach.
When she reached his pants, she repeated his motion along the last of his exposed skin above the hem. Her tongue flicked against his lower abdomen and she nuzzled against the little line of hair that extended from his navel to disappear into the fabric. She shifted again and he watched as she looked up at him. Their eyes met and she gave him a little smirk as her teeth grasped the fabric. Without taking her eyes off his, she tugged gently on the fabric, pulling the hook and eye fastener open.
His breath caught at the naked pleasure shining from her eyes at being able to do that without using her hands. Using her teeth and tongue she pulled one side over so she could reached the zipper with her tongue and flick it up to grasp it between her teeth as she grinned around the small piece of metal.
Her teeth on his zipper pulling down so slowly he could feel the release of each and every tooth of the zipper opening, shook him of his momentary enthrallment. While he was more than happy to have a little pressure relieved from the pants that he had never thought were particularly snug until tonight, he could see this quickly slipping out of control as her warm breath permeated his silk boxers. The heat of her so close, breath washing over him, eyes locked with his own seemed to sear him to the bone as it set him in motion.
Sitting up, he buried his hand in her hair as he guided her mouth away from dangerous territory and up to meet his for a hungry kiss. The action didn't seem to solve the problem as his control slipped further when she rose up and then straddle his hip, settling into his lap and winding her arms around him to pull them closer together.
"What's wrong, Rick?" she teased. "You don't want me to touch you?"
That classic teasing voice tinted with breathiness and a husky note was more than he could take and he knew he needed to try and turn the tables, throw her off her game or he'd be the only one significantly marked by this when she reduced him to a puddle in short order. "You are touching me." He pointed out, trying for casual and almost making it there.
"Not what I meant and you know it." She said against his cheek as she lavished hot open mouthed kisses across the slight stubble of his jaw.
"Perhaps you should be more specific with your questions, Detective." He teased in response, gliding a hand down her back, finally coming to rest against one of her hips.
Her mouth made it to his ear where she gently took the lobe between her teeth, teasing it a moment with her tongue before she whispered, "You just want to hear me talk dirty."
Castle groaned, he was losing this round as well, "Tell me what you think I don't want you to touch."
Beckett chuckled slightly, releasing his ear and kissing just below it on his neck, "You don't want me," she broke off to lay a soft kiss against the underside of his jaw, "to touch your" Her next kiss was firm against his slightly parted lips, but she pulled away before he could respond. The glint in her eyes told him before she opened her mouth that she was messing with him, "penis." She said, obviously fighting a smile.
Despite his knowledge that she was messing with him, Castle couldn't stop a small cringe at the word. When Beckett let out a hearty laugh at his reaction, it confirmed his suspicion that she had in fact been playing him, "Is that the best you can do?" he challenged, laughing with her and wondering how he could find the sound of her laughing as soul scarring as the moans he had pulled from her moments before.
"Did I offend your sensitive writer sensibilities with poor word choice there, Castle?" she asked, mock innocence displayed in the slight pout of her lips and the doe-eyed look.
"I'm not offended, Kate." He tried to inflect his words with a more serious note, "I'm disappointed."
She laughed again and shoved playfully at his chest, but he simply rocked back and then forward into contact with her body again. "Let me guess." Beckett said, looking at him as if she were studying him like a suspect, "You prefer more flowery prose, something like 'rigid member'?" she asked, and her eyes danced with glee as he groaned again. "I know," she said, eyes twinkling, "You fancy it as your 'throbbing manhood'." She smirked when he rolled his eyes at her, but suddenly pulled back with a very serious look on her face, "I certainly hope your word of choice isn't dick, because that's my tax guy's name and it would just be awkward."
He laughed with her this time. He loved seeing this side of her, relaxed and joking. It didn't hurt that she was plastered against his chest half naked. He was enjoying her delve into the deviant world of deciding what to call that part of him.
"I got it." She responded after a long pause. The innocent smile was replaced with a slightly devilish one. The light of humor in her eyes became slightly smoky as she locked eyes with him again. "You don't want me to touch your," she paused, letting his mind wander until he felt hot breath against his ear again, followed quickly by her tongue sweeping the shell of the flesh there before she pulled back again to look him in the eyes, "Johnson."
He shivered, grabbing her shoulders and moving her back to look into her eyes again, "You knew that was going to get a picture of Officer Johnson from records in my head, didn't you?" The grin she gave him was sparkling with light humor and a mischievous glint. "No more." He said with a chuckle, as he leaned in to kiss the column of her neck, speaking between kisses and caresses, "I'm a little worried you'll break out with something that will completely kill the mood."
"What? Like pocket rocket?"
Her fingers where running through his hair as he moved along her collar bone and despite the lightness of the conversation, her breathing had increased. She rotated her hips against him slightly. Castle bit back a groan and resisted the urge to pull against her hips or rock with her.
Suddenly, she shifted her weight and leveraged him until he fell back against the bed with her over him, smiling. She continued to list slang terms as she helped him rid himself of his pants. He was so caught up in their laughing and teasing, he hardly noticed they had divested each other of the last scraps of clothing until he felt her slide up next to him, propped on an elbow with one of her legs over his and registered the skin contact. Her fingers had been touching him as they talked. His breath caught on a soft gasp as she reached that trail of soft hair his pants had prevented her from following earlier.
He was enthralled with her expression as he ran a hand along her back and she watched her fingers dance along his skin. She was touching him everywhere except what she was still teasingly trying to name.
"I think I've got it this time." She told him teasingly as she let a finger gently graze along the just the tip before continuing to run her fingers up and away.
He groaned, still watching her face, "I swear, if you say 'member' I'm going to scream."
"Not exactly how I planned to have you screaming tonight." With that she shifted and gave one firm stroke along the length of him before she pulled away again.
"I knew it." He said as her eyes rose to meet his, "I knew you'd be a tease."
They shared a smile, "You just have to tell me what you want me to do." She winked and he about lost his tightly held control, but managed to drag himself back, trying to enjoy this lighter side of her as long as possible. Without a response from him she shrugged, "I could guess." She mused, "You want me to touch you."
"You are touching me." He reminded her again.
"Here." She said, both of their eyes dropping to watch her fingers lightly flitting along the length of him. "You want me" he was drawn to her again and their eyes met as she wrapped her fingers around him gently, "to touch your cock."
He watched the satisfied expression on her face as he felt the topic of conversation pulse against her grasp at the sound of such a wicked word rolling hotly off her lips. He could imagine that he wasn't hiding the effect of that word on him very well, so decided to go on the offensive. He grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand away from him and flipped them to pin her to the bed with the weight of his body.
She laughed at his sudden move and he leaned in to capture her mouth in a heated kiss before she could vocalize the taunt he saw forming on her lips. As her tongue crept out to meet his, the humor of a moment before was cleared away. Together, they got swept up in taste and touch, sight and sensation. Passion trumped humor and he wouldn't have been able to find words even if his mouth hadn't been otherwise engaged.
x.x.x
A/N: I was humored to read so many views on the word choice issue discussed in my previous author's note. You inspired their conversation for this chapter, including GhostWriterLost who supplied the gem 'throbbing manhood' which I had forgotten, but the phrasing always makes me laugh, so I had to throw it in here. Don't get me wrong, while I am a fan of the word cock, I'm not inclined to write these scenes in the same harsh tone as the word itself. I find writing this incredibly difficult. Not only is it hard to get the emotions and feelings in place for this particular situation, but trying to stay tasteful and not be too vulgar is a concern of mine. Hopefully I deviated enough into the other elements to keep this from reading like a letter to penthouse.
Still sick, some kind of respiratory issue that has me coughing so much I can't sleep. Lack of sleep is to blame for whatever the heck happened in this chapter. Production on this took about 4 ½ times longer than normal and I'm starting to get fed up with 'sick brain' hopefully it will be gone soon and we can get back to more frequent and coherent updates.
Review that made my day: GhostWriterLost, because you know these characters so well and I can always trust you to keep me in line or pick up on all the subtleties.
Thanks to everyone for reading.