'Dad, are you sure you don't mind?'

'Of course not, my darling, it's my job as RJ's poppy to take him for the night when you and your man want to get romantic.'

'Are you sure?'

Even over the phone, Jim Beckett's laugh was rich and rolling. 'Enjoy your night, maybe you'll give your boy and your girl a little brother or sister.'

'Bye, Dad.'

She hung up the phone, looked around the loft. She'd opened a few windows to let in the sweet summer air, let the gentle breeze float the scent of Japanese cherry blossoms around the apartment; the candles she'd found at her bath shop matched the soap she saved for special occasions. Though it was late May and the weather was warming into the high-heat of summer there was a fire flickering sweetly in the hearth. He loved a fire burning, summer or winter Beckett thought with a smile as she poked at the little hors-d'oeuvres she arranged on a plate. Nothing fancy, just some little things she'd picked up from Meredeth and the Food Network. There was a bottle of Chateauneuf de Pape, her husband's favourite label of wine, breathing on the island beside two glasses.

Even Beckett herself was dressed up in an inviting way that was neither outright sexy or seductive - she was wearing a pair of Daisy Dukes and low-cut top with needle thin straps so that it looked like her cleavage might burst forth with a deep breath.

Leaning over, she reached for the book of matches to light the long white taper candles when she heard the door behind her open and shut quietly.

'Now there's a sight worth a few hundred words.'

Beckett looked over her shoulder, smiled at her husband. 'Welcome home, honey.'

'Wow.' Castle looked around like he was a tourist in Times Square. 'Did I wander into an alternate universe?'

'No. I just thought we might like a date night to ourselves after such a busy month.' She walked over, kissed him in such a way that Castle could actually hear his neurons shorting out in his brain. 'Alexis is staying at Shane's and RJ is spending the night with his poppy. We have the house to ourselves, which means we can be as loud as we want.'

'I like it loud.'

'Then you're going to love this.'

Beckett stretched to her tip-toes, kissed him again in the same mind-melting way as she began to flip open the buttons of his shirt. She walked him back towards the table so he stretched out on top of it with her crawling onto his chest. Her fingers walked up the line of flesh she'd exposed and her mouth followed them, lingering here and there and making him hiss out his breath between his teeth.

Castle closed his eyes, felt the happy little smile work over his face as he felt Beckett's lips on his skin. She was so tantalizing and surprising, the only woman who could seduce him so readily. He tried to sit up but found her hand on his chest keeping him on his back.

'It's all about you, Rich,' she purred at him, straddling him. Taking one of his hands, she lifted and tugged his arm out of the sleeve, repeated the process with the other. He was confused only for a moment when she picked his left arm up again then moved it to her shoulder and slid the straps of her top down. The slinky fabric slipped down her smooth skin, and she put his hand to her breast. Her murmur of satisfaction was low and throaty as he squeezed gently, and Beckett rocked her hips forward so that . He tried to sit up, to take that lovey peak into his mouth but once again found himself on his back.

'I told you, it's all about you tonight.'

Beckett moved so that his body slid further onto the table as she moved down. The metal of his belt buckle felt smooth and cool in her hands as she unfastened it, and before Castle could put together words for a coherent question, she was tugging down his pants and boxers to expose him. He let out a sharp groan of frustrated anticipation when she didn't close her mouth over him or even her fingers; rather, she traced the tips of them up and down the length of him, making him gulp in lungfuls of sweetly scented syrupy air.

'Kate,' he groaned, 'you are a hell of a tease.'

'And you love me.'

'I do.'

She smiled at him, then because he was so completely turned around by what she was doing to him, dipped her head so she could take him into her mouth. She used her tongue liberally on him, teasing and torturing him into an other worldly realm of joy. His hands twisted through her long dark hair to keep her close, his hips arching and falling in rhythm. She had an incredible mouth and so many, many ways to surprise him with it. Castle felt the shift in his core, the last holds on his control slipping away.

'Kate...I can't...I want to...I...'

He couldn't get the words out fast enough as the orgasm shuddered through him, rocking his body from head to toe. Her mouth took him in, all of him, every last drop until he was drained and lying limping on the table, gasping for breath and staring at the ceiling with a feeling of glorious satisfaction. When she lifted her head from his body, Castle could see the satisfied female gleam in his wife's eye and the prurient smile on her lips.

'I love you too, Rich. Welcome home.'

Castle let out a low chuckle as she snuggled up against his shoulder. 'Kitchen table,' he mused. 'That's one we haven't tried in awhile.'

'Have we tried that one?'

'Columbus Day, a few months before RJ was born, it was just the right height for us to negotiate the belly and be face-to-face while making love when you were seven months pregnant.'

'Oh right. You'll have to forgive the gap in my memory. All I remember from that night was screaming your name, very loudly.'

'Dirty girl.'

'Dirty girl who loves you.' Beckett kissed his cheek, then tugged her top back into place. 'You hungry?'

'Famished, although I think you just ate,' he teased her.

'And we're back.' With a hard kiss on his mouth, Beckett sat up and went over to the island where she had their wine and hors d'oeuvres all set up. 'Which do you want to try first?'

'When were you cooking today?'

'With Meredeth. She was in a mood to be in the kitchen today so I told her I was planning a night for two and she made us a bunch of little things. There's mushroom poppers, there's Serrano ham and melon, there's goat-cheese and tomato puffs plus a few I forget what she said they were. Wine?'

Castle covered his hand with hers. 'This is the nicest welcome home I think I've ever gotten in my life, and I'm not just saying that because of the lovin' I just got.'

'No?'

'Well maybe a little, but mostly no.' He poured the wine into the glasses, selected a goat-cheese and tomato puff. 'Mm, tasty.'

'And we're having that chicken spinach thing I know you like so much for dinner.'

'Oh, I love you even more now.'

'And then...more naked fun time.'

Castle touched his glass to hers, then looked back at the kitchen table, now a place of conquest and made a mental note to make sure he cleaned it very thoroughly. 'Just out of curiosity, where did you get the idea for that one?'

'Oh, you know.' Beckett dabbed at the creme fraiche on one of the canapes. 'Just a little something I read in a magazine.'

R&R&Enjoy.