Chapter 9
Once the door to her apartment closed, shutting out the rest of the world, Rick took Kate in his arms and held her like he hadn't been with her in a year. "This was a long day" he said.
She agreed. She started to fidget, causing him to pull back. Before he could ask what was wrong, she said "I need to go get changed, into something more comfortable."
His grin telegraphed his intentions before he even reached for her. "Allow me. What could be more comfortable than your birthday suit? Besides, there's still the make-up sex to take care of."
She regarded him with a touch of disbelief. "I forgave you, you don't get make-up sex after that."
"Ok, then how about 'thank you' sex?" his voice was playful, but husky, too. He reached behind her and found the zipper of her dress. He slowly brought it down, taking in the pale green lacy camisole underneath.
"How about…" Kate started, then stopped to kiss him, working at the buttons on his shirt, "how about we don't need a reason, we're just going to enjoy one another."
"I can work with that…" He helped her step out of her dress. Matching light green lace spanned her hips and hugged the curves of her behind. He gave her lingerie a look of admiration. "Mmm, it's not red, but I'll definitely take it." His hands followed the lace around to the back and he pulled her against him. She had finished relieving him of his shirt, so he felt the soft lace of the camisole against his chest and stomach.
For her part, she could feel his hardness pressing against her abdomen, a few inches north of where it seemed to want to be, where they both wanted it to be. She pushed away from him and led him to the couch, where she sat down. He made a move to sit beside her but she stopped him, her hands on his belt. She looked up, watched his eyes widen. She unfastened the belt and slid it free. Unable to resist, she doubled it to a loop, reached behind him without ever breaking eye contact, and smacked his behind with it. She took advantage of his stunned (but not necessarily displeased) expression, and hit him 5 more times in rapid succession. He actually yelped a bit with last two."
"That's for this morning, one for each of those naughty texts."
"But you said you forgave me." He pouted.
"Yes, and I almost forgot, but then you reminded me that you made my underthings part of this morning's discussion." Before he could sulk any further, she made quick work of the button and zipper on his pants, then slid her hands inside and around to caress his bottom, soothing the sting she had caused.
She brought her hands back around to the front and released his member from his boxers. She took him into her mouth, sucking and stroking, until he was trembling. He pushed at her shoulders to get her to ease off, unable to form the words. Seeing the state he was in, she stood up, then grasped him by the shoulders and pivoted so he sat on the couch. She slid her panties down and climbed into his lap, straddling him.
He reached up to pull her down for a kiss. His hands found her breasts and caressed her until her hips started to slide back and forth of their own volition. She lifted up and found the angle she needed to engulf him. He slid the camisole up so that his mouth could find what his hands had been working on. His licking and suckling drove Kate to frenzied motion, and he urged her on, letting her take her pleasure. At last her climax came, heralded by a cry and an expression of rapture. Seeing her release was all he needed , and he followed her with a groan and a shudder. She collapsed against him, both breathing heavily. When they had regained the strength to move, they headed into the bathroom to shower, then to Kate's bedroom. She set her alarm clock, and then settled back against him, drifting off to sleep utterly content.
The next morning, Kate entered the bull pen humming, where she encountered a grumpy Ryan and a surly Esposito. "What's up with you two today? Your fantasy football league go on strike?"
"No, but we went up there for nothing. No sign of Poirier, and we searched the cabin, but it didn't even look like it had been disturbed. Except that is, by a family of chipmunks, one of which ran up Esposito's pant leg." Ryan chuckled at the memory, but his laughter died when his partner shot him a look.
"Damn little rodent, going after my.. never mind…but I had to get a damn tetanus shot, because the little beast scratched me." Esposito grumbled.
"Ok, and why are you such a grouch, Ryan?"
"You mean, other than having to listen to Esposito piss and moan about his boo-boo ALL the way back? I missed a date with Jenny because we were on the road."
"Well guys, cheer up, you won't need to go up there again. I am relatively sure that Matthew Poirier is down in our morgue. HE is our clean room vic, assuming the dentals match. Now all we have to do is figure out who put him there and why. Here's the list of people who accessed that area during our window. Let's split up the list, conduct interviews, see if anyone had ties to Matthew Poirier."
They spent the rest of the day doing interviews. During a break, Beckett got a call from Lanie confirming that the dental records for Matthew Poirier matched their clean room victim. Then the detective team was thrown a curve ball.
One woman that they interviewed was confused. When they asked her about Memorial Day weekend, she said she was on vacation. She gave them travel details, and Esposito hurried off to verify them. Ryan asked where she kept her security badge and she told him she usually left it in her locker. She then remembered that her lock was open when she returned from vacation, but nothing appeared to have been disturbed so she forgot all about it. No one seemed to have any connection to their victim.
That night was Castle's poker game, so they all gathered around and discussed the case. Kate talked about how frustrated she was that they were at a dead end. Castle became thoughtful. Ok, so you have a badge being used by a mystery person. Most likely female, a guy in the locker room would have been noticed. Your perp was trying to cover their tracks. If they worked there, they were not using their own badge at that time. Maybe you need to look for someone whose electronic trail ISN'T there."
