Meredeth yawned hugely, the kind that made her jaw crack, as she walked up the stairs to Esposito's apartment. She was, in a word, exhausted. After only five hours of sleep, having taken Constance to the airport for the late red-eye to Miami, Meredeth had armed herself with a very large tea from Starbucks and all seven of her refills on her Bookworm 702 to brave a 12-hour autograph session at Heart's Castle, Manhattan's largest comic book store. They'd opened at seven am, two hours early, and closed at eight, an hour after regular business hours and given away 6 VIP sessions during the day from a draw. Thankfully, they'd all be like Alexis Castle - eager teens who wanted to know about the creation of the characters and not her personal life.

Now, tottering towards number 317 all she could think was 'pizza'. It was a ritual of hers - a stuffed-crust with prosciutto and provolone, courtesy of Petrelli's her favourite pizza-place after an autograph signing. Maybe, if she was lucky, Esposito had stopped to grab some beers on his way home from work. It was rare he was home before her, but since he'd finished working a double, he'd texted he would be home by six and detour to pick Artie up so she could spend the night worry free at his place.

She opened the door, lost in a fantasy of a hot bath, and was immediately hit with the smell of tomatoes and bread and oil. Looking around, she felt her heart turn into a gooey mess.

The table had been covered in a red and white checked cloth, upon which sat two green candles in clear glass votive holders. They flanked a chilling bottle of her favourite merlot and a single red rose sat in a beer-bottle vase. At the counter was Esposito in his sweats, a green apron tied around his waist as he chopped onions with a scary-big knife.

'Didn't expect to come home to Mr. Mom.'

Esposito glanced over his shoulder, and Meredeth could see he was wearing a swim-mask to avoid tears. 'I spent the day on paperwork and needed to do something with my hands, so I figure making you dinner would do the trick.' He set down the knife, shoved the mask to his forehead and gave her a kiss. 'Hello.'

'Hi.'

'Why don't you grab a bath while I finish this?'

'What is this?'

'A surprise.' Esposito adjusted the goggles back over his eyes, turned back to the onions. 'Shower first, surprise later.'

Too tired to question it she went into the bathroom and nearly wept when she saw the bath already drawn; she'd texted him to let him know she was on her way and he'd done that for her without a single hint. Stripped to her skin, Meredeth dipped a toe in to test, then slid the rest of her body, and let her mind drift. She could smell the bath oils she loved so much - the cucumber to relax her senses, the coconut to drive him wild. He had a thing for coconut.

Thirty minutes later, skin soft and pink from water so hot a lobster would say 'fuck this noise', she wrapped the towel around her hair as she grabbed Esposito's robe off the bathroom hook. It smelled like him, that honey-and-sandalwood scent that made her blood hum. She opened the bathroom door and immediately was hit with the scent of baked tomato sauce and cheese, heard the subtle pop of a wine-cork. So simple, yet so romantic, and so very them.

Esposito poured the merlot into the glasses, then adjusted the volume of the soft piano music he knew she'd love to go with their romantic night in. It was very rare for him to be able to find the time to do these things for her, and despite knowing she loved his little attentive details like when he picked up her favourite soda for no reason or the 'i love you' texts at random moments, when he had a free and clear field it was devoted to spoiling her rotten. He stood up when she came out in her comfies - black yoga pants and a loose Blackhawks t-shirt - and her hair was pulled back off her face so it fell into little waves on the back of her neck.

'Feel better?'

'Tremendously. So what is this surprise?'

Esposito grinned as he went into the kitchen and pulled the baking sheet from the oven. 'To start, garlic biscuits from Petrelli's, followed by provelone, onions, and prosciutto, just the way you like it. I'm not the best cook in the world but it's pretty hard to screw up pizza, not counting that incident in November.'

'Only you could make four-cheese taste like feet,' she laughed as he pulled out her chair for her and set the basket onto the table between them. 'Let me guess, dessert is strawberry cheesecake gelato?'

'Maybe?' Esposito shifted a little on his chair, bashful that his attempt to be romantic had been so transparent. He didn't have much time to feel bad, as she'd come around the table and given him a soft, slow kiss, the kind that made his blood sizzle with the promise of more than a kiss later in a hot tub, or the couch, or in one memorable night, up against his living room wall followed by the armchair and eventually his bed.

'You did good,' she murmured against his mouth, pulling him to his feet by the shirtfront. He'd done this for her, despite being ass-over-teakettle busy at work himself. Keeping her mouth on his she walked him back to the couch and tumbled him onto his back so she was sprawled over top of him.

'Aren't you hungry?'

'Starved.'

She pulled his t-shirt over his head, then hers, and Esposito's brain melt like sugar in water as he saw she had nothing but beautiful fragrant skin underneath. Running his hands over her stomach, her sides, up to the undersides of her breasts, he shifted so he sat upright on the couch with Meredeth in his lap, one leg on either side of his hips. He groaned lowly when she rocked forward, felt the blood zip into his lap as she braced her hands on the couch behind his head.

'I love it when you do that,' he murmured as he breathed deep the scent of her skin, thanking God for his creation of coconut soap.

'This?' She rocked forward again, a sly smile forming on her lips as she watched him close his eyes and groan again. It still amazed her, that her steady, sure cop surrendered under her touch. She put her head on his shoulder, turned so her lips lay against his throat to nibble at the pulse that was picking up tempo; his hands were giving her goosebumps as he took her chin in his fingers and pulled her mouth back up to his. This time it was his turn to give her an eye-crossing kiss, hands sliding down to her ass to pull her towards him; she gave a little sound of delight as that snug vee of her thighs bumped against the not-so-subtle erection underneath his sweats. The heat from her skin, the fragrance made his mouth water as he tugged on the band of her pants.

'Think we could do without these,' he told her, pouting a little when she scooted backwards to peel off the soft black fabric from her long legs. His eyes widened as he saw she also hadn't bothered with panties either. 'You did that on purpose, didn't you?'

'Maybe.'

Esposito only shook his head as he shifted his hips up to kick off his sweats, watched Meredeth lick her lips in anticipation. She came back to him, taking him in as she straddled him; it was unusual for it to be this quick, but that was part of his sexual appeal - always keeping things interesting. As she began to move on top of him, she felt his heart thunder under her hands, watched his head loll back against the couch as his eyes slammed shut; it made her feel so female and sexy that she could make him feel so alive.

He could feel it build inside him as she made that sexy little 'oh' with her lips, eyes half-closed as she pressed those curves against him, her body whipping up need inside him. Then, like a bad chestnut out of left field, his cell rang.

'Goddamn it.' His brain had gone fuzzy, but he had enough sense to look at the display before he took the call. 'It's Ryan.'

'Take it,' she told him, knowing it could be work related. She started to climb off his lap but he pressed his hand to the small of her back.

'No, don't move. Ryan somebody better be dead,' he told his partner when he answered the phone, stroking his fingers up and down Meredeth's back. 'Sorry, not tonight man.'

Meredeth had to hold back the laugh at his frustration. Since it obviously wasn't work related, she decided to have a little fun and began to grind her hips against him. His eyes zeroed in on her devilish grin as he felt his body begin to leave his mind behind.

'No, man, I'm not working. I have plans with Meredeth.'

'Tell him what our plans are,' she whispered, lowering her mouth to his earlobe and nipping at him. 'Tell him what we're doing...right...now.'

'Oh Jesus.' Esposito swore ripely as he tried to keep himself from popping too soon. The pace she'd set was tantalizing, tortorously slow, making his neurons sizzle and keeping up with Ryan's conversation almost impossible. 'For God's sakes Ryan, call Castle, I'm sure he'd love to go.'

'Give me that.' Without waiting for permission, she yanked the phone out of his hand. 'Ryan, we're a little busy right now. Go away.' She snapped the phone shut, tossed it onto the pile of clothes before fusing her mouth to his.

'You're bad,' he managed as she began to increase her speed.

'And you love me for it.'

'Hell yeah, I do.' Esposito gripped her hips as he felt her laugh; it dissolved into shudders as the orgasm erupted through her, his following close behind as she rode him with hard deliberate strokes. His head thumped back against the couch, chest heaving and Meredeth cuddling against him.

'May not last as long as a Jazz-Lakers game but it's a hell of a lot more fun.'

'And interactive.' Meredeth bit her lip as a thought passed through her brain. 'You don't think he knows he was interrupting, do you?'

'I don't know, he's pretty sharp. But then again, he had to have it pointed out to him by her co-worker that Honey-Milk was into him.'

'If you do tell him, just don't let it get around the station, like the Hallowe'en thing with Kate's costume, okay?'

'Fair enough.' He slapped her ass in a loving 'thanks for the great sex' way. 'Pizza should be ready now.'

The following morning Esposito stalked into the bullpen, homing in on Ryan like a heat seeking missile. Since his partner had his back to the elevator Esposito got the drop on him; even better, Ryan had his feet propped on his desk as he poured through a case file. Grabbing the back of his chair, Esposito tipped it backwards so Ryan was parallel to the floor and staring up into his face.

'Morning, bro.'

'Hi?' It came out as a tenative question. Ryan had seen that look before on his partner's face, the one that said someone was going to pay for their crimes. Taking his feet off his desk, he sat up and twisted around to look at Esposito. 'What crawled up your ass this morning?'

'More like what crawled in my ear last night.'

'Oh, yeah, sorry about that bro. Didn't know you had plans with Mere.' Ryan's face was bland as skim milk as he turned his attention back to his paperwork. 'You guys have a good night?'

Not so fast Irish, Esposito thought. 'Yeah, one you interrupted at a most inconvenient time. Emphasis on the interrupted, bro. As in, coppus interruptus.'

'What?'

He looked past his partner to see Castle walking off the elevator, folded his hands behind his head. 'Hey, Castle, what's 'coppus interruptus' mean to you?'

'Two people having sex are interrupted by a cop,' Castle replied without missing a beat. 'Why? Who'd you bust?'

Esposito folded his arms across his chest as the pen slid out of Ryan's hand to the floor, his face blanching white as flour. His smirk was barely contained when Ryan's head whipped up to stare mortified at him, over to Castle, then back to Esposito. 'Oh, dude.'

'Oh yeah.' Espsoito tried to hold it in, but found himself cracking up when Ryan thumped his forehead on the edge of his desk as Castle watched them in confusion.

'Clearly I missed something.'

'Meredeth and I were spending the night together, when Detective Ryan here called us to see if we wanted to catch a basketball game over at the bar.'

'So, you couldn't have-'

'Let me repeat that. Meredeth and I were spending the night together,' Esposito said again, emphasizing his words, and wasn't disappointed when they hit their mark. Castle's face split into a knowing grin as his shoulders began to shake with laughter.

'Oh, he didn't.'

'Oh he did.'

'Gentlemen!' Beckett's voice rang out as she walked off the elevator, stopped when she saw Esposito and Castle all but bent double, howling hysterically. 'Did I miss something?

'Nope, and neither did Ryan!' Castle managed, which set them both off again.

Muttering threats of recrimination under his breath and stalked off for coffee, Ryan left Beckett looking at her boyfriend and her detective for answers.

'Ryan made a rather ill-timed call to Esposito last night, when he was with Meredeth,' Castle explained as Esposito wiped tears of laughter off his face, 'and they weren't playing Halo, either.'

Beckett rolled her eyes. 'Grow up, you two. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner, the way you two are at it like rabbits. And besides,' she added with a twitch of a smirk, 'it's not like you've never done it to us, Esposito.'

R&R&Enjoy.