"Good morning, beautiful," I whispered to Kate as she slowly woke up.
"Good morning, handsome," she responded.
"What do you want to do today? Other than me of course." I said with a smile. She rolled her eyes.
"When are Alexis and Martha coming back?"
"Probably some time tomorrow. With lots of new clothes and my soon to be maxed out credit card."
"I'm going to need to run home and get some clothes. And I need to do some laundry and chores around my apartment," she said.
"I'll help." I really didn't want to leave her just yet. I knew that we would have to work some things out to make sure this would work between us but for right now, I just wanted to be with her.
"You don't need to help but you can bring your laptop and do some work if you want to," she suggested.
I had to smile at that. Most women wouldn't think about me doing my own work. "Why are you smiling?" she asked.
"Because you are very thoughtful. Want to take a shower together?" I asked hopefully, leering at her.
"We probably shouldn't," she said disappointed.
"Why not?" I pouted.
"Cause we'll just end up back in bed."
"And that's a bad thing because..." I grinned.
"Because I need to get some chores done before we can try out my bed."
"Okay, me first!" I gave her a quick kiss then went to take my shower, a cold one.
Once I was done, I walked back into my bedroom and saw her still cuddled under my blankets. So much for the cold shower. "Your turn. I'll see if I can find you something to wear. I put out an extra toothbrush for you. Here's a robe if you want it."
She slipped out of bed and pulled on the robe. I was a little disappointed to not see her walking around nude but I knew she looked better in that robe than I ever did. I pulled out a set of sweatpants and one of my favorite t-shirts then just in case I ran in to get some girly clothes from Alexis' room.
We went over to Kate's apartment. This was the first time I've been there after the boys and I helped her move in. Her place was neat and well cared for. It was definitely feminine without being girly. She pointed me to a nice comfy leather chair and showed me where I could plug in my laptop.
"This chair looks familiar," I said, commenting to the one obviously non-feminine object in the room.
"Yeah, when I stayed at your loft last year, I decided that I really liked your chair. So when I could, I got one just like it. Can I get you anything to drink?"
"No, I'm good." I just watched her as she went about her chores typing a little here and there. I wasn't actually working in the story itself just typing impressions of Kate and how I can use them for Nikki Heat. I was definitely was going to use the chair in the next story. Kate was in her bedroom when the dryer buzzed so I got up to help.
"Kate, want me to get the stuff out if the dryer?"
"Sure," she called out.
I grabbed the still warm clothes and tossed them in the basket before tossing the wet clothes into the dryer. I carried the laundry into her bedroom and saw her smiling at me.
"What's so funny?" I asked.
"Nothing. I just never pictured you as the domestic type." She took the basket and started folding the towels.
"I am a single dad; someone had to do the house work. I sure hope you don't think Mother did it?" I said with a smile.
"I thought that you would have a maid come in and do all of that."
"I have a cleaning service come in for my big parties and such but Alexis and I can usually manage fine on our own. Especially once we got Mother trained to do some of it. So the dishes are done, you've vacuumed, the laundry is done and the bed is made. Anything else?" I asked hopefully once we finished making the bed.
"Just one more thing," I frowned. "Make the bed."
"But we just made it?" I asked a bit confused.
"And now we're going to mess it up," she smiled at me.
"I was thinking you would never ask," I said as we both kneeled on to the bed meeting in the middle before I pulled her into my arms. "Your bed, your choice. What do you want me to do to you? Or what do you want to do to me?" I couldn't resist the smug smile.
"So if it's your bed you get to chose?" she said amused.
"My choice is to make you happy," I said looking into her eyes. "However you want me to."
"Good answer. Now let's mess up these sheets," she suggested as she nibbled on my earlobe.
"God, Kate you make me crazy."
"You already are crazy," she insisted.
"Crazy about you. I've wanted you since you showed up at my book signing party and took me downtown for questioning."
"Castle," she said with warning.
"Seriously, I wanted Detective Beckett from the moment I saw her. Then I got the chance to know Kate Beckett and I fell all over again," I said as I lightly touched her cheek.
She smiled slightly then leaned toward me and our lips met in a passionate kiss.
After we decided that my bed was by far bigger and more comfortable, we headed back to my loft, stopping to get pizza on the way. We were back in the study eating and bickering about the merits of anchovies. I took a bigger bite than I intended and the cheese decided to slide off, burning my chin before falling on my shirt and pants.
"Oh, great. I'm going to go change, be right back," I said once I picked up the offending cheese and wiped my poor chin.
I ran back to the laundry room, treated the stains, and started a load of the laundry. I was just wearing my Tommy Nash silk boxers when all of a sudden I heard a key in the lock.
"Alexis!" I slipped behind the kitchen island and said hello to my daughter as if it were normal for me to be half undressed in the kitchen.
"Hey, Dad," she said as she wheeled her new suitcase in through the door. Her eyebrow shot up when she turned to look at me but she didn't say anything other than, "Gram had to go and see her agent but she'll be back in time for dinner."
"Did you have a good trip?" I asked leaning my chin in my hand and propping my elbow on the counter.
"Yes, we did. Here's your credit card. I managed to get it from Gram," she said with a smile as she walked over to me.
"Thanks, pumpkin, can you just put it over on the coffee table?" I asked embarrassed and not wanting her to come any closer.
"Oh Dad. Eww. Just because you are here alone doesn't mean you can run around without clothes." I couldn't help it, my eyes skipped from hers and of course, my brilliant daughter saw that and realized that I was hiding something.
"Is that a hickey?" My hand shot up to my neck to cover it.
"Oh double eww. I'm going to Kelly's," she said as she put the credit card back in her pocket and walked out.
"Alexis and Mother are back in town," I said to Kate as I walked back into the study.
"What? Are they here?" she didn't seem to able to control the blush that crept across her cheeks.
"Mother has a meeting with her agent and she'll be back for dinner tonight. Alexis said 'Ew dad. Where are your clothes?' picked up my credit card back up then left to go to her friend Kelly's house."
"Did you tell her I was here?" she asked not meeting my eyes.
"No, but she knew someone was here." I said as I sat on the arm of the chair beside her before continuing. "We probably should talk about where this is all heading."
"Where do you see it heading?" she asked still not meeting my eyes.
"I think you know where I can see this going," I said hoping that we were somewhere close to the same page at least.
"Castle," she said exasperated.
"Kate," I said emphasizing her given name. "I am not proposing right now or asking you to move in. I just want to officially date you before we get to those other steps first."
"So you aren't going to insist that I move in or something next week, Rick?"
"Next week, no." I smiled. "Maybe in a couple of months I will ask you to move in but I won't insist on it."
"I just don't know how public I want this to be right now."
"What do you mean?"
"If you were just some guy name Rick that wouldn't be a problem but you are Richard Castle."
"Why should that matter?" I asked thinking that I knew where she might be headed.
"Because a lot of times your private life becomes public knowledge and I don't really want to worry about that right now. I just want us to be Kate and Rick for a while first, not the best selling writer and his muse."
"How private do you want to keep it though? I need to tell Alexis. I don't give her all the details of my private life but I tell her about the really important things. And this is definitely one of those," I said as I reached out to caress her cheek.
"That's fine. I would just like to keep it off of page 6 for a while."
"Okay. I understand, I just have one question." She raised one eyebrow. "Can I tell Lanie?"