Chapter 41 – Beyond
Disclaimer – characters created by others.
Kate was rather proud of herself. Her legs still worked, score one for team Kate. After that it was all downhill, knees knocking, ankles wobbling like jello, and the lack of oxygen flowing to her brain threatening to cause her to pass out. It took great restraint not to down the entire bottle of champagne swinging in her hand.
That's what four years of waiting did to her, it made her breathless. Four years ago she would have MAYBE slept with him but it had one night stand written all over it. At that time he was Richard 'freakin' Castle; too much of a playboy and she, too guarded. Kate wasn't sure she'd ever have the courage to tell him how she was instantly sexually attracted to him, the scruffy chin, the eyes that could be all the colors of the ocean at one time, and that damn cocky grin. Oh how she loved that cocky grin. Even when she was mad at him, disappointed in him and even unknowingly rejected by him – his cocky grin had the power to knot her heart up so she had to pause to breathe.
He stood unable to continue forward movement. Castle checked his feet to make sure they weren't nailed to the floor. Not even the sway of her hips as she strutted out of the room gave him the power to move. Tonight was years in the making, really just since that fateful day he had told Slemming "No flag on the play." He had repeatedly beaten himself up over those five words, until the day she was shot. The day he told her loved her. Words that were mixed with grief and fear – he wasn't even sure he had said it properly since then.
Hooking the base of the champagne flutes between his fingers, Castle allowed her to make it half way to the bedroom before the cave man in him won. He crossed the space between them with Superman like speed, swooped in behind her, skillfully wrapping a strong arm around her waist and flipped her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Kate let out a body shaking laugh as drops of champagne sprinkled down his face. "Lucky I don't have my gun."
Smacking her on the ass he crowed, "Don't I know it!"
They laughed in unison as Rick unceremoniously tossed her on the bed and dove across her body to save the champagne. Propping himself up on his elbows, shifting much of his weight off of her, "You still alive?" Castle placed the bottle on the night table and turned down the wattage.
Unable to speak between the laughter, Kate nodded yes and began to taste the droplets of champagne that had landed on his face.
Rick reluctantly rolled himself off the bed. Kate looked at him with a puzzled frown "Where are you going?"
Bending to give her a brief reassuring kiss and gathering the glasses that had tumbled to the bed and filling the flutes with liquid courage.
Scooting to sit on the edge of the bed, "Good call – can you imagine a trip to the ER because you have glass embedded in your…."
He quickly places a hand over her mouth, "Don't say it, just thinking it upsets me." Her tongue started doing crazy things to the palm of his hand, he grudgingly removed his hand – he had a plan.
Kate happily took the champagne that Castle offered. He took a brief swig from his own glass and then handed it to her. He needed to keep her hands occupied. Kneeling before her, slipping one and then two CFMs off her feet, he murmured, "I love you in CFMs."
Her face beamed as she teased him, "Really? Never got that impression." She knew he did and loved that he did.
Running his hands slowly up her calves he confirmed they were as defined as he always thought they were. "You knew. I think you even began wearing higher ones – just to taunt me. Just like you are taunting me now with your red toe nail polish perfectly matched the soles of your shoes."
Soundlessly he rocked back and forth on his toes as he knelt at her feet. "Nervous?" he asked as he slid his hands to her hips, holding her as if she would break. "I hope so, because my palms are sweaty, I'm struggling to speak, I have it all planned out, but now in the moment – this moment, I'm lost."
Kate downed a glass of champagne and tossed it to the love seat under the window. They both held their breath waiting for the sound of breaking glass. They were met with silence She smirked, "That was lucky"
She placed the remaining glass to his lips and tipped it back for him. When he finished she cocked her arm to toss his to join hers. Castle plucked the glass from her hand, placing it on the floor. "Don't think you're that lucky."
Kate wrapped her hands around his shoulders and guided him towards her. Gradually pulling him onto the bed, until he let her curl her body around his, nestling against his back, softly breathing against his neck, "Good."
Rolling on to his side to look her into her eyes, releasing her hair from the last of its restraints, he tangled his fingers through it. Rick repeated "Good?" He watched her eyes turn a smoky hazel as he waited for her to speak, trusting that she would.
Kate quietly admitted, "Me too."
Taking a moment, Rick rose to his feet, bringing her with him. Standing toe to toe, matching breath for breath, he finally broke the silence, "I have one question."
Kate attempted to steady herself by hooking her fingers inside his waistband of his jeans. "Hmm?"
He slowly removed her hands from his jeans and spun her around. With a deliberate slowness he began to drag the zipper or her dress down. "Are you fearless?"
With a bit of sass she asked, "Me or my lingerie? Regardless, the answer is I am. I hope it doesn't disappoint but this lingerie is from my collection."
Rick beamed, "You have a collection?"
"Don't sound so shocked."
His fingers leisurely guiding the straps of her dress down her arms, he teased "Oh, Detective – that is my most excited and impressed voice –"
"- not my shocked voice." The tease in Rick's voice vanished as her dress slithered down her hips and landed in a pile on the floor. He began dropping butterfly kisses down her spine with what Kate could only describe as an agonizingly unhurried torture.
She wasn't good at slow, she wasn't good at not leading. Spinning to meet him face to face, pushing her dress out of the way with her foot ready to pounce until she caught the look in his eyes. It said he had a plan and it meant so very much to him. Kate collected herself, let him lead. That would be her gift to him, even if he didn't know it.
With his blue eyes intensifying and his voice shaking, "Stunning."
Kate unconsciously pulled her bottom lip in with her teeth, eyes flitting from his eyes to lips and back again. "Sooo…" Dropping the tone of her voice to a new level of sultriness; "… fearless enough?"
Sweeping his eyes over her body with an appreciative gaze, "Beyond."
Nibbling on her lip and tugging on the tail of his shirt, "You're looking a little over dressed."
"I need you to help me with that."
Taking a play from his book, Kate stepped closer, slipped her hands inside his shirt, and leisurely walked her fingers up his abs cutting across to his ribs. Step by step until she lifted his shirt over his head. Tossing it towards the corner she skimmed her fingers back down his chest to rest her hands on his belt buckle. She watched as his arms hung stiffly at his sides, his fists were rapidly clenching and unclenching.
Holding his gaze Kate unclasp his belt, popped the top button of his jeans, "What do you want Rick?"
He wasn't sure if it was the way she softly used his first name or the location of her hand that caused his breathing to slow then quickened. On the edge of being unable to speak, he fought to push out the word. "You."
Cheshire grin playing on her lips, eyes molten chocolate and hands moving with terrorizing slowness she popped button after button of his Legend 121s. Rick couldn't decide if he was in heaven or hell. Maybe it was a little bit of both.
He was brought back to reality by her exclamation, "You are going commando!"
Unable to restrain himself he reached for her, dropping his head to her shoulder and letting out a hiss, "Easy access."
Pulling him closer to allow her to nimbly slip her hands down the back of his loosened jeans, "I'll say." Incapable of containing her laughter anymore, "So not you."
"Oh but it is." Skimming his hands over the curve of her butt as he tasted the plane of her shoulder, maneuvering a bra strap off her shoulder with his tongue as she continued to teasingly barely brush her fingers across his backside, he felt her body arch into his. Rick was still on track to slowly seduce her, until she let out a little moan.
Hearing Kate Beckett moan was his undoing. With a heavy groan he puffed out, "You are killing me. I'm killing me – this is killing me."
Grasping his face between her hands, locking eyes, "Let's be clear here, whose killing who? "
Rick mustered his manliness, "You're killing me. I had it all planned out. I want it to be perfect, want to please you. Seduce you, make sure it was perfect."
A silly little grin played on her face as she stroked her thumb back and forth across his bottom lip. "How is that me killing you?"
"Because you take my breath away and this pace is killing me."
With a bit of a smirk and a blushing, "What do you want?" Damn she hoped he said the seduction was over. He had been seducing her for four years. How much foreplay did he think she needed? What she needed was him – NOW.
Rick swallowed several time, cursed himself for playing her game – but couldn't resist. "Want or need? Such different words. Each has a different definition."
Trying not to rush him she prodded, "Let's start with want – "
Tipping his forehead to hers, his hips starting to betray him as they pushed into hers, "It's cliché but I want to make it special. Memorable. I planned it all out where I met your every need, like I said make it special. But the way you are looking at me, standing there nearly naked is undoing my plan"
Kate was doing her best to remain steady as she stepped back from him and pushed his jeans down over his hips. "Mmm – need."
Castle growled as the pace of his thumb caressing the clasp of her bra was increased, "Can't tell you."
She purred, "Tell me."
He mumbled, "Don't think you'll approve." As she moved to finish lowering his jeans, helping him step out of them, "Let me be the judge."
"I would have my wicked way with you." With an expert touch Castle popped open the clasp of her bra, one day he would tell her how he loved bras that were clasp in the front. Made opening them all that more enjoyable.
A shudder of anticipation traveled through her body as he finished freeing her from her bra. "Wicked way? Do tell."
"No – I want to take care of you, make you feel beautiful. Show you how much I love you. Not just tell you."
Eyes shining bright with arousal, "Ah Rick, you have been making me feel beautiful for years. What if I said wicked worked for me and that you have been seducing me for years, every cup of coffee, every creepy look, every time you saved my life and…." Her voice wavering, her grasp tightening on hips, "that every single time I told you to go away and you came back you showed me how much you loved me. So, if it doesn't upset you…right now, in this moment - feeling a little wicked."