Great news! My beta stanathan is back! Yay! Great news: After the Storm! (there are some truly amazing clips for it in YouTube...) I´ll get the next one out as soon as I can. Ideas, reviews and follows are greately loved!
Pd: still not mine... dang!
Hour 65
After that last hug, we avoid any form of physical contact for efficiency reasons. Apparently, being half naked is fulfilling but distracting as hell. Who knew, right? I risk a sidelong glance to see were Kate is and I find her lost in thought.
"Kate?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you really that worried about tonight? I mean, do you think we might be making a mistake by forcing the guys to confront each other before they are ready to do so?"
"It might be, but I can't just leave for the summer without at least trying to get them talking to each other! It's my fault, you know? I did this to our team and I owe it to the four of us to at least try to fix it…I asked them both to do something, without considering the fact that they both have different ways of showing their loyalty. They both acted with my best interest in mind, but they luckily had different ideas of what's best for me. I needed Espo to go with me to find Maddox, but if it wasn't for Ryan, I wouldn't be here now. I'd be more like a meatball on the street." And she chuckles at the thought.
"Don't do that Kate, don't joke about it. Your possible death is not something to be minimized, or laughed about. You are such a big part of my life that I fear for what your death might cause to my heart. I mean it Beckett: my life without you won't be a life at all. Seeing what living by your side entails, living without you would only be a shadow of a life, it would only turn me into a house of mirrors reflecting myself, so please, don't take the eventual matter of your death so lightly."
"I'm sorry Rick. Please believe me when I say, I would never do you any harm…" And she laughs so I groan
"Beckett!"
And she laughs again, which only helps to infuriate me even more. When I pictured this relationship in my head, I never saw myself as the grownup in any conversation.
"I'm sorry Castle. It's just that seeing you so sombre, so pessimistic is so out of character for you that I can't help feeling this is all a joke. What do you want me to say Rick? That I value my life? The fact that I'm here, with you and not out there, chasing Maddox and the Dragon should be proof enough that I'm here for good and that I have no intention of sharing any less than always with you Ok?" If her hands on my face is any sign, she expects for me to nod. So I do, and she leans closer and gives me an innocent peck on the lips while I surreptitiously place my arms around her. Great, so we lasted fifteen minutes without touching each other. She might have been right. The Hamptons won't work.
"I love you."
"Good. Cause I love you too Rick and you're stuck with me, partner. So can we please, please, remember that we love each other, that we're here to stay, that no one has a death wish and that we've both dived in with only the image of resurfacing together in mind? We're so good at bantering and bickering that I'd hate to see us loosing that."
"Yeah, we can do that. I'd love that actually…"
She kisses me again and turns around to leave the confinement of my arms and I'm sure I hear her say something about deciding to be a grown up man. I can't help myself, I need to say something: "What was that, Detective?"
"I said you have really bad timing for finally becoming a gown up man. Now can we please go back to cooking?"
I let her go, turn off her pan and place a mantel over the already done pizza dough. Then I go back to where she's standing – right where I left her – and once again snake my arms around her. "In a while. For now, I want us to pretend that we're a couple of love sick teenagers and just neck for like, an hour. Can we do that? Please?" I give her my best puppy look to seal the deal. It seems to do the trick, for she just grabs my hand, leads me to the couch and pushes my down. A second later, she's straddling me, arms around my neck, and leans down to kiss me. And God it feels good. Her tongue asks for permission to enter my mouth and I immediately grant it. Because, really, who could deny this woman anything? Why haven't we been doing this all day? The guys wouldn't mind if we bought Chinese, right? And her arms around my torso, my hands over her bare legs is almost too much. Having such an amazing reminder of what we'll be sharing later tonight, once the door to the loft closes pushes me into wanting to plan things. I mean, I know how important tonight is for Kate and I don't want to drag her to the Hamptons tomorrow unless she knows for sure the kids would be alright. God! This being the grown up thing is way harder that I'd anticipated. "Kate-"
"Not now Castle!" She nips at my lips. Who knew butterfly kisses could feel this great. FOCUS Castle! "I thought this was want you wanted, writer boy. What's wrong? Kissing me has rendered you brainless?"
"Uh? Yeah. Sort of. Small sentences for a while."
Eskimo kisses. Really? I'm being distracted by her nose rubbing mine? That's it, I' m doomed. "That's all very flattering Mr. Castle, but can we go back to the task at hand? You can't really kiss me like that for about five minutes and then expect me to let go."
"Trust me Beckett. This is a onetime only thing. But seeing how good we are at JUST kissing, I can't help wondering how good we'll be once the guys leave. And I don't want to risk us being in a foul mood after that door closes. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah, I know. What I don't understand is how on earth you can focus in here" She taps my head "Considering what was going on here." And she kisses me again. This time, I allow for the kiss to deepen. I mean, I love the guys and all, but I'm a man after all. And I can't be expected to think that far ahead when I have such an amazing woman straddling me.
"Argh! Dammit Castle! Did you really need to do that?"
"What? What did I do? Your hands have been roaming for the last hour, you can't expect mine to do anything but retaliate!" As if to prove my point, I smoothly run my hand under her shirt, all over her beautifully naked back. "Oh, braless Miss Beckett?"
"Yeah. Can't believe it took you so long to notice."
"I blame the shirt for it. But trust me. It seems we'll need to go shopping after all. If you're going to go around wearing nothing but my shirt, we're going to need some thinner ones…"
"Whatever suits you writer boy. All I want to know is: should I be worried about your braless-Beckett-radar being off?"
"Oh no Miss Beckett, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. From now on, I pretend to be awake when you get dress, because seeing you get into one of my t-shirts is as exciting as seeing you getting out of one will be."
"But if you're always UP when I get dressed, I would never leave the bedroom…"
"And what, my dear, is the downside of that?"
"Don't 'dear me' Castle. Anyway, I'm mad at you."
"What? Why?"
"Because here I was, being ravaged my this ruggedly handsome man I've been trying to take to my bed for the longest of times and you have to go and mention the guys. It's like mentioning your mother while in bed."
"Hey! Don't you ever do that! Nothing compares to you bringing my mother up!"
"Whatever you say. Either way, between the boys and your mother, the mood is ruined so we might as well start planning."
"Fine, but can we stay like this?"
"Yeah, we can definitely stay like this."