I finally got the next chapter done and sent to my beta, so here is Hour 70! Thanks for reading, sorry for the wait, thanks for betaing and for reviewing. I don`t say it enough, but I do love those : )!

Hour 70

At first I was upset at her for changing alone, but if I'm honest, I know she was right in doing so. That doesn't mean I can't tease her for it. When I'm ready to be in public, I go to the kitchen and repeat my moves from the bathroom; I wrap my arms around her and kiss her neck. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite places to kiss from my favorite, non-blood related person. The idea of her not being at all surprised when I hug her from behind amazes me. "I love the fact that you always seem to know I'm coming."

"Well, you're not really very ninja skilled Castle."

"Still, whenever I wrap my arms around you, it feels as if you have been waiting for it. You sometimes get chills, but never feel surprised."

"That's because I feel comfortable here. I know nothing bad can come my way right this very moment, so whenever you approach me from behind, I just feel glad that, like me, you don't seem to be able to hold back or stay away for too long. And I love that. So I guess it's an instinct to, you know, feel comfortable whenever you approach me so you never feel the need to stop doing so, at least not when we're alone, among family and friends or in any other private, non-precinct related setting."

"How come whenever I feel that I couldn't possibly love you any more than I already do, you find a way of proving me wrong?"

"Well, you've been doing it to me for the past hour. Whenever I felt our kisses couldn't get any better, you went and kissed me even more fully than the last time."

"Do you think we'll be this good in bed?"

"I'm pretty sure we'll be even better."

"Hey Beckett, why didn't you wait for me when you went to get ready? I happen to be really good at helping beautiful women getting in and out of their clothing!"

"Maybe I just wanted you to be surprised when you get me out of these jeans tonight."

And that sentence alone, accompanied with that sexy lifted eyebrow of hers and the biting of her bottom lip is enough to make the teaser become the teased. "Ugh! That's not fair Beckett! It's not nice to tease me like this when we're hours away from being alone again!"

"Payback is a bitch, isn't it Castle? Now go back to chopping so we can have everything ready, everyone will be here any time now."

"Yeah, ok."

"Rick? You're gonna have to let me go if you expect to get something done..."

"Yeah, I know. It's just that this feels so nice that it's too hard to let go."

"I know, but we really have to hurry if we don't want to give Lanie the wrong idea. She will wonder why we didn't get dinner ready on time. And trust me, you don't want to give Lanie a run-with-your-imagination-to-the-wild-free pass."

"Yeah, ok." I give her one last kiss right under her left ear and I reluctantly let her go. The next couple of hours are going to be even harder than I thought. To make things faster, we set our minds to work in companionable silence and in less than fifteen minutes we have the pizzas ready to be put in the oven. I take some garlic bread out of the freezer and place it in the oven to serve warm and I'm just about to reclaim my place behind her when the bell rings. I take a detour to answer the door but Kate intercepts me and pulls her arms around me. For a second, she just rests her forehead to mine and eventually she says, "Thank you for being here with me tonight. No matter the outcome, I know I couldn't be hosting this dinner if I didn't have you as my support system. Let's hope for the bet, but I can already say that even if everything goes to hell in the next few hours, when all is said and done, we'll go to bed together and I'll fall asleep in the only way I'll ever fall asleep from now on: with your arms around me."

"Always, Kate." I whisper.

"Hopefully, everything will turn out ok. But if it doesn't and the mood is ruined, tomorrow, when you wake up, feel free to engage me in a little, or a lot of, romance before I'm fully awake and find tonight's events too depressing."

There really aren't many words for me to say, so I simply lean down and kiss her. We're so engaged in each other that we forget about the door. Not a good omen for this dinner, since we're reminded of it by the yells Espo throws, presumably to Ryan. Crap. That's not how they were supposed to find out about the other coming. Oh, well, nothing to do now but face the music. I open the door with a flourish and greet them all with my best English butler imitation. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, so good of you to join us. May I take your coats?"

"Cut the crap Castle. It's either Lanie and me or Jenny and her traitorous husband. I'm not staying if he is."

"Javier Esposito! You will apologize to Jenny, you'll all get inside, give your coats to Castle and you, Ryan, Castle and I are going to have a talk while Lanie and Jenny take care if the pizzas and the drinks. Got it?" Beckett commands, coming out from behind me.

Both Espo and Ryan look ashamed and a little dubious, but they follow us in. I barely have time to point the girls towards the kitchen before Kate takes my hand in hers and leads us to my office. Please God, may this dinner take a turn for the best soon, if not, the 12th precint is doomed to loose it's best team yet.

Right before she closes the door to my office, which is kind of pointless since it has a see through library, she adds: "Lanie, I trust you can make both Jenny and yourself feel at home, and feel free to intervene in favor of the team at any time, both of you. But no defending my man's honour and he's the better person will be allowed. There's no 'best' person in a good team, and we won't leave here until we have our team back. Can you both live with that?"

I see both Jenny and Lanie nod vigorously, and as an after-thought, the both answer in unison "Yes Beckett".

When I see Kate's face, I take my last thought back, it wasn't a second thought, it was fear of the Beckett eyebrow. Wow. Who would have thought that sexy devious patch of hair could scare Lanie…As we take seat on the couch and chairs in my office, I can't but feel doomed by the guys' faces. This will be a never ending night, and when it does end, it won't be pretty!