After Jim leaves, there's a long, quiet moment. Neither of them moves.

Castle's not sure what to do. His mind is full, too full, swirling with all the things he wants and he doesn't know how to get from this murky silence to the place he wants to be, a place where last night isn't just some anomaly that will get dimmer and dimmer until it recedes into pure myth.

"Thank you." Her voice is quiet, but unmistakable. He knows what she means.

"I like him. He's a good man."

Her throat ripples as she swallows - he knows she's biting back things she's not comfortable saying - but she just briefly shakes her head, folding her arms over her chest. Defensive. "Why are you here?"

"I came to see you."

Her shoulders slump. "Castle - it's not - I can't - "

Does she really think that? Does she honestly think he assumed he could hand her baked goods and she'd just drop her clothes?

Does she think so little of him?

"Beckett. Kate." Her name is strange on his tongue but he likes it. It makes her look up. "I didn't come here for that." She blinks, her expression still guarded, but she's not stopping him so he blunders on, remembering the desperate, feverish woman who kissed him like she was trying to climb inside of him. She's here somewhere. "I came to talk to you."

She lets out this long breath, like her whole energy is expelled, like she's done fighting. And after all the hours he's spent wanting to get her naked and moaning under him, he's swamped right now with how badly he just wants to kiss her.

"What do you want, Castle?"

"I want you to be able to look at me again."

It's - not exactly what he was going to say. He'd had all these ideas, all these sweeping lines of prose that would certainly send her weak-kneed into his strong arms.

But she stares at him, eyes wide in surprise. Her mouth is half-open, like she was about to protest, and he has to remind himself yet again that he can't kiss her.

"Look. I know that - I've spent a lot of time and energy being kind of a jerk to you. But I've always liked you. A lot. And - what happened last night - " her face gets pink, but she doesn't look away - "I don't want to forget about it. I don't want it to be a mistake. I want you to give me a chance."

Her arms are still folded over her chest, but he can see her resolve crumbling, the stubborn energy dissolving as her shoulders come down and her face relaxes. She's listening.

But he's come to the end of what he's figured out to say. And Rick Castle may not be a genius but he's relatively certain We could probably fix this by getting naked now is not the right way to go.

Kate's progressed to worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, and she really, really can't do things like that if he's still not allowed to kiss her. His body is a hopeless jumble of arousal and warm affection and why won't she just -

"You brought me cupcakes." It sounds like an accusation.

"I did."

"You sat through dinner with my dad."

Uh - "Yes."

She takes a step closer, and another, and warmth is spilling through his veins. "I'm not just a notch in your bedpost, Castle."

"I know." She's close enough to touch. He wants to make a joke about notches in the dashboard instead but in a flash of inspiration he realizes oh, that might defeat the point he's trying to make. "You're not a notch. You're - you're a -"

She's staring at him expectantly, and faced with those big green-gold eyes, he is completely unable to finish a sentence. "- okay, I can't think of anything clever. But you're not a notch."

Her lips quirk in what he thinks might be a bit of a smile. Might. "And you use words for a living?"

"Words aren't enough for you." It leaves his mouth before he thinks about it. "I keep trying. I'm not sure I'll ever get them perfectly right."

It's a sober confession, and one she clearly wasn't expecting. He gulps. Maybe this wasn't -

But her gaze is fixed on his mouth. Heat flares in his body. Her eyes flick back up to his and now he sees her, the woman from last night, the lithe, feral tigress who sucked his tongue down her throat and rode him in the back of a car.

He goes for honesty. "I really want to kiss you."

Her eyebrow quirks upward and it's adorable and hot and seductive all at the same time. "Is that all you want?"

"Well. No." He wants naked. "But it would be a very good place to start."