Murder He Rewrote
Wow.
Okay. Castle's house is. . .incredible.
A whole lot bigger than she was imagining, but then it's Richard Castle. He's extravagant, she knows yet, and still the shock of it has her moving, stepping out of the car and a little way down the drive. It takes considerable effort not to let the intimidation drip too heavily into her voice. "Oh my goodness, Castle, wow."
"So, you rich or something?" Kate turns back over her shoulder to grin at him, lift an eyebrow in teasing.
"Well I'm not James Patterson rich but I do okay." He says, quiet and reassuring. "Come on, I'll show you around."
He moves towards the front door and Kate takes a moment to push it back, all of it, her gaze flitting over this unbelievable house again. She can't help but picture Gina's reaction to it, the hordes of other women she doesn't even know about.
And yeah, okay, he's not that guy anymore. He loves her, and only her, and she has no doubts about that. How could she? Not with the way he looks at her, the way he seems constantly drawn in by her presence, soft touches to affirm that the warmth of her body next to his is not an illusion.
So it's fine. She can push it back.
Castle opens the door and ushers her in ahead of him, coming up behind her with his hands hot at her hips and his mouth seeking out the pale swathes of skin at her neck. "You want to get something to drink first?"
"Mm, yeah. Thanks." Kate turns to meet his mouth over her shoulder, letting him guide her to the kitchen with the insistent weight of his body coming up against hers.
His kitchen is gorgeous, of course. She never expected anything less, and yet it still takes her breath away. Just absolutely stunning, and she can see herself here. Years from now, cooking breakfast for her family and gathering a warm, squirmy little body in her arms to press kisses to plump cheeks.
Not that they're anywhere close to even talking about that yet.
"Red okay?" He asks, brandishing a bottle of wine in one hand and a corkscrew in the other. Now that she's looking, she sees the bowl at the island overflowing with fruit, fresh bread cooling on a rack at the stove.
She raises an eyebrow and comes for him, lacing her hands low around his hips and kissing the dip of his chin. "Where'd all of this food come from?"
"Ah, my housekeeper. Alice. I just asked her to open some windows and make sure the AC was working but she always does this anyway. Even when I remind her she's not obligated to." He shrugs, opening the refrigerator to show her shelves spilling over with produce.
"Huh. . .red's good."
He opens the bottle and pours a glass for each of them, handing hers over and taking her other hand in his own. She lets herself get tugged up against his side, meets his mouth with hers. Only meaning to let him taste her gratitude, but Castle's tongue is insistent and she lets him sweep inside, curling her fingers at his jaw and taking her sweet time in breaking their kiss.
"So a housekeeper, huh?"
"Yeah. She's pretty excited about the prospect of me bringing you up here." Castle grins, nudging at her with his elbow and leading her towards the staircase. "Said she couldn't wait to meet the woman who made me grow up."
Kate can't help but laugh at that, glancing back to shake her head as he trails her up the stairs. "I didn't make you do anything."
"Sure you did. You made me want to be the kind of guy who could be worthy of you." He shrugs, self-deprecating, but she watches the leak of uncertainty into his eyes.
Castle reaches the top of the stairs and tugs her down the hallway into a huge room. The bed looks stunning, sinfully comfortable, and the sliding glass doors open out onto a balcony and give a straight view down to where the ocean kisses the sky.
It would be beautiful in a storm, Kate can't help but think. To curl up in bed with hot cocoa and the warmth of Castle's body, watch the bleed of violent purple-black clouds into the ocean, how it would roil in protest. Lightening forking like tributaries in the bruised landscape of sky.
"Wow. Nice view."
"Yeah." Castle unlocks the balcony door and steps out onto it, encasing her hand in his own to tug her out after him. "Sometimes it feels a shame to waste it on the guest room."
"This isn't the master?"
He laughs, dusts his mouth to her cheek and encloses her body with his own, the both of them leaning against the railing. "No, it's downstairs. I've thought about switching them before, but I like it being out of the way. More private."
His eyebrows dance and it sends a spike of horror through her gut. Because she knows exactly what kind of privacy he means, and she knows he's remembering someone not her with whom he utilised it.
"Right." Kate turns in the circle of his arms to lean back against the balustrade and settle her palm over his heart. "And for the record, you've always been worthy of me. I'm the one who took forever to be ready, aren't I?"
He kisses her for that, soft and somnolent until her knees give and she sags against him. "Was worth every second to get to have this now."
Finding she can't do more than smile at him for that, Kate settles her forehead at his chin and takes a moment just to breathe him in, appreciate the rich swell of their history in the negative space between their bodies. "Come on then, show me the rest."
"After I finished remodelling the kitchen I swore I was done, but then my designer called, she said I had to tie in the living room so I did that too, and that led to the second floor." Castle says, following Kate down the staircase. God, could he be more mundane?
It's just that he's so excited to have her here, finally, and all of his nervous energy is manifesting in the form of pointless trivia about his home. He strides through the living room and realises that he's lost her, takes a stumbling step backward to see her swaying in the hall.
Looking for all the world like she wants to get in the car and go back to the city.
"You coming?"
"Yeah." She manages a smile and follows him through the sliding door and down the porch steps.
Castle strides off across the grass, his mouth still running almost entirely without his conscious permission. "This is actually my favourite part. The sound of the ocean, complete privacy, the serenity. The pool is right down here. Most people find it magical, there's-"
He cuts himself off at the sight of Kate still standing by the steps, tall and gorgeous and lonely. God, he's screwed this up already and they've barely been here a half hour.
"Everything okay?"
Kate's gaze flicks to his face and she manages a smile, thin and fragile-looking but it does help to ease the thickness in his chest. "Yeah. It's. . .spectacular, Castle."
"And is that a problem?" Castle moves back, his body helplessly drawn towards her. She doesn't acknowledge the same beliefs that he does, about destiny and fortune, but in the flood of late afternoon light across the grass he could swear he sees the red string of fate stretched taut between them.
They've always been working towards this. His whole life, it sometimes feels like. And to see her now, the foundations of her belief in them fissuring just as fast as he tries to clutch at her, hold her together. . .it kills him.
Kate meets his eyes, uncertainty speckling through her own as she watches him. "It's just I can't help wondering how many other girls have gotten this tour."
Oh Kate. Kate, love, no. That's not what he's trying to do with this. It's just so inconceivable that any of the other women he's brought out here could even come close to the brilliant beauty, the compassion and the humour of Kate. And really, who? Gina and Meredith and a woman he actually met out here during one summer? They're nothing. Not compared to her.
"Right. Well, I'm not going to deny that I've brought other women up here, but uh-" Castle peels her hand away from her wine glass and cradles it in his own, hopes she doesn't feel the thunder of his pulse as he searches desperately for the right words. "None of them were you."
Kate glances up from their hands to meet his eyes and he manages a smile for her, heart leaping when she returns it. And sure, it's like looking at his reflection in a pond, the expression echoed back at him watery and thin, but it's okay. He's got all weekend to convince her.
She leans back a little as if she's testing the strength of his grip. "You want to go and check out that pool, yeah?" Kate gives this soft laugh that makes him burn to haul her up against his chest and paint her mouth with his own, take her kisses and swallow the quiet moans she always gives him.
Instead, he turns around and leads her off, Kate letting go of his hand to curl her fingers at the inside of his elbow. Her touch is cool and gorgeous and it keeps her buoyant next to him, her grin glinting in his peripheral vision.
Castle opens the gate and nudges her in ahead of him, grateful that he thought to have Alice's husband Geoff uncover the pool. The first impression that Kate gets is of the pool at its full potential, the water clear and vibrant and the terracotta paving around it warm with sunlight, seeming as if the very act of soaking it up has turned it a burnished copper.
The pool might be his favourite part of the whole house. And the only time he loves it better than this is at night. "I was thinking we could get dinner and then wait a while to let the food settle before we swim, if that's okay with you."
"You want to swim in the dark?"
He leans in to press his mouth to her raised eyebrow, slip down to catch the thin skin of her eyelid between his teeth. "Pool lights, Kate. And it's heated."
"Mm, okay." She lifts her chin to get her mouth against his, their kiss crumbling around her smile. "Yeah. Feed me, and then swim."
He makes her sit at the counter.
Kate was sort of expecting him to order takeout tonight, but apparently he's going to cook. And she's not allowed to help. He won't tell her what he's making, either, says it's a surprise. The way he was carrying on she'd half expected him to banish her entirely, but he keeps coming back for these soft touches of his mouth to hers, fingertips just brushing her shoulders as he moves past.
"You're sure you don't want me to help?"
He huffs at her, his head deep inside the refrigerator as he rummages for ingredients. "I'm sure. You're on vacation, just relax."
"You're on vacation too, aren't you?" Kate says, drumming the fingers of one hand against the countertop as her other curls around her wine glass. She presses her mouth into a seam and watches him nudge the refrigerator door shut with his shoulder, dropping everything he gathered onto the counter.
"Yes. But you work so hard. Let me do this for you, please."
Kate slips off of the bar stool and moves to lean against the counter instead, close enough now that she can smooth over the inky lines of his veins with her thumb, the skin of his wrist so soft she could just sink into it. "I know you want to do things for me. I get that. But I want this to be a vacation for both of us, okay?"
"Okay."
"And for the record, cooking does help me relax. I just don't do it often because it feels like a waste of time just cooking for myself."
She shrugs like it doesn't matter, but the memories of lonely nights eating dinner on the couch by herself and craving Castle's warmth suck at her, threaten to tug her down to the sweet inevitability of drowning.
Of course he sees, but he doesn't comment further than to bring her in against his chest for a crushing hug and settle his mouth at her crown. "Would you chop the vegetables?"
"Sure."
Kate doesn't let him watch her change into her bathing suit, coming back from the bathroom with a robe closed tight around the lithe lines of her body.
"Why so secretive, Beckett?" He leers, coming in to bracket her hips in his palms and taste her mouth. She opens underneath him, ripe and gorgeous, and he tastes the richness of the wine they had with dinner as her tongue slicks over his.
Stepping back, he could swear she puts an extra sway into her hips just to mess with him as she disappears through the sliding door and onto the terrace. Castle trips after her, stumbling over the doorframe and almost colliding with her where she waits for him.
She shakes her head, already laughing at him, but even as she does she's taking his hand and coming in close. Still, even now, he's so completely enthralled by her body. How breathtaking she is, the stretch of her against his sheets just as mystifying as right here, mostly covered.
How he got so lucky he tries not to dwell on, if only because Kate hates to see him brooding.
"I still have to surprise you some of the time." She murmurs, letting him bring them to a halt. The sky is like velvet out here, pinpricked with tiny points of light that seem to dust her with their brilliance so she's ethereal, a goddess.
Tongue a thick and mostly useless thing in his mouth, Castle has to force the words past his lips. She does this to him, ties him up in knots. It's almost paradoxical, how she can make him more comfortable than any other person he's ever known and yet also reduce him to a bumbling idiot.
"You surprise me all the time."
Her cheeks flush at that, a wash of delicate pink that creeps up the base of her throat as well, has her burying her face against his neck to hide it. When she pulls back the planes of her face are softer, even with the cold touch of moonlight to her skin.
"Let's swim, hm?"
Okay, Kate, he gets it. Not ready for a total outpouring of his heart. He can rein it in, that's fine. Just so long as she stays.
"I'm sure you will find the temperature suitable, but if you would like it any warmer I could change the temperature or I could just stop talking-" Castle trails off, completely dumbstruck by the woman in front of him.
Standing tall, robe pooled around her feet and her body absolutely, gloriously naked. He doesn't know where to look first, the proud flare of her breasts or the powerful length of her legs or the sacrosanct place between her thighs. And honestly, it's not like he hasn't seen it all before, touched and tasted and discovered for his own.
But here she is, straight-laced Detective Beckett, and she wants to go skinny dipping.
"You forgot your suit." He grins, tries desperately not to leer. It takes him a moment to place the emotion crawling up his spine, and then it hits him. Reverence. How he wants to worship at the font of Kate's body.
She snorts a laugh at that, dipping her knees just a little as if he's not already hopelessly ensnared by the sight of her. "I know."
"You want to help me forget mine too?"
Kate smirks at that, striding towards him and tugging at the tie of his robe. It falls open and she casts her eyes down appreciatively, a lift to the corners of her mouth. Sometimes it does worry him. He's got ten years on Kate, and it shows.
Not that he struggles to keep up with her, and oh, he knows she's more than satisfied with his performance, but Kate's just so absolutely gorgeous that sometimes he doesn't quite know where to put himself. He wants her to be proud that he's hers, proud to walk hand in hand with him.
Because sometimes his gratitude threatens to choke him, and it might help to know she feels at least some of the same.
"Mm, I don't know if I want to. You look good in this suit, Castle." She glances up at him through her lashes, tracing delicate patterns onto his chest with her fingertips. "Maybe you could model it for me."
"Later, sure. Right now I just want to join in this skinny dipping thing you've got going on."
Kate grins at that, curling her fingers in his waistband and dragging his swim shorts down his thighs. They pool at his feet and he stumbles trying to free himself from them, has to clutch at Kate to stay upright. Damn, even just the proximity of her body is enough to severely impede his basic motor functions.
They need to get in the water right now. Where he can be smooth and suave and make it good for her. Oh yeah, Kate. He's wanted her here for two years now. He's got a whole litany of fantasies circling in his brain, just waiting for him to finally fulfil them.
Castle breaks away from her and moves for the steps, easing down into the water. It's deliciously warm, sends a frisson of pleasure through him, and he wades back a couple of feet to give Kate room. Instead, she sits at the edge and drops her feet into the water, leaning back on her hands.
He moves in to stand between her legs and she grins, draping her arms over his shoulders and sliding into the pool. So sinfully slowly that he feels every inch of her like silk as she brushes against him, the full length of her meeting his body as her feet hit the bottom.
She kisses him, tart with mischief, and then before he knows what's happening she's pushing on his shoulders to duck him underneath the water.
He stays down for a long moment, watches the dreamscape of the world above his head, and then he comes up gasping to a hard edge of real concern on Kate's face. And that just won't do.
Now is not the time for seriousness. Castle flicks his fingers against the surface of the water and sends a great spray of it up to hit Kate's face, kicking back from the wall so he's halfway across the pool by the time she's blinked her vision to clarity.
She gets a wicked glint in her eyes and disappears, her body svelte and wonderful as she dips under the surface of the water. He watches the streak of her, golden lines capped with a mess of brown like flames. Kate breaks the surface right next to him, surging up with her hands at his shoulders and using the momentum to keep going, wrap her forever legs around his hips.
Castle gets his hands at her waist to keep her there, grinning into her kisses and peppering his own down the line of her throat. "You trying to drown me, Detective Beckett?"
"No. Just trying to take your breath away."
He snorts at that (really, Kate? Such an awful line) and strides across the pool until her back bumps up against the tile, the water lapping at the cave of her navel.
And then he dives for her mouth, and Kate stops teasing.