Murder He Rewrote

"Wow." Castle breathes into the crease of Kate's neck, revelling in the sweat-slick heat there and feeling the thunder of her pulse against his mouth as she comes back to him. Wrapping his hands around the span of her waist, Rick lifts her down from the counter. Somehow, thankfully, she manages to force her knees to lock, but the lace of her arms around his neck belies any attempt at convincing either him or herself that she's not affected.

"Yeah." She pants, still trembling. Kate's seen plenty of explosions in her time and now her vertebrae are the breezeblocks that fold in on themselves under the heat and the force. It's actually much more similar than she'd expect, now that she thinks about it.

Kate stoops down and hooks her fingers in the waistband of Castle's pants, bringing them with her as she stands back up and fastening his button, drawing up his zipper. He grunts into her forehead and tightens his grip on the bare flesh at her waist, his thumbs circling as if to ease the contraction of her abs. "Hey, I have a surprise for you."

"Oh God." He chokes out, dipping down to kiss her and pouring his laughter into her mouth. "I don't know if I can survive it."

"It'll be worth it." She grins at him, lifting her shoulders in a shrug as if it's up to him. As if she doesn't already know exactly what his answer is. What his answer always will be when it comes to her. Their whole lives together span out in front of her in a collection of moments he'll keep saying yes to her, as if she could just gather them up and keep them as time in store.

Although she supposes they're more like stepping stones, each kiss and touch and blissful surrender another part of this steady forward-progression. Castle swallows hard and stares down at her, managing a nod when she lifts an eyebrow in askance. "What do you need me to do?"

"Relax, firstly." Kate laughs, tracing the shell of his ear and down, skimming the stutter of his pulse before she meets his shoulder and settles there against the thrumming delight of his muscles. "I'm not going to hurt you, Castle."

"You're killing me, Kate." He groans, and she remembers that she's standing totally naked in his kitchen and her feet are cradled in the parentheses of his own, their hips still so close she can't tell where her warmth ends and his begins.

"I need you to go get naked and get into bed." She says sotto voce, her eyes slowly flicking down to his pants before they come back up to meet his own. "I'll be there in a minute."

"Don't be long." He implores, finally dropping his hands from her waist. Well, he takes a detour to palm her ass and drag her hips closer against his first, but eventually she's freed from the cage of his lust.

Kate smiles at him, her lips slowly peeling back to show the sentry rows of her teeth and a touch of tongue in between. "It'll be worth the wait. Go on."

He drags his feet and huffs at her, but to his credit he does move towards the – their – bedroom. She's still having trouble thinking of it that way. Their worlds are so far apart that claiming any of his feels wrong, feels like she's only affirming what so many people will surely think of her when their relationship eventually ends up splashed across the tabloids. That she's only trying to cash in on what he's made from her as a muse.

Honestly, she'd be happy in squalor with him. It's pathetic, she knows, but she's rich with love and she really doesn't need anything else. Kate presses her palms to her eyes and groans, raking her fingers through her hair. She gets caught at a barricade of knots and can't help but laugh, such a small thing but it drags her right out of her anxiety.

Those knots are where he tangled his fingers in her hair and angled her head to better get at her mouth. Kate nods at nothing and moves for the staircase and the guest bedroom and the elements of her surprise she stashed there earlier.

To say he's surprised when Kate comes back into their bedroom clad in some black lacy chiffon thing that clings to her and paints her in shadow would be something of an understatement. His heart throws itself against his ribcage with renewed vigour and also somehow upwards into his throat so he's momentarily terrified that he will actually choke to death on his own stupid internal organs right here in their bed and not even live to see what she has in store for him.

Beckett – and this sensual, amazing creature in front of him is all Beckett – doesn't look at him, doesn't acknowledge his presence. Instead she moves slowly around the room, lighting candles as she goes that throw shadows onto the wall and almost stop the slow work of his lungs entirely.

The last candle is lit and Rick props himself up on his elbows to watch her, finally finding something to say that's a little smoother than the desperate love clawing at his insides and begging to spill out. "You know what's funny? My cover was that I was coming out here to write and I actually got some ideas for a book. Well, scenes anyway."

Kate raises an eyebrow at him, correctly assuming that he means a steamy successor to page 105. But it's not only that. Seeing her so relaxed, carefree and beautiful as she meandered along the harbour front by his side or sprawled out on the sand. . .it makes him want to take Nikki on vacation too, let Rook and by proxy the rest of the world see what it's like to love a woman like this. A woman who so adores the world around her and isn't afraid to jump right into it.

"Oh, really? And do you have an ending yet?" Kate blows out the firelighter and turns to face him, a wry smile just flirting at the corners of her mouth.

Oh God, yes, this is the end right here. He can't survive her. He just can't. "Uh- well. . .I had some ideas, but I'm open to suggestions." He manages, cursing the betrayal of all of the suave, sexy charisma he once used to possess. She does this to him, leaves him completely and totally unable to think of anything past the smoothness of her skin and the steady rock of her hips into his.

Kate comes towards the bed and climbs slowly onto the mattress, weaving a story for him as she goes. And it's them but not them and he loves her so stupidly much it's all he can do just to stare at her. "The weekend hadn't turned out exactly as Detective Heat had imagined, but now nothing-"

She climbs into his lap, the hot molten line of her settling over him and her knees tight at his hipbones. "Not even another visit from the housekeeper." Is she ruffling her hair? Oh God she is and it's quite possibly the most erotically entrancing thing he's ever seen ever in his life so far.

Obviously, obviously she feels what this is doing to him even through the quasi-protection of the sheets because she sinks down harder onto him as she finishes her story. "Could stop her from getting exactly what she desired most."

And then she's kissing him and it's so sweet, so much more tender than anything he was anticipating and his heart kicks hard in his chest, his hand coming up to skim the length of her spine. "Mm, that's good." He says against her mouth and he has no idea whether he means the words she spun for him or what she's doing to him now but it's not like it even really matters so long as she doesn't stop.

"Can I get a writer's credit?"

"We'll talk." He says, hoping it'll make her stop talking right now because he just wants to keep kissing her like this maybe for the rest of his life, slow and sweet and aching with love for her. Rick slides his palm along her back to curl around the hard edge of her shoulder, taking her weight against his forearm to ease her onto her side next to him.

Legs stretching out alongside his underneath the sheets, Kate wriggles to get comfortable and presses her hips flush to his, slender fingers coming around to trace the lines of muscle in his shoulders. It's so wonderful to just be like this with her, sleepy and vulnerable, and a part of him would be content to just make out for hours and hours and never move past that.

Other parts of him, though, are quite eager to explore more of this delicious scrap of sin she has clinging to her body. Castle tangles his fingers in the hem of the thing and drags it slowly upwards until it's bunched underneath her breasts and the creamy line of her body is broken by the black lace that wraps around her hips. "What is this, and why haven't I seen it before?"

"I bought it- oh." His fingers slip south and she shudders, nails biting into his shoulder blade. "Bought it specially for this weekend. I wanted to say thank you for inviting me."

"You don't ever have to thank me for that, Kate." He grits out, dipping down to taste her mouth and sliding his hand further towards where they both so desperately want for it to be. "I want you with me. All the time."

It's probably too much, but if she notices she doesn't mention it. Instead she circles his wrist in her fingers and starts to guide him where she wants him, lifting her chin to kiss him softly. Castle breaks free from her grip and removes his hand entirely, ignoring her soft noise of protest to crawl down the bed and settle himself between her thighs.

Propping his chin at the flat plane of her abdomen, he grins up at her and she rolls her eyes, carding a hand through her hair and humouring his boyish excitement. In fact, she doesn't even bother to call him out on it. Because oh, they both know there's nothing childish about what he's going to do to her.

Castle wakes with a jolt sometime around three and sits up, sucking in a breath and glancing over at Kate. She's on her stomach, facing him, and her eyes are open and rich with delight.

"You're awake."

"Mm, yeah. You kicked me."

"Sorry." He says, screwing his eyes closed and scrubbing a hand over his chin.

Kate draws her arm out from underneath herself and pushes on his shoulder to have him lie down with her, her smile warm and inviting when he complies. "Were you having a nightmare?"

"I- maybe?" He can't really remember. There's only the thickness of leftover panic in his gut and a feeling of urgency he can't shake, like he has to get somewhere in a hurry. And. . .oh. Oh. Yes, he remembers too the wide, grey-blue eyes of a newborn with his mother's dark hair sticking up all over, mewling against the soft skin of her chest.

He laughs softly, settling his palm at the curve of her spine right where her hips flare out and dropping a kiss to her temple. "Not a nightmare. I was rushing. . .to get to you. But it was good in the end."

For right now, the rest of it can remain unsaid. He doesn't want to spook her with how fiercely he burns to have it with her, a family and a life and more happiness than he knows what to do with.

"Okay. Think you can sleep again?" She hums, stretching out in the sheets and tucking her hand up under her chin. Castle nods and kisses the lovely flush of her mouth, closing his eyes and relaxing into the warmth of her body next to his.

They're going home tomorrow. But someday they'll come back here and it'll be fuller, more, their lives irrevocably intertwined.

When the alarm sounds out, Kate is in the middle of a wonderful dream. And of course the moment the awful noise draws her attention the entirety of it falls apart and she has no idea whatsoever what it was about. It's going to take them a couple hours to get back to the city, and Gates wants her back at the precinct by lunchtime. So they have to leave at eight.

Kate wants a chance to go home, do laundry and unpack and eat something before she has to go back to work. Which is why she set the alarm for seven. No matter how awful it is now to be peeling her eyes open and stretching so her spine arches up from the mattress.

Next to her in the bed, Castle grunts and his hand pats around on the mattress until he finds her hand and tugs her down against him. "Not yet."

"Come on, babe. Time to get up." She hums against his ear, breaking free of his grip to sit up and slowly work her way out from between the sheets and to standing. Kate gathers clothes from her duffel and moves for the shower, turning on the spray to let the water get warm before she steps inside.

She uses the bathroom and washes her hands, the mirror in front of her giving her a prime view of Castle coming through the door in all his naked glory. He steps up behind her and drops his hands to her hips, nuzzling her cheek with his nose and grinning at their reflection.

"Morning, gorgeous." He murmurs, a hand coming around to splay at her abdomen. "Wanna share a shower?"

Kate turns in the circle of his arms and grins, lifting up on tiptoe to kiss him and carding a hand through the spill of hair onto his forehead. "Sure. We've got time. Come on."

Lacing her fingers through his, Beckett leads him towards the shower and pulls open the door, stepping into the stupidly huge cubicle and tugging him in after her. He's grinning, water falling into his eyes and streaming down the planes of his chest as he hauls her up against him and goes for her mouth.

Mm, this is definitely a better end to their weekend than she was anticipating.

When they make it back to the city, Castle heads back to his own apartment on autopilot and pulls into the parking garage, almost surprised to see Kate in the passenger seat when he glances over.

Not that he could have forgotten her presence the entire journey back. She was light and relaxed, joking with him and fiddling with the radio and singing along to all the songs. Loudly, and making it up when she didn't know the words. Her feet propped against the dashboard and her arm trailing out of the open window until they got nearer to the city, she was the picture of contentment and grace. He half expected her to be wrapped in a headscarf and enormous sunglasses every time he glanced over.

He knows she probably wasn't thinking of coming back to the loft, but she's here now and, well, this works out sort of how he was hoping for anyway.

"I know you want to go home and do laundry and everything. But you can do laundry here. You can do anything you want here. I just. . .I'm not ready to say goodbye to you yet."

Kate takes off her seatbelt and leans in to him, a hand at his cheek to keep him in place as she touches her mouth to his. Their kiss falls apart around her smile and she draws back, gazing at him with more tenderness than he knows what to do with.

"Are you going to feed me?"

"Of course. What kind of partner would I be if I let you go hungry?" He says, wriggling his eyebrows at her and opening his door, stepping out onto the tarmac. Kate does the same and meets his eyes over the roof of his car, coming around the hood to take his hand and follow him towards the elevator.

Her fingers squeeze around his and he grins, tugging her close enough to kiss her cheek. Their hips knock together as they walk but it's good, lovely really. The weekend is over but this – he and Kate – they're only just getting started.

The End

A/N: Thank you all so incredibly much for your support for this story and your faith in me even when it seemed like I mightn't ever update again. I am continually humbled and amazed by the kind words you leave me. It has been a pleasure.

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