Collaboration between chezchuckles and jstar1382

Accept No Substitutes

Chapter Five

This morning had been a pleasant surprise.

He hadn't expected Beckett to be so eager upon first waking up.

Hell, if he was being entirely honest, he had refused to allow himself to think past the warm, lithe figure cuddled along his side. Terrified that she would wake up with the taste of regret and eyes filled with worry.

But she was different.

Not bad different, but not the woman who had neatly and deliberately closed herself off to him this year. He almost couldn't comprehend how open and vulnerable she was with him.

She kissed him goodbye when he left her place, and her eyes - they were filled with something that he longed to call hope.

However, now that he was alone in his loft changing into clean clothes, all the fears that this would crumble at his feet came roaring through his thoughts. They had talked last night at the coffee shop, but had barely spoken at the jazz club, and had only whispered against each other's skin while they were tangled in her sheets.

Still, they hadn't defined what this was, what they were doing…

Castle stared at himself in the bathroom mirror and tried to button his shirt.

There weren't any labels attached to this new stage in their partnership and he couldn't decide what that meant for them. They'd just found their groove again after parting last summer, and now he couldn't bear to think about starting all over again with that awkward dance. Or worse, being relegated to the cold and lonely place outside her world, forced once more to scratch and claw his way inside. Last night had meant something; it'd been a step forward, surely.

No, there was no way it'd been a mistake.

Beckett had to feel the same.

Because after having her body against the delicate adoration of his mouth, he was addicted to the taste of her, to everything about her. The way her foot arched when he licked the sensitive patch of skin behind her ear was entirely too erotic. And he absolutely had to hear her gasp his name again, not that he'd forget anytime soon.

Every moment of their night together was ingrained in the synapses of his brain.

His memories of last night carried him out the front door, distracting him from the irritation of traffic through Midtown.

He rushed for the subway and got on a train in record time; he didn't want Kate to have another second alone to doubt him, them. With a quick stop at the coffee place near the Twelfth, he picked up her favorite latte, as usual, so he wouldn't upset their normal routines. Plus, he ought to make up for Natalie stealing yesterday's caffeine fix.

As he went through security on the ground floor, his body was buzzing with nervous energy, knees knocking, hands shaking.

He took a deep breath as the elevator door opened to the homicide floor.

This was it.

"Ah, good morning, Detective."

Kate spun on her heel and found him exiting the elevator, striding towards the bullpen with such a pleased look in his eye.

She chewed on the inside of her cheek to keep from breaking out into an entirely unprofessional grin, and she nodded to the two coffees in his hands. "Is that for me? Or the fictional version of me?"

A twitch of his lips was his response, and she plucked the coffee from his left hand - only to have him jerk it back and offer the right, a stammering no, here, this is yours.

It was kind of cute, in that awkward, clumsy way of two people wondering just how this dance was supposed to go.

She wrapped her fingers around her coffee, opened her mouth to say something without entirely knowing what would come out.

"Jenny!" a voice yelped.

And then the woman herself darted between the two of them, making Kate take a hasty step backwards, protecting her coffee. Ryan hustled after her, calling her again, begging her to talk.

She and Castle shared wide-eyed glances, a faint trickle of unease sliding down her spine.

Natalie Rhodes emerged from the elevator and Jenny huffed in disgust, shot Ryan a look that could kill, and flounced past Natalie. When Ryan tried to follow her, she shoved him off the elevator just as the doors closed.

"Ouch," Castle murmured.

"Drama-" Natalie started in, but Kate cut her off.

"What happened?"

Ryan cut his eyes to Natalie, then to Esposito, who had joined the crowd in the corridor. "Man, you should have told me I was your alibi."

"Oh, no," Castle said. "You went to ask her parents - and you didn't tell her."

"Can we - move on, please?" Ryan muttered, another glance to Natalie.

Beckett shut her mouth, unwilling to probe further when she knew it had something to do with the actress. She didn't want to bring personal attention to herself either, because she wasn't sure she could lie convincingly to these two. And she wasn't sure she wanted to lie.

She was afraid it was all over her face, like a full-sized ad had been taken out: we had sex last night.

Natalie pouted, apparently unhappy with the lack of attention. "So where are we on our honey-trapper?"

"Uh. Yeah." Beckett shook herself out of the neat little death spiral she was doing in her own head, and filled in the group on the work she'd accomplished while Castle had been changing clothes and getting her coffee.

She really hoped none of that showed on her face, but as they broke to their respective corners, and Castle chased after Ryan to help him fix the Jenny problem, Natalie Rhodes followed her like a bloodhound scenting a trail.

Beckett sat down, possessively folded her hands around her coffee.

Natalie sat, leaned in. "Can I ask you a question?"

This woman had pried into every nook and cranny of her life, and Beckett fully expected her secrets to be next. Magically pulled out of thin air or divined from Beckett's own silly sex glow, it would happen.

She braced herself. "Sure." She gulped a mouthful of coffee to give herself time to think when the question came.

"Is Castle gay?"

Kate sprayed coffee over her case file, clapping a hand to her mouth too late. "I'm sorry. What? No. No." She licked coffee from her fingers, disgusted with herself and how her cheeks burned and her hips shifted.

"Then you two are on item. And you're like, sworn to secrecy, right?"

"No, we are not-" Beckett swallowed, flung drops of coffee from her hand, scattering them on the already-stained pages. "Why are you asking?" Was Natalie trying to steal her boyfriend? Was Castle - could she even call him that? They'd said nothing at all about… about next.

Natalie sighed, slumped back in the chair. "Last night I invited him back to my place, and he said something I've never heard from a man before."

Oh, God. It had never occurred to her just how far Natalie Rhodes might have gotten before Castle's brain finally kicked in and said no.

"What - what was that?"

"No."

Beckett blinked. "No?"

"I don't get it. He's clearly into you, but you're determined not to give into these feelings you have for him. So he fantasizes about you through his writing. It's literally verbal masturbation."

"Hey, whoa, wha-" She closed her eyes, opened them, seeking help.

"I'm supposed to be doing research. Can't you just - give him permission?"

Her gaze snagged on Castle. "I - I have to. Go. Over there."

She jerked to her feet, swiping her hand off on her pants, and hurried around her desk towards the break room. Ryan had just exited, looking glum, but she didn't have time to stop. She pushed inside and grabbed Castle, hooking her arm through his and dragging him out of the all-too-visible break room.

"Wha-" He tripped and caught up to her. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere private."

"Oh-okay."

She hauled him down the back hall, past the stairs, and around the corner. Just out of view. When she turned to him, he looked nervous but also somehow mulish, like a caught little boy, like he was going to fight to tell his side of the story-

Oh.

Fight for her.

Kate stepped into him, snagged him by the lapels of his jacket, and she yanked him into her for a kiss.

He moaned. That deep rumbling sound from this morning - and last night - and she lifted her hands to hold him there, her fingers in his hair. He gasped and took a shuddering breath, came back for another kiss, warm mouths and his tongue and his urgency meeting hers.

Someone laughed, far down the hall, and they broke at the same time, Castle staring at her lips, Beckett staring at his eyes.

"Kate."

She nodded, pushed her tongue over the place on her bottom lip where he'd worried it. He seemed to start breathing again, as if coming awake.

"Kate?"

"I know we didn't really talk about it." She smoothed a hand down his jacket, hooked a finger in his pocket. "But she'll have to come through me first if she wants to do any more damn research."

His jaw dropped.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You're mine, Castle. My writer. My partner. Mine."

His lips drew into a slow, toe-curling smile, and he slid his arms around her waist, nudged his nose in against hers. His mouth close. "Message received, Kate Beckett. And, my dear detective, you have nothing to worry about. There is nothing like the real thing."

This was such a fun experience to collaborate with Laura. I hope you guys enjoyed it and much as we enjoyed writing it!

xoxo

Until next time...