Disclaimer: The only part of Castle that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

A/N This chapter is an outer-limits T, but not quite an M. Just to let you know. (After all, this story is billed as romance.)

Their bathroom, which is so enormous that it could easily sleep five, is filled with steam, literal and metaphorical. "I don't know why we're taking a shower now," Castle says, putting the soap in the dish. "You're going to have your wicked way with me as soon as we hit the bed, and then when we'll be right back in here."

"Is that a complaint?" Beckett asks.

"Absolutely not. Just thinking about water conservation."

"We're already saving water by being in here together, Mister Suddenly Green. In fact, turn it off."

"Turn it off?"

"Yes. Off. And hand me the soap, please."

He decides not to ask why. She obviously has a reason and she's been so wonderfully unreasonable—no, that's not right, she's been, what, without reason? Oh, hell, she's been so imaginative lately. More than ever. So he won't ask. He picks up the bar and passes it to her.

"Watch this," she says, and licks a drop of water from the side of her mouth. And smiles. Imaginatively.

"I'm watching."

She grips the soap in one hand and runs it slowly and sensually up her arm and across her shoulder, never taking her eyes off him. She palms it against her clavicle, swirls it over one breast, caresses her swollen belly with it. "I've wondered what it would be like to be this soapy when the water isn't on." She looks down briefly before returning her gaze to him. "All these silky little bubbles clinging to my skin, resting on my nipples, instead of just sliding off me to the shower floor. Slippery when wet, you know?" She runs her fingers in an arc below the curve of her stomach. "Very slippery when wet. See?"

He's almost panting. In fact, he is panting, and probably drooling, too, but he hasn't checked. "I see, but I want to touch."

"That's the idea, Castle. I want you to touch, too."

He reaches out but she stops him. "Take this, make your hands really soapy, and then touch."

He lathers his hands well and drops the soap into the dish again. "May I now?" he asks, showing her his sudsy hands.

She's standing with her feet a few inches apart and her arms held out straight from her side. "Please do. I insist that you do. Start wherever you like."

"I'm usually a leg man, you know, but I think I'll begin with a breast today." Her breasts have grown with her pregnancy, but his hand can still completely enclose one. He splays his fingers, feathers them over her nipple; he's still fascinated by how it has darkened. When he massages her whole breast, he feels her quiver. "Is that tender?"

"No, God, it feels sensational, the way your hand slides over me."

"You were right. This soap on soap, with the steam around us but no water. It's incredibly sexy."

"Keep moving, Castle, before I dry out."

"No danger of that Beckett," he says, moving his hand sinuously against the underside of her belly and then around her back to cup her buttock.

"Castle, go back to my boob. Please. Right now. What you were doing to my nipple."

He can take direction. In a situation like this, he excels at taking direction. He returns to her breast and before long is rewarded with a series of deep, variegated moans, and soon after almost violent trembling. She catches his hand and squeezes it so hard that he has to suppress a yelp. Is what he thinks is happening, happening? She's flushed, her eyes are shut, her breath is coming in short gasps and he hangs on to her until she topples against him.

"Beckett? Did you just?"

"Yes. God almightily, Castle. I did. With nothing more than your hand on my boob. It was unbelievable. Oh, my God. Can you turn the water back on? I feel a little weird."

"Weird? You feel weird? Let's get you out of here."

"Not weird, weird. Not I'm-going-to-faint weird. Weird like something I've never felt before. I just want to rinse off."

A few minutes later they're toweled dry and getting ready for bed. After brushing his teeth, Castle pulls on a pair of boxers.

"Why are you doing that?" Beckett says, turning from the mirror to look at him. "Take 'em off."

"Oh, okay," he says, stepping out of them.

"Keep up, Castle," she says, smacking him on the rear as she walks by him and into the bedroom.

"Keep up, Dad. I don't know what she's saying, but it sounds like fun. Keep up!"

By the time Castle gets to his side of the bed, Beckett is lying down with her hand on her belly. "Are you all right? Do you still feel weird?"

She's rubbing her stomach.

"Is it your stomach? Do you feel sick?"

"No, don't feel sick."

"That's good. Me either, Mom. I feel great."

"Can I get you something?"

"Yes, you and your magnificent mouth can get in this bed right now and give me another orgasm, as fast as possible."

"Oh, I know the fastest way possible, even if that is a really, um, odd but spectacular request."

He's as good as his word, maybe even better. After which Beckett is smiling, can't stop smiling, and takes his hand.

"It's the baby," she says moonily. "Felt the baby."

"The doctor said the baby can't feel anything when we have sex. Not a thing. She promised. Remember? I was worried about traumatizing the kid."

"No, Castle, I know that." She's looking and sounding so loopy. "No, it's. It's—I felt the baby. First time I've felt it, and I've been waiting. I thought it was just the orgasm, but it was the baby. That's why I wanted to go again, right away. Make sure I wasn't crazy."

"You always want to go again right away, Beckett," he says, not quite believing what she just said.

"I read about it but never thought it would happen, that the contractions of an orgasm can make the baby kick. And it did. The baby kicked. It kicked me. Both times. So my first time, and my second time." She's beaming now, and kisses his him, hard but gently.

"The baby kicked for the first time!" If he could dance while lying on his back in bed with his wife plastered up against him, he'd be dancing. "And all because I gave you —"

"Oh, God, Castle, you're really going to be impossible to live with now, aren't you?"

TBC

A/N Huge thanks for everyone who's traveling along with me for this story. And for a guest reviewer in chapter 16: Thank you. Yes, I intentionally used the last names of real baseball players!