CH22
It is now Kate's birthday: (November 17, 1999)
There is a small amount of "M" rated material in this chapter. The topic is still not to everyone's taste. Reader discretion is still STRONGLY advised.
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Kate was the first one to wake up next morning and found herself naked and in Castle's arms. As her mind woke up Kate moved her hand so that it was over his heart. Doing so allowed her to feel his heart beat and his chest as it rose and fell.
She had graduated from the Police Academy, however she was still one whole year away from being hired by them. It left her wondering what she was going to do with the time, since it meant she still didn't have a job. She was living off of Castle's money and it was starting to get to her.
Kate knew Castle didn't care, but she did. Kate was 20 today and was officially an adult now with a boyfriend that she loved with all her heart.
It was also now that Kate noticed something else. There was a discomfort that she had never had before. It wasn't pain per se, but the feeling was definitely not normal. It had Kate thinking back to what had happened last night.
Kate had fallen in love with Castle all over again, especially when he helped her in the use of her toy. Castle had made sure she was wet before he handed her the anal lube. Kate took it and coated her fingers and slowly worked at pushing them into Castle as he was on his hands and knees. Kate kept it up until she finally had two fingers that would slide in and out easily.
This was followed by coating the toy on his end. Kate took her time as she entered the toy into Castle, little by little. She constantly asked him if he was fine or if should she stop. Kate wasn't sure just how much of her toy was in Castle when she stopped and got on her hands and knees. Kate had also noted a tiny amount of blood which told her this really was a first for him, much like when her own hymen had been broken when she lost her virginity.
Taking the toy in her other hand Kate worked her way backwards as she slowly inserted her end into her vagina. They were both now connected. Kate was excited with the sensuality of their present situation.
Then Castle started moving and Kate felt it when suddenly it fell out, forcing Kate to grab it, re-insert it, and scoot back closer to Castle. It took a lot of work but they gradually found their rhythm and were finally thrusting against each other.
Kate ducked her head down and watched as she stroked herself while she got to watch Castle stroke himself yet again. It only took seconds of watching that for Kate to have her first orgasm of the night. Watching Castle come and stain the comforter caused her to have her second.
Kate had allowed the toy to fall out of both of them and turned to start kissing Castle for all she was worth. He had given her his cherry and given her one of her fantasies.
After giving Castle a few minutes Kate was on her hands and knees again as Castle positioned himself behind her and took her from behind. Castle slowly worked up to a higher speed as Kate asked him to go faster and harder. It gave Kate her third orgasm of the night.
This was followed by Castle doing to her what she had done to him. When he had two well lubricated fingers going in and out of her anus, Castle lubed up himself and slowly worked himself into her.
It felt nothing like what Kate had felt before. At first it felt like she needed to go to the bathroom before she had an accident on their bed. However with each thrust that feeling went away.
It wasn't until Kate reached back to stroke herself that she started to enjoy it. It gave Kate her fourth orgasm of the night and she could feel Castle fill her with his cum as he came inside her.
Castle collapsed onto her back as Kate fell onto the bed on her stomach. Castle slipped out of her as he shrunk down to his normal size. Then Castle started kissing her shoulder and neck.
"Shower Castle… now." They needed to be clean before starting anything else. It was here that like Castle earlier, there was a tiny amount of blood from where Castle had taken her. Kate had just given her virginity to Castle and it made her love him even more.
Their new shower was barely big enough for the two of them. Fortunately it was tall so it had a rainfall shower head. All washed front and back, they were soon back in bed where Castle had his head firmly planted between her legs for another three orgasms before she fell asleep in his arms.
"Morning beautiful Officer Beckett." Rick was awake and bent his head to kiss Kate's head.
"Are you ok babe? I didn't hurt you?" Kate may have sexual fantasies, but none of them involved hurting the man she loved. Well not REAL pain anyway.
"I feel a little weird down there I'll admit, but it really isn't pain per se. I can say we won't be doing that again tonight. But if you want to add that to our normal sexual routine I have no objection. I'm still waiting for that day that you tie me to the bed and have your way with me." Rick knew he had done it to Kate and was only too willing to let Kate do it to him.
That comment got Kate up to straddle Castle while smiling down at him. "Have I mentioned how much I love you? Just how much of my heart is in your hands now?" Kate didn't try to stop the tear that escaped as she leaned down to kiss Castle soundly.
"I love you babe, so very much." Kate sat back up while smiling down at him.
Rick reached up to wipe away Kate's tear. "I love you too and you own all of my heart." He pulled Kate down so he could kiss her.
"So what's the plan for today babe?" Kate just knew he had a surprise.
"I have my meeting with my publisher this morning that will likely take us past lunch. Book number six of the Derek Storm series is coming out soon to take advantage of Christmas sales. If she follows what has happened the last couple of times, there will be a book launch party and book signings at various book stores. Hopefully all of that will be local however it might not be. My present contract has no control over that," Rick is forced to tell her.
"You're a writer, it's part of your job. Maybe if I still don't have a job or classes somewhere I can go with you?" Kate truly wanted to see what he did to sell his books.
"That would be great. I'll run it past Gina during our meeting." Rick was suddenly looking forward to the book signings that took him out of town.
Kate leaned down again and kissed him. "Join me in the shower?" Kate started grinning since for her it was code for "Take me in the shower." Castle's response had Kate squealing as she found herself in his arms as he carried her around the corner to the bathroom.
Since the mechanical room for this space was so tiny the tankless water heater that was in one of the closets served this bath and two of the guest room baths. Kate soon found herself with her back up against the shower wall with her legs wrapped around Castle. "Harder baby… HARDER!" Kate wanted to be fucked this morning.
Kate was cooking breakfast when Castle came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. "How do you like the kitchen?"
Kate smiled while she continued to mix batter to put in their brand new waffle maker. "It's amazing; there is just enough cabinet space to hide all of the appliances we don't want on the counter and just enough for all of our plates and glasses. And that refrigerator is enormous." It was actually still half empty on both sides.
Castle let go of Kate so she could rinse the blades of her blender before pouring the batter into the waffle maker. "Want some help?" Castle didn't know what she was doing but he could gather stuff. "You can pull the berries out of the refrigerator, find the syrup in the pantry, then pour us some orange juice and milk. Oh, and if you don't mind, would you get out the plates and silverware?" Kate asked.
Kate took the plates, put a waffle on each, and moved around to sit in the dining room at the breakfast bar that they had added. After breakfast, the dishes went into the dishwasher. "I'm going to go grab my bag and take a taxi leaving you with the car in case you want to go somewhere," Castle said.
Problem was Kate didn't have anywhere to go though she could grab a book and read upstairs or in the study. "Book!" Kate whispered. "Castle… Do you think I could come with you to your meeting?" Kate didn't know much about what Castle did.
"It's going to be boring Kate, like fall-asleep-at-the-table kind of boring. It's all about how to advertise the book, where to go for book signings, and making the final arrangements for the book launch party," Castle warned her.
"If you don't want me to come…" she began. Castle interrupted her. "That's not what I'm telling you. You want to come, go grab your bag and car keys and come with me. Just don't say I didn't warn you." Castle gave Kate a quick kiss and watched her squeal and run downstairs for the master bedroom. He just smiled and shook his head. Castle had no such enthusiasm for this meeting. He was, however, happy that she wanted to be a part of his job, or at least learn something about it.
Castle knew he had taken Kate back to the gym to teach her some defensive moves and had even taken her to a gun range to teach her what he know about how to shoot a hand weapon. That thought also reminded him that he needed to go gun shopping for the main gun safe which had been moved to a master bedroom closet so that it would be sitting on concrete. It was just too heavy to go in his study on the floor above.
Kate was still very happy about going to Castle's meeting. He parked and led Kate up to Black Pawn. "Hi Rachel, are we ready for our meeting?" Castle knew the receptionist.
"Gina and her assistant are already in the conference room with all the material. You can go right in." Rachel smiled at him.
"Rach, this is Kate Beckett, my girlfriend. Kate, this is Rachel Marr who has been sitting here since I moved back to New York, what just short of 3 years ago?" Castle was losing track of time.
Rick missed the look that flitted across Rachel's face. It passed quickly, but not before Kate saw it. She just didn't know what it meant.
Rick knew his way so he led the way to the conference room that was right off of the reception area. Inside Kate found a conference room big enough to seat 12 people that had a lovely blonde big titted woman and a flat chested teenager who looked nervous even to Kate.
"You're late Richard!" Gina started off. Rick looked at his watch that was also Jack. "I'm actually 6 minutes early and that's after stopping to talk with Rachel for a minute. Relax Gina… Gina, this is Kate Beckett who will be joining us today. Kate, this is my editor, Gina Cowell, who represents Black Pawn which is my publisher. Her assistant is a local college student this year, Vicki Piper." Rick made the introductions.
Gina stood and looked at Rick. "Can I have a moment Richard?"
"We need to get started Gina; Kate and I have plans for later today," Rick countered, since those plans were celebrating Kate's 20th birthday.
"Richard…" Gina started to try again only to have Rick sit down and offer Kate a chair right next to him. "Where do we start Gina?" Rick wanted this to end so he could move on.
It forced Gina to sit. "This is the book cover that was agreed upon earlier." Gina pointed out the large panels that were sitting on easels. "The book is in printing and this is the first book from the print run." Gina passed it to Rick, who looked at it, then opened it, and grabbed a pen.
'To Kate, the love of my life!' and handed it to Kate for her to keep and read before it hit the stores. Holding the book close to her chest, Kate smiled with joy. She now knew what the next book she would be reading would be.
"The venue for the book launch party remains unchanged. Attached is what will be available along with the food that the caterer will be providing." Gina handed Rick a list of all the drinks and the food.
Rick looked it over and gave it to Kate. "Too much hard liquor; change it all out to wine and champagne." Rick wanted a change.
"Richard a lot of the people that come to these will be expecting mixed drinks, we need to provide them with what they want." Gina countered.
"I'll not have people getting drunk and driving home drunk. Running red lights and hitting people or killing them. I'm also not interested in being sued because some family has lost a loved one." Rick tried to get Gina to see his point.
"Black Pawn is responsible for the launch party so they would be sued in your scenario, and Black Pawn is on board with the open bar." Gina argued.
"And it's going to be Derek Storm that is in the news not Black Pawn and since I'm the author they are going to attach my name to what happens. Just change it all to wine and champagne Gina." Rick countered, however Gina remains silent while writing down a note.
Kate silently wondered if the change was because of her father. If it was or not, Kate loved him a little more for it.
"The first printing will be this number of volumes with that as the expected earnings from that sale. If this book meets final sales of the previous two books it will provide this amount of revenue which will cause activation of a sales clause that is part of your contract." Gina handed over another sheet of paper.
Rick looks it over to study the real numbers. He had read the contract again at the last meeting prior to the launch of the last book. Still the amount of money he would earn if this book met the sales of his other books was impressive, and Rick passed it on to Kate for her to read.
"How are the overseas sales progressing?" Rick asked. He watched Vicki search her piles of papers before handing a folder over to Gina who was holding out her hand, waiting.
"The production costs of the latest printing into German, Russian, and Polish have increased beyond what was accounted for, so monies earned is down the last two quarters. Also the publishing company in France has offered their terms for the printing of your next book after you sign your next contract with Black Pawn for the next three books." Gina handed over that folder of paperwork.
"OH MY GOD!" Kate suddenly spoke up while she was looking at the last sheet of paper that Rick had handed her. Castle was freaking rich! No wonder he hadn't blinked much at the house with the bar that was offered at $14 million. Let alone the $9 million they had spent on the home they were in, PLUS landscape, security system, furniture, and the Jag they had gotten.
Kate saw everyone turn to look at her and Kate did her best to shrink into her chair. "Sorry!" Kate apologized weakly and went back to reading the numbers that were on her paper. It also helped explain flying to St. Lucia at the last minute, flying first class as well as the hotel, meals, and entrance to sites they had gone to.
Plus the B&B in Victoria and paying to get into Buchart Gardens along with purchasing all the items they had at the time. Even the iron thing Castle had bought had shown up and was placed outside in the garden area.
"And what about the expansion into the other countries?" Rick asked.
"Those countries are still a work in progress and most rely on your signing the next contract." Gina held out her hand waiting for Vicki to place the contract that Black Pawn is offering in her hand. When it takes a second too long Gina glared at Vicki as if she had just been fired.
Rick was used to Gina's business manners, however Kate was not. She was developing her own opinion of Gina and it wasn't good.
"You can sign it now or have your lawyer go over it. It is essentially unchanged from the one you are in now." Gina told him, not giving him any specifics of the changes.
"I'll have my lawyer look it over." Rick took it and gave it to Kate who immediately started reading. Her parents were lawyers and she had been in law school at Stanford, so this was something she could do.
"After the book launch this is the list of book stores where we will be going." Gina handed over a piece of paper to Rick who started looking at the list.
Kate however had stopped reading and lifted her head. "WE!?" Kate whispered so softly that even Kate wasn't sure she had heard it. However it did get Rick to turn his head to look at her and since Gina was keeping an eye on Kate she also noticed. The only one out of the loop was Vicki. Gina glared daggers at Kate who had gone back to reading the contract. She didn't notice Gina's look and neither did Rick.
Most of the list Rick noticed were in New York City which was fine. However, there were locations in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago along with an option for London and Paris, if Rick accepted, just as the New Year ended which coincided with the end of his contract with Black Pawn.
Six days outside of New York along with a possible 2 days in London and 2 days in Paris. Kate was out of the Police Academy now. She didn't start what Rick had arranged for her, but hadn't told her about yet, since it was part of her birthday present. It didn't start until next year, so it meant Kate could travel with him to all of the sites if he could talk her into coming with him.
The enticement of going with him to London and Paris in addition to the other three cities just might convince her. "I'll let you know about the last two locations as soon as possible." Rick told Gina.
"We need 21 days advance notice Richard to secure airfare and hotel reservations." Gina warned him since time was short.
"Understood. I also need a complete listing of each signing location so I can look it over." Rick asked of Gina.
"They are just book stores Richard; you've been in countless of them over the years." Gina didn't see the need. "The list Gina." Rick held out his hand and Vicki placed the folder for them in his hand, earning her a "You are so fired!" look from Gina.
Rick let Jack scan it before handing it back to Vicki. "Castle, this says you will accept the terms for publicity arrangements that Gina Cowell has arranged for you, however it fails to spell out the terms that Gina will require. You will be essentially signing a blank check, turning your life over to Gina or at least the how people view you to Gina." Kate suddenly spoke up.
This got Rick to take the contract from Kate to read that section for himself and watched Kate point to the area for him to read. "Who are you again?" Gina glared directly at Kate.
"Richard what is she doing here?" Gina didn't like this development. She watched Rick toss the entire contract past Vicki. It landed in the trash can next to the table that was up against the wall that had coffee, Danish, water and juice sitting on it.
Gina's face was now showing complete shock. "Your contract is rejected. I expect a new one to be ready before the end of the year for Kate and my lawyer to read before signing it. And I expect that section of the new contract to be missing." Rick informed Gina.
Gina was furious. "Who is she and why is she here Richard?" This time Gina wanted an answer.
"Officer Kate Beckett is my… fiancé. Her parents are lawyers and Kate has attended law school so I asked her to attend this meeting with me." Rick answered Gina's question and watched her mouth drop open as she was clearly shocked.
However, since Rick was watching Gina, he didn't see Kate turn her head to look at Castle with an equally shocked look until her face softened almost instantly.
Fiancé?! He referred to me as his fiancé. It had Kate's heart pounding in her chest. Castle wanted to marry her? Actually marry her, like a big wedding in a REAL church somewhere. This time it being a wedding that she wasn't drunk during and really meant to get married.
HE WANTS TO MARRY ME!?
"I'll take the book signing list with me and meet you at the book stores on the list. I'll make my own air fare arrangements as well as my own hotel reservations and let you know about the two out of country locations with your 21 day advance notice so you can arrange your airfare and hotel reservations."
"I expect a new contract to be at my home prior to the New Year or shortly there after." Rick stood up and offered his hand to Kate who took it and walked out with him.
"Better warm up your resume Rachel and maybe call the fire department." Rick warned her on the way out. Rick had just opened the door leading to the elevators. "YOU'RE FIRED!"
They were both in the elevator going down headed for their car. "Make some calls Jack and see if you can find Vicki a new job with a different publisher, please." His request had Kate beaming at him while her heart was still struggling mightily to get out of her chest. She held onto Castle's hand still.