Chapter 6

Rick stood off the desk, looking at the detectives in confusion as he was dragged by Kate into the break room. She closed the door behind him. Two uniforms ran through the other door closing that door behind them which caused Esposito and Ryan to laugh.

Ryan leaned toward Esposito. "Hey Dude, do you reckon those two hooked up last night?"

Espo's eyes widened in disbelief. "Beckett and Castle? No."

"Who else would it be?"

"Yeah, well Castle sure as hell likes Beckett, but she's not one bit interested in him. Says he's a pain in the ass."

"I'm willing to put money on this," Ryan muttered.

"I'm in."

They were facing off. Kate wanted to kiss Castle. Kate wanted to shoot Castle. Kate also wanted to fuck Castle's brains out - again. Kate wanted Castle out of the Precinct - immediately. The emotions were confusing as hell. Her brain was reeling. Her body was craving. "What were you thinking, Castle?" She hissed.

"What do you mean?"

"Urrrghhh," she grumbled in frustration. She turned away to make a fresh pot of coffee.

"What?"

"You went to the Mayor so you could shadow me?" She filled the pot with water.

He nodded, "Yeah, great idea right?"

"No." The water was poured into the container in the coffee percolator.

"Why not?"

"I can't be working with you because of last night."

"Who knows about last night but us? Did you spill to Lanie, or the guys?

"No. No! I don't tell them my personal stuff," she said glancing up to the window to see what the boys were doing. They were watching them. She almost whispered, "I've told no one. What about you?"

"I've told no one. I swear. Call me selfish but I wanna keep what we did last night to myself for a while. It was magical."

Kate flipped her hair behind her ear, feeling flustered and turned on by his comment about their night. At the same time her cheeks caught fire. He was right. Magical was an insult. Blissful, heavenly. Divine. She could go on. She fitted in a momentary glance of his face, lingering on his eyes and those lips she had kissed most of the night. The skin around her own mouth was irritated this morning by his whiskers. "Me too," she said, glancing between his eyes and lips. "I wanna keep us a secret too."

"Then what's the problem?"

"I cannot work with you."

"You can't or you won't?" He asked suddenly serious, "You don't wanna do detective work with me?"

"I want to. I can't. We're not permitted to have relationships within a partnership."

"Beckett, I have my lawyer meeting the NYPD's lawyer in about five minutes. If I can't shadow you then I'm happy to be …"

"Stop Castle." She turned to face him.

"Listen Kate. How about we let the lawyers meet. We had some fun last night…"

"All night," she squeaked out, smiling.

He smiled too, "Agreed. And it was awesome, but let's keep it between us. You continue to act like you hate me and I will continue to be me."

Kate grunted.

"No one will notice," he said, "We can be discreet for as long as we need to be. Can we give it a shot?"

A coy smile appeared on Kate's face and her eyes glistened, "Are you suggesting we have a secret love affair?"

Rick smiled, licked his lips, wishing he could take this woman right now. "I am."

"Tell no one?"

"Not a soul."

She thought about that. "It could be fun," she suggested.

"It will be fun. By the way, what happened with your text earlier?"

"My text?"

"Like it was half way done and you sent it."

"Oh yeah, sent it by accident."

"Hell. What were you gonna say?"

"I don't remember, Castle."

"What the hell?" He frowned.

"Castle, if we keep this a secret it will be so hard."

"Beckett, I wanna do what we did last night again," he whispered. He was still physically smarting, in a good way, from their all night rendezvous, and he could see the faint rash surrounding her mouth and down the side of her neck, that she had tried to conceal with make up. He could see the rash, because he knew it was there, had laughed at it earlier that day.

Forgetting where she was, she coyly smiled and said, "Me too."

"Well, I'm prepared to fly under the radar and pretend until we don't need to anymore."

Kate thought about it for several seconds. "It might be fun hiding a relationship. Ok. I'm in but we need to talk it through later and, out of here," she said indicating she didn't want Esposito and Ryan knowing with a wave of a hand in their general direction.

Rick glanced out the window at the detectives who were badly faking work, "Deal. Our aim is to never let those two figure it out as they orbit you."

Beckett smirked, "You're kidding, right."

"Seriously. The coffee is ready, and the Police lawyer is here." He held out his hand, which confused Kate but he urged her to take his hand like a hand shake. "Then this is a deal. The beginning of the secret life of us." He gave her hand a shake.

She stopped their hands, "What if us doesn't work?"

"Then we make us work as friends. Like if we get to the point we need a therapist, we go to fix it. Promise? I'm your partner now, for better or worse."

"I guess." She dropped her hand, sighted Montgomery waving at her to follow him. "We have to go over there, Rick."

Rick's phone started to sound with an incoming call. "You go. I'll make the coffee and take this call," he looked to the phone, "It's my lawyer."

She gave him a timid smile and a nod then backed off and left the breakroom, putting a little pressure on the gas when the Captain summoned her with a sharp call of her surname. They entered the meeting room where the NYPD lawyer was pulling out papers and files from a well worn briefcase. Kate shook the hand of a balding man in his mid-forties in a greyish suit that had seen better days. It was also in need of a dry clean.

She rubbed her nose, glanced out the doorway to see Castle approaching with two mugs of coffee. She wasn't sure she could fake this without someone figuring out they were sleeping together. She feared they would slip up, say something that would cause people to speculate.

The writer walked into the room, giving Kate a cautious glance. She instantly set the look of despise on her face which caused him to give a slight nod of approval. He handed her the mug, choosing to ignore the look.

"Take a seat, Mr Castle. We have a few papers to sign here."

"Ok," he glanced between Montgomery, Beckett and the lawyer, then sat himself at the conference table, setting his phone down in front of him. He cast his eyes over a stack of documents, the excitement of this adventure fading a little when he saw the amount of paperwork. Across from him, the humorless, suited lawyer waited for Rick to settle in.

"Let's get on with it," Rick said with a smirk. "We could be chasing murderers." His eyes shot to Beckett's and he got to see them roll upwards, not much differently to how they had in her bed. Images of her writhing beneath him, making those delightful noises entered his mind. He took a deep breath, suppressing those thoughts for later. No naughty thoughts about Beckett permitted while in the Precinct.

The lawyer interrupted him, "You understand that by signing these documents, you'll be waiving a number of legal rights in exchange for the opportunity to accompany and observe Detective Beckett in her duties as an officer for the NYPD?"

"Wow," Castle mumbled, distracted by his phone that he brought a little closer.

"Something wrong, Mr. Castle?" The lawyer sat back a little impatient by the writer's inability to concentrate.

"Yeah." He held up his phone. "Do either of you get any bars in this room?"

Beckett, who had resorted to leaning against a nearby wall with the arms crossed, shot him a look. "Castle," she warned.

He focused on the detective when he said, "It's just weird not to get cell service in a police station. I mean, it'd be so much easier to get your one phone call, right? Sorry." He turned his attention back to the paperwork.

The lawyer said, "Be advised that once you sign, if you get injured, you cannot sue the city. If you get shot, you cannot sue the city. If you get killed..."

"My lifeless remains cannot sue the city?" Rick inquired, genuinely interested in hearing the answer.

"Your heirs, Mr. Castle."

Frustrated, Beckett asked, "Do I have to wait for him to sign or can I shoot him now?"

The lawyer glanced at the Detective, then returned his attention to the writer, "Mr. Castle, these waivers are serious business. Perhaps you'd feel more comfortable referring the matter to your attorney."

He smirked at the lawyer, "Are you kidding? He'd never let me sign these," Castle pulled out his pen, "Luckily, his job is to get me out of trouble, not stop me from getting into it."

Beckett was annoyed, and pacing the room, "Isn't your book coming out soon? Don't you have to be somewhere?"

"Probably. But here's more fun," he calmly replied with a quirky smile. She really was a good actress or she was genuinely pissed at him. It was actually hard to tell.

Beckett paused from pacing when her phone rang, and too quickly she answered, "Beckett... Where? I'm on my way." Beckett hung up the call and headed toward the door.

"Hey... Where are you going?" Rick called after her.

"I have work to do, Castle." The detective answered with a clipped tone.

"What? We have a case?"

She held onto the door, "I have a case. You have paperwork." She pouted her lips, teasing him and with that she shot out the door.

Castle turned to the lawyer. "Three hundred bucks for a phone and she gets the bars." Rick said with a frown.