Chapter 67 – Mistress Always Spanks Twice

"When you girls get together you're mean," Rick murmured, and followed it with a kiss to Kate's bare shoulder. He pulled up the bedsheets and wriggled in closer to Beckett's body.

She scoffed, laughed, "We are not. You can't cope with being beaten by three smart women." She tightened her body in response to his hand that lovingly caressed over her lower back over her hip. His lips were busy, pressing to her neck.

"I love having three smart women. But no one has ever been able to beat me at Scrabble."

"I did." She shivered after he softly blew breath to the back of her neck. "Castle," she purred.

He moaned. The way she said his name. He lightly nibbled her flesh. "I will beat you next time." It was growled playfully, and filled with laughter she answered.

"Not a chance."

"I will."

"Martha was over the moon that I won." She reminded him.

"Of course she was."

"And Alexis."

"Yes, her too." He nibbled her shoulder her neck. "I don't want to go tomorrow." He whispered.

"Its only four days, but I don't want you to go either."

"I will be back before we know it." He whispered. He wanted her tonight. Was willing to lure her in slowly. His fingers slipped between her thighs, caressed over her, the warmth of her body appealing. In response, her pelvis tilted towards his. He stroked over her tummy to her belly button then ventured downwards again. This time he gently pushed between her lips. There it was. He expressed his pleasure with a soft groan, a firmer nibble of her flesh. That had her roll to her back her hand going to his face.

"Kiss me," she whispered. "Now."

He smiled, brought himself closer and kissed her. She was timid. When she pulled away her fingers stroked his jaw and she looked into his eyes.

"Just us," she murmured.

"Mm. Tomorrow I'm gone for a few days." He pushed down the bed sheets and picked himself up, moving over Kate who shifted to accommodate his large frame over her. Her hands went to his bare skin over his ribs. "Shit, your hands are cold," he squeaked.

She laughed and reached her arms around him, pulling him down upon her. "Why didn't you ask me to come along?"

"Because you have to work?" He said, "And you don't wanna be sittin' around bookstores watching women fall over me with copies of my books."

Kate grunted a response, hooked her calves around his hips and dragged him in closer again. She gave a joyous squeal and laughed when he dropped his body onto hers. "Oh, you're happy to see me," she declared.

"I am in deed."

"Better show me how happy you are."

"Then hold on."

The next morning, Rick was packed ready to leave when Beckett usually left for work. In the bedroom, while Kate was dressing, he opened the safe stored in the walk-in-robe to fetch her Glock. He took it from the casing that he returned to the safe.

Able to see him from where she dressed, Kate paused to admire the man, to adore the way his muscles showed through his dress shirt. He homed the gun to her holster. Momentarily she recollected how confidently he'd used the guns at the shooting range yesterday.

"You know, Castle, for someone who isn't trained you handled the guns at the range very well yesterday." Then she whispered, "Wow."

He paused, looked at her, all of her, in the leopard print underwear, and smiled, "Wow, Beckett."

"Eyes off, Buddy. You feasted enough last night. You certainly had -"

"Enough to last me a couple of days," he cut in as he approached her. His hands rested at her bare hips and he gave her a quick kiss. "Better hurry if you want to share the cab with me."

She coyly smiled, glanced at the gun on the bed, conscious he'd just dismissed her because he knew she was going to say something about his skills with the gun. "I'll be ready," she said. "You got my Glock ready.

"Yeah. Finally figured it out, watching you." He let her go.

Kate got dressed in black skinny jeans and a sweater. After she pulled on her boots she collected the holster and thread her arm through the strap until the leather was home. She then slipped it the back of her jeans. Ready, she drank what remained of her coffee then followed Rick out of the bedroom.

"Four days." She said as she tidied his shirt collar. "That will be the longest we've been apart since we got together."

He slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her in very close. "It will go fast enough. You start training with the boys tomorrow so that will keep you busy."

"Yeah." She touched his cheek, already missing him, "About that. Are you going to be my partner?"

He screwed up his face with distaste then gave her a smile and pressed his lips to her hairline, "How about I start when I come back. Huh?"

She pulled back a little and gently tugged on the collar of his dress shirt, "Mm. I get the feeling-"

"I'll be with you."

"I will miss you," she whispered.

"Not half as much as I will miss you."

On the first evening that Castle was away, Kate had a booking with her personal trainer. With a gruelling hour exercise regime out of the way, Beckett and the trainer decided to go to a local eatery together for supper and a catch up. They hadn't really had time to meet since she had secretly been dating Castle. The personal trainer was a strapping tall guy in his mid-thirties, was always great company and best of all, like she did with Castle, she kept this friend to herself. Esposito and Ryan had met him at the gym as her PT but that was the extent of their knowledge about him. Castle had met him once or twice and strangely enough, wasn't worried when she caught up with him, socially or for training.

The problem was the trainer wanted to know why she no longer approached him or consented to have sex with him.

"You used to give me midnight calls, drop by," he said with light heartedly. She laughed and blushed.

"Those were fun times, Tommy," she replied, "Knocking off work, all pent up from perks acting out, coming to see you." She lifted her eyes to his brown eyes.

"You sometimes arrived pretty wound up."

"Mm." She fiddled with a hair band around her left wrist, "Those days are gone."

"It's the writer you're with?"

Beckett gave a nod, "It is. We're secretly dating." She took a sip of her drink and inspected her meal. It was a healthy warm chicken salad. It was nice but a part of her was craving a decent cheese burger and shake or Castle's chicken carbonara.

Tommy leaned in, which cause her to look at him as he said, "You really like him and he's a nice guy. You only wander off when you're dating. It usually only runs a few months but this time it's been longer."

She shrugged her shoulders, smiled, "He's very handsome. I denied I liked him at first, but it was instant. Moment I met him."

"And no one knows you're together."

"Only our families. Will try to keep it like that for a while." She stabbed a piece of tomato then paused, "Hey, that marathon that I've nominated myself to do with my team at work."

"Mm?"

"How much training? I mean, I'm not sure I can do it."

"You could do it. Just need to run." He paused.

Kate saw his expression change and she smiled, guilty.

"You want me to run with you." He suggested.

She screwed up her nose, "Well, Castle won't. He says he will but he's really not the running type. I know that."

"Full marathon."

"Full marathon," she confirmed. "I have to be at the gym again at six tomorrow morning to train with the boys." She pushed away the plate, leaving a third of the meal there. She was full and wanted to head home for a shower and to wind down.

"I'll run with you. Not tomorrow, but next day I'm good."

"Cool."

The morning training sessions were hard to commit to during the winter months but she was there the following day predawn. She preferred to snuggle into the warmth and security of Castle, to sleep a further ten minutes, but because he wasn't there she got out of bed to train. Esposito and Ryan wanted to commence training for a marathon and she'd committed to do it with them on the spur of the moment. Castle had kind of committed, but getting up before work to train wasn't in his DNA, especially when he spent hours writing while she slept. It would be interesting to see whether he did join them. So here she was, between Ryan and Esposito, pounding the running machine at the gym. She had barely broken into a sweat, almost five minutes into the run component. Ten minutes of warm up jogging and now they were running just over 3 miles inside 12 minutes. Both men were sweating. Profusely. Esposito's singlet was wet but he breathed evenly. Ryan, a seasoned runner was cruising. Running had always been an easy task for her but she wasn't that into it and preferred agility exercises.

She counted down the minutes until they passed their milestone and slowed the machines to a jog. It was then she pulled herself out of the sweater, the time when her body would really start to perspire.

Off the machines, they ended up on the floor mats to stretch before they began the second component of their exercise regime. With her right leg bent, her left out straight, she reached to her left shoe and stretched, staring ahead.

"Lanie said she dropped by your place on the weekend." Esposito said. He was doing the same stretch.

Kate pressed her lips together. She needed to think about this. She hadn't expected Lanie to tell Esposito about that Saturday, when she'd turned up at Kate's apartment unannounced. But apparently, she had. It had taken him awhile to say something too. Luckily this time, Beckett and Castle had been working on a chapter of his manuscript and Lanie had seen the notebook containing his handwritten notes and the laptop open. A mental note was immediately made to be careful what she said to Lanie in the future.

"He came by because he was stuck on Police policy," she replied, trying her hardest to act casual. "But I don't need to explain that because its personal, Espo." She was nice but firm, aware it was enough to shut his questions down. They all knew she was extremely private.

"She said you and Castle were arr…. Cozy."

"We get told we are that at work," she shrugged off, now determined to give his ass a good whipping when they started combat training. She stood up from the floor mat, shook out the tension in her muscles.

Castle hadn't called or texted since he had landed in LA. That kind of bothered her and she had no control over that reaction to his radio silence. He had said he would contact her when he could. It was odd not having his company and she was willing to admit to herself she missed the guy, especially at night when she was trying to sleep and he wasn't there. She wasn't the type to attach herself too easily but found his absence left a gaping hole in her life. How quickly she had grown accustomed to his presence, his more than large presence. She cleared her throat feeling a gush of tightness, of emotion. Did she really miss him that much? She pushed down the emotions, a little spooked by what she felt, that another person had that effect on her. It was unjust and silly to be choked up fretting for another. What disturbed her more was whether he would be seduced by one or more beautiful female fans.

She pushed that out of her conscious thoughts.

Determined to be perfectly happy, and with gloves retrieved from the bench she was ready to do some training on the kick bag.

"Tommy, my personal trainer, says he'll do the marathon with us, Kev." She said as she bounced from right to left feet to keep warm and pumped.

Surprised by her news he asked, "How hard did you have to deliver a speech to get him on board?"

"Actually, not that much. He's gonna run with me tomorrow night. You guys can join us if you reckon you can keep up."

"You'll be eating my dust, Beckett." Ryan quickly replied. "You run like a girl."

"This girl will kick your ass for that." She shot right back as they made their way to the punching bag. S

On the fourth and final night that Castle was away, Kate expected a phone call, so she kept her secret phone close. Tonight, she missed Castle. A lot. More so than during work hours. However, there was no way she would admit to him that his absence left a huge hole in her life. Besides a few text messages earlier that day, they hadn't spoken since she had stepped out of the sedan that had driven Castle to the airport. He was on the way home and had indicated via text that he needed to spend time with Alexis. That meant unless she snuck into his home later tonight, she wouldn't see him until tomorrow. She dealt with that by staying in and enjoying her own company.

The call came in late, after Beckett had retired to bed and fallen asleep. She didn't hear the phone vibrate.

The air was fresh when Castle and Beckett met on the pathway at the edge of the park. They stopped, face to face with about two feet between them.

"Hi." Beckett said.

"Hi." Castle glanced over her face, about them then back to her eyes. "You look gorgeous."

She smiled, her cheeks glowed. "You too. I really want to kiss you."

"You have no idea. Want to do more than that, a lot more."

"Well," she looked into the distance to where a crowd was, then back to him, "We have a murder scene to go to."

"That's a damn shame." Rick glanced at his watch, then was back on her face not interested in the crime scene, "Seven and a quarter hours left until you knock off."

"Time is ticking." She replied and lowered her eyes to his groin. "And there is something I want to really do tonight."

Rick's eyes shot to his belt buckle, then he smiled, "You naughty girl." He pointed at the crime scene, "Detective Beckett, you have a murder to solve before we think about the naughty stuff."

Shoulder to shoulder, they commenced to walk across the park towards the crowd of detectives and forensic scientists,

"Castle, did you miss me?"

"I sure did, always do when you're not with me." He glanced at her and gave her a smile.

"Mm. Well, I must admit I found it hard to fall asleep with you not holding me."

"Oh."

"And the bed was colder without you."

"Duly noted."

"My coffee is terrible."

"Go steady, Beckett."

She smiled. "How was your evening with Alexis?"

"The evening was fine, we had fun, thank you, but she woke up all weird this morning."

"How so?"

"Alexis was singing and jumping up and down."

"Dancing?"

"Arrr, not quite. It was this thing they call cheerleading. My daughter, Beckett. Cheer leading."

Kate looked concerned, "What's wrong with cheerleading, Castle?"

"Oh please." He shot her a sideways glance, "Don't tell me you were a cheerleader."

"You couldn't cope with knowing if I was." Kate smirked, enjoying his dilemma more than she should do. "So, what's wrong with cheerleading?" She prodded.

"No, no, nothing … nothing's wrong with it." He quickly replied, "I'm just- I didn't know you... were once one."

"I wasn't," she curtly replied, "So get that image out of your head, buddy."

"Flushed. Gone," he quickly confirmed.

"Alexis is just putting her toe in the water, Castle. Diversify her activities."

"That's what she said. Are you two communicating-"

"No." She shook her head, "Definitely not."

"I will wait and see where it goes. She's a pretty busy girl so I don't know when she's going to fit in the cheerleading without sacrificing something else."

"She'll figure it out, Castle."

"Four days away …"

"Castle, I haven't spoken to your daughter," she stressed, "And I haven't been to the loft since the morning you left."

"I know. I'm messing with you. And I mean its been four days since I touched you and you don't know how much I want to do that right now."

"I think I do."

He kind of took a couple of sideways steps to look at her then focussed on where they were headed, "Its busy over there, do you know what happened?"

"Woman found hanging from monkey bars. That's the text I received from Kevin."

"Okay. Well, yes, she's certainly hanging." He observed then fell quiet as they approached the crime scene. Side by side, they stopped for a few seconds to absorb the sight before them. The deceased was a young woman with long brunette hair and she was hanging by her wrists from the monkey bar, her eyes opened. She was attired in sexual clothing. Two medics lifted her down with great care and attention.

Ryan cleared his throat distracting his boss and the writer, "Vic's a female, late twenties, no ID. She was found hanging from the monkey bars by a jogger just after dawn."

Castle politely studied the body, pointed at the yellowish goo stuck to her skin, "Is that honey?"

Lanie who was crouched down beside the body replied, "From the smell of it, I'd say it's caramel sauce." She glanced up to Beckett and Castle, "But I'll be testing, not tasting."

"Caramel sauce?" Beckett repeated.

"Maybe our killer has a sweet tooth." Castle kind of smiled at his own humour.

"Given her state of undress," Beckett replied, "I'd say it's more likely he had a sexual fetish."

Lanie looked to Beckett, "Yeah, I can do the chocolate, I'll even do the whipped cream bikini, but caramel? I prefer slippery to sticky."

Castle cleared his throat and his expression softened as fond memories flooded his mind, and he asked anyone who was listening, "Does she know we can hear her?"

Beckett ignored Castle and pointed at the hand cuffs, "Bondage cuffs, custom made? Looks like our killer liked public play."

Inquisitive, Castle asked, "How can you tell the difference between custom and regular?"

"The leather is too higher quality to be mass-produced, and its hand-stitched." Beckett pointed at the fine stitching.

"No," Rick replied, "I mean, how can you tell the difference?" He pointed at her.

Beckett smiled mysteriously, and remained silent. Rick got a little fidgety.

Returning her focus to the body she asked the doctor, "So time of death?"

Lanie replied, "From body temperature, I'd say between 10:00 and 11:00 last night, but I'm pretty sure she was not killed here. Based on lividity, she spent several hours in the fetal position after she died. And then was hung here a few hours ago. Petechial hemorrhaging suggests she was suffocated. And then there's these."

"Was she restrained?" Castle asked.

Lanie said, "Looks like it.

"Yo, Beckett," Esposito interrupted, "Crime scene's negative for any signs of a struggle. Found about a dozen partial shoe impressions, but the ground's too cold to get any imprints."

Ryan said, "But... we did find this." He held up his phone to show Beckett pictures. Castle and Beckett leaned into to look at the photos, "Wheel marks, about 18 inches apart. And judging by the depth of the tracks, I'd say it was carrying something heavy."

Castle replied, "I'm guessing around, uh, 105 pounds." He looked down at the dead woman.

"So, he killed her elsewhere and then brought her here." Beckett suggested.

"Yeah, which means the crime scene could be anywhere." Esposito replied.

"The psychology doesn't make any sense." Castle suggested, "Like the crime scene was pretty elaborately staged, which seems to suggest a significant amount of premeditation, but the murder itself, suffocation, might indicate a crime of passion."

"Then the guy covered her in caramel. Do you really think we're gonna find a logical explanation?" Ryan asked.

"Only a handful of bondage shops in the city do custom work," Beckett said, "So let's take photos of those cuffs, send it out, see if anyone can ID where it came from." She ordered as she commenced the walk back to the car.

Castle who appeared very surprised that Beckett knew all this, asked, "Only a handful of shops?" He called after her, "Okay, Beckett, what aren't you telling me?"

Beckett turned and suggestively smiled, "So much, Castle. So very, very much."

Her answer left Castle feeling a little crazy, but more so dizzy with desire. He was already sexually frustrated having not been with Kate for several long days and now she was being seductive. He bit his knuckles.

"You coming, Castle?" She called and it was followed up with a giggle when she turned about and continued to walk.

Seconds later he was at her side. They walked in silence until the second Castle knew they were out of hearing range. "Bondage?"

"I knew that word would stick in your head."

"Bondage? What aren't you sharing with me?"

"You ever been tied up? Been at the mercy of another person?" She asked.

"Bondage?" He squeaked.

"Yes or no is all it needs, Castle."

"No Ma'am, I haven't. Not bondage." He shook his head.

"Maybe it's time." She suggested, like she was thinking aloud.

"Time? For what?" He cautiously inquired, then swallowed.

"To get out my fluffy cuffs."

He grinned, "Sure, I'll bring mine over tonight." Castle stated. "Along with a few other things."

"We'll just put our toes in the water." Beckett replied and gave him a look.

"Bondage next week." He confirmed. "I don't want a heart attack. It's been like five days since I touched you, all of you."

"Don't I know it." Beckett stressed.

They took a few strides of silence before Rick asked, "Who will hand cuff who?"

"I'm a cop, Castle. If you can get the cuffs on me, good luck."

"Oh, you want a tackle too?"

She giggled and looked at his eyes, "I'll give you a tackle."

"You want to be arrested, be a bad guy for once."

She patted his upper arm, "I will be the bad guy, you're the cop and you have to arrest me." She continued to walk around the car as Rick fell against the passenger side his hands to his chest. She watched him carry on, releasing a laugh of amusement.

When they got in the car she gave him a seductive stare, "So me being tied up and at your mercy is appealing to you, Ricky?"

His palm laid upon her thigh and he gave her a squeeze. "You're killing me, Beckett. I was writing an R rated story about us for you when I was gone. You have just given me a whole new story."

"I wanna read these stories, Castle."

"You will."

She started the car.

"Right now, I need a cold shower or a hotel room," he shared.

"Neither, Bud. We're on our way back to the Precinct." With the engine running and still in park, she reached over to his groin she gently felt, "Wow, Castle," she said in hushed tones and looked him in the eyes, "Better tame the lion before we get back there."

"Stop teasing me." He gently lifted her hand away, smiled, "I bet." He glanced to her groin, "There is plenty going on down there right now."

"Maybe," she replied. She indicated she wanted to pull out into the traffic and seeing the road behind her was clear, she drove out onto the road.

He laughed, "Maybe, my ass. I know you, Sweetheart." He generously gave her thigh a rub. "I'm gonna have you begging for me by tonight."

"Nope." She vigorously shook her head. "You will be on your knees."

"We'll see." Rick replied, glanced at the time, "I have about three minutes to get under control."

Kate laughed. "I will go to a drive through for coffee."

"Good idea."