Snowed In

Chapter 9

The sun had not yet risen when she woke up.

At first, she fought against it, wanting to stay curled up under the covers, all warm and safe. But her brain was unwilling to cooperate. The traitor.

Unbidden, because she certainly hadn't asked for them, shockingly vivid visions from almost faded dreams of a certain ruggedly handsome novelist popped into her mind's eye. She wanted to deny them, but her treasonous brain wouldn't obey her commands, continuing to bombard her with images of Richard Castle, snuggled close beside her in bed, naked or in various degrees of undress. Giving in, she wondered what he looked like when asleep, completely relaxed, devoid of deceit or guile, just him. He was probably just as handsome as he was awake, she thought.

Growling softly, Kate shoved the duvet back and sat up, scrubbing her hands down her face, silently cursing her imaginings. She did not want to picture herself in bed with Richard Castle, no matter how much her body seemed to think otherwise.

"Stop it," she hissed.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she cast a glare towards the well-worn paperback book.

"This is your fault," she grumbled.

Kate grabbed a scrunchie off the side table and pulled her hair back into a high ponytail. Standing up, she rubbed her arms to keep the chill at bay, already missing the warmth of the bed, but her mind was far too alert for her to find sleep once more. It would be futile to even attempt it, so she resigned herself to her fate.

Mornings weren't her favorite, though since joining the police force, she'd learned to adapt. Finding her father's OMEGA wristwatch on the small desk by the window, she tilted the clock face until she could read the time in the dim light.

She glowered. Too early.

"Coffee," she mumbled to herself.

The brewed beverage had been one of the ways she'd coped with the early risings required for her profession. But she hesitated at the door, recalling the time she'd read on her wristwatch. It was too early for coffee.

She made a slight pfft noise at that thought.

Never too early for coffee, her inner voice declared, quite ferociously at that.

Yet… if she really wanted coffee—made from the special blend she'd brought with her from New York—then she would need to go to the kitchen and activate the machine, bypassing the prescheduled program the coffee maker had been set at the previous night. And while her aunt didn't mind her doing some things differently than she would, Kate knew better than to mess with her Aunt Theresa's coffee machine.

Turning back to her room, Kate slapped her hands against her thighs in frustration as she stared morosely back at the unmade bed. Her imaginations were already starting to conjure up visuals of Castle helping her wake up in very, very pleasurable ways. His head buried between her—

"No!" she clapped her hand on her forehead, angry at her subconscious for taunting her so.

Very studiously, Kate pulled out her yoga mat and rolled it out on the floor. She quickly discarded her nightclothes and donned her workout leggings and a navy-blue NYPD tank top over her utilitarian black sports bra.

Falling back into a regular routine was a relief. She did her morning yoga stretches almost on automatic. Not much thinking was required. The workout helped warm up her muscles and body, and by the time she approached her last position, she had nearly regained control over her mind, and wasn't assaulted by any more fictitious thoughts of a certain guest currently residing within Suite 3 of her aunt and uncle's Bed & Breakfast.

Kate arched her spine and pushed her butt up into the air, putting herself in the downward-facing dog position. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh, holding the position as she worked on her meditating.

And then…

Damn it.

Her subconscious idly pondered what Richard Castle would think should he happen to walk in and see her in this position. After all, her villainous subconscious expatiated, he had seemed rather taken with her toned posterior.

Letting out a defeated huff, Kate relaxed and plopped down onto her yoga mat.

After allowing herself a moment to sulk, she shoved up and stalked over to the small desk, snatching up her phone and—not even caring how early it was—called her best friend.

"Kate? It… it's not even 4 yet," slurred Lanie when she answered the phone.

"Yeah… sorry, I… I just really need your advice. Like, right now," Kate ejaculated, thinking it an appropriate use of that word considering her some of her salacious thoughts.

"Okay, okay," grumbled Lanie. "Hold on a sec… I need to get—"

Kate heard the rustling of bedsheets over the phone line. And then, very softly, she heard a very familiarly muffled voice in the background.

"Stay in bed, chica."

Kate couldn't help but smirk.

"Not now, Javi," Lanie hissed, oblivious to the fact Kate could hear every word. Her best friend was understandable still a bit sleep addled, otherwise she wouldn't have revealed the name of her bedmate.

All this was followed by some muttering in Spanish that Kate chose not to understand, even if she did. She definitely wasn't going to be asking Lanie for any juice details during their next girls' night out. No. Definitely not. She did not need the mental image of her work colleagues engaged in the same scenarios her own mind was imagining herself in with a certain mystery writer.

After some hurried footsteps and the closing of a door on the other end of the phone line, Lanie returned.

"Okay… I have some privacy now, and no… I don't want to talk about it."

Kate grinned, knowing that Lanie suspected that Kate had rightly deduced her sleeping arrangements. She ribbed her friend later, when she had less problems of her own.

"So, what's so important that you needed to wake me up at this ungodly hour?" Lanie demanded.

"Richard freaking Castle."

There was a long pause on the other end, before Lanie replied, sounding exceedingly confused, "Like… the author?"

Kate nodded, even though her friend couldn't see her. "Yep."

"Care to elaborate?" Lanie pushed, sounding more alert. "I know I'm good, sweetie, but I can't really read your mind, especially over the phone when we aren't face to face."

"What does that mean?" Kate groused.

"Let's just say that your poker face works on everyone else, it doesn't work on me."

"Yeah, yeah," Kate took a deep breath, and then went into an as succinct as possible summary of everything that had happened since Richard Castle checked into the Hollister Bed & Breakfast. When she finished, she took another deep breath and waited for Lanie's response.

"I don't see the problem," was what Lanie concluded.

Kate's mouth dropped in a strangled gasp. "What!?"

Lanie let out a knowing chuckle. "Girl, stop overthinking things. Just have some fun. He sounds into you. Like very into you."

"Lanie… not helping."

"Look, if you were calling me to reinforce that self-deluded denial of yours, then you called the wrong person."

"Fine," she glowered. "Maybe your right about that. But… okay, hear me out… what if I'm just misreading him. Getting my… what do they call it… signals! Yeah, what if I'm misreading the signals. He could just be interested in my experience as a homicide cop to help jump start his writing."

"Jump your bones is more like it," muttered Lanie.

"What!?"

"Girl, please, you are not that stupid."

"Huh?"

"You really like riding that river, don't you?"

"What does that even supposed to mean?"

"Denial, my friend, is a long and baffling river. And you seem to love it. Which frankly drives me crazy at times."

"That joke isn't funny," Kate groaned. "And okay… maybe a little true."

"A little?" Lanie harrumphed.

"Shut up."

"Kate, from what you've told me, I don't think it's just about picking your brain for story ideas. He's attracted to you. You're obviously attracted to him. Don't overthink it. Live in the moment and have some fun, girl. You need it. And I think he'll be more than happy to provide."

"You're a really big help, Lanie," Kate sighed, not bothering to hide the sarcasm.

"Hey, you called me," Lanie retorted. "Now… if you don't mind, I would like to go back to bed. Javi really wore me out earlier, so I'm understandable tired."

"Lanie! Eww! I don't want to hear about that."

"Fine," sighed Lanie. "But… when you get back, I'm going to want on the deets on this writer boy of yours."

"He's not my writer boy—"

Lanie hung up before she could finish. Kate tossed her phone down on the bed, and scrubbed a hand down her face. Lanie had been right about one thing. If Kate wanted someone to reenforce her ebbing denial over her growing infatuation with Richard Castle, she had most definitely called the wrong person.

Tucking her legs underneath her, still unable to sleep, Kate just sat on the bed and tried to find the calm center in the tumultuous storm that was her jumbled those. She didn't know how long she'd been lost in her thoughts, but when she opened her eyes and glanced towards the window, Kate saw the beginnings of the dawn's early light.

She unfolded her legs and stood. Stretching her arms up above her head she stared out the window in mild dismay. The snow had really come down last night. Heavy patches of snow covered the ground outside and she could barely make out the shapes of cars covered in thick layers.

Her jaw clenched when she realized that mother nature had just made a decision for her. She could avoid it. She could avoid him. Not now. Figuring out whatever these feelings she was having towards Richard Castle was going to become much more difficult now that they would be stuck inside for the foreseeable future.

XXX

Rick Castle was disappointed when he woke up and discovered the hot and passionate night he'd been sharing with a gorgeous long-legged brunette had all been a vivid and tantalizing dream. He groaned in displeasure at the empty spot beside him on the bed, proof that none of it had been real. He sat up and scrubbed a hand down his face, trying to retain as much of the fading fantasy as possible, because judging from the snow falling outside, he was going to be needing such thoughts to help keep him warm.

Standing up, Castle strolled towards the window and glanced outside to see snow covered trees and… snow! The snow was packed so high, he couldn't see the field out back that stretched out behind the Bed & Breakfast. Come to think of it, he couldn't even see his car.

"Shit," he hissed, realizing that his Mercedes was probably buried beneath a thick layer of snow.

He reached for his phone and sighed with relief that he still had cellphone reception. He noticed a missed text from Alexis, telling him to keep safe and warm. It made him smile. If he never did anything else right in his life, at least he had done good with his daughter. He quickly tapped out a reply, letting her know that he was okay, and that, for the moment, the Bed & Breakfast still had power. But it appeared that they were snowed in.

Castle threw on the provided bathrobe, and grabbed his toiletries, hoping that the chilly weather hadn't frozen the pipes and that he could, at the very least, enjoy a lukewarm shower because he ventured downstairs to the dining hall for breakfast. He was just about to open the door when a knock sounded from it.

Curious, he hastily answered and was pleasantly surprised to find Kate Beckett, dressed in blue jeans and wrapped in a teal parka standing in the hallway. Her eyes took in his sleep rumpled features and the corner of her mouth twisted up in a little grin.

"Just waking up?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't tell me I missed breakfast again," he groaned dramatically, playing on the humor of the previous day.

"No, you're good," she chuckled. "My aunt just started making some hot oatmeal, though."

"You're not cooking it?" he asked, trying not to sound disappointed.

"The snow really came down last night and… well… it's still coming down, and I'm going to go to the shed out back and check on the generator," she explained. "Just in case we need it. And… you see, my uncle would usually do it, but seeing how he's still recovering, I offered, but my aunt doesn't want me going out in this weather alone, so I thought… well, I know you're a paying guest, but I was wondering—"

"I'll be happy to help!" he declared, perhaps a little too enthusiastic. Any excuse to spend time with the lovely woman was worth it.

She let out a nervous laugh. "Okay. Great."

"I still have time for a quick shower?" he asked, hooking a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the communal bathroom.

"Huh?" she suddenly seemed to remember his appearance, clad in nothing but in the bathrobe over his sleepwear. The faint hints of a blush touched her cheeks. He thought it was rather adorable. "Oh… yeah," she stammered out in answer. "There should be plenty of warm water, granted you don't take a 30-minute shower."

"I'll be quick," Castle announced, as she stepped back to let him enter the hall. He closed the door to the suite behind him and clutched the rolled-up bath towel tighter under one arm.

Kate nodded. "I'll be waiting in the foyer."

"See you in a few," he called after her, grinning as he watched her walk away.

Perhaps being snowed in wasn't too bad, he thought.