Relax

A/N: Takes place early season 6, and rated M! So please skip this one if it makes you uncomfortable! Otherwise, hope you enjoy! ;)

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Kate laid in bed, staring up at her ceiling fan. She'd gotten home late from work, taken a quick shower, and shoveled some leftover Chinese food down her throat before collapsing onto the mattress, spent from her exhausting day. It had been three weeks since she'd arrived here, and none of this was getting any easier.

Despite her weariness, she couldn't fall asleep. Not yet, anyway. She needed to hear his voice. She needed to close her eyes, and wrap herself inside it like a blanket, letting his warmth wash over her.

Her chest ached, thinking about Castle. She hadn't seen him since she'd moved, and the longer they went without each other, the more painful the burning in her chest became.

Granted, it had been her decision to keep him at bay. He'd wanted to fly down that very first weekend, but Kate felt like she had something to prove. She wanted to get through her trial period first, which was only supposed to last the first month. After today, she only had a week to go. She could do this. She would see him soon.

In the meantime, the telephone would have to do.

She pressed his name in her contacts list, and grinned when his photo popped up on her screen. She held the phone up to her ear and waited.

"Why, hello there," he purred into the phone, and Kate grinned wildly.

"Hi," she breathed back in return, and rolled over onto her side.

"What're you up to?"

She sighed. "Nothing much. I just missed you, thought I'd call."

She heard some rustling in the background and then the slight creak of his mattress. He must have lied down. "Not as much as I miss you, I assure you."

Kate giggled. "It's not a contest, Castle."

"You're right. It's not. Because if it was, I'd be winning."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Suuure you would. Anyway… how was your day?"

"Mmm, fine I suppose. I finished three chapters."

"Oh that's great!" She heard him adjust again, and it sent a little thrill through her, knowing they were both in bed. God, she wished he was beside her.

"Yeah. I'm not sure I'm happy with them, but they're done. What about you?"

Kate sighed. "I was slammed, all day. No surprise there. But it was fine, I guess."

"McCord still hassling you?"

She squirmed a little, and muttered, "Not really. Not as much."

Kate reached out a hand, stroking the bedsheets beside her. The space he should be occupying right now, if she wasn't so stubbornly independent. Part of her wanted to ask him to go get on a plane right now, but she didn't, because she knew Castle wouldn't hesitate to do it. That would be unfair, to both of them.

"Seems to me that you need to relax, Beckett," Castle teased, bringing her back to reality. She blinked and instinctively squeezed her thighs together. Then Castle chuckled lowly. "Yes, that's exactly what I mean."

She almost laughed, but instead her mouth fell open in dismay. Leave it to him to have this as his sixth sense. Knowing the exact moment she became turned on, even when he couldn't see her. "That's not fair," she muttered back, holding back her grin. "You're not here to help me with that."

He chuckled, and she heard more rustling. She wondered if he was shifting in place, too intrigued to lie still after hearing her statement. "I think, given the circumstances, one could argue that I don't really need to be there to help out."

Her lips twisted in a shy grin. "Oh?"

This might be one of the only things they hadn't yet tried as a couple. Kate couldn't deny the heat growing between her legs, in response to her growing curiosity. She wondered if it was the same for him.

As if reading her mind, Castle said, "It's definitely something different, yeah?"

Kate nodded, her cheek rubbing against her pillow. Then she remembered he couldn't see her. "Mhm. Interesting suggestion."

"You ever…" he cleared his throat. "You ever done it before?"

Kate thought back. She'd come closest with Josh, but he was never in a private enough space to say anything too salacious. And the time difference had made it weird, too, because his nighttime was the middle of the workday for her. It just hadn't ever felt… right.

"No, actually. I haven't."

She could have sworn she heard Castle let out a low purr of approval. "Not many firsts left," he teased, and Kate gasped.

"Hey!"

Castle chortled. "Kidding, kidding!"

"I'm not going to apologize for being experienced, Castle," she chuckled.

"Nor should you. I find it hot. I find everything about you hot, actually."

"I know you do." Her face flushed hot from his affection.

"And… it can just be the icing on the cake that I get to pop this particular cherry of yours."

Kate rolled her eyes at his choice of words. She hated that phrase. "What about you, huh? You ever have phone sex before?" She asked the question, but her nose wrinkled in distaste at the same time. She wasn't sure she actually wanted to know the answer.

"Oh yeah," he responded, and then cleared his throat. "I mean, well, meaningless phone sex. Not with someone I miss as much as I miss you."

"Nice save," she retorted under her breath.

"So… what do you say?" he breathed. "You ready to relax, Detective Beckett?"

"Oh, I'm ready alright." She didn't bother correcting him that she wasn't actually a detective anymore.

He seemed practically giddy on the other line. "Okay, for starters, what are you wearing?"

Kate looked down at her NYPD t-shirt and a pair of his old boxers that had a hole along the seam. She frowned. "Uhhh…"

"Let me guess: t-shirt and my boxers?"

"Is that bad?" she winced and rolled over onto her back.

"No, not at all. I can work with that. Okay, is your hair up or down?"

"Down."

"Mmm, my favorite. Okay. Do you have any candles you can light, or a lamp to turn on?"

Kate looked around the room. "Mmm, candles are still in the boxes, and I only have an overhead light."

"Okay, that's alright. Go turn it off."

Kate rose from her bed and did as she was told. Then, she laid back down in bed, heart pumping fast. "Now what?"

"Now, you ask what I'm wearing."

She could have smacked herself. Why was she so ridiculously naive about this? "Right. What are you wearing, Castle?" She lowered her voice, trying to sound seductive. It seemed to work, because Castle drew in a sharp breath.

In a low, soft tone of his own, Castle replied, "At this point, nothing. And I put the red silk sheets on the bed this morning."

Kate shivered. She loved those sheets. "Oh…"

"So Kate… this is how this is gonna go. I'm going to tell you to do something, and I want you to do it, okay?" Kate made the same mistake of nodding. "Okay?" he asked again, and Kate cleared her throat.

"Yeah. Okay."

"Okay good. We're in this together. Your hand is my hand, okay?"

"Okay," she sighed into the phone, already squeezing her thighs together in anticipation.

And then he began.

At first, Kate couldn't deny she felt a little weird taking his orders. He was specific ("Run your hand from your neck to your thigh") and repetitive at times ("Pinch and roll your nipple between your fingers," three times) but then she started to understand why.

He was building her up. She didn't have his lips to kiss, or his smell to cling to. She didn't have his soft chest hair to brush her fingertips through or his heat to permeate through to her bones. This was different. Every sensation, every touch, was meant to build on the one before.

And then she tried her hand at commanding him, too.

It was a breathy trade off of low, insistent commands (touch yourself here, faster, slower) until Kate was almost convinced that Castle really had taken control of her hands. That somehow, through the phone's speaker phone, he was operating her like a marionette.

She was disconnected, only doing exactly as he told her, until finally she was begging him to let her come. She was writhing against her strewn sheets, needing the release, and he made her beg for it. She knew she didn't have to – she could just finish herself off whenever she wanted – but she liked being under his thumb. She liked how it felt when he finally gave her permission.

And when he finally did, she got to work, following his grunted commands on the phone. He told her to flip over onto her belly and ride her own hand, and she almost screamed in relief as she sunk down onto her fingers. With an expertly positioned thumb, Kate moved with purpose until she was panting and desperate and near-deaf to Castle's encouragement.

And then she saw stars in a way she truly hadn't expected to. She called out his name, and quivered against the warm bed.

When Kate finally came down from her high, she realized somewhere along the way she'd stopped talking. She'd been so focused on herself, she hadn't been keeping him going along with her.

"Did you…?" she breathed, and she heard him let out a broken chuckle.

"Oh yeah."

"Yeah?" She grinned.

"Yeah. Your breathing… those sounds… that was enough, Kate." He sounded winded, and Kate smiled wildly to herself in pride. She thought she'd made a mistake, but she supposed it had all been easier than she'd expected it to be.

"I love you, Rick," she sighed, and rolled back over onto her side. She closed her eyes, facing his side of the bed. It helped, when she wanted to pretend he was beside her.

"I love you too, Kate." Then she heard him yawn, smacking his lips together near the end. "We should probably get some sleep, hmm?"

"Yeah. I have to be up early tomorrow."

"Only one more week," he reminded her, and she sighed in response.

"One more week."

"We can do it."

"I know. Especially if we have this to fall back on."

Castle laughed, and Kate relished the sound. "Glad you enjoyed yourself."

"Mmmmhmmm."

"Happy to be of service."

Kate inhaled deeply, trying to find the memory of his scent. It came to her easily. "Goodnight Castle."

"Goodnight Kate. Sweet dreams."

She grinned against her pillow. "Only the sweetest. And Castle?"

"Hmm?" She could hear him fading, and knew he'd be asleep in minutes.

"Thanks for being here with me. Even when you can't really be."

"Anything for you, sweetheart."

She smiled and hung up the phone, then clutched it to her chest.

Just one more week.

They could do this.