Chapter Ten - Taking it slow/So say we all

"So how do you propose we do this… thing?" Beckett asked.

Castle opened his mouth to reply and she saw the gleam in his eye, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Not… that," she said, holding up her hand to stop him before he could answer inappropriately. "How do we take this slowly?"

"I think we start by getting something to eat. Because unless you're holding out on me and you have a secret stash of cookies in your bathroom, I haven't seen you eat all day. And it's easier to make decisions on a full stomach."

"Mmm." He wasn't wrong, and Beckett bit her lip, twisting to look at her fridge; hopefully he didn't think he would find anything of nourishment in there. A carton of milk and a box of frozen berries was about the extent of it, if she remembered correctly.

"So I was thinking I would go home, get changed, and then I could… come back here? With some food?"

"What did you have in mind?"

He took a step back, his hand still wrapped around her waist, and she closed her eyes; good. This felt so good. And so right. "Chinese?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Sounds perfect."

He took another step back, and she trailed behind him as he made his way to the door, still needing to be close to him. "I'll be back soon," he promised, and she nodded, letting her body melt into his again, tilting her head up and standing on her tiptoes to press her lips against his.

"See you soon," she whispered, and he nodded.

"Soon."

He opened the door, pressing one last kiss to her forehead before disappearing down the stairs, and she stared after him. What a difference a day made. The smile fell from her face as she closed the door, clicking the lock into place and looking around. If Castle was coming back she needed to straighten up a little, and - more importantly - make sure any evidence of Josh was long gone. With that thought, she slid her iPod into its dock and turned the volume up before striding into the bathroom to make sure her ex-boyfriend's toothbrush wasn't on display.

A set of fresh sheets later, and Josh's sleep shirt discarded in her laundry hamper, and she looked around, satisfied. She flopped down on the sofa, reaching absently for the closest book, exhaustion hitting her all at once. She would rest her eyes, just for a second, before Castle got back.

He raised his hand, suddenly nervous; it was one thing to kiss her in her kitchen, yet another to bring food, wine, and a DVD box-set. Perhaps this was a little presumptuous. The bottle of red and the DVDs had all the markings of a date - a stay-in on the sofa kind of date, granted - and was it too soon to be dating?

Castle swallowed before shaking his head and knocking on the door, three sharp raps that portrayed a boldness that he didn't feel. And he waited. And waited. Had she gone out? He pulled his phone from his pocket; she would have left a message, if she'd gone somewhere, right? But the door swung open, and sleepy hazel eyes peered at him.

"I fell asleep," she admitted, and he nodded, taking her in. Okay, if she'd been cute before, in her leggings and t-shirt, she was downright adorable now that her hair was sleep-mussed and her eyes half-closed.

"Sorry to wake you," he said, stepping over the threshold.

"No, it's okay." She yawned, covering her mouth and offering an apologetic giggle. Okay, so a giggling, yawning Kate Beckett might just be the most charming thing ever.

"So."

"So." She ducked her head shyly. "I'll get some plates and glasses if you want to set up the DVD player- what did you bring?"

He shrugged, suddenly second-guessing his choice. "Sci-Fi…" Her eyes lit up and he grinned. "Battlestar."

"Okay." She grinned, her teeth clamping down on her lower lip and he cocked his head to the side.

"Closet Sci-Fi geek, Beckett?"

She shrugged, turning from him and reaching into the open shelving to retrieve plates and glasses. "The things you don't know about me could fill a book," she teased, and he inhaled sharply.

"Of that I have no doubt," he said, his voice low, and he could have sworn she shivered. She turned back to him though, with a soft smile on her lips, before taking a bottle opener from a drawer and removing the cork.

"Wine?" she asked, and the hesitant look was in her eyes once more.

"If… only if you want," he said, at a loss, and she shook her head, pursing her lips.

"I do-" she rolled her eyes. "After today, yeah, I really want a glass of wine, but we said we'd take things slow, and I don't want to get so relaxed that we just… you know."

"Just one then," he suggested, and she nodded, pouring them each a generous glass.

"Um… Beckett?"

"Yeah?"

"Where's your TV?"

"Oh!" Her hand flew to her mouth and she chuckled. "I forgot. I don't have one."

"That's going to make watching movies kind of hard, isn't it?"

She shook her head, carrying the wine to the coffee table and extracting her laptop from beneath a couple of books on the desk. She handed it to him with a flourish. "There's a guest account," she clarified. "Knock yourself out."

Kate leaned back, barely able to keep her eyes open. Before them, the Chinese take-out containers were strewn across the coffee table, and the laptop was balanced on the foot of her bed behind it. So far Castle had been a perfect gentleman, his arm around her shoulder, his hand barely straying from its chaste circles at the top of her arm.

Then again, she didn't think she was up for much else; she didn't know just when she'd last been quite so exhausted. It turned out that curling up on her sofa with a bottle of red, Chinese food and Castle was the perfect antidote to a brutal day.

"Hey," he whispered as the credits rolled on the second episode. "Are you falling asleep?"

She halted the protest rising in her throat, nodding. "Yeah."

"Then let's get you into bed," he murmured, rising and closing the lid of the laptop before placing it back on her desk.

Beckett nodded, letting him guide her over to her bed, and climbing in under the covers.

"I'm just going to straighten up here," he whispered, and she heard, rather than saw, as he gathered the take-out containers, shoving the leftovers in the fridge.

The overhead light in the kitchen was flipped off, and Kate opened her eyes to see Castle hovering by her bed, her bedside lamp switched on. He leaned down, pressing a kiss to her mouth before straightening.

"See you tomorrow," he whispered, and even in her haze of sleep, she forced herself to answer.

"Stay," she whispered, and he hesitated.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. Stay. Here." She lifted the covers, inviting him in, and he nodded, unbuttoning his jeans and laying them on the end of the sofa.

"So say we all," he murmured, and she grinned. Sci-Fi DVD nights with Richard Castle? She could get very used to this. He took a few short steps back to the bed and climbed in beside her, wrapping his arms around her, his lips in her hair. "Sleep, Beckett."

"Mmm." Beckett stretched out; sunlight was streaming in the window, and it wouldn't be long before her alarm sounded. But the longer she could stay harbored in her partner's arms the bet- her partner? His arms?

With a gasp she rolled over, as yesterday came flooding back. Oh. Oh. She inhaled, opening her eyes and letting herself breath out slowly. Wow.

"Morning, Beckett." Castle's voice was muffled by the blankets and she reached out, running her hand softly along his arm.

"Morning," she whispered back, and he squirmed, pulling her to him.

"Hey…" He beamed at her; she hadn't picked him as a morning person, but he looked wide-awake right now. And - she shifted slightly, scrambling backwards - he felt wide awake right now.

He chuckled and leaned in, pressing a kiss to her nose before peppering kisses across her neck and jaw and she sank into him, wrapping her arms around him and closing her eyes as his mouth met hers. The intensity of their impromptu make-out session in the kitchen yesterday was gone, leaving in its wake an urgency that was gentle, and Kate closed her eyes as Castle's tongue sought entry, a slow and thorough seduction that was threatening to undo her before he'd laid a hand upon her.

She twisted, sliding her hand beneath his shirt and letting him shift so that his thigh was pressed between her legs, unable to stop the moan of pleasure that left her mouth when his hands made a sure path from her arms to her waist; his touch against her bare skin intoxicating.

"Kate," he breathed, his fingers circling her skin, making their way up to her breasts, his thumb skimming across her nipple, eliciting another gasp. Slow be damned; Kate hauled herself up so that she was straddling him, her hair falling around her face as she bent down to reclaim his mouth. "Kate?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Mmm?"

"Slow- do you wanna take things slow?" he asked, and she bit her lip, trying to see her way through the throb of arousal that was coursing through her veins.

"I- uh-"

He chuckled, pushing her back so his hands were encircling her waist again, and gazing up at her.

"You don't-"

"No, no, I do." He smiled up at her, and she bit her lip, rolling off him so she was laying beside him again so they could have this conversation. "But I want to do this properly. I want to take you out and impress you."

"You think you have to impress me?" she asked, and he shrugged.

"Maybe. I mean, a night in watching Battlestar has a certain appeal, but I want to go out with you, take you somewhere special."

She nodded. "For what it's worth, last night, watching Battlestar, meant a lot to me. And if you want to take me out-" her hand flew to her mouth, panic flaring as her stomach dropped. "You can't! We can't tell people about this. Not if you want to keep working at the Twelfth!"

He blinked, his eyebrows knitting together. "Okay. Slow, remember. One step at a time. Let's not worry about that until we really need to worry about it, okay?"

Kate nodded. "One thing at a time," she agreed, her eyes darting to his mouth. "And right now-"

From the nightstand, her phone shrilled, sounding its alarm, and she bit her lip, raising her eyebrows and reaching over him to shut the noise off. "Right now?" Castle asked.

"Right now… we have to go to work."

He nodded, kissing her again, and she smiled as his mouth collided with hers. "I'm going to go home, get changed, and check in with Alexis," he told her. "And I'll be in as soon as I can."

"With my coffee?"

"With your coffee."

A/N: And so, here we are. Thank you, everyone... for the reads, the reviews, the follows, the faves! I loved taking a little prompt from tumblr and making it mine in a fun and sweet season three way...! I'm going to see you all with the first chapter of my ficathon in a couple of days. x