.

Love Shack
Chapter Six

Previously…

Castle falls onto Kate's back, their tied hands limp above their heads, and he whispers his love into her ear for whole minutes as their heartbeats slow. Her tears soak into the black silk mask.

They'll be okay.

And then they hear the sound of paper sliding across carpet. Castle cranes his neck to look at the door. A thick cream envelope with a velvety purple seal waits proudly on the floor. He doesn't get up right away, but eventually he peels himself from Kate's back, unties their wrists, and walks over to pick up the note.

He reads it and his face lights up.

"What does it say?" Kate asks, still lazy with bliss on the bed.

"You will not believe this, Kate," Castle crows, doing a little victory dance. Stark naked. He looks so ridiculous that Kate has to bury her face in the mattress to muffle her laughter.

He hands her the envelope and her mouth falls open in disbelief.

"Seriously?!"

"Can we go? Can we go? Pleeeeease can we go?" Castle begs.

Kate stares down at the invitation. A private Dionysus party. They'd be one of only ten "all-star" couples for an entire weekend of salacious, filthy, forbidden fun at a resort mansion in Mexico. She smirks at the last line: accomodation, travel, and toys of all types included.

She's secretly pleased that they've received an invite, and the way their names are handwritten across the top makes it feel personal, makes it feel like a compliment. But she has to wonder if their host has somehow found out that she's an undercover cop. How many couples get catapulted to all-star status after just one party? She knows exactly what Castle would say to that - that they aren't just any couple. And she enjoys their explosive chemistry - a lot - but she's still not sure that it comes across so obviously to everyone else. Although the assorted comments from her friends over the years suggest that the fireworks that burn so deliciously to her might be pretty exciting to watch from the outside, too.

Suddenly, Castle jumps onto the bed. He bowls her over, landing beside her and bouncing her up and down with the force of his landing.

"Please? Pretty please?"

She rolls her eyes, but then decides to appease him. Maybe a little bit because the idea of going to another one of these parties is too tempting to pass up.

"After tonight, did you think I'd say no?" she whispers into his ear, grabbing his ass and pinching hard at the same time. She laughs when he growls. But he got the answer he wanted, so he pumps a celebratory fist into the air.

"Come on, Ricky," she laughs, "get your clothes on."

"Are you sure you don't want to…" Castle launches his body closer to hers, half-covering her with the naked heat of him, and damn, where'd he get this sugar rush from? She cranes her neck up for a quick kiss.

"It's almost three," she protests, but then he's rolling fully on top of her and kissing her deeply and mmm, yes she could certainly go for another round -

"You're right," he says, pulling his mouth away from hers and dropping a little smacking kiss on the tip of her nose. "I'd rather not get interrupted by those creepy mask dudes again."

Her body groans with the disappointing loss of his weight above her. She twists his wrist to check the time, and there's really not enough even for a quickie. And a quickie is the last thing she wants now that they've stoked the flames. She rises from the bed reluctantly, finding her dress and sliding it up over her hips. She's still wearing her stockings. Castle takes longer to dress, and as he buckles his belt, she can't resist helping him out a little bit, and having her hands so close to certain parts of him predictably ends with her cupping him through his slacks, and then he presses a smug little kiss into her mouth, and the buttons of his shirt are forgotten.

She's giddy with their sudden return to normality. It feels as desperate and exciting as when they first got together, that long, wonderful summer spent mostly in bed and on the sunny sidewalks of Manhattan, sickeningly sweet in love and always only minutes away from another kiss or roll in the hay.

They peek out of their room and see a few other scantily clad couples stumbling down the hallway, drunk on sex or champagne, or both. They follow the flow, corralled by the attendants, and collect their phones at the door before plunging back into the real warm pressure of the mansion gives way to a frigid October night, and Kate tucks herself under Castle's arm as they make their way back to their flashy ride. A few other couples straggle towards their vehicles, but the low pitches of the men's voices are lost in the empty field surrounding the house. Only the women's intoxicated giggles cut through the air.

Castle opens the passenger door for her and Kate smiles as she ducks inside. She can't help but notice how the atmosphere in the car is completely different to what it was on their drive out here. He slides into the seat next to her and their hands knock together over the gear shift, both reaching for the soft spot high up on each other's thighs, the default resting place for their hands on drives to the Hamptons, drives to restaurants, sometimes drives in the cruiser if he's been very good and they're not on an urgent case.

Castle needs his right hand to shift, but when they make it to the highway he turns on cruise control and rests his palm on the inside of her thigh, so high up that his pinkie almost brushes against the parts of her that are still a little fizzy and achy - in a good way - from this evening's activities.

They're not far from the city when the first pinks and yellows of the day start to tint the sky from the bottom up. Castle nods at the marquee that's rapidly approaching, advertising a kitschy roadside diner half a mile ahead on the left.

"Hungry?" he asks.

"Famished, actually."

"Yes, well, sex with a ruggedly handsome writer will do that to you."

"I'm not the one who's got stars in his eyes at the prospect of bacon and eggs."

"Yep. Sex with a stunningly gorgeous and kinky detective will do that to you too."

She pinches his thigh, but doesn't bother trying to hide the smile that's breaking like dawn on her face.

Even though she left the sheer black stockings in the car, she gets a few looks from the early-morning inhabitants of the diner. She can't bring herself to care, not when Castle is at her back, his hand resting appreciatively on the curve of her hip, his heart thudding at her shoulder.

She slides into a booth and he takes the seat next to her instead of across from her, the way they do at Remy's only when they know they won't be spotted by anyone they know at the precinct. Kate crosses her legs and leans into her partner. He still looks a little stunned at the whole course of their evening, and more than a little lovestruck. It's a look she hasn't seen on him in a while, not so pure anyway, and she likes it.

The waiter comes to take their orders: french toast for her and basically one of everything else on the breakfast menu for him, along with two very large, very hot coffees.

As the sun rises over the diner truck, it glints off the row of cars parked out front and something loosens between them. Castle rubs meandering circles into her bare knee, and Kate rests her head on his shoulder.

"I'm glad we went," she says softly.

"Me too."

They're quiet for a moment, both smiling ever so slightly, remembering the wall. The chaise lounge. The room, the cameras, the black silk tie.

"Who would have thought?" Kate wonders aloud, fiddling with the handle on her coffee mug. "A kinky sex party was all we needed."

He knows exactly what she means even though she doesn't want to say it, doesn't want to reference the terrifying, sickening moment where they'd both thought they might never find their way home.

"We just needed some reminders of how amazing we are together," he says gently. "I'm just glad you didn't turn me down in there."

She looks at him in a haze of confusion. "Turn you down? I would have never turned you down."

"You mean you've been … wanting this? For the past three weeks?"

"Oh, Castle. Of course I've been wanting it." She's been wanting it from day one, physically at least. "I think I was just afraid that if we had sex and it didn't close the emotional gap, we'd be out of options. Out of ideas for how to fix things."

He thinks for a moment. "Weird, huh? It's almost like we were right back where we started. I wanted you, you wanted me, but we were both too afraid to make the first move, risk our hearts."

Their food comes, but he ignores it. He takes the time to tilt her face up to his, kiss her gently, ever so slowly, and it trickles down through her like warm honey, dripping down slowly over her stomach, between her thighs.

They eat and then drive across the bridge into Manhattan, never taking their hands off each other, binding themselves back together even tighter than they were before.

The city is still quiet when they slip into the loft. There's a note on the kitchen counter, cheerleading in written form from his mother, who's holed up at The Mandarin Oriental (on his dime, of course). In the note, Martha brags about how she'd coerced Alexis back to campus to stay at her friend Paige's dorm for the weekend, to 'get a taste of the real student life'.

Castle's eyes light up when he realizes they're alone.

"So, Mrs. Almost-Castle. May I take you to bed?"

She pounces on him.

"You can take me," she breathes into his ear even as she bites at it. "But it doesn't have to be to bed."

Author's Note: Thanks for going on this naughty little ride with me. I have more delicious plans for Caskett at Dionysus Parties. After all, our favorite couple did get a special invitation, so keep your eyes peeled for a sequel! It might be a few weeks though, my smut fairies (who live in my head and inspire these kinds of fics) are exhausted and need some time to refuel! Immense thanks to Meg - without her whips and chains and smut fairy fuel, this chapter might never have made its way onto the screen. :)

I'm still pretty new to writing fanfiction, and writing at all, really, so let me know what's working and what's not so I can make better stories for you to read!