Chapter Fifteen

Kate came awake slowly, the low light of a lamp off to her side provided the only light in the room as the fire had burned down to a low red glow of embers. She realized her position immediately, but it only took a moment to talk herself out of bolting for the bedroom.

Instead, she burrowed her face into his neck, smelling the remnants of sunblock beneath the heavier scent of wood smoke and feeling oddly comforted in the combination. It brought back memories of camping she had hidden behind the more quick to surface thoughts of pain or loss. That combination of scents resurrected the comfort of a time long past while also drawing her attention acutely to the man stroking her back.

The realization that his hand was moving in slow circles brought her head off his chest and her eyes up to meet his. "You're awake." she stated redundantly.

He gave her a sheepish smile, "Couldn't sleep." he replied with a shrug that lifted her slightly where she was lying against him.

The movement of his body beneath her, the subtle popping in his shoulder, the stretch of the muscles beneath her hand resting on his chest, all brought her focus back to where she was lying. It felt comfortable, like something they'd done a hundred times before this moment. "Well, apparently your restlessness is contagious."

His warm chuckle shook her gently as his eyes seemed to sparkle at her in the low light. "I think you give me credit when it was probably the hard wood floor."

Kate cocked an eyebrow and experimentally shifted, nuzzling her head back into him as she shifted her leg, finding it flung low over his thighs and shifting it up a little higher. She felt the subtle bite of the hardwood floor where her hip rested with too much of her weight focused on her hip bone, but it was bearable considering the rest. "Hmm, no. Comfy." she responded, eliciting another low chuckle from him with her lack of vocabulary.

"You're cute when you're sleepy." he responded lightly and then his fingers stopped moving against her back as if he thought better of the comment after it was out there between them.

"Just when I'm sleepy?" she asked and instantly felt him relax again as his fingers started to move against her back again.

"Hmm." he replied lightly as if he were actually giving her question careful consideration. "I don't know."

Kate slapped him playfully across the chest and wondered how they could get to this level of comfort and familiarity in such a short time. For a moment she thought it was probably more to do with her level of exhaustion, but when he let out an exaggerated, "Ouch." she knew better. This was Castle after all, someone who knew her better than just about anyone else in her life and she should have expected they would be comfortable even in an unusual situation together.

"You're such a baby." she responded, shaking her head where it rested which proved more difficult than she would have thought.

Castle huffed and retorted, "No. You're violent."

"I can show you violent if you want." she volunteered.

"Oh," he responded, almost nonchalant as his nose nuzzled the top of her head and his breath warmed her scalp, "I think there is a list about two miles wide of all the things I want you to show me, but violence is not on it."

She felt a shiver race through her from the combination of the tingle of warmth on her scalp, light brushes of his fingers down her spine and the innuendo in his completely unveiled statement. "I thought you wanted to take this slow?" she asked, but didn't wait for a response, "Because if that's your goal, you should probably stop saying things like that."

"Oh, why's that?" he asked casually, continuing the motion of his fingers and turning his head so his cheek moved against her hair.

Kate moved quickly, bracing herself with the hand on his chest until she was supported with her other elbow against the blanket by his shoulder. She shifted to lie more fully across the side of his body as she turned her face up to meet his. Her mouth claimed his in a demanding press of flesh. He opened his mouth on a surprised inhalation and she didn't wait for his reaction before slipping her tongue past his lips and taking possession of his mouth as if it belonged to her.

It was a short, but sweet, stretch of time later when she pulled her mouth away from his and settled back against him as she'd been before. "That's why." she replied, surprised and delighted with her casual tone, though she noted the way the front of his shirt was clenched tightly in her fist.

She could hear the racing of Castle's heart from where her ear was plastered against his chest, but after a moment he chuckled lightly. "Point taken."

They lay in silence for a long time, watching the red glow in the fireplace as the embers burned down to ash. Finally she broke the silence with a light sigh, "I'm feeling an extreme lack of interest in going home tomorrow." she admitted, not sure if it was the decreased inhibitions of the late night hour or the sense of comfort she felt as she lay in his arms, but she felt at peace with the admission.

"Worried about things changing or embracing the fact that you've finally relaxed?" he asked, his tone light, but underplayed with a nervousness that almost made her laugh. Only almost, because it was the same nervousness she felt with him over everything that had so quickly shifted.

"I haven't done this since before college." she admitted, wondering if he would understand.

"Which part?" he asked, his quiet voice washing over her.

"All of it." she confessed, reveling in the feeling of warmth and security she wasn't used to feeling. "I haven't actually vacationed and left the city in a long time, probably years and the last time I did was a night and day tacked on the end of an investigation that took me out of town."

"Well," he mentioned lightly and she was instantly on alert that he was about to issue another open ended invitation, "If you didn't have to use your days off doing practical things like catching up on sleep or apartment hunting, then maybe you'd get out of town a little more often."

She was grateful for the teasing in his tone until his comment registered, "Hey," she responded with mock indignation, "As I recall, it was your fault that I had to find another place to live."

"I don't even think so." he defended immediately, "I happen to recall offering to replace it."

"I wasn't going to live with you." she replied immediately dispelling his comment.

"Hmm, interesting choice of words there, seeing as I was referring to my offer to have your apartment replaced." he told her, his tone light and teasing. "However, we could refer back your choice of the word 'wasn't' as a past tense contraction used to possibly indicate a change in the present tense response to a question of a similar nature."

Kate poked him in the chest, just once, but firmly enough for him to let out a rather girlish squeal. "You're getting ahead of yourself considering you were just telling me you didn't think I'd last the drive home before I ditched you."

"Hey," he defended, "it wasn't an offer, I was merely asking for clarification."

"Well, don't. Your mouth is going to get you in trouble."

"Probably." he responded playfully as he took her hand from his chest and rolled to face her, dropping his head to run his lips over her jaw before descending on her neck.

Her first response was a quiet laugh as she tried to fight the ticklish response to the subtle scrape of his light stubble just below her jaw. It was quickly replaced with a sigh and followed with a whimper she would vehemently deny if he called her on it. "What are you doing?" she asked, trying for stern, but probably failing miserably short somewhere between the hand tightly grasping his hair and the tilt of her head to give him greater access.

"Waiting to wake up." he mumbled against her skin and it took her a moment to realize what he'd said.

Her hand in his hair gripped tightly as she gently, but firmly, pulled his mouth from her skin. She wanted to moan at the loss of contact, but she fought the urge as she guided him to a position where she could see him. As their eyes locked, she felt a familiar heat permeate her body at the intensity of his gaze. There was a heat in him that she hadn't seen even in the dim light on the roof earlier, but she didn't pounce on the desire. Kate released his hair and let her hand drift lazily down his neck, over his shoulder, slowly down the soft cotton covering the plains of his chest.

Kate almost got distracted in her exploration as she felt his muscles shifting beneath her touch. Rick's mouth parted slightly giving away his own reaction to her touch, but she didn't let it pull her away from her goal. As she reached his stomach, Kate let her fingers drift across the line of his ribs until she reached his side. There, just below his ribs, she struck, taking his skin between two fingers and pinching it tightly.

Castle let out a sound of protest as he yanked himself away from her touch and rolled to his back so quickly that his movement was followed by a loud thump. "What the hell?" he asked tightly as he pulled his arm up to cradle it against his chest as he rubbed his elbow.

"Guess you're awake." she replied lightly, fighting the smile she wanted to let bloom at his disgruntled look.

Rick continued rubbing his elbow as he grumbled sarcastically, "Apparently, hyperbole is out as a conversational method, if this is the reaction I get."

Kate couldn't help it as she did something that felt entirely foreign to her. She giggled. It couldn't have been a laugh or a chuckle and she wanted to cringe at the sound spilling from her. Instead, as she watched his look of mock indignation turned to a warm smile and an accompanying chuckle, she stopped trying to fight it and rode out the odd, but not unpleasant, feeling of happiness.

"I could get used to that." Castle remarked as she settled back against his chest.

Kate let her eyebrow creep up slowly, though the smile never fell away, "Violence?" she asked innocently.

Castle gave her a wry smile in return as his fingers crept up to brush across her lips and the expression softened. "This," he replied, "This smile. That laugh. It's different."

"Different?" she asked for clarification, not because she was confused, but because she knew it was something she'd want to hear and she wasn't running from it.

"Good different." he amended as if concerned she might think he meant something else, "Like rain on a hot summer night. It's something you didn't know you were missing until you experience it."

Kate groaned, but couldn't fight the little smile she hid against his chest as she settled into the cradle of his arms again, "I'm not seriously going to have to deal with symbolism and flowery prose now, am I?"

"Well," he replied, dragging out the word to its very limits, "that wasn't intentional prose. I could throw something together if you'd like."

His offer made her uneasy at the same time it left her in a state of anticipation because she knew this man. He wasn't the sugary type and anything he put together would probably be more sincere than sweet. "Maybe I will be sick of you by tomorrow after all." she teased easily.

"I doubt it." Castle stated, apparently unconcerned.

Kate scoffed as if disbelieving as she propped her chin on her folded hands against his chest to look up at him with a little smile to make sure he knew she wasn't being serious. She was glad they could joke about what had made Castle hesitant just a few short hours before. "What makes you so sure about that?"

His responding smile was tired, but free of any hint of worry or negativity. "It's already tomorrow and you haven't run me off yet."

Kate shrugged against him. "There's still time."

"True, but I'll stick with my first impression."

"Hmm? What's that?" Kate asked, covering her mouth over a yawn.

Castle watched her for a moment, long enough to make her start to wonder if there was something wrong and then he shook his head as if coming out of a daze. "What's what?"

"Your first impression?" she supplied, surprised with her ability to maintain the conversation thread as he looked at her with such an unguarded expression.

"Of you? Oh, Detective, I think my first impression paled in comparison to reality."

"There's that prose again." Kate teased.

"Hardly." he replied gracing her with a teasing grin and she rolled her eyes preemptively at what she knew was coming as she saw the wheels spinning in his head as he mentally assembled what was likely over the top imagery. The gesture seemed to stop his mind in mid thought, "What?" he asked innocently.

"Shut up, Castle."

He laughed, warm and deep in his chest as she settled back against him. To her surprise, he listened and remained silent next to her. The beat of his heart and the gentle stroke of his hand across her back, imbued her with an almost overwhelming feeling of rightness tinged only slight with that ever present sense of the wait for something to go wrong.

Kate forced the thoughts away and focused on the man with her as she let the feel of his shallow breaths and careful caress lull her into a dreamless sleep.

x.x.x

A/N: Well, at least it wasn't a month this time, huh? Of course we're still on the first weekend of summer here and in real life summer is over, but oh well. That's fiction for you. I did make some time to work on this while I was at the river with all the kids and got some disgruntled looks from my sister for sitting on the shore and writing while the kids were jumping off the rocks and playing in the mud.

I have to get back to Your Last Day now; it's been prodding my brain for days as I tried to work on this. I need to keep this more current, but apparently it's harder to write when another story is trying to be pushy. I'll be back as soon as I can, hopefully not long.

Only a week until the season premier, my family is already tired of hearing about it.

Review that made my day: raider1511, you say "It's so very sweet and so very not you." Normally I would be confused on what that meant, but since you started with a thanks for updating and finished that you're looking forward to the next update, I'll assume it's a good thing in this case to be 'so very not me'.

Thanks to everyone for reading.