Help

A/N: written for the 2013 Kink Meme, specifically for the prompt: "Castle catches Beckett masturbating. Author's choice is he joins, eats her out, and/or they have sex". The prompt asked for season one, but this...isn't. I hope you'll forgive me that little deviation. I don't think it needs any more introduction than that really, does it? On with the show!

Standing in her hallway, hand raised to knock, Richard Castle takes a moment to pause.

It's late. Too late for a social call, but he needs to see her. Even hearing her voice on the end of the phone for the best part of an hour didn't do enough to banish the real life imaginings of the scene he's been trying to write Nikki Heat out of.

He though it had worked. Enough to let her hang up the phone. But then he picked up his pen again, metaphorically speaking, and bam. Not okay again.

Which leads him here. Outside her door.

It's late, but this isn't really a social call. They're beyond social calls, he thinks. Hopes. There have been kisses. Long, slow, goodnight kisses as he leaves her apartment after dinner, or she heads home after movie night. They're quiet, intimate. Something they don't talk about, but just happen. Something that's just for them.

There have been long, slow, goodnight kisses that have almost turned into something more, but even when she's breathless and shivering, he's always managed to pull away. Because they haven't quite been there yet.

And now it's late, and it's dark, and he just needs to see her. Just for a moment.

So he knocks.

It takes longer than usual for her to answer, he thinks idly as he hears her start to work on the locks, but then she's pulling the door open just enough for him to see her, and his mind goes blank.

Wow.

"Rick?" she asks, confused, but all he can hear is the breathlessness in her voice as she speaks his first name. All he can see is her tousled hair, the flush to her cheeks that spreads down, down, down to the deep vee of her robe over her chest that's...oh, silk, and the shine to her parted, pink lips. She looks...delicious.

And thoroughly interrupted.

Something in her eyes softens though, compassion pushing through, and she's reaching out to rest a warm hand on his arm. So warm.

"Talking on the phone didn't work?" she asks, and it melts his heart just a little, but the door nudges open a little wider as she moves, and all he can see is the way the delicate lilac silk flutters over the swell of her breasts and all the way down to mid thigh...and how tightly her knees and thighs are pressed together.

Definitely interrupted.

"Didn't work," he breathes out, nudging the door open wider so that he can get a hand at her hip, still marvelling at the way the span of his fingers almost encompasses her, emphasises the size difference between them. But then she shivers, hard, at the press of his fingers, and his mind blanks out again. "Am I interrupting, Kate?" he asks, backing her up just enough that he can get the door closed behind him, reaching back blindly to flip the locks that he knows she can't settle without.

She nods eventually, her cheek whispering against his shoulder as his fingers slide to the small of her back, and the admission nearly does him in.

They don't do this. Not yet. Except they are.

Reaching up with his other hand, he palms the back of her neck and guides her head to rest against his shoulder like he thinks she wants. She goes willingly, responsively, and his heart jumps a little in his chest.

"Do you want me to let you finish?" he finds himself murmuring against her ear, laughing softly when she shakes her head, almost feeling her cheek grow hotter against his shoulder. "I could give you ten minutes," he adds, careful to keep the leer out of his voice. She sucks in a deep breath, and he gentles his fingers against her neck until she speaks.

"Wouldn't take that long," she offers, her voice a little lower, huskier, and wow, she's further gone than he thought if she's even allowing this conversation, let alone admitting that.

"Oh it could," he murmurs softly, his other hand picking up a slow, sweeping caress along the small of her back, "if you did it right." He pauses, gathering all his strength. "Were you doing it right, Kate?"

"Felt pretty right to me," she huffs, hips jerking a little when his fingers sweep lower on her back.

"Good," he murmurs, determined to keep her talking. "Tell me what you were doing," he continues, pressing a little firmer at the pressure point in her neck when she tenses, keeping his voice pitched low and gentle. "Were you using your fingers, or do you have a toy you like to use?" She shivers a little harder against him, and he can feel her fingers trying not to clutch the material of his jacket at her back, so he waits her out, images flickering through his mind.

"Fingers," she whispers eventually, and that image solidifies in his mind as she breathes a little unevenly. "But I...had a toy to use, too," she confesses, burying her face in his shoulder as the images flicker through his mind all over again.

"Mmm," he hums gently, pressing his palm flat against her lower back. "That's why I can feel your muscles trying to clench around nothing, then," he whispers, biting his lip as she lets out a moan and he feels those muscles clenching even harder. "Go back to bed, Kate," he whispers, unable to deny her the pleasure she's craving. "Use the toy your body needs you to use. I'll see you in the morning."

Her fingers do grip onto his jacket at that, hard, and he pauses before he even starts to untangle himself from her lithe, shivering, turned on body. He doesn't want to go, but he will, for her. If that's what she wants.

And he's starting to think it might not be.

"I couldn't," she breathes out, after a long moment of silence. "I..."

"Tell me," he whispers, smoothing his palm up along her spine, and back down. She sucks in a long, shuddering breath, but then he feels her relax against him.

"It's too big," she whispers, and this time he can't stop himself from groaning. "It's not...I don't use it enough, and I'm not..." she trails off, but he fills in her unsaid not having sex regularly, and strokes his thumb at the small of her back gently. "I guess I was too worked up," she whispers eventually, shivering against him. He doesn't know why, but this feels like the most intimate, natural conversation in the world.

Even though they don't do this.

"You need to relax," he whispers softly, feeling her almost nuzzle into him. "Or... you need some help," he adds, feeling brave.

Because they are doing this, even if they don't.

"Help," she whispers, shivering against him, but it's not a request. Not yet, and he knows that, so he just holds her against him. "We're..."

"We're whatever we want us to be, Kate," he murmurs softly. "There's no right or wrong way to do this, but I'm in this thing we're figuring out, and I think that you are, too."

"I am," she whispers instantly, a silly, adorable grin crossing her flushed cheeks as she lifts her head, arousal still heady and evident in her eyes. Curling a finger under her chin, he kisses her, little more than a brush of his lips against hers. "Help me," she whispers against his lips, her fingers curling around his.

"Help?" he murmurs, his voice dropping a little as he nudges her gently. Because that was a request. "Then you're going to need to show me your bedroom."

And holy shit. They're doing this.

The sheets on her bed are messy with an outline of her when he crowds her into the doorway, the lights low and soothing. Then he catches sight of the slim but not insignificant purple toy, nestled in her sheets, and it's almost all over.

"That your toy, Kate?" he murmurs in her ear, delighting in her shiver all over again as she nods. "Go and lie down for me," he whispers. "Keep the robe."

She's just as responsive to his gentle commands as she was to his touch earlier, and he files that particular piece of information away for later use, before he gets assaulted with images of her tied to this very bed.

"Relax," he murmurs softly, trailing his fingers along her outer thigh as he kneels on the bed, reaching over her for the toy and spinning it gently in his fingers. "Do you want to do this yourself?" he murmurs softly, stilling his fingers just above her knee as he waits for her response. There's hesitance in her eyes when she lifts them from the toy to him, but she shakes her head confidently. "No?" he murmurs softly, completely unable to stop himself grinning at her. "Okay then," he continues, placing the toy back on her bed before gently parting her tightly pressed knees with just his thumb. She lets him willingly, but he feels as much as he hears her whimper.

When his fingers find the sticky evidence of the extent of her arousal on her inner thigh seconds later, it's him that whimpers.

"Kate," he breathes, feeling her shudder hard beneath him and realising all over again just how close she must have been this whole time.

"Rick, I don't...I can't," she whispers, bottom lip bitten tightly between her teeth.

"Yes, you can," he murmurs softly, encouragingly. Determined not to make her wait much longer. "Spread those legs for me," he adds quietly, his fingers resting on her knee with no pressure, until she slides her legs apart for him, baring herself for him from the waist down as her robe parts.

"You're beautiful," he whispers, his eyes drawn slowly down her body. He doesn't just mean now. He means always, but now she's lying before him, intimate and exposed, just for him, and she's so beautiful. She's swollen and pink and glistening for him, and he reaches out to swipe his thumb over her sensitive clit with his eyes locked on hers. She shudders against him, a moan ripped from her lips at the unexpected contact.

He does it again.

She's moaning his name and squirming against his hand as he touches her, rolling the sensitive bundle of nerves between his fingers, and it's then that he lets two fingertips graze gently against her opening as her hips jerk up against his hand. She's tight against his fingers, just as she'd suggested, and he rests a hand gently against her stomach, going no further.

"Hey," he murmurs softly, when she manages to focus wide and hazy eyes on him. "Take a deep breath," he adds, smiling at her.

"Close," she gets out, her whole body almost shivering beneath his palm, and oh he knows. "I can't," she whispers, her eyes cutting to the toy, and his heart melts a little.

"No one says you have to stop at one," he murmurs softly, stroking her clit slowly as he eases a finger gently into her. Her muscles clench hard against his finger, and he's held her hand enough times, felt her slim fingers against his enough to know that it must feel more like two of her own fingers pushing into her. "Mm, that's more like what you needed earlier, isn't it?" he asks, leaning over to whisper against her ear. She nods, her breathing harsh and uneven. "You'll have that toy, this evening," he promises softly, sliding his thumb to the sensitive spot beneath her clit and rubbing gently. "But the first time you come for me is not going to be with a toy," he whispers, even more of a promise as his voice drops dangerously low.

That's all it takes, and it feels like seconds until she's coming around his fingers, hoarsely whispering his name as her eyes lock on his and her hips jerk against his fingers, muscles clenching tighter and tighter around his fingers as her orgasm really hits her.

His head spins, but he doesn't think he's ever watched or felt something so intimate before. She's open and exposed before him, her body racked with the waves of her orgasm as he works her through it. It takes him a moment to realise that her fingers are wrapped around the wrist gently holding her down against the mattress, but as soon as he does he lets her go, flipping his palm to tangle their fingers together as he eases her through the end of her orgasm.

Damp tendrils of her hair cling to her forehead as she blinks up at him, and he brushes them away tenderly, curling his fingers behind her ear. He can't help himself leaning down to kiss her again, and she responds instantly, her lips soft and uninhibited against his.

"That was incredible," he breathes out eventually, both hands braced on the mattress near her shoulders. The smile that crosses her face is almost shy, if more than a little spaced out, and he kisses her again. "You're incredible."

They both laugh when her words won't quite come, and as he drops his head to kiss her neck, she buries her face in his shoulder.

"Hey," he murmurs softly, easing himself onto his side so that she can rest against him. It's everything he ever wanted and nothing he ever expected from this evening all at once, and he smiles softly. He never imagined that she'd be anywhere near this affectionate in bed (and holy shit, he's in bed with Kate Beckett), but he's hoping beyond hope that this is a glimpse into what their future could be like, both in the bedroom and out.

"Hey," she whispers back eventually, lifting wide, satisfied and slightly more focused eyes to his.

"Mm," he hums, pleased. "That's a good look," he murmurs, brushing a thumb beneath her eye. She laughs softly, nudging his hand away. Her eyes fall to the toy, abandoned on the bed beside them, and when he follows her gaze he chuckles. "Think you've got the energy left to finish what we started?"

"Mmm," she laughs softly, reaching up to kiss him. "You did promise," she murmurs, smiling up at him even as her fingers graze their way down his stomach, and...oh.

Oh.

"How about we start with this, though?"

fin.