The kiss was gentle, brief. Too brief. But it seared straight through her, heating her to her core. Kate couldn’t think. Last night she’d dreamed about his lips, but this right now was so much better. Kate felt herself start to give way and so immediately retreated. She stared at him in shock, for while her body was screaming for more, she still couldn’t believe they’d just kissed. Kate knew he read her face as an I-can’t-believe-you-just-did-that-and-you’re-going-to-pay-for-it-later face, but she didn’t trust herself to tell him the truth. She didn’t know what it would do to their relationship.
It was then that Kate caught the bodyguard still walking towards him and she suddenly remembered they were undercover. That dawning realization made her heart still. What if he’d only kissed her because he thought that’s what the situation demanded? It was that fear, more than the fact that she felt colder without him wrapped around her, more than the fact that she so desperately wanted to taste him again, that made her dive back in. Kate had to know that he meant something more. Castle always meant something more. Always.
She tried her best to not get swept away by their kiss. She tried to keep an eye on the approaching bodyguard, but the moment Castle entwined his fingers in her hair and pulled her in deeper, she was gone. Everywhere he touched lit her on fire. And she pressed herself into him, molding her body with his. But still she couldn’t get enough. She felt a moan escape her lips as she bit his top lip and he responded by pushing against her mouth harder, their lips moving together as if they’d done this all their lives. It felt so right Kate wondered why they hadn’t done this before. She felt her defenses drop, one by one, and ran her fingers through his hair and down the side of his face.
But a small chuckle brought her back. Ryan and Esposito, her mind recalled with a jolt. She opened her eyes, when did I close them?, and saw the bodyguard walk away. Stealing one last kiss, Kate used Castle as an anchor and flipped around, bringing the butt of her gun down hard on the side of his head. Teach him to interrupt us, part of her mind said. Kate shivered in recollection, her toes curling for a brief instant in pleasure. Ryan and Esposito, she scolded back. But my God—
“That was amazing,” Castle finished her thought out loud. Kate froze and turned slowly around. She wanted to agree and pull him towards her once again, but the weight of the world had decided to find its way back to her shoulders, rebuilding the walls of her defenses. But it didn’t stop her from seeing on Castle’s face the emotions she was trying so desperately to both hide and show.
But seeing her face, whatever was written on it, caused him to go through another door. “They way you knocked him out, I mean. That was…” He drifted off, catching sight of her now swollen lips. She looked away.
“Let’s go,” she said, but then couldn’t help her response to what they both wished he’d said. “Yeah.” Then she walked off. It took him a moment to reach her side once again, but where it would have once made her roll her eyes, the reaction she missed would have made her heart beat harder once again. After all, she couldn’t believe she’d just made out with Richard Castle either. But her mind was elsewhere, somewhere between realizing it would be even harder to think of him as Castle instead of Rick and going through protocol on recovery of police officers.
The entranced cleared, Kate and Castle made their way into the building. She sent Castle to look for the boys while she called in for back up. Replacing her phone, she saw Castle motion her towards a door.
“Okay!” She heard Esposito shout. Some gurgling noise immediately stopped.
“Don’t tell this jackhole anything,” they heard Ryan say after a moment, coughing and sputtering. They’re torturing him by drowning, Kate realized. One look at Castle confirmed he’d made the discovery, too.
