He'd looked so distraught when he told her he was walking away, told her he wasn't willing to watch her run headlong at her assassin. So when she found herself standing outside the loft the next day after he had walked away, she wasn't sure he'd even let her in, if he'd ever want to speak to her again.

Thank God he did, because she didn't know what she would've done if he'd turned her away, if it was too late.

He did let her in, did let her explain herself in a few halting sentences.

Let her kiss him like he was her only source of air.

Then the dam appeared to burst within him, and her back landed with a firm thud against his front door, and she lost herself in his kiss, as it branded her in a shock of heat on cool, rain-dampened skin.

Lost herself in his solid presence, in his thick body, as it pushed her backwards, into the door, blocking out the diffuse light of the loft, generating a heat that made her forget everything else.

Lost herself in his touch, as his hungry hands and lips, first time explorers, mapped out the topography of her body, and blazed a trail down from the collar of her shirt to the small, round scar that nearly ended her, but which ultimately put her on a path that led back to him.

She remembers the way his mouth devoured her, drinking her in like a man who'd been thirsting in the desert for years. And yet, the way his hands gently cradled her head, in a soft, protective curve around her jaw, as if she were a precious, delicate thing that a too-firm grasp might break.

And she remembers how she linked hands with his, and pulled him towards his bedroom. Then, so impatient to feel his hands, his mouth on her again, she pulled him over to one of the tall bookcases that lined the walls of his office, barely noticing the sharp edges of the graduated shelves as they dug into her ass and back as he-

"-Whoa, whoa, whoa! Earth to Kate! Where did you just go?"

Kate is sitting with her back supported by the arm of the loveseat in the corner of Castle's bedroom, legs stretched out comfortably on a large antique patterned silk Persian rug, a splash of crimson and gold in sharp contrast to the bachelor-pad browns, dark hardwood and chrome of Castle's bedroom.

The women have made good progress through the bottle of wine, and their glasses languish forgotten on the glass-topped coffee table in front of them.

Kate, who had been staring into space, looks up. Lanie is facing Kate, and she appears to have been trying to get Kate's attention for some time.

"-I only asked how your first time with Writer Boy was, didn't need you to go relive it...Damn, girl, will you look at your face?! That good, huh?"

Kate blushed. "Better," she says with a smile.

"The day you came back from your suspension, I knew something was different between you two. Both of you looked so damn smug! So are the rumors true?"

Kate covers her reddened cheeks with her palms. "I do not believe you want me to tell you this..."

"What are friends for? So what are we talkin'? Dill pickle? Bratwurst? Baby's arm holding an apple? What?"

"Oh my god, Lanie!" Kate could not hold back a bark of surprised laughter, and blushed furiously.

"Okay, okay. Tell me later." Lanie smiles mischievously, gets up onto her knees and scoots over to Kate to cup her friend's cheeks with her hands, giving her a gentle smile before enfolding her in a tight hug. "Oh my god. You are just adorable. You look so happy. All the great sex must be doing you good!"

Kate hugs her friend back. "Thanks. And it is," she says with a smirk as they both sit back again.

"See what I mean?! So damn smug!" Lanie cuffs her friend playfully on the shoulder.

"So ladies, what are we talking about? Me, right?"

Kate and Lanie's heads both whip around to see their host leaning in the doorway, a near-empty wine glass in hand. Lanie picks up the wine bottle and raises it to him, signalling him to approach. He saunters over, and Lanie grabs his glass to refresh it. As he subsides onto the rug with legs crossed, she hands the glass to him. "Your partner here was just telling me all about this new guy she's been seeing. Just hearing about the size of his-"

"Lanie!" Castle and Kate chorus; he sits bolt upright, doing a spit-take with his first mouthful of wine, nearly upending his glass; she kicks her foot over to nudge her friend, her face contorted with panic.

"-ego! I was going to say ego," The medical examiner chides them. "Dirty minds the both of you! And Richard Castle, you gonna share with the class why you care what Kate tells me about her mystery guy's package?"

Castle turns beet red, looking anywhere but at either woman as he attempts to mop up the spots of red wine now spattering his vintage trench coat. "Well, um...of course, no reason as such, just well, you know, it's an awkward and personal subject, and it would be impolite to pry-"

"Relax, stud, she was telling me about the size of your house in the Hamptons," Lanie says, nudging Kate in the leg with her foot.

"Oh, okay," Castle looks up in surprise and smiles, relaxing onto the carpet again. He looks at Kate. "So you told...?"

"Yeah." Kate says, and smiles to reassure him. After a pause she catches her friend's eye. "So it's...not small. His Hamptons place, I mean. It's large." She shoots her friend a wicked grin. "Some might say uncomfortably so."

Lanie laughs out loud. "Oh really?" She shoots an assessing look at the writer and raises an eyebrow at Kate. "Do elaborate..."

"Spectacular, right?" says Castle. His face falls. "Though it's pretty tiny compared to some of the Sag Harbor guys' houses," he muses.

Kate suppresses a grin at her boyfriend and continues, "Oh yeah, it's huge. Took a little getting used to at first, but now it feels...amazing. To spend time there, I mean-"

"Uh-huh!" Lanie nodded, her face split with a broad smile.

"But the size doesn't even matter. It's what he does with it that counts. You know, the way he's had the house redesigned to make use of the space, I mean."

Lanie laughs out loud, holds up a hand and high-fives Kate. Kate grins at her friend.

Castle beams. "Well I'm glad my girl's got such a high opinion of my beach place. You'll have to get the boys up one day. That'd be great!"

He watches quizzically as the two women dissolve into laughter.

"What?"

Kate makes the mistake of catching Lanie's eye again, and both descend into outright guffaws, sprawling helplessly on the rug.

"What?!"

Kate stops laughing, wipes the tears out of her eyes, sits up, and scoots over next to Castle, her side pressed to his. "It's nothing. I'm very happy to see you is all." She leans in with a cheeky smile for a gentle kiss.

He meets her halfway, and after releasing her lips says, "So Lanie's in the know, huh?"

Lanie has been getting up to go. "Oh, so much more than you'll ever be comfortable with, hot shot. Hurt her and I'll come after you with sharp instruments. But I'm really happy for you two."

"Err...thanks, Lanie," Castle says with a hesitant and somewhat fearful smile.

"Oh, you behave and you'll have nothing to worry about." Lanie almost manages to look like she's joking. "Okay you kids, I'm outta here. Got a date on the dance floor with a big lug..."

Kate barely notices her friend's departure, having already turned her attention to her boyfriend, smiling into his eyes before nuzzling his cheek. But after a brief moment, she sighs and goes to stand, still holding Castle's hand. "We'd better go, Castle."

"Really? C'mon! Just when I've got you all to myself?"

"Castle, you don't think it'll look suspicious, the two of us alone in your bedroom?"

"Just a minute or two can't hurt..." Castle pulls her back down to him and she goes without much of a struggle.

Fifteen minutes later, Kate is sitting on top of Castle, who is seated on the Persian rug, propped up against the sofa. His Fedora is still clinging gamely to the back of his head, though the hair underneath it is looking quite ruffled.

Castle has one hand buried in her hair holding her lips firmly to his, while Kate has pulled Castle's shirt out of the waistband of his pants, and her hands are making free with his chest, stroking underneath the layers of his costume. Castle's other hand is roaming over the smooth surface of her leather top, has unfastened the side laces of her bustier, and is sliding his fingers underneath the loosened leather edge to explore the warm skin beneath.

Heat suffuses her at the feel of his fingers exploring the delicate skin of her midriff, as they creep upwards. She gasps as he reaches the edge of her bra and pushes a finger underneath the underwire to caress the soft skin of her breast, before pulling it back out to graze over her sensitive peak.

He releases her mouth and murmurs in her ear "I missed you so much..." and moves to grasp the backs of her thighs, pulling her closer to him, and smoothing his hands upwards. She hears him groan as his hands firmly stroke her taut body over the smooth and tight fabric, increasing the pressure on both of them.

Castle groans into her mouth, and the vibration of his voice against her skin and the feeling of being astride the obviously very aroused writer makes her moan in response. She cannot help but roll her hips into his, needing relief and craving more sensation. And as her hands creep to his belt buckle-

"Yo! Castle! Where you at?"

Kate pushes Castle back, their mouths separating with a loud "pop" and for a brief moment they stare at each other in horror.

They're then galvanized into action. She stands quickly, grabbing his hands and pulling him up. He shuffles rapidly from one side to the other, clearly uncomfortable, and trying vainly with one hand to adjust his slacks, which appear to have shrunk without warning, while attempting to stuff his shirttails back into the waistband with the other. She grabs his lapels and pulls him over behind the shelter of the door to the office, which is slightly ajar.

Risking a peek through the doorway gap, she realises with some relief that Espo is looking around the office, facing away from the bedroom door he's just spoken through, and is not looking in.

Kate meets Castle's gaze with hers, and points silently from him to the other door leading out of the bedroom. He mouths "Really?" His shuffling becomes more frantic and thankfully, he's able to drape the somewhat wine-stained vintage trench he's wearing across himself and belt it shut to conceal the full extent of his disarray.

Kate mimes "go, go!" shooing him away with her hands, and glaring at him in warning.

"Yo! Castle! I'm comin' in!"

Panicked, she drops and rolls, taking cover on the patch of floor beside Castle's bed on the far side from the office door. Meanwhile, Castle has disappeared out the other door.

Great, now what? She grinds her teeth in frustration.

She shuffles closer to the side of the bed as she listens out for any sounds that indicate Esposito is going to be as good as his word and is bursting into the room. Trying to deal with her continuing fight-or-flight response, her mind races. She quickly dismisses her first impulse, to roll under the bed. The best way for her to retain credibility for a cover story is to try and make the safety of Castle's ensuite bathroom, the door of which stands open wide enough to admit her. Even if Esposito discovered her in there, she has a plausible excuse for being there (besides the fact that she'll have some tidying up to do after fifteen minutes of heavy petting with the 12th Precinct Homicide team's civilian consultant) even though she might have to do some explaining as to why she's in Castle's private bathroom, not in the main one located upstairs.

She returns her attention to her escape plan. Based on her by-now considerable laser tag experience, she knows that the terrain of the loft is set up to afford many nooks and hideaways for ambush or for evading attack.

Specifically, she knows that as long as she stays low, she is likely to make it into the ensuite under cover of the bed without being seen from the doorway or casting a shadow, as long as Espo is only spying through the crack in the door to the office. She hears rustling just outside in the office, and knows she will need to move now if she doesn't want the intruder to see her break cover.

Just at the last minute before she moves away from the bed, she notices what Castle has done with the side laces of her top. Fingers shaking with nerves, attempting to slow down her breathing, she quickly takes a few seconds to tighten the side laces again.

Clothing secured, as quietly as possible, she stretches out prone on the hardwood floor, and moves in a modified commando crawl, trying to keep her knees off the floor to avoid scuffing her pants. It's in no way elegant, but she manages to work her way quickly toward the open bathroom door, illuminated from within like the Promised Land, with a soft halo from the bathroom's recessed lighting.

The second she reaches the safety of the inside of the ensuite doorway, she springs to a stand, and goes to check herself in the mirror, correct in her prediction that her lips and hair were going to be a mess.

Stealthily opening the tiny drawer in the vanity where she keeps her emergency cosmetics and hair supplies, and working as quickly and quietly as possible, she grabs a small pot of red tinted lip gloss and a gel eye liner pencil and repairs the damage to her makeup.

She removes the spray nozzle from a little hairspray can and dribbles a small amount of spray onto her fingers, which she uses to finger-comb her hair back into place. She knows there's no way she can use a hairdryer now so she applies the hairspray sparingly in the hope that it will air-dry.

There's no way she wants the credibility of her cover story to be scuttled by evidence of her little interlude with Castle earlier.

As she's finishing up, she hears the familiar creak of the office door to the bedroom being pushed wide open, and she peeks out of the gap next to the door where it is hinged to the wall, expecting Espo to be poking his head inside the room for a sneaky look around.

Her pulse skyrockets when she sees the nosy cop has walked on in, is moving purposefully toward the walk-in robe, and is now a mere couple of feet away from being able to snoop around inside Castle's closet.

Normally, this wouldn't pose a problem. But today...

On their return from the Hamptons, in preparation for coming over here after the conference, Kate brought over some clothes which she'll wear to the Precinct on Monday.

So, just inside the closet doorway, on a simple coat hanger, are hanging a plain white, soft cotton button-down shirt and black, boot-cut drill trousers, laundered and pressed by Castle, and topped with Kate's Burberry trench. On a stool next to the work outfit, neatly folded, lays a pretty, dusky-pink, scalloped lace-edge bra-and-panties set.

And underneath all that, snuggled up sweetly next to Castle's favorite pair of bespoke loafers, are Kate's distinctive heeled, black Jimmy Choo shearling ankle boots (which, as fall heads towards winter, she has started leaving here to wear to early morning crime scenes anyway).

Espo's going to get an eyeful. Kate curses Castle's domesticated side, and her own organized streak. Between them they couldn't have assembled an outfit that looked more like her, unless they were to slap a brunette wig on top. In poor lighting, it would look like Kate herself was hiding out in the closet. Been there, done that, she thought with a grimace.

And they couldn't have provided better evidence. After seeing that, no-one, least of all Esposito, would be in any further doubt about the identity of Beckett's mystery man...

...Or whose closet, whose intimate space, whose bed she's sharing.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks for your support for this story so far, and all the lovely feedback and comments.

Still having fun? Let me know… Not having fun anymore? Let me know...

Many many thanks to KyinHI for talking this through with me when I was stuck, just to reassure me I was on the right track! Thanks to her also for the beta read this time. Also Ky's a marvelous beta and writer, so make sure you check out her profiles!

And and and I forgot to mention in the Author's Notes last chapter (sorry!) that 1822andallthat and fembot79 were very helpful with giving me some thoughts on a couple of sections of chapter 3 that were bothering me. Ladies, I appreciate your thoughts and enthusiasm for the chapter and helping me find the right story!

I'm getting clearer each time where this is headed. I still think there will be at least two more chapters and an epilogue or a short last chapter to go!

Stick around, should be fun.

Thanks so much for reading.